Towards Freedom and Partition: Wavell Plan, Cabinet Mission, Mountbatten Plan and Independence (1945–1947)

The final phase

The last two years of British rule moved at great speed. The Second World War had exhausted Britain economically. The Labour Party under Clement Attlee, which won the British election in July 1945, was more willing to grant independence. Inside India, the INA trials, the Royal Indian Navy mutiny and waves of strikes showed that the British could no longer depend on Indian soldiers and officials. The key question was no longer *whether* India would be free but in what form – united or divided. This lesson follows the chain of plans that ended in independence and partition on 15 August 1947.

The Wavell Plan and the Simla Conference (1945)

Viceroy Lord Wavell released Congress leaders in June 1945 and called a conference at Simla (25 June – 14 July 1945). His plan proposed:

• A reconstituted Viceroy's Executive Council in which all members except the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief would be Indians.
• Equal representation for caste Hindus and Muslims.
• The council would work under the existing constitution until a new one was agreed.

The conference failed because Jinnah insisted that the Muslim League alone had the right to nominate all Muslim members; the Congress, which had Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad (its president), refused. This effectively gave the League a veto.

Post-war upsurge (1945–46)

• INA trials (November 1945 onwards): the trial of Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Sehgal and G.S. Dhillon – a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh – at the Red Fort created a wave of unity. They were defended by Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali, K.N. Katju and Jawaharlal Nehru, who put on his barrister's gown after decades. Their sentences were remitted. Protests in Calcutta in November 1945 and February 1946 saw clashes with police.
• Royal Indian Navy mutiny (18 February 1946): ratings of HMIS Talwar in Bombay went on strike against racial discrimination, poor food and the INA trials. It spread to about 78 ships and 20 shore establishments with some 20,000 ratings, including Karachi and Calcutta. Workers in Bombay struck in sympathy. Sardar Patel and Jinnah persuaded them to surrender.
• Strikes by workers, peasant movements such as Tebhaga in Bengal (demand for two-thirds share of crop for sharecroppers, 1946) and the Telangana armed struggle (1946–51) against the Nizam and landlords, and the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising in Travancore (1946).
• Elections of 1945–46: the Congress swept the general (non-Muslim) seats; the Muslim League won about 90% of Muslim seats (all 30 Muslim seats in the Central Assembly and 442 of 509 in the provinces), proving that it now spoke for most Muslims.

The Cabinet Mission (March–June 1946)

Attlee announced in March 1946 that India could choose its future. He sent a Cabinet Mission of three ministers: Lord Pethick-Lawrence (Secretary of State), Sir Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander. Its plan of 16 May 1946:

• Rejected a separate Pakistan as impractical.
• Proposed a weak Union controlling only defence, foreign affairs and communications, with all other powers to the provinces.
• Grouped provinces into three sections: Group A (Hindu-majority provinces – Madras, Bombay, UP, Bihar, CP, Orissa), Group B (Punjab, NWFP, Sind) and Group C (Bengal and Assam).
• Provinces could later leave a group after the first general elections under the new constitution.
• A Constituent Assembly of 389 members (292 from provinces elected by provincial assemblies, 93 from princely states and 4 from Chief Commissioners' provinces) would draft the constitution.
• An interim government representing major parties would be formed.

At first both the Congress and the League accepted the plan, but they interpreted grouping differently: the Congress saw it as optional, the League as compulsory. After Nehru said in July 1946 that the Congress would be free to change the plan, the League withdrew its acceptance and called for "Direct Action".

Direct Action Day and the interim government

The League observed 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day. In Calcutta, where H.S. Suhrawardy headed the League government, it led to the Great Calcutta Killings, with several thousand deaths in a few days. Communal violence spread to Noakhali (East Bengal), where Gandhi walked from village to village to restore peace, and then to Bihar, Garhmukteshwar (UP) and Punjab.

The interim government was formed on 2 September 1946 with Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice-President of the Executive Council (de facto prime minister). The League joined in October 1946, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member, but used its position to obstruct (his "poor man's budget" of 1947 hit Congress-supporting businessmen). The League boycotted the Constituent Assembly, which first met on 9 December 1946 with Sachchidananda Sinha as interim president; Rajendra Prasad was elected permanent president on 11 December.

Attlee's statement and the Mountbatten Plan

On 20 February 1947, Attlee announced that the British would leave India by June 1948, and that power would be transferred either to a central government or, in some areas, to provincial governments. Lord Mountbatten became Viceroy in March 1947. Convinced that partition was unavoidable, he produced the 3 June Plan (Mountbatten Plan):

• India would be partitioned into two dominions, India and Pakistan.
• The legislative assemblies of Punjab and Bengal would vote separately (members from Hindu- and Muslim-majority districts) on whether to partition the province; both voted for partition.
• Sind and Baluchistan would decide through their assemblies or representatives.
• A referendum in the NWFP and in Sylhet district of Assam; both went to Pakistan (the Khudai Khidmatgars boycotted the NWFP referendum).
• Boundary commissions for Punjab and Bengal under Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
• Princely states would be free to join either dominion or remain independent (paramountcy would lapse).
• The date of transfer was brought forward to 15 August 1947.

The Congress and the League accepted the plan. Gandhi did not oppose it publicly but called it a spiritual tragedy.

The Indian Independence Act, 1947

Passed by the British Parliament on 18 July 1947, it:

• Created two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, from 15 August 1947.
• Gave each Constituent Assembly full power to frame its constitution and to act as the legislature.
• Abolished the office of the Secretary of State for India and ended British paramountcy over princely states.
• Allowed each dominion a Governor-General (Mountbatten for India; Jinnah for Pakistan).

Pakistan became independent on 14 August and India at midnight of 14–15 August 1947, when Nehru gave his "Tryst with Destiny" speech. The Radcliffe Award was announced on 17 August 1947.

Partition: human cost and why it happened

Partition caused one of the largest migrations in history: about 10–15 million people crossed the new borders, and estimates of deaths range from several hundred thousand to two million. Punjab and Bengal saw massacres, abductions of women and the destruction of property.

Reasons for partition, as historians explain them: the British policy of divide and rule (separate electorates since 1909, the Communal Award); the rise of communal politics of both the League and Hindu communal bodies; the failure of the Congress to win over the Muslim masses after 1937; Jinnah's skilful use of the two-nation theory and the League's veto in each British plan; the Direct Action violence, which convinced Congress leaders that partition was better than civil war; and the British hurry to leave.

Mains practice question

Q. "Partition was the price paid for a quick transfer of power." Critically analyse. (250 words)

Framework: post-war situation; Simla conference and League veto; 1946 elections; Cabinet Mission and grouping dispute; Direct Action; interim government deadlock; Attlee's deadline and Mountbatten's haste; human cost; alternative views.

Quick self-test

1. Why did the Simla Conference fail? *(Jinnah's claim to nominate all Muslim members)*
2. Who were the members of the Cabinet Mission? *(Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps, A.V. Alexander)*
3. When was Direct Action Day? *(16 August 1946)*
4. When was the Radcliffe Award announced? *(17 August 1947)*