Wishesh magazine january 2018 Wishesh magazine january 2018 | Page 132

INDIAN HISTORY
India and Pakistan
are still healing their
wounds of partition.
Boundary issues
have caused many
wars between the
two nations.
the Boundary Commission,
proposed the Radcliffe Line,
which was a “notional division”
of the vast country based on
simple district majorities. He
submitted his plan for both
the west and east borders on
August 9 1947 - just five days
before it came into force.
The two countries celebrate
132 on different days because
Lord Mountbatten, the viceroy
of British India, had to attend
the Pakistan celebration
on August 14th and then
travel to Delhi for India’s first
independence day on August
15.
King George VI remained
the head of state of India
until the enshrining of the
country’s constitution in 1950.
Likewise, Pakistan remained
a Dominion of the Crown until
1956, when its constitution
came into force.
INDEPENDENCE AND
PARTITION:
World War II sparked a
crisis in relations between
WWW.WISHESH.COM | JANUARY 2018
the British, the INC and the
Muslim League. The British
expected India once again to
provide much-needed soldiers
and materiel for the war
effort, but the INC opposed
sending Indians to fight and
die in Britain’s war. After the
betrayal following World War
I, the INC saw no benefit for
India in such a sacrifice. The
Muslim League, however,
decided to back Britain’s call
for volunteers, in an effort to
curry British favor in support
of a Muslim nation in post-
independence northern India.
Before the war had even
ended, public opinion in
Britain had swung against the
distraction and expense of
empire. Winston Churchill’s
party was voted out of office,
and the pro-independence
Labour Party was voted
in during 1945. Labour
called for almost immediate
independence for India, as
well as more gradual freedom
for Britain’s other colonial
holdings.
The Muslim League’s leader,
Muhammed Ali Jinnah, began
a public campaign in favor of
a separate Muslim state, while
Jawaharlal Nehru of the INC
called for a unified India.
As independence neared, the
country began to descend
towards a sectarian civil war.
Although Gandhi implored
the Indian people to unite in
peaceful opposition to British
rule, the Muslim League
sponsored a “Direct Action
Day” on August 16, 1946,
which resulted in the deaths of
more than 4,000 Hindus and
Sikhs in Calcutta (Kolkata).
This touched off the “Week
of the Long Knives,” an orgy
of sectarian violence that
resulted in hundreds of deaths
on both sides in various cities
across the country.
In February of 1947,
the British government
announced that India would
be granted independence
by June 1948. Viceroy for
India Lord Louis Mountbatten
pleaded with the Hindu and
Muslim leadership to agree to
form a united country, but they
could not.
Only Gandhi supported
Mountbatten’s position. With
the country descending further
into chaos, Mountbatten
reluctantly agreed to the
formation of two separate
states and moved the
independence date up to
August 15, 1947.
With the decision in favor of