Partition Of India

As a result of the "last-minute" process by which the British could agree on the terms of independence, India and Pakistan were formed on August 14-15, 1947.

They became independent nations on August 15, 1947.

When Partition was announced, few people realized what it meant or what it would bring about.

The massive exodus that followed caught most people by surprise, especially in the United States.

The Indian National Congress, whose most well-known leaders were Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, served as the primary vehicle for the nationalist movement in the country.

Well before the Partition of India in the 1940s, this had strongly argued for just a unified nation with a strong central government;

However, Congress had been supposedly modern in its goals, organizations representing minority rights grew increasingly skeptical of the claim, having faith it would solidify Hindu hegemony, which accounted for approximately 80 percent of the population at the time.

Muslims were the most significant religious minority in British India, accounting for about 25% of the country's population.

They had become used to having their minority status safeguarded by a system of reserved parliamentary seats and distinct electorates while living under imperial authority, and this had been the norm for them.

The identification of interest groups ready to cooperate was the foundation of the British system of political control, which was often referred to as "divide and rule."

Increasing numbers of Muslims were concerned about losing this protection as independence came near, first in northern India and then, after World War II, in the powerful Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab.

In the provincial elections held in 1945-6, the All-India Muslim League, headed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, could secure a majority of Muslim votes.

This bolstered the party's claim to be the voice of a significant percentage of Muslims in the subcontinent, albeit not necessarily all of them.

a. Get your news from individuals who are well-versed in the subject matter at hand.
b. Then came World War II, and the political stakes in India were much more significant than they had been before.

The Raj has come to an end

When Britain unilaterally entered the war in 1939 without consulting Congress, massive nationalist demonstrations erupted, culminating in the 1942 Quit India campaign, a popular movement against British rule that resulted in the independence of India.

Gandhi and Nehru, as well as hundreds of Congress activists, were imprisoned until 1945 as a result of their participation in the movement.

Meanwhile, the British government's need for local friends during World War II provided an opportunity for the Muslim League to offer its assistance in return for future political guarantees.

It was the Muslim League's "Pakistan" resolution, passed in March 1940, that advocated for the establishment of "distinct states" – plural, not singular – to accommodate Indian Muslims, whom it claimed constituted a different "country" from other Muslims.

Some historians believe that this relatively ambiguous demand of Partition of India was just a negotiating chip, while others think it was an actual policy goal. However, although it may have been meant to address the problem of minorities, it has instead served to exacerbate it.

Following World War II, Attlee's Labour administration in London recognized that Britain's damaged economy would be unable to bear the burden of the country's over-extended imperium.

During the early months of 1946, a Cabinet Purpose was sent to India, and Prime Minister Attlee characterized the mission as follows:

That year, Pakistan celebrated its independence on August 14, with its eastern and western wings divided by about 1,700 kilometers of Indian land, while India celebrated its freedom the next day.

The new boundaries, which divide the crucial provinces of Punjab and Bengal in half, were formally accepted on August 17 by the United Nations General Assembly.

They had been set up by a Boundary Commission, which was headed by Cyril Radcliffe, a British barrister who subsequently acknowledged that he had relied on out-of-date maps and census data in drawing up the boundaries.

Ripped to shreds

As a result, both governments had enormous difficulties in admitting and rehabilitating post-Partition refugees, whose numbers increased dramatically when the two states went to war over the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947-8.

After then, further outbreaks of communal unrest sparked more migration, with a trickle of individuals continuing moving into Canada as late as the 1960s.

The relationship between the two nations is now in a state of disarray.

Kashmir remains a hotspot because both nations are nuclear-armed, and both countries have nuclear weapons. Indian Muslims are often accused of harboring Pakistani allegiances.

At the same time, non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan have become more vulnerable due to the so-called Islamisation of society that has taken place there since the 1980s.

Despite the passage of seven decades, well over a billion people continue to live under the shadow of Partition.