The story of India's independence from colonial rule is one of exhilaration and pain at the same time, the eventual embrace of fate, and, above all, hope and determination to thrive despite the historical cards dealt.
Let's look back at how it came about.
We pick up the threads from the Indian Independence Act, which gave legislative shape to the decision to vivisect India. Partition on religious lines was in the works much before Mountbatten arrived in India in 1947.
Mountbatten's arrival expedited Britain's exit. The Indian Independence Act was ratified by the British Parliament and granted royal assent on July 18, 1947. After nearly two centuries of British colonial rule, the act set the date for India's freedom as August 15, 1947.
Pakistan was accorded independence a day earlier so as to facilitate Mountbatten's participation in the ceremonies of both countries.
Defining borders
The complex process of demarcating borders between India and Pakistan, particularly in Punjab and Bengal, was done in a hurry in just a month. All stakeholders wanted to wrap it up before Independence Day, though they did not have the expertise to do so.
They all knew it would lead to humongous human displacement, unprecedented bloodletting and communal riots, but figured it was unavoidable. In the end, an estimated one to two million people were massacred in the riots that followed, and over 15 million others were uprooted due to partition.
The task to draw boundary lines in Punjab and Bengal was given to Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British jurist. He headed two boundary commissions, one for Punjab and the other for Bengal, though he had no prior knowledge of India. His arrival in the country on July 8, 1947, was his first-ever trip this side. There were some who thought his unfamiliarity would make him a neutral arbitrator.
Each commission had five members, all jurists, two each from the Hindu side and the Muslim League, besides Radcliffe. In other words, Radcliffe had the deciding vote on all matters, which he used at his whim. He did his cartography, the Radcliffe line, which was not always based on demographic data, without ever visiting the lands he mechanically split. His maps for the two states were ready by August 9 and 14, but were made public two days after independence on August 17.
