After a long struggle for freedom in India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, the country eventually became independent at midnight on 14-15 August 1947. By that time, Pakistan too was created, as founded by Jinnah. In the wake of the end of British rule in India, 562 princely states within the country had to be integrated.

Lord Mountbatten in India

The British (Labour) Cabinet was worried by the socio-political situation in the subcontinent in the early 1940s. It was determined not to allow it to deteriorate.

Prime Minister Clement Atlee (1945-1951) persuaded Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979) to preside over India?s destiny, arbitrating its partition and the consequential transfer of power. Mountbatten loved India, where he had spent much time, including the last two and a half years, and counted many friends among the natives, besides even knowing some Hindi and Urdu. He "alone possessed the requisite charisma," it was almost everybody?s opinion in the influential British circles. His cousin, King George VI, later personally encouraged him to take up the challenging post.

On 20 February 1947, Atlee declared in Parliament that the transfer of power would be effected by June 1948. Mountbatten would be the Viceroy of India for this transfer of power. He was ?to obtain a unitary Government for British India and the Indian states, if possible within the British Commonwealth, through the medium of a Constituent Assembly?? having to ?do the utmost in (his) power to persuade all parties to work together to this end.? Should he deem it fit by October ?that there is no prospect of reaching a settlement on the basis of a unitary government?(he) should report to His Majesty?s Government on the steps which (he) considers should be taken for the handing over of power on the due date.? For Atlee it was ?essential that there should be the fullest co-operation with the Indian leaders in all steps that are taken as to the withdrawal of British power so that the process may go forward as smoothly as possible.?

Mountbatten flew to Delhi on 22 March 1947, and became, as sworn in after two days, the nineteenth and last Viceroy of India. He first met in private, more than once, the topmost leaders of both the Indian National Congress (INC), founded in 1885 and of which Gandhi became the unrivalled leader since August 1920, and the All-India Muslim League (AIML), set up in 1906 and spearheaded by Jinnah as from 1934.

As testified at Annex I to Mountbatten?s ?Personal Report,? referred to as Mountbatten?s Personal Report, No. 2 of 9 April 1947, Gandhi told him that Jinnah ?be given the option of forming a Cabinet;? and should he accept it, ?the INC would guarantee to co-operate freely and sincerely, so long as all the measures Mr Jinnah?s Cabinet bring forward are in the interests of the Indian people as a whole? the sole referee of what is or is not in the interests of India as a whole will be Lord Mountbatten? Mr Jinnah must stipulate, on behalf of the AIML? that, so far as he or they are concerned, they will do their utmost to preserve peace throughout India? There shall be no National Guards or any other form of private army? Within the framework hereof, Mr Jinnah will be perfectly free to present for acceptance a scheme of Pakistan, even before the transfer of power, provided, however, that he is successful in his appeal to reason and not to the force of arms which he abjures for all time for this purpose. Thus, there will be no compulsion in this matter over a province or part thereof?.If Mr Jinnah rejects this offer, the same to be made mutatis mutandis to the INC.?

This offer made by Gandhi was never conveyed to Jinnah. Mountbatten first sounded Jawaharlal Nehru, who found it ?unrealistic,? since Gandhi ?had been away for four months and was rapidly getting out of touch with events at the centre.? Vallabhai Patel too was furious. Nehru ?notified Mountbatten that the scheme was ?quite impracticable?? even less realistic now than a year ago? when Gandhi had suggested the same idea to the Cabinet Mission.?

British Exit

Mountbatten met Jinnah several times, at first on 5 April 1947. For Jinnah, the only solution was ?a surgical operation? on India; ?otherwise, India would perish altogether.? At each meeting, he insisted on "the Begin all and end all" of Pakistan with its own army. When they met on 10 April, Mountbatten found him ?a psychopathic case.?

The main points of Mountbatten?s plan, redrafted after consultation with the authorities in London, as announced on 3 June 1947, included the division of not only the country into India and Pakistan but also Punjab, Bengal and Assam, early transfer of power; holding of a referendum to allow the inhabitants of the North West Frontier Province to choose between India and Pakistan, choice by the princely states to join either India or Pakistan and the setting up of a Boundary Commission to regulate the frontiers of the states.

