Overview
This chapter studies the last two years of British rule, from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the transfer of power on 15 August 1947, and explains how India won her freedom and why she was divided at the same moment. It begins with the situation in 1945: an exhausted Britain, a new Labour government, the INA agitation and the elections of 1945-46 that made the Congress the voice of the general electorate and the Muslim League the voice of the Muslims. It then follows the Cabinet Mission of 1946, its plan for a united but loosely federated India, the formation of the Interim Government and the Constituent Assembly, the League's Direct Action Day and the Calcutta killings, and the communal civil war that spread to Noakhali, Bihar and the Punjab. It explains Attlee's declaration of February 1947, the arrival of Mountbatten, the June Third Plan that the Congress and the League accepted, and the Indian Independence Act of July 1947, whose provisions the student must know exactly. It describes the Radcliffe boundary, the division of assets, the fate of the princely states, the horror of the partition riots and the migration of millions, Gandhi's lonely work for peace in Calcutta and Noakhali, and the midnight of 14-15 August 1947. It ends with the causes of Partition and the significance of independence, including what it meant for the new province of Orissa and its feudatory states.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the political situation in India and Britain at the end of the Second World War.
- Explain the results of the elections of 1945-46 and the growth of the Muslim League's demand for Pakistan.
- State the proposals of the Cabinet Mission and explain why its plan failed.
- Narrate Direct Action Day, the Calcutta killings and the communal violence of 1946-47.
- Explain Attlee's declaration of 20 February 1947 and the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947.
- State the main provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947.
- Describe the partition of India, the Radcliffe Award, the migration and the riots, and Gandhi's response.
- Analyse the causes of the partition of India and assess the significance of independence for India and Odisha.
Topics in this chapter
12 topics · tap a topic title to jump straight to it.
India and Britain at the end of the war, 1945
The Second World War ended in Europe on 8 May 1945 and in Asia on 15 August 1945. Britain had won, but at a price: her cities bombed, her treasury empty, her debts to India alone about 1,300 crore rupees (the sterling balances), her army tired and her people demanding homes, jobs and social security rather than an empire. In July 1945 the British electorate rejected Churchill and elected a Labour government under Clement Attlee, whose party had long been pledged to Indian self-government and which included men such as Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the new Secretary of State for India, who knew and respected the Congress leaders.
In India the wartime Viceroy Lord Linlithgow had been succeeded in October 1943 by Lord Wavell, a soldier who saw that the Raj could not last. Wavell released Gandhi in May 1944 and the Working Committee in June 1945, and called the Simla Conference of June-July 1945 to form a new Executive Council with equal Hindu and Muslim membership. The conference broke down because Jinnah insisted that the Muslim League alone should nominate all the Muslim members, which the Congress, a national body with Muslim members such as Maulana Azad (its president), could not accept. The breakdown showed that Jinnah now held a veto over any settlement.
The mood of the country was explosive. The Quit India Movement had shown the depth of the demand for freedom; the INA trials of November 1945, described in the previous chapter, brought the whole nation into the streets; and in February 1946 the naval ratings mutinied at Bombay while the police of Bihar and the men of the Air Force struck. Prices were high, the Bengal famine of 1943 had killed about three million people, and the returning soldiers, two million of them, had seen a wider world. The civil service and the police, which had held India through 1942, were tired and uncertain, and their British officers were leaving. Attlee's government concluded that Britain must transfer power quickly and with as much goodwill as possible, before the choice was taken from it.
Two questions dominated the next two years: to whom would power be transferred, and would India remain one country? The Congress claimed to speak for all India; the Muslim League, under the Lahore Resolution of 1940, demanded a separate Pakistan for the Muslim-majority areas; and the British, whose policy of separate electorates since 1909 had helped to create the division, now had to find a way through it.
- Sterling balances: by 1945 Britain owed India about 1,300 crore rupees for wartime supplies, reversing the old drain of wealth.
- Simla Conference, 25 June to 14 July 1945: broke down on Jinnah's demand that only the League nominate Muslims to the Executive Council.
- Bengal famine of 1943: about three million deaths, caused by wartime procurement, the denial policy and the loss of Burma rice, a scandal that discredited the Raj.
- 1945 timeline: Simla Conference June-July → Labour government July → war ends August → INA trials November → naval mutiny February 1946.
The elections of 1945-46 and the demand for Pakistan
Wavell announced elections to the Central and Provincial Legislatures for the winter of 1945-46, the first since 1937, to find out whom the parties represented. The result was decisive and, in its way, ominous.
The Congress won 57 of the 102 elected seats in the Central Assembly and about 90 per cent of the general (non-Muslim) seats, and formed ministries in eight provinces, including Orissa, where Harekrushna Mahtab became Prime Minister (Premier) of the province on 23 April 1946. The Muslim League won all 30 Muslim seats in the Central Assembly and about 440 of the 495 Muslim seats in the provinces, and formed ministries in Bengal and Sind; in the Punjab a Unionist-Congress-Akali coalition under Khizr Hayat Khan kept it out, and in the North-West Frontier Province the Congress, under Dr Khan Sahib, won a majority even among Muslims. The elections thus divided India into two mandates: the Congress spoke for the general electorate, the League, as it claimed, for the Muslims. Jinnah declared that the vote was a plebiscite for Pakistan.
