Partition of India

Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"

Meaning

The Partition of India was the division of British India into two independent countries, India and Pakistan, in August 1947. The British Parliament's Indian Independence Act created the two dominions from 15 August 1947. [5] Pakistan marks its independence on 14 August. Mass killings and one of the largest forced migrations in history came with it.

Partition matters because freedom and division came together. It shaped India's borders and its relations with Pakistan. It also shaped the Constitution: after Partition, the Constituent Assembly rejected separate electorates (seats where only voters of one religion vote for a candidate of that religion) and chose a strong Centre.

Explanation

Background: how the demand for division grew

• Government of India Act, 1935 gave provincial autonomy, which meant elected Indians would now run the provinces.
• 1937 elections: Congress formed ministries in 8 of the 11 provinces.
• The Muslim League did poorly even in Muslim seats.

• This pushed Jinnah towards demanding a separate nation. [2]

• October 1939: the Congress ministries resigned. Britain had dragged India into the war without asking any Indian leader, and it would not promise freedom afterwards.

• Lahore Resolution, March 1940: the League asked for autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas.
• The text did not use the word "Pakistan".

• Even so, it became the seed of the Partition demand.

• From then on the fight was three-way: Congress, the League and the British. Every deal needed all three to agree, and that became almost impossible.

The road to Partition, 1942–47

• Cripps Mission (22 March – 12 April 1942): it offered dominion status after the war. Talks broke down over Congress's demand for an Indian Defence Member. [2]
• Quit India, 1942: Congress leaders were jailed from 1942 to 1945.
• In those years the League grew into Punjab and Sind.

• These were the two provinces it most needed for Pakistan.

• Gandhi–Jinnah talks, 1944: they failed. Jinnah would accept nothing less than Pakistan.

• 1945: a Labour government came to power in Britain and committed itself to Indian independence.
• Early 1946 elections: the vote showed a split country.
• Congress swept the General seats.
• The League swept the Muslim seats.

• Each side could now claim to speak for its own community.

• Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946: it proposed a three-tier federation. A weak Centre would handle only defence, foreign affairs and communications. [3]

• The plan collapsed after Nehru said no constituent assembly could be bound by a fixed formula.

• Jinnah called this a complete rejection of the plan. [3]

• Direct Action Day, 16 August 1946: the League called it.

• Riots broke out in Calcutta.

• The killing spread to Bengal, Bihar, UP and Punjab.

• February 1947: Mountbatten arrived as Viceroy. His answer was freedom with Partition.

• June 1947: the Mountbatten Plan gave Hindu-majority areas to Congress and Muslim-majority areas to the League. [4]
• 18 July 1947: the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act. [5]
• 15 August 1947: two dominions were born. [5]

Results

• Violence and migration: millions crossed the new borders, especially in Punjab and Bengal. Estimates of the dead vary widely between historians, but most put it in the hundreds of thousands at least.
• Gandhi's response:
• On 15 August 1947 he was in Calcutta on a 24-hour fast and did not attend any ceremony.
• He visited refugee camps on both sides of the communal line.
• He worked for peace in Bengal, then in Delhi.
• He spoke for minorities in Pakistan too, which angered Hindu hardliners.

• He was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on 30 January 1948.

• Congress minority-rights resolution: Congress never accepted the two-nation theory (the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations). It declared India "a democratic secular State" where every citizen has equal rights whatever their religion.

• Effect on the Constitution (NCERT Class 12, Ch 4):
• The Constituent Assembly rejected separate electorates, which many members blamed for dividing the country.
• The Cabinet Mission's weak Centre was no longer needed. The Assembly chose a strong Centre to hold the country together.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the late colonial era. The demand took shape from 1940, and division came in 1947.
• Regions hit hardest: Punjab and Bengal, the two provinces divided between the new states. The killing of 1946 also spread through Bihar and UP.
• Key people:
• M.A. Jinnah (Muslim League)
• Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi (Congress)
• Sir Stafford Cripps (Cripps Mission, and he drafted the Cabinet Mission plan)

• Lord Mountbatten (last Viceroy)

• How we know:

• Official records: the Lahore Resolution (1940), the Cabinet Mission Plan (1946), the June 1947 plan and the Indian Independence Act, 1947. [3][4][5]
• Election results of 1937 and 1946.
• Constituent Assembly debates, studied in NCERT Class 12, Ch 4.
• Refugees' memories and oral histories, which historians use to record what ordinary people went through.

Don't confuse with

• Partition of Bengal (1905): Curzon split one province, and the decision was reversed in 1911. The 1947 Partition divided the whole of British India into two countries.
• Lahore Resolution (1940) vs Lahore Congress (1929): the 1940 resolution was the Muslim League's demand for Muslim-majority areas. The 1929 Lahore session was where Congress declared Purna Swaraj.
• Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) vs Mountbatten Plan (June 1947): the Cabinet Mission tried to keep India united under a weak Centre. [3] The Mountbatten Plan accepted Partition. [4]
• Indian Independence Act (1947) vs Government of India Act (1935): the 1935 Act gave provincial autonomy. The 1947 Act ended British rule and created two dominions. [5]

Prelims Hooks

• Lahore Resolution, March 1940: autonomy for Muslim-majority areas. The word "Pakistan" is not in the text, which makes it a common trap.
• Cabinet Mission Plan (1946): three-tier federation; the Centre kept only defence, foreign affairs, communications. [3]
• Direct Action Day: 16 August 1946, followed by the Calcutta riots.
• Mountbatten Plan: June 1947 [4] → Indian Independence Act passed 18 July 1947 → dominions from 15 August 1947. [5]
• Chronology: Lahore Resolution (1940) → Cripps (1942) → Gandhi–Jinnah talks (1944) → Cabinet Mission (1946) → Direct Action Day (1946) → Mountbatten Plan (1947).
• On 15 August 1947, Gandhi was fasting in Calcutta, not celebrating in Delhi.

Mains Points

• The three-way struggle made Partition the British way out.
• Cripps (1942) failed over the Defence Member, and the Cabinet Mission (1946) failed over whether the assembly was bound by a fixed formula. [2][3]
• No offer could satisfy Congress and the League at the same time.

• So dividing the country became the quickest route for Britain to leave.

• Quit India and Partition are linked.

• With Congress leaders in jail from 1942 to 1945, the League grew unchecked in Punjab and Sind.
• The 1946 election turned this split into hard numbers.

• A good GS-I answer connects the mass upsurge of 1942 with its political cost in 1946–47.

• Partition shaped the Constitution.

• The Congress minority-rights resolution rejected the two-nation theory and called India "a democratic secular State".
• The Constituent Assembly dropped separate electorates and chose a strong Centre.
• Gandhi's last months, standing up for minorities on both sides, run straight into India's secular guarantees.

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