In August 1947, the British left India after more than 300 years. The British divided British India into two independent nation states, India and Pakistan. India was to remain secular with a Hindu majority, whereas Pakistan was to have a Muslim majority. British colonists divided two countries in haste, resulting in one of the largest human migrations in history.
Muslims began their trek to east and west Pakistan, uprooting an estimated 15 million people. Hindus and Sikhs journeyed in the opposite direction. Between one and two million people lost their lives due to large-scale religious violence, starvation, and disease. More than 75,000 women were raped or abducted.
But how did this religious hatred spark so much violence?
To understand this, we have to look at Britain’s rule of India. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims existed even before the British Raj was established, but many Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus also coexist peacefully. When the British came to rule, they used the now infamous strategy of divide and rule. They enacted specific measures, such as the scientific census in 1871 and the formation of a separate electorate for Muslims, which resulted in the evolution of rigid religious identities.
These identities became more and more important than language and ethnicity and were used to pit people against one another so that the British could consolidate their own power. Mistrust between Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians began to grow.
How did this lead to the country being partitioned?
Indians had long wanted independence from repressive British rule. During World War I, Britain introduced the Defense Act of India, which gave them indiscriminate power to lock people up without trial and restrict freedom of speech and movement.
In 1919, British soldiers mass-carried unarmed Sikh men, women, and children who had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate the Sikh new year. Some say this massacre marked the beginning of resistance against colonial governance.
But in order to understand how and why the country was partitioned, we also need to understand who the political players were at the time.
Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi were leaders of the Congress, a Hindu-dominated secular political party that spearheaded the independence movement. They wanted a united secular India.
The Muslim League was led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He also wanted independence and initially backed Hindu-Muslim unity. However, by the 1940s, this had changed, and he wanted an independent Muslim state.
In 1939, Britain dragged India into World War II; most Indians were not happy about itNehru and Gandhi turned down fighting. They started the ‘Quit India movement’ in 1942, calling on the British to withdraw completely from India and inciting anti-British protests across the country.
Up to three million people in Bengal died of starvation in 1943; many Indians believed that British exploitation played a part..
Britain found itself cash-trapped at the end of World War II. They realized they couldn’t afford to run India much longer. They decided they would withdraw from the subcontinent but didn’t put a date on it. With talk of a transfer of power, tension ran high in the country. Muslims were concerned that they would be vulnerable in a Hindu-majority country. On the other hand, Hindus opposed the division of the country.
To seek a homeland, the Muslim League urged a strike in Calcutta in August 1946. The great Calcutta massacre started with these demonstrations. There was a riot killing between 4000 and 10000 persons. It also spurred riots and murder in other nations of the union. This kind of bloodshed worried the British since it might start a civil war. They resolved they wanted to leave India faster and avoid any possible controversy by cleaning their hands..
The British PM announced that India would be independent not before July 1948. But all that changed when viceroy to India and minor royal Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed in March 1947. His job was to resolve the issue of partition by negotiating between Nehru and Jinnah and to try and get Britain out of the country as soon as possible.
In June 1947, he shockingly declared that India will gain independence by August 1947—nearly a full year ahead of plan.
Who, though, split up the Indian empire?
The British layer Cyril Radcliffe was assigned the duty of dividing India according to railway canals and religious distinctions.
He had never traveled to anywhere east of Paris before he was flown to India and given 36 days to carve up the map of south Asia. Radcliffe drew a line that divided the states of Punjab and Bengal into two and excluded Kashmir from any country.
Later on, he admitted that because of the hot weather in June, he took help from outdated maps and census reports rather than undertaking fieldwork. Radcliffe finished two weeks before independence, but the viceroy decided to keep the new country’s borders a secret until after independence.
On August 14, 1947, Pakistan declared its independence. A day later, so did India; at the time, neither country knew where the borders were. The British army, which had suppressed Indians and crushed revolt, exited India after more than 300 years with hardly a shot fired and only seven casualties. But they left two countries in complete turmoil.
The horror of partition!
The partition unleashed a wave of bloodshed. One of the central flashpoints was the Punjab people, who suddenly found themselves in the wrong country and had to flee from their ancestral homes on foot, on bullock carts, or by train. More than 7 million people traveled from India to Pakistan. Another 7 million people traveled from Pakistan to India. Mobs hid in the bushes along the way, waiting to slaughter people. Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus killed one another. Many of the refugees either succumbed to hunger or thirst, or faced murder along their journey. Trains known as ‘blood trains’ frequently carried refugees who arrived at their destination with corpses.
Women were raped and abducted. Many of the victims suffered mutilation and had their breasts severed. Pregnant women attacked by mobs had their bellies cut out of them. Even children weren’t spared. Fathers and brothers killed some women to prevent their capture. Other women committed suicide by throwing themselves into wells to avoid abduction and preserve their honor. People looted and burned down homes and businesses.
Some believed that the horrors of partition were similar to the Holocaust. To accommodate the millions of refugees, India and Pakistan set up refugee camps. But many more people lost their lives in camps because of poor conditions and diseases.
Massive and sudden migrations changed the demographics of South Asia forever. Almost all Hindus fled to cities like Karachi, which were populated with just under 50 percent of Hindus before partition. Delhi, the capital of India, forced more than 300,000 Muslims to flee. The partition separated thousands of families.
Many families remain divided more than 70 years later. Pakistan and India remain bitter rivals. They fought three wars in Kashmir and one in east Pakistan, which eventually became Bangladesh. Today, there are still disputes over water and borders.
FAQS
In 1947 Britain India divided into Pakistan and India on the basis of religion. India became Hindu majority area and Pakistan Muslim majority area.
The main reason was the separate state demand according to two nation theory which states that Hindus and Muslims are two different communities which cannot live together with peace and harmony.
Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten ,who was the last viceroy of India , declared this partition.
During Indo Pak partition Clement Attlee was Prime Minister of Britain
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