Partition of India

Also called: Partition of 1947 · Topic: Challenges of Nation Building: Partition, Princely States and Reorganisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Challenges of Nation Building"

Meaning

Partition of India was the division of British India on 14–15 August 1947 into two separate countries, India and Pakistan. The dividing rule was the principle of religious majorities (the religion most people in an area followed decided which country got that area). Muslim-majority areas formed Pakistan in two wings that did not touch, West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Everything else stayed with India.

It matters because Partition shaped the new Indian state from its first day. About 15 million people crossed the new borders amid mass killings [6]. Partition is also the starting point of the Kashmir dispute, and it led in time to the creation of Bangladesh.

Explanation

The road to Partition, step by step

• Step 1: Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947). Lord Mountbatten was the Viceroy from March to August 1947. He announced the plan to divide British India [4].
• Hindu-majority areas would go to the Congress. Muslim-majority areas would go to the Muslim League [4].
• Punjab would split into West Punjab and East Punjab. Bengal would split into West Bengal and East Bengal [4].

• The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) would join Pakistan only if most of its voters chose it in a vote [4].

• Step 2: Indian Independence Act, 1947. The British Parliament passed this Act on 18 July 1947 [3].

• It created two dominions, India and Pakistan. A dominion was a self-governing country that stayed inside the British Commonwealth [3].
• Each dominion got full power to make its own laws [3].
• It divided the provinces of Bengal and Punjab [3].

• Both dominions had to be set up by midnight of 14–15 August 1947 [3].

• Step 3: Boundary commissions. Two commissions drew the actual line in Punjab and Bengal. Their award came out on 17 August 1947, after independence [2].

NCERT's four difficulties in applying the rule

The rule "Muslim-majority areas go to Pakistan" sounds simple. NCERT lists four reasons why it was not.

• 1. No single Muslim-majority belt. Muslims were a majority in two zones far apart, one in the north-west and one in the east.
• So Pakistan got two non-contiguous wings (wings that do not touch each other), with Indian territory in between.

• East Pakistan broke away and became Bangladesh in 1971.

• 2. Not every Muslim-majority area wanted Pakistan. The NWFP's main leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ('Frontier Gandhi'), opposed the two-nation theory (the claim that Hindus and Muslims formed two separate nations).

• The NWFP was merged into Pakistan anyway.
• His Khudai Khidmatgars ('Servants of God'), a non-violent movement of Pashtuns, boycotted the July 1947 referendum.

• He later called for Pakhtunistan, a separate state for Pashtuns made from frontier districts of Pakistan and Afghanistan [5].

• 3. Punjab and Bengal had large non-Muslim areas. Muslims were a majority in each province as a whole. But large parts had Hindu or Sikh majorities.

• So both provinces were split at district level or lower, down to tehsils (sub-districts) and even villages.

• 4. Minorities on both sides. Wherever the line fell, millions of Hindus and Sikhs ended up in Pakistan, and millions of Muslims ended up in India.

The Radcliffe Line

• Radcliffe Line: the India–Pakistan border in Punjab and Bengal. It is named after Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who chaired both boundary commissions [2].
• Make-up: each commission had 2 Congress-nominated + 2 League-nominated judges, with Radcliffe as chairman [2].

• The members split along party lines, so in practice Radcliffe's own vote decided the line.

• The task: keep each religious group together as far as possible, with Hindus in India and Muslims in Pakistan [2].

• The man and the hurry: Radcliffe was a British lawyer who had never been to India [2].

• He arrived in July 1947 and had just over five weeks to finish [2].

• The delay: the award came out on 17 August 1947, two days after independence [2].

• On Independence Day, many people in the border districts did not know which country they were in.

• Length: the border with West Pakistan is about 553 km (344 miles). The border with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is about 4,096 km (2,545 miles) [2].

Contested areas and the split of a government

• Gurdaspur (Punjab): some tehsils of this Muslim-majority district went to India.
• This gave India a road link to Jammu and Kashmir.

• That link mattered greatly once the Kashmir war began in October 1947.

• Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bengal): a mostly non-Muslim tribal area that went to East Pakistan.

