st

Independence and 1
Year
1947-1948
Final Stages of Independence
Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom, announced on 20 February 1947 that:

The British Government would grant full self-government

to British India by 30 June 1948.

The future of the Princely States would be decided after

the date of final transfer is decided.
 rd
3 June Plan/Mountbatten
Plan
Principle of the partition of British India was accepted by the British
Government

Successor governments would be given dominion status

Autonomy and sovereignty to both countries

Can make their own constitution

Princely States were given the right to join either Pakistan or India,
based on two major factors: Geographical contiguity and the
people's wishes.
 • Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims
in Punjab and Bengal legislative
assemblies would meet and vote for partition. If a
simple majority of either group wanted partition,
then these provinces would be divided.
• Sind and Baluchistan were to make their own
decision.
3rd June • The fate of North-West Frontier
Plan/Mountbatten Province and Sylhet district of Assam was to be
decided by a referendum.
Plan
• India would be independent by 15 August 1947.
• The separate independence of Bengal was ruled
out.
• A boundary commission to be set up in case of
partition.
Indian Independence Act 1947

• Division of British India into the two new dominions – the Dominion of India and
the Dominion of Pakistan – with effect from 15 August 1947;
• Partition of the provinces of Bengal and Punjab between the two new countries;
• Establishment of the office of Governor-General in each of the two new countries,
as representatives of the Crown;
• Conferral of complete legislative authority upon the respective Constituent
Assemblies of the two new countries;
• Termination of British suzerainty over the princely states, with effect from 15
August 1947. These states could decide to join either India or Pakistan.
• Abolition of the use of the title "Emperor of India" by the British monarch.
Boundary
Commission/Radcliffe Award
Muslim League demanded complete Punjab, Bengal, and
Assam

• Punjab was divided along Communal Lines

• Bengal was divided along Communal Lines
• Assam was divided along Communal Lines
 14th August
1947
(Independence)
 • Division of Assets
• Water Crisis
Early Problems • Choosing the Capital
of Pakistan • Unfair Boundary by Radcliffe
• Brutalities on Muslim Refugees in India
• Settlement of Refugees in Pakistan
• Forceful Annexation of Princely States by
India
• Defense of the Country
 • The British government divided assets
between Pakistan and India. According to the
Division of agreement, Pakistan got a share of 75 Crore.
Only 20 crores were transferred to Pakistan
Assets initially. Other than these, military
equipment and the record were also to be
transferred to Pakistan. The Indian
government’s negative attitude toward the
transfer of divided assets created lots of
difficulty for Pakistan.
 • Pakistan started facing water when on the
morning of 1st April 1948, India closed the
headworks of the rivers of Pakistan. This
Water Crisis caused significant damage to crops in
Punjab. India started demanding money for
the water that Pakistan uses. For the
permanent solution to this problem, Pakistan
took the help of the united nations, and a
treaty called the “Indus Waters Treaty” was
signed on 19th September 1960 in Karachi.
 • One of Pakistan’s biggest and list problems after
independence was that it did not have many
developed cities like India. So Pakistani leaders
Choosing the have only a few choices of cities as capital.
Karachi was chosen as the capital, and the
Capital officers and officials came from Dehli to Karachi
to setup the government capital. There was a lack
of records, offices, furniture. Some of the
government offices were also established in
military barracks during that hard time. Later
precisely, after 20 years of partition, on 14th
august 1967, Islamabad became the second
capital of Pakistan under the rule of Ayub khan.
Unfair
• A commission was established to divide
Boundary by some provinces into Pakistan and India. As
Radcliffe most of the British officers were against the
partition, so they tried to harm Pakistan in all
ways. Viceroy Mountbatten was also
inclined towards India.
Brutalities on
• When the division of Punjab was decided,
Muslim Muslims living in the Indian side of Punjab
Refugees in started the migration to Pakistani Punjab.
Hindus and Sikhs started killing Muslims.
India Men and children were killed. Women were
raped. Countless Muslim caravans and
Muslim trains travelling to Pakistan were
killed entirely. This resulted in more than 5
lac deaths in time less than one month.
 • According to sources, almost 65 lac people
Refugee migrated toward Pakistan. Among which, 52
Settlement in lac people migrated to Punjab. It was not an
easy task for Pakistan’s government to make
Pakistan permanent arrangements for the resettlement
of so many people. Despite limited
resources, Pakistan set up refugee camps for
the migrants and provided them with food
and healthcare.
 • A coastal princely state present 300km away
from Karachi decided to join Pakistan, but
Forceful India did not accept the state’s decision and
therefore forcefully took control of India.
Annexation of This step of India was entirely against the
principle that states can decide whether they
Princely States want to join Pakistan or India.
by India • In the same way, India again violated the
principles of states’ annexation when Nizam
of Hyderabad decided not to join Pakistan
and India. India forcefully took control of
Hyderabad also.
 • As soon as Pakistan became independent, it
became concerned about defending its
borders as there were problems on the
eastern and western borders. In the West,
Defence Afghanistan refused to recognize Pakistan
and was the only country to oppose
Pakistan’s membership in the United
Nations. The situation with India in the East
was also not good for a few reasons. There
was also a lack of modern military
equipment. So defending the boundaries of
Pakistan became a big problem at that time.