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Unlock This CourseBritish rule ended in the middle of August 1947. On 14 August Mountbatten was in Karachi for the ceremonies that marked the birth of Pakistan. Jinnah became its first governor-general, with Liaquat Ali Khan as prime minister. Pakistan was a country in two parts, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, with about 1,000 miles of India between them.
At midnight in Delhi, Nehru spoke to India's Constituent Assembly: 'At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.' On 15 August he became India's first prime minister, and India asked Mountbatten to stay on as its governor-general.
There were huge celebrations, but Gandhi took no part. He spent the day in Calcutta, fasting and praying, because of the killing between communities. Everything the Raj owned also had to be shared out: the army, the civil servants, the railways and the money. And people in the Punjab and Bengal did not learn where the new borders ran until two days after independence.
Key terms:
Partition left millions of people on what they feared was the wrong side of the line: Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan, Muslims in India. Nobody had planned for people to move, and both governments had promised to protect minorities. But fear and attacks drove people out. In the months after August 1947 somewhere between 10 and 15 million people left their homes. It was one of the largest migrations in history.
People travelled in packed trains, by bullock cart and on foot, in columns that could stretch for miles. They took only what they could carry and left homes, farms and shops behind. Many died on the way from hunger, exhaustion and disease.
Both new governments had to feed and house the refugees. A camp at Kurukshetra in India held about 300,000 people. Nearly half a million refugees reached Delhi, and Karachi and Lahore were crowded too. In the Punjab the exchange was almost complete within months. In Bengal people moved more slowly, over several years.
The worst violence was in the Punjab, where Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs had lived side by side. All three communities had armed gangs, and many of the men in them were former soldiers. Villages were burned and columns of refugees were attacked. Trains reached their stations with most of their passengers dead. Each attack was followed by revenge on the other side of the border. Tens of thousands of women were kidnapped. No one knows how many people died. Estimates run from about 200,000 to more than a million. Every community suffered, and every community had killers among it.
Why could it not be stopped? A Punjab Boundary Force was set up on 1 August 1947 under a British general, but it was far too small for the thousands of villages it had to guard, and it was closed down at the start of September. The police and the army were themselves being divided between the two countries, and some men took sides. British troops were already going home.
In September the violence reached Delhi, where many Muslims were killed. Calcutta was calmer, because Gandhi was there. On 26 August Mountbatten called him a 'one-man boundary force'. When rioting began again, Gandhi started a fast on 1 September 1947 and it stopped within days. On 30 January 1948 Gandhi was shot dead in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who thought Gandhi had been too generous to Muslims and to Pakistan.
Remember, the princely states were ruled by Indian princes under British protection. There were more than 560 of them. The Indian Independence Act ended paramountcy on 15 August, so in law each prince could join India, join Pakistan or try to stand alone. Congress feared an India full of holes. On 25 July 1947 Mountbatten told the princes that they should choose one of the two countries and think about where their state lay on the map. Patel and V. P. Menon offered each prince an Instrument of Accession that gave up only defence, foreign affairs and communications. By 15 August nearly all the states inside India's borders had signed. Three important ones had not joined India.
A Muslim ruler with mostly Hindu subjects. He chose Pakistan. Indian troops moved in during November 1947, and in a vote in February 1948 almost everyone chose India.
A very large state in the middle of India. Its Muslim ruler, the Nizam, had mostly Hindu subjects and wanted independence. The Indian army invaded in September 1948 and took control in less than a week.
A Hindu ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, with mostly Muslim subjects, on the border of both countries. In October 1947 armed tribesmen from Pakistan invaded. He signed to join India on 26 October and Indian troops were flown in. India and Pakistan fought until a ceasefire in January 1949 left Kashmir divided. It is still disputed.
Do not write that the British ordered people to move. The migration was not planned; fear and violence caused it. Do not blame one community for the killing, because all three took part and all three suffered. And do not say the princes were forced to join by the Independence Act. In law they were free to choose, which is exactly why they were a problem.
'The worst effect of the partition of India in 1947 was the communal violence in the Punjab.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own. [16 marks]
Partition had several serious effects. I partly agree with the statement, but I will argue that the mass migration was worse, judged by how many people each effect harmed.
There is a strong case for the violence in the Punjab. Once Radcliffe's border cut the province in two, armed gangs of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs attacked villages, refugee columns and trains, and each attack led to revenge across the border. Estimates of the dead run from about 200,000 to more than a million, and tens of thousands of women were kidnapped. The Punjab Boundary Force was too small to stop it and was closed down at the start of September 1947. No other effect cost so many lives so quickly.
The Princely States were a different kind of problem. When paramountcy ended, each prince was free in law to choose, and three important states did not join India. Junagadh and Hyderabad were taken over by India quickly. Kashmir was far more serious. After tribesmen invaded in October 1947, Hari Singh joined India, and India and Pakistan fought a war that ended only with a ceasefire in January 1949. This made the two new countries enemies from the start. However, most of the 560 or more states joined peacefully, so this effect harmed fewer people in 1947.
The effect that reached the most people was mass migration. Between 10 and 15 million people left their homes, taking only what they could carry, and many died of hunger, exhaustion and disease on the way. The new governments had to feed and house them in camps such as Kurukshetra, which held about 300,000 people. Unlike the violence in the Punjab, migration also changed Bengal, Delhi and Karachi, and most refugees never went home.
Overall, I agree only to some extent. The violence in the Punjab was the most deadly effect. But it was also the main cause of the migration, and the migration changed the lives of many millions more people for good. Judged by the number of people harmed, mass migration was the worst effect, with the Punjab violence as the force that drove it.
What lifts it to the top level: it covers three effects, one of them not in the bullets, links them together and reaches a judgement using a clear test: how many people were harmed.
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level. Here the third effect, mass migration, comes from your own knowledge. Choose your test for 'worst' in the first paragraph, such as deaths, numbers affected or how long the effect lasted, and use it again in your conclusion.