Making of India in 1947
I completed reading a book about Indian history this weekend and was shocked and disappointed by the way things took shape in the years 1947-48. Few points noted:
1. British didn't want to hold on with Indian land as the country was breaking apart in riots.
2. Mountbatten was given the task to finish handing of this part of the land to the people of sub-continent.
3. He completed the task along with support from British and few Indians. From Congress, representatives were Nehru, Patel and Gandhi and from the Moslem League, it was Jinnah.
4. Racliffe was invited from Britain to mark the partition boundary. He knew least about the terrain and hence was chosen to be unbiased! This marking of border was a major controversy and head to confusion and riots along the border.
5. In the first week of June 1947, Mountbatten announced that Britain had agreed to handover and move out of India. Conditions were: Partition will be done. Pakistan and India will be two countries as per demands by Jinnah and Congress. Gandhi was against partition.
6. In the press conference in June, Mountbatten announced a random picked date of August 15th. This date reminded him of Japanese Empire surrendering in Burma war. Hence, he announced it without consulting anyone from Indian side. In India, astrology and celestial-positions were believed and were given high importance. Many in the papers condemned this date and told that it is a bad date for a country to take birth.
7. Aug 14th - Pakistan got Independence. Mountbatten was along with Jinnah to do the handover.
8. Aug 14th evening - Riots broke out in Lahore where Hindu-Sikh area was in flames after water distribution was stopped. Nehru was getting ready for night's handover ceremony. When he heard this news over telephone, he was shocked and disturbed. Nehru's speech was not a prepared one. Here is his speech. He had later disclosed that he didn't know what he spoke. Handover was done by the first "Governer-General of India" - Mountbatten.
9. For many reasons, Mountbatten was considered supreme and was considered for all consultations and suggestions. Nehru and Patel had tough time handling communal disturbance that broke out in various parts of India. They went back to Mountbatten and begged him to take control of the situation as they and Congress are good at 'protests' and very inexperienced in 'administration'. That is the time Emergency Committee was created by Mountbatten to handle the situation better.
10. Gandhi was not around Delhi during Aug 15th. He was in Calcutta dealing with the local communal disturbance. He arrived in Delhi in first part of Sept. Infact, when Nehru delivered the speech on Aug 14th night, it is believed that Gandhi was fast asleep and followed normal routine of sleeping at 9:30pm.
There are tonnes of interesting stories and facts along this timeline. Overall, it was a shock for me to read how 400 million Indians had to bear this turmoil. All important men mentioned above wanted only one thing - speed. They wanted things to be completed at the earliest. There lacked any planning and it looked like things happened for personal cause and not for the cause of people.
1. British didn't want to hold on with Indian land as the country was breaking apart in riots.
2. Mountbatten was given the task to finish handing of this part of the land to the people of sub-continent.
3. He completed the task along with support from British and few Indians. From Congress, representatives were Nehru, Patel and Gandhi and from the Moslem League, it was Jinnah.
4. Racliffe was invited from Britain to mark the partition boundary. He knew least about the terrain and hence was chosen to be unbiased! This marking of border was a major controversy and head to confusion and riots along the border.
5. In the first week of June 1947, Mountbatten announced that Britain had agreed to handover and move out of India. Conditions were: Partition will be done. Pakistan and India will be two countries as per demands by Jinnah and Congress. Gandhi was against partition.
6. In the press conference in June, Mountbatten announced a random picked date of August 15th. This date reminded him of Japanese Empire surrendering in Burma war. Hence, he announced it without consulting anyone from Indian side. In India, astrology and celestial-positions were believed and were given high importance. Many in the papers condemned this date and told that it is a bad date for a country to take birth.
7. Aug 14th - Pakistan got Independence. Mountbatten was along with Jinnah to do the handover.
8. Aug 14th evening - Riots broke out in Lahore where Hindu-Sikh area was in flames after water distribution was stopped. Nehru was getting ready for night's handover ceremony. When he heard this news over telephone, he was shocked and disturbed. Nehru's speech was not a prepared one. Here is his speech. He had later disclosed that he didn't know what he spoke. Handover was done by the first "Governer-General of India" - Mountbatten.
9. For many reasons, Mountbatten was considered supreme and was considered for all consultations and suggestions. Nehru and Patel had tough time handling communal disturbance that broke out in various parts of India. They went back to Mountbatten and begged him to take control of the situation as they and Congress are good at 'protests' and very inexperienced in 'administration'. That is the time Emergency Committee was created by Mountbatten to handle the situation better.
10. Gandhi was not around Delhi during Aug 15th. He was in Calcutta dealing with the local communal disturbance. He arrived in Delhi in first part of Sept. Infact, when Nehru delivered the speech on Aug 14th night, it is believed that Gandhi was fast asleep and followed normal routine of sleeping at 9:30pm.
There are tonnes of interesting stories and facts along this timeline. Overall, it was a shock for me to read how 400 million Indians had to bear this turmoil. All important men mentioned above wanted only one thing - speed. They wanted things to be completed at the earliest. There lacked any planning and it looked like things happened for personal cause and not for the cause of people.
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