His Lec 9

• The independent dominions of India and Pakistan were created in 1947 on the basis of Indian Independence Act 1947
• The region of Bengal was divided along religious lines. The predominantly Muslim eastern half was designated East Pakistan and made part of the newly independent Pakistan while the predominantly Hindu western part became the Indian state of West Bengal
• At the time of partition decision, few people understood what Partition would entail or what its results would be, and the migration on the enormous scale that followed took the vast majority of contemporaries by surprise
• Indian National Congress


  • Its best-known leaders included Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
  • It had long argued for a unitary state with a strong centre
  • Even though Congress was ostensibly secular in its objectives, organisations representing minority interests increasingly viewed this idea with suspicion, believing that it would entrench the political dominance of Hindus, who made up about 80% of the population
• Muslims


  • They were British India's largest religious minority
  • Under imperial rule, they had grown accustomed to having their minority status protected by a system of reserved legislative seats and separate electorates
• The prospect of losing this protection as independence drew closer worried more and more Muslims, first in parts of northern India, and then, after World War II, in the influential Muslim-majority provinces of Bengal and Punjab
• In 1945-6, the All-India Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, won a majority of Muslim votes in provincial elections. This strengthened the party's claim to speak for a substantial proportion of Muslim freedom
• Government of India Act 1935


  Legislation passed by the British government conceding a significant measure of self-government to the provinces of India while retaining full control at the centre
• Government of India Act 1935


  • The federation of India was to consist of British India and the princely states
  • The provinces in British India would have to join the federation but this was not compulsory for the princely states
  • This federation never materialised because of the lack of support from the required number of princely states
• Government of India Act 1935


  • It divided powers between the centre and the provinces
  • There were three lists which gave the subjects under each government: Federal List (Centre), Provincial List (Provinces), Concurrent List (Both)
  • The Viceroy was vested with residual powers
• Both, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League opposed the Government of India Act 1935 because of various drawbacks. The provincial governors retained the more important powers in comparison to the elected government. The British authorities had the power to suspend the elected government representatives
• Without successfully managing the two important parties of India, the Act was imposed on 1st April, 1937. In the elections that follow, held under an extended though still limited franchise and the maintenance of separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims, Congress secures a comfortable victory and forms ministries in six out of eleven provinces (1937-39). The Muslim League fares badly, securing less than 5% of the total Muslim votes cast and is unable to hold power in any of the Muslim-majority provinces
• Congress resigns its ministries in protest against the British unilateral declaration of war on Germany on behalf of India and the lack of progress on its demand for a transfer of power to a representative government at the centre. It moves to an anti-war stance and launches a mass 'Quit India' campaign which is met with severe repression and the arrest and imprisonment of Congress leaders
• In contrast, Jinnah and the Muslim League agreed to cooperate with the British government and support India's participation in the war through the Lahore session
• On the strength of the League's enhanced status in British eyes, Jinnah conducts a skilful campaign to persuade Indian Muslims to accept his leadership so as to compel both the British and Congress to concede the idea of 'Pakistan' - which still remains at this stage quite vague
• In 1945, the Labour Party came to power in Britain and pledged to grant independence to India. Their plan was developed on the basis of the 1935 Act. Elections were held in all the provinces of British India in 1946 and the results of which were that the Congress won in seven out of eleven provinces and the Muslim League won all the seats reserved for Muslims
• Reasons Behind the British's Decision of Departure


  • Impact of the Second World War
  • The American Pressure during the war time
  • Militant Activities of the Indian National Army
  • The victory of Labor Party in the 1945 UK election
  • Revolt of the Royal Indian Navy in 1946
  • Hindu-Muslim Communal Riots
• After the war, Attlee's Labour government in London recognised that Britain's devastated economy could not cope with the cost of the over-extended empire. A Cabinet Mission was dispatched to India in early 1946, and Attlee described its mission in ambitious terms
• The Cabinet Mission had as its members, Pethick Lawarence (Secretary of State for India), Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander and reached Delhi on March 24, 1946
• As the Congress and the League could not come to any agreement on the fundamental issue of the unity or partition of India, the mission put forward its own plan which was issued on May 16, 1946
• Main proposals of the Cabinet Mission Plan


  • Rejection of the League's demand for a full-fledged Pakistan
  • Grouping of existing provincial Assemblies into three sections: Section A, Section B, Section C
  • A Constituent Assembly to be elected by Provincial Assemblies by proportional representation (voting in groups-General, Muslims, Sikhs)
  • In the Constituent Assembly, members from groups A, B and C would sit separately to decide the constitution for provinces and if possible for the groups also, then the whole Constituent Assembly would sit together to formulate the constitution for the whole of India
• Muslim majority provinces


  • Punjab
  • North-West Frontier Province
  • Sind
• Provinces


  • Bengal
  • Assam
• Constituent Assembly


  • Elected by Provincial Assemblies by proportional representation (voting in groups-General, Muslims, Sikhs)
  • 389-member body with provincial assemblies sending 292, chief commissioner's provinces sending 4 and princely states sending 93
• Constituent Assembly


  1. Members from groups A, B and C would sit separately to decide the constitution for provinces and if possible for the groups also

  2. The whole Constituent Assembly would sit together to formulate the Union Constitution
• Centre


  Controlling Defence, Communication and External Affairs
• Provinces


  To have full autonomy and residual powers
• Princely states


  No longer under paramountcy of British government and would be free to enter into an arrangement with successor governments or the British government
• Interim government


  To be formed from the Constituent Assembly
• The Cabinet Mission Plan was accepted by the Congress and the Muslim League though with mental reservations
• The objection of the Congress to the Plan was mainly its provision of grouping, and for the League to the rejection of its demand for Pakistan
• In the elections to the Constituent Assembly that took place in July 1946, the Congress captured 205 seats and the League 73. The 4 Sikh seats owed allegiance to the Congress, thus Congress had 209 members in an Assembly of 296
• Alarmed at the overwhelming majority of the Congress the Muslim League withdrew its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan on July 29, 1946
• The Muslim League called August 16, 1946 as 'Direct Action Day
• From 16 August 1946, the Indian scene was rapidly transformed. There were communal riots on an unprecedented scale, which left 5000 dead. The worst-hit areas were Calcutta, Bombay, Naokhali, Bihar, U.P.
• The Viceroy Lord Wavell invited the President of the Congress Jawaharlal Nehru to form the Interim government which assumed office on September 2, 1946
• Initially the Muslim League kept out but later on October 13, decided to join the Interim government to safeguard the interests of the Muslim and other minorities
• The British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, fixed the deadline of June 1948 by which the British would quite India and envisaged a partition of the country


  February 20, 1947
• Attlee also announced the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Viceroy in place of Lord Wavell
• Lord Mounbatten, the last British Governor- General and Viceroy arrived in India on March 22, 1947 and immediately began to take measures for the transfer of power