Lord Mountbatten

Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"

Meaning

Lord Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of British India. He replaced Lord Wavell in early 1947. Through the 3 June 1947 Plan (the Mountbatten Plan), he announced that India would be free but divided. He fixed 15 August 1947 as the day of the transfer of power, and he stayed on as independent India's first Governor-General.

He matters because his plan turned the long Congress–League deadlock into a final settlement. That settlement was freedom and Partition together, on a very short timetable.

Explanation

Background: why Britain sent him

• The three-way deadlock
• From the Lahore Resolution (March 1940) onwards, any deal needed Congress, the League and the British to agree. That became almost impossible.
• The Cripps Mission (1942) failed over the demand for an Indian Defence Member, an Indian in charge of defence in the Viceroy's council. [2]

• The Cabinet Mission (1946) proposed a three-tier federation with a weak centre. It collapsed when Nehru said the constituent assembly could not be bound by any fixed formula. [3]

• A country already split in votes

• In the early 1946 elections, Congress swept the General seats and the League swept the Muslim seats.

• Violence on the streets

• Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) led to the Calcutta riots. The killing spread to Bengal, Bihar, UP and Punjab.

• Britain wanted to leave

• A Labour government had come to power in 1945 and promised Indian independence. The question was now how Britain would leave, not if.
• In February 1947 the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that Britain would leave India by June 1948. Mountbatten was named Viceroy in the same month and took charge in March 1947.

His plan: the 3 June 1947 Plan

• His answer to the deadlock was freedom, but with Partition.
• In June 1947 he put forward the partition plan. Hindu-majority areas would go to Congress and Muslim-majority areas to the League. [4]
• Main parts of the plan (standard textbook account):
• Power would pass to two dominions, India and Pakistan. A dominion was a free country that still kept the British monarch as its formal head.
• The legislatures of Punjab and Bengal would vote on whether to divide their provinces.
• A boundary commission would draw the new borders. It was led by Sir Cyril Radcliffe.

• The princely states could join either India or Pakistan.

• He brought the handover forward from June 1948 to 15 August 1947.

How the plan became law

• 18 July 1947: the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act. It created two dominions from 15 August 1947. [5]
• 15 August 1947: power was handed over. Mountbatten became Governor-General of the Dominion of India. Jinnah became Governor-General of Pakistan.
• He left office in June 1948. C. Rajagopalachari succeeded him as the first and only Indian Governor-General.

Results and criticism

• Quick exit, heavy cost
• The fast timetable gave Britain a clean exit.

• But it left very little time to draw borders or to plan how people would move between the two countries.

• Freedom came with bloodshed

• On 15 August 1947 Gandhi was in Calcutta on a 24-hour fast. He did not attend any ceremony.

• He then went round the refugee camps on both sides of the communal line.

• Historians still disagree

• Some say his speed stopped a civil war that was already starting.
• Others say the haste made the Partition killings worse.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the last phase of the Gandhian era. He was named in February 1947 and served as Viceroy until 15 August 1947. He was then Governor-General of India until June 1948.
• Place: Delhi, the seat of the Viceroy. The provinces most affected by his plan were Punjab and Bengal.
• Key people:
• Mountbatten, Nehru and Jinnah
• Gandhi, who never accepted the two-nation theory
• Wavell, his predecessor

• Attlee, the British Prime Minister

• How we know:

• Official records: the 3 June 1947 Plan statement and the Indian Independence Act, 1947. [5]
• NCERT Class 12, Ch 3, "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement".
• The reference accounts cited in the study note. [4]

Don't confuse with

• Lord Wavell: he was the Viceroy before Mountbatten. He tried to unite Congress and the League (the Shimla Conference of 1945, during the Cabinet Mission period) and failed. Mountbatten accepted Partition as the way out.
• Lord Linlithgow: he was Viceroy when India was dragged into war in 1939 and during Quit India (1942). He was not the Viceroy of 1947.
• 3 June Plan vs Indian Independence Act: the plan (June 1947) was Mountbatten's proposal. The Act (passed 18 July 1947) was the British law that put it into effect. [5]
• First Governor-General of India vs of Pakistan: India's was Mountbatten. Pakistan's was Jinnah. The first and only Indian Governor-General of India was C. Rajagopalachari.

Prelims Hooks

• Lord Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of British India and free India's first Governor-General. He replaced Wavell.
• The Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947) said: divide India into two dominions; give Hindu-majority areas to Congress and Muslim-majority areas to the League. [4]
• Indian Independence Act was passed 18 July 1947. It created two dominions from 15 August 1947. [5]
• Mountbatten moved the British exit forward from June 1948 (Attlee's deadline) to 15 August 1947.
• Chronology: Cripps Mission (1942) → Cabinet Mission (1946) → Direct Action Day (16 Aug 1946) → Mountbatten Plan (June 1947) → Indian Independence Act (18 July 1947) → Independence (15 Aug 1947).
• Trap: Pakistan's first Governor-General was Jinnah, not Mountbatten.

Mains Points

• Partition as Britain's exit route. Two earlier plans had failed: Cripps (1942) on the Defence Member and the Cabinet Mission (1946) on whether the constituent assembly was bound by a fixed formula. [2][3] The 1946 elections had already split the vote. So Mountbatten did not create the division. He accepted it and made it formal. A GS-I answer should link his plan to the three-way deadlock rather than treat it as one man's decision.
• Speed versus safety, a debate among historians. Bringing the date forward to 15 August 1947 avoided a long, drawn-out breakdown. But it left very little time to draw borders, move people and keep order. That added to the violence in Punjab and Bengal. Use this to discuss whether the haste was necessary or careless.
• Political settlement versus moral protest. Mountbatten's settlement rested on the two-nation idea. Gandhi fasted in Calcutta on Independence Day and spoke for minorities on both sides. Congress also declared India "a democratic secular State". Together these show that India's secular founding grew out of rejecting the logic of Partition, even while accepting Partition itself.

Related concepts

• Provincial elections of 1937
• Congress ministries 1937-39
• Wardha scheme of basic education
• Congress Socialist Party
• Haripura session 1938
• Tripuri crisis 1939
• Forward Bloc
• Second World War
• Lord Linlithgow
• Resignation of Congress ministries

Read more

• War, Quit India, Partition and the last heroic days, 1935–48