• Sylhet (Assam): a mainly Muslim district. It voted in a referendum to join Pakistan, but part of it went to India [2].
• Dividing a working state: cash, debts, government and railway staff, and even furniture, typewriters, books and the police band's instruments were shared out.
• A Partition Council (leaders from both sides) decided how assets were shared.
• An Arbitral Tribunal settled the disputes the Council could not resolve.
• Pakistan's cash share was ₹75 crore. India held back ₹55 crore after fighting began in Kashmir. The money was released after Gandhi's fast in January 1948.

In the Constitution and practice

• Legal basis: the Indian Independence Act, 1947, passed by the British Parliament on 18 July 1947, carried out Partition [3]. It turned the political deal in the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947) into law [4].
• Link to the Constitution:
• Article 395 repealed the Indian Independence Act, 1947 (together with the Government of India Act, 1935). This ended India's dominion status when the Constitution came into force.

• Articles 6 and 7 deal with citizenship for people caught up in Partition. Article 6 covers people who migrated to India from Pakistan. Article 7 covers people who migrated to Pakistan.

• Map outcome:

Province before 1947	Indian part	Pakistani part
Punjab	East Punjab (today's Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh)	West Punjab
Bengal	West Bengal	East Bengal → East Pakistan → Bangladesh (1971)
Assam (Sylhet)	Assam, minus most of Sylhet	Most of Sylhet, to East Pakistan

• Lasting effects:
• Human cost: Punjab and Bengal suffered the deepest trauma, with mass killings, abductions and forced migration. About 15 million people crossed the borders [6].
• Kashmir: the Gurdaspur award and the ₹55 crore dispute tie Partition directly to the Kashmir conflict.
• Bangladesh (1971): the two-wing structure helps explain why East Pakistan broke away.
• Nation-building caution: the memory of Partition later made leaders wary of linguistic reorganisation (redrawing states by language) and of anything that looked like secession (a region breaking away from the country).

Don't confuse with

• Mountbatten Plan vs Indian Independence Act: the Plan (3 June 1947) was the political announcement [4]. The Act (18 July 1947) was the British law that created the two dominions [3].
• Partition of India vs Partition of Punjab and Bengal: Partition of India split the whole of British India. Only Punjab and Bengal were themselves cut in two. Sindh, Baluchistan and the NWFP went to Pakistan whole, and Assam lost only part of Sylhet.
• Independence Day vs Radcliffe award date: independence came on 15 August 1947, but the border award was published on 17 August 1947 [2].
• Religious division vs linguistic reorganisation: Partition used the principle of religious majorities, not language or geography. The later reorganisation of states inside India was based on language.

Prelims Hooks

• The Radcliffe award was published on 17 August 1947, not 15 August [2].
• There were two boundary commissions, for Punjab and Bengal. Each had 2 Congress + 2 League members, and Radcliffe chaired both [2].
• Mountbatten Plan: 3 June 1947. Indian Independence Act: 18 July 1947. The two dominions had to exist by midnight of 14–15 August 1947 [4][3].
• NWFP: its future was settled by a referendum. Ghaffar Khan's Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted it, and he later demanded Pakhtunistan [4][5].
• Sylhet (Assam) joined East Pakistan by referendum [2]. Trap: Assam was not one of the two partitioned provinces.
• Border lengths: about 553 km with West Pakistan and about 4,096 km with East Pakistan, now Bangladesh [2].

Mains Points

• A crude rule for a mixed society (GS-I): dividing by religious majority ignored mixed districts and local wishes, as in the NWFP. It also ignored economic links such as canals, rail lines and markets.

• The four NCERT difficulties show why "Muslim-majority means Pakistan" could not be applied cleanly.

• Haste and secrecy made the violence worse:

• A lawyer new to India had just over five weeks, and the award came out two days after independence [2].
• People did not know which side they were on, and this fed panic and the migration of about 15 million people [6].

• Lesson: consult people about borders and announce decisions early.

• Legacy and the peaceful split of a state:

• Partition's effects run through Kashmir (Gurdaspur, the ₹55 crore dispute), the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, and India's caution about linguistic states.
• Cash, debts, staff and records were shared through a Partition Council and an Arbitral Tribunal. This was an early case of settling disputes by negotiation and arbitration, in sharp contrast to the violence on the ground.

Related concepts

• Partition of Punjab and Bengal
• Radcliffe Line

Read more

• Drawing the line: the process of Partition