Towards Independence and Partition (Spectrum Digest, Ch 13)

Post-war ferment (1945 to 1946)

• The end of the war, the INA trials (1945) and the shaken loyalty of Indian forces created an explosive situation.
• The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) Mutiny (February 1946, Bombay) saw naval ratings revolt over conditions and racial discrimination, with sympathy strikes across the country. It convinced the British that the armed forces could no longer be relied on to hold India by force.
• The new Labour government under Attlee in Britain, exhausted by war and under American pressure, decided to leave.

The Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946

• The Cabinet Mission (1946) (Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps, A. V. Alexander) was sent to plan the transfer of power.
• Its plan rejected the demand for a separate Pakistan and proposed instead a loose federation with a weak centre (control over defence, foreign affairs and communications) and a three-tier grouping of provinces (Groups A, B, C) with substantial provincial autonomy.
• It provided for a Constituent Assembly (elected indirectly by the provincial assemblies) to frame the Constitution, and an interim government.
• Both the Congress and the League initially accepted parts of it, but disagreements over the grouping scheme broke it down.

Direct Action Day and the Interim Government

• The Muslim League, frustrated, withdrew its acceptance and called Direct Action Day on 1946-08-16 to press the demand for Pakistan; it set off the Great Calcutta Killings and a wave of communal violence (Noakhali, Bihar, Punjab) that hardened positions on all sides.
• An Interim Government was formed in September 1946 under Jawaharlal Nehru; the League joined later (with Liaquat Ali Khan as finance member) but worked to obstruct it from within.
• The Constituent Assembly first met on 1946-12-09 (the League boycotting it), with Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent president.

The Mountbatten Plan and Partition

• Attlee announced (February 1947) that Britain would leave by June 1948; Lord Mountbatten arrived as the last Viceroy.
• The Mountbatten Plan (the "3 June Plan", 1947-06-03) accepted Partition: British India would be divided into India and Pakistan; the provinces of Punjab and Bengal would be partitioned on communal lines; the North-West Frontier Province and Sylhet would decide by referendum; and the princely states were free to accede to either dominion.
• The Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed by the British Parliament (it received royal assent in July 1947), giving legal effect to the plan and creating the two dominions from 1947-08-15.
• The Radcliffe Line (drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who had never been to India) demarcated the boundary in Punjab and Bengal; the awards were published only after Independence, intensifying the chaos.

Independence and the human cost

• Pakistan came into being on 1947-08-14 and India on 1947-08-15; Mountbatten became the first Governor-General of independent India, Jinnah the first Governor-General of Pakistan.
• Partition triggered one of the largest and most violent forced migrations in history: an estimated ten to fifteen million people crossed the new borders, and estimates of deaths in the communal violence run from several hundred thousand to over a million, with mass killings, abductions and sexual violence, especially in Punjab. Gandhi spent Independence Day in Calcutta trying to quell violence and was assassinated on 1948-01-30 by Nathuram Godse.

Integration of the princely states (a related theme)

Over 560 princely states were integrated, mainly by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel ("the Iron Man") and V. P. Menon, through the Instrument of Accession. The difficult cases were Junagadh (annexed after a plebiscite), Hyderabad (integrated by Operation Polo / "police action", September 1948) and Jammu and Kashmir (acceded on 1947-10-26 after a Pakistani tribal invasion, leading to the first India-Pakistan war).

The security and human-rights angle

Partition is the central case study for the human-rights and internal-security essay: the collapse of the rule of law, communal mass violence, refugee protection, the gendered violence of Partition, and the long shadow it cast over India-Pakistan relations and the security of the borders that the CAPFs now guard. The integration of the princely states and the Kashmir accession remain live themes for the interview and the internal-security paper.

Common traps

• The Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) opposed Partition and proposed a loose federation with grouping; it was not a partition plan.
• Direct Action Day was 1946-08-16 (Calcutta killings).
• The Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed by the British Parliament, not the Constituent Assembly.
• The boundary was drawn by the Radcliffe Commission; Pakistan was created on 14 August, India on 15 August 1947.
• Hyderabad was integrated by Operation Polo (1948); Kashmir acceded on 1947-10-26.

Authored practice

1. The Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) proposed: (a) immediate partition (b) a loose federation with provincial grouping (c) dominion status with secession rights (d) dyarchy at the centre. Answer: (b) a loose federation with provincial grouping. Authored practice, not a verbatim PYQ.
2. Who drew the boundary line that partitioned Punjab and Bengal? (Answer: Sir Cyril Radcliffe.) Authored practice, not a verbatim PYQ.