In the wake of his June 3 Plan, Mountbatten said in his broadcast that, although it was not a perfect solution, power should be transferred to one or two Governments of British India, each having a dominion status. The Hindus and the nationalists of all persuasions opposed partition. As for the AIML, it was not much satisfied with a ?truncated and moth-eaten Pakistan.? However, as the June 3 Plan was generally agreed to be the best practicable solution to the Indian problem, it was accepted by both the AIML and the INC.

For Gandhi, the partition was ?a blasphemy." Rather a man of action than a theoretician, "in principle, he decried it, but in practice he accepted it.?

The Indian Independence Bill, voted unanimously by the British Parliament on 4 July 1947, was enacted after a fortnight. The Constituent Assembly became a sovereign body, enabled to operate independently. The new Act also provided for the country?s division into the dominions of India and Pakistan, each having a legislature empowered to make laws with extra-territorial competence. After 15 August 1947, Great Britain was to exercise no control in any part whatsoever of both the dominions. The Constituent Assembly of each dominion could legislate until a new Constitution would be framed. The prevailing arrangements between the states and the Government of India would continue, allowing them to come to an agreement with the new dominions after due discussions. As for the tribes of the NWFP, the dominion concerned had to negotiate with them and then come to an agreement.

British rule ended on 15 August 1947. After having known numerous invasions since 711 A.D, when Muhamad Bin Qasim raided the coastal area of Debal, in Sind, and of which that of the British was the last, India became a sovereign country. Yet, it was divided into two parts on communal basis ? India and Pakistan. Amounting to 92 millions, or 24% of the entire population of 389 millions, according to the 1941 census, the Muslims in India were then the country?s largest minority, whereas the other groups, including the primitive tribes, totalled but 42 millions.

Freedom

Jawaharlal Nehru, the INC president, first flew the national flag on the bank of River Ravi, in the outskirts of Lahore, now in Pakistan, on 31 December 1929 when it was resolved to appoint 26 January as Independence Day. Since then, the INC observed Independence annually on 26 January. It took 18 years of sustained struggle under Mahatma Gandhi for the pledge to be realised in 1947. On 21 January 1947, India?s national flag, designed by Badr-ud-din Tyabji, was adopted by the Constituent Assembly.

After the fall of the Mughals in 1857 and before the British took over the administration, the local rulers sought to carve out a share of power in different parts of India. The First War of Independence was waged, though unsuccessfully, in 1857 when the British encountered an unprecedented revolt. The Indians had no worthy strategic plan. Moreover, the rebel leaders could not work in harmony. Nor were they moved by feelings of national patriotism. On 15 August 1947, India officially became an independent country, resulting in a united nation, but partitioned.

Nehru was confirmed as Prime Minister, and Mountbatten made the first Governor-General. Patel was made Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs. In June 1948, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari became the first, and last, Indian Governor-General. On 26 January1950, when India turned into a Sovereign Democratic Republic, Rajendra Prasad, who had been chairing the Constituent Assembly, took office as the first President. Rabindranath Tagore?s ?Jana Gana Mana? was adopted as the national anthem, and Bankim Chatterjee?s patriotic poem, Vande Mataram, as the national song.

Partition and Merging of Principalities

On 14 August 1947, the new state of Pakistan was born.Pakistan comprised the Indian provinces of Sind, Baluchistan and NWFP, the Sylhet district of Assam, West Punjab and East Bengal. They covered around 30% of India?s area. Originating from Kashmir, the Indus, from which the term Hinduism is derived, is among the main rivers of Pakistan. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was proclaimed its first Governor-General. Both the course of history and the world map were abruptly changed.

Almost all the 562 kingdoms, occupying one-fourth of the national territory inhabited by one-third of the total population, whose Princes were bound to the British by treaties and engagements, thus ruling under the paramountcy, later integrated the Indian Union.

Pakistan was divided in 1971 when its eastern wing became Bangladesh.

Chit DUKHIRA