Partition and its aftermath

The first principle

Partition drew a line through two provinces where Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs lived intermixed, so a political decision about territory became a human movement of people. Because the line was announced only after independence and nobody could be sure on which side they would fall, fear drove migration and migration fed violence. The new Indian state therefore began its life with two tasks at once: rebuilding the lives of millions of refugees, and proving that a country divided on the basis of religion could still be a secular republic.

The core

From the June plan to the Radcliffe line

• After the failure of the Cabinet Mission and the communal killings of 1946, Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced in February 1947 that Britain would leave by June 1948. Lord Mountbatten, the new Viceroy, concluded that the Congress and the Muslim League could not agree on a united India, and his plan of 3 June 1947 accepted partition and brought the date forward to 15 August 1947.
• The plan let the legislators of Punjab and Bengal vote on dividing their provinces, held a referendum in the North West Frontier Province and in Assam's Sylhet district, and left Sindh and Baluchistan to choose through their own bodies. Both Punjab and Bengal voted for division.
• The Indian Independence Act, 1947 created two dominions, India and Pakistan, ended the authority of the British Parliament over them, made each Constituent Assembly sovereign, and let British paramountcy over the princely states lapse.
• Two Boundary Commissions, both chaired by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, had about five weeks and outdated maps and census data. The award was published on 17 August, two days after independence. West Punjab with Lahore went to Pakistan and East Punjab with Amritsar to India; East Bengal with Dacca, together with Sylhet, became East Pakistan, while West Bengal with Calcutta stayed in India.

Migration and violence

• In Punjab the transfer of population became almost complete within months, as Hindus and Sikhs moved east and Muslims moved west, often in foot columns many kilometres long and in refugee trains that were attacked. In Bengal the movement was slower and came in waves, in 1947, after the riots of 1950, again in 1964 and in 1971, so the eastern refugee problem lasted for decades.
• About 1.5 crore people are commonly estimated to have been displaced, and estimates of deaths range from several lakh to about a million. Women suffered in particular ways: tens of thousands were abducted on both sides, and the two governments agreed in December 1947 to recover and restore them, a process later backed by the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act, 1949.

Dimensions

• Political. Partition hardened the Constituent Assembly's preference for a strong centre, and it ended the debate on separate electorates, which were seen as having led to division.
• Economic. Jute mills stayed in West Bengal while most jute growing land went to East Pakistan, and the canal colonies of West Punjab, the best irrigated wheat land, went to Pakistan, which made irrigation projects such as Bhakra Nangal in East Punjab urgent.
• Administrative. A Partition Council divided assets and staff. Pakistan took 17.5 per cent of the public debt and was allotted ₹75 crore of cash balances, and the armed forces were divided roughly two to one in India's favour. India withheld ₹55 crore of the cash during the fighting in Kashmir and released it in January 1948, after Gandhi began a fast for communal peace.
• Social. Refugee families rebuilt lives through hard work and state help, and they changed the culture and economy of Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal.
• Ideological. Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse shocked the country, discredited communal politics for a time, and strengthened the resolve of Nehru and Patel to build a secular state.

In practice

Rehabilitation of refugees

• The Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation, set up in September 1947, ran camps such as Kurukshetra, the largest in north India, and then moved families into colonies and new towns. In Delhi, colonies such as Lajpat Nagar, Rajinder Nagar and Kingsway Camp grew out of camps.
• Faridabad was built as a refugee township, largely by refugees from the North West Frontier Province themselves, and Nilokheri, planned by S K Dey, was a model township of training and small industry that later inspired the Community Development Programme.
• Laws. The Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 placed property left behind by migrants under a custodian, and the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954 used that pool to compensate refugees who had lost property in Pakistan.
• East Bengal refugees received less land and support, because the flow came later and in waves and the government at first hoped for their return. Many settled in squatter colonies around Calcutta, in Tripura and in the Andaman Islands, and the Dandakaranya Development Authority (1958) settled others in parts of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, where many found the land and climate unfamiliar.

The Nehru Liaquat Pact, 1950

After communal riots in East Bengal and West Bengal early in 1950 set off a new exodus, Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan signed an agreement in Delhi in April 1950. Each government promised its minorities equal citizenship, security, freedom to return and recover property, and minority commissions. Syama Prasad Mookerjee resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest, arguing it did not protect Hindus in East Pakistan, and he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

Issues and way forward

• Who was responsible? Historians differ on whether Partition followed from the League's two nation theory, from Congress choices in 1946 and 1947, or from British haste. Most now stress the speed of the withdrawal: a late award and too few troops meant there was no plan to protect people on the move.
• Unequal rehabilitation. Refugees in the west received more land and compensation than those in the east, partly because property left behind in West Punjab could be exchanged, while flows from East Bengal had no such pool. This left long lasting grievance in West Bengal and the north east.
• Secularism under strain. Partition could have made India a mirror of Pakistan. The Constitution instead guaranteed freedom of religion and minority rights in Articles 25 to 30, and religious reservation of seats was dropped in favour of equal citizenship.
• Lessons today. Partition shows that drawing borders without protecting people creates crises that last for generations, and oral history projects now preserve the memory of those who lived through it.

Common confusions

• Mountbatten Plan and Indian Independence Act. The plan of 3 June 1947 was a political announcement; the Act of July 1947 was the British law that created the two dominions.
• Radcliffe Award and the Mountbatten Plan. The plan decided that Punjab and Bengal would be divided; the award decided where the lines fell.
• Displaced persons and evacuees. A displaced person is a refugee who came into India; an evacuee is a person who left India, whose property went to the custodian.
• Nehru Liaquat Pact and the Inter Dominion Agreement. The 1950 pact covered minorities' rights generally; the 1947 agreement covered the recovery of abducted women.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Mountbatten Plan, Radcliffe Award, Boundary Commissions, displaced persons, evacuee property, Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation, Nilokheri, Faridabad, Dandakaranya, Nehru Liaquat Pact, Partition Council, secular state.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction (data): Partition displaced about 1.5 crore people and the 1951 Census counted over 70 lakh displaced persons in India alone, making rehabilitation the first great task of the new state.
  • Introduction (judgement, quote or report): The Radcliffe Award was published two days after independence, so millions learnt which country they lived in only after the flag had changed.
  • Conclusion: India's choice of a secular Constitution and equal citizenship, made in the shadow of Partition, was its most important act of consolidation.
  • Conclusion: Partition shows that the integrity of a nation is secured less by lines on a map than by the trust of the people living on either side of them.