India And Pakistan Partition - [August 14, 1947] This Day in History

14 August 1947

Partition of India into India and Pakistan

What happened?

On 14^th August 1947, India was partitioned off into India (comprising the Hindu-majority areas) and Pakistan (comprising the Muslim-majority areas).

Partition of India

In this article,  you can read about the events that led to the partition of the country and also the course of events of that time. This will help in your understanding of the modern history of the country for the IAS exam.

• British India was divided on communal lines into the dominions of India and Pakistan.
• The Dominion of India became the Republic of India while the Dominion of Pakistan became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (in 1975).
• India chose to become a secular country.
• The partition was enacted by the Indian Independence Act 1947 which led to the end of the British Raj. Pakistan became an independent country on 14^th August 1947 whereas India got independence a day later.
• The idea that the Muslims in the subcontinent need a separate nation because their aspirations would be crushed in a Hindu-dominated India was first echoed in the Two-Nation Theory.
• The term ‘Pakistan’ was first coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali in 1933. It was later taken up by Muhammad Ali Jinnah who became a fierce fighter for the creation of Pakistan.
• The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League were unable to come to an agreement on how to go about independence. While the League wanted a separate homeland, the INC was opposed to the idea of partitioning the country.
• To reach a consensus on the issue, Britain sent the Cabinet Mission to India.
• This broke down and Jinnah proclaimed “Direct Action Day” on 16^th August 1946.
• As there was no clarity on the partition, people were on their nerves, especially those who were living in a community where the majority religion did not match with theirs.
• Violence broke out in many parts of Bengal, Bihar, the United Provinces and Punjab.
• There was large-scale killing, rape and torture. Even children and the elderly were not spared.
• To stop the tide of brutality and prevent an all-out civil war in the country, the Congress, headed by Vallabhai Patel on this issue, approved of the partition plan.
• Jinnah had originally demanded even the Hindu-dominated areas of Bengal and Punjab as part of Pakistan. But Patel was fiercely against this and obtained the partition of those provinces which ensured that the Hindu majority areas in those provinces areas were included in India.
• But, neither the Indian leaders nor the British were prepared for or anticipated the massive scale of the partition.
• Families were uprooted from the soil of their ancestors. People had to leave all their unmovable property and move to the other side. Millions of people were displaced and refugee camps were overflowing with people. Apart from the violence, diseases due to unhygienic conditions also killed many people.
• Riots were rampant during the partition. Some people blame the British government for not doing enough to stem the violence.
• The actual geographic demarcation of the areas was entrusted to Sir Cyril Radcliffe. He divided the roughly 450000 sq. km of territory between the two dominions. The international boundary between India and Pakistan, and between India and Bangladesh is even today the Radcliffe Line.

Also on This Day 

1862: Bombay High Court established. 1987: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, also called the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ receives Bharat Ratna, the first by a non-Indian.

See previous ‘This Day in History’ here.

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