How had the League grown so fast? In 1937 it had won barely five per cent of the Muslim vote. Between 1937 and 1945 several things had changed. The Congress ministries of 1937-39 had refused coalition with the League in the United Provinces, and the League's Pirpur Report accused them of Hindu domination, a charge that spread fear among Muslims. The Lahore Resolution of March 1940 had given the League a simple goal, Pakistan, a homeland where Muslims would not be a permanent minority. During the war, while the Congress leaders were in jail from 1942 to 1945, the League had the field to itself, built its organisation in the provinces, won over the Muslim landlords of the Punjab and Bengal and the students of Aligarh, and enjoyed the government's favour as a loyal party. The Cripps offer of 1942, with its non-accession clause, and Gandhi's own talks with Jinnah in September 1944 on the basis of C. Rajagopalachari's formula, which accepted the principle of a plebiscite in Muslim-majority areas, had made Pakistan seem an attainable demand. And the electorate was tiny, about ten per cent of the adult population, weighted towards the landed and educated classes among whom the League was strongest.
The Two-Nation Theory on which Jinnah rested his claim held that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations with different religions, laws, histories and heroes, who could not live in one state. The Congress rejected it: India was one nation of many faiths, and Maulana Azad argued that the Muslims of India were an inseparable part of Indian nationhood. The disagreement was not theoretical; it decided whether India would be one country or two.
- Central Assembly 1945: Congress 57 of 102 elected seats; League all 30 Muslim seats. Provinces 1946: League about 440 of 495 Muslim seats.
- Orissa, April 1946: Congress majority in the Legislative Assembly; Harekrushna Mahtab formed the ministry with Nityananda Kanungo, Nabakrushna Choudhury and others.
- Gandhi-Jinnah talks, September 1944, on the Rajagopalachari formula: Gandhi offered a plebiscite in Muslim-majority areas after independence; Jinnah demanded Pakistan first and rejected it.
The Cabinet Mission, 1946
On 19 February 1946 Attlee announced that a mission of three Cabinet ministers, Lord Pethick-Lawrence (Secretary of State), Sir Stafford Cripps (President of the Board of Trade) and A. V. Alexander (First Lord of the Admiralty), would go to India to arrange for the transfer of power, and declared that Britain would not allow a minority to veto the advance of the majority. The Cabinet Mission reached Delhi on 24 March 1946 and held talks with all the parties for two months, including a conference at Simla in May.
It found the Congress and the League irreconcilable. The Congress wanted a strong united India with a Constituent Assembly elected by the provinces; the League wanted Pakistan, consisting of the whole of the Punjab, Sind, the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan in the west and Bengal and Assam in the east. The Mission rejected Pakistan: it argued that a separate state would not solve the minority problem, since it would leave large non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan and Muslims in India, that the Punjab and Bengal would have to be partitioned if the principle were applied, which the League itself did not want, and that the army and the economy could not be divided without disaster.
On 16 May 1946 the Mission published its own plan. (1) There would be a Union of India, including both British India and the princely states, dealing only with foreign affairs, defence and communications and with the finance for them. (2) All other subjects would belong to the provinces, which would have residuary powers. (3) The provinces would be grouped into three sections: A (the Hindu-majority provinces: Madras, Bombay, the United Provinces, Bihar, the Central Provinces and Orissa), B (the Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Sind) and C (Bengal and Assam); each section could frame a constitution for its group, and a province could opt out of its group after the first election under the new constitution. (4) A Constituent Assembly of 389 members would be elected by the provincial legislatures, with communities voting separately, and the princely states sending representatives. (5) An Interim Government of Indians would be formed at once. The grouping scheme was a compromise: it gave the League the substance of Pakistan in sections B and C without partition, and the Congress a united India.
The League accepted the plan on 6 June 1946, seeing the groups as a step to Pakistan. The Congress accepted it on 25 June, but only the part about the Constituent Assembly, and declared that the grouping was not compulsory, since a province like Assam or the Frontier could not be forced into a Muslim group against its will. On 10 July 1946 Jawaharlal Nehru, the new Congress president, said at a press conference that the Congress would enter the Constituent Assembly unfettered by agreements and free to change the plan. Jinnah treated this as a repudiation of the plan, and on 29 July 1946 the League withdrew its acceptance and called for Direct Action to achieve Pakistan. The last chance of a united India had been lost.
- Sections under the Cabinet Mission plan: A (Madras, Bombay, UP, Bihar, CP, Orissa), B (Punjab, NWFP, Sind), C (Bengal, Assam).
- Constituent Assembly of 389: 292 from the provinces, 4 from the chief commissioners' provinces, 93 from the princely states; Orissa's share was 9 members.
- Nehru's press conference, 10 July 1946: the Congress would enter the Assembly free of commitments; Jinnah replied by withdrawing the League's acceptance on 29 July.
- Cabinet Mission plan, 16 May 1946: Union (defence, foreign affairs, communications) + autonomous provinces + three sections A, B, C + Constituent Assembly of 389 + Interim Government.
Direct Action Day and the communal civil war, 1946-47
The Muslim League fixed 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day to show that Muslims would fight for Pakistan. In most of India it passed as a hartal. In Calcutta, where the League ministry of H. S. Suhrawardy declared a public holiday and the police stood by, it became the Great Calcutta Killing: for four days from 16 to 19 August Muslim and Hindu mobs murdered, burnt and looted; about five thousand people died, fifteen thousand were injured and a hundred thousand were left homeless before the army restored order. Calcutta was the beginning of a communal civil war that lasted a year.
In October 1946 the violence spread to Noakhali and Tippera in East Bengal, where Hindus were murdered, forcibly converted and their women abducted; in retaliation, in late October and November, the Hindus of Bihar massacred Muslims in the villages of Patna, Gaya and Monghyr, with perhaps seven thousand deaths; in the United Provinces Garhmukteshwar saw a massacre in November. In March 1947, after the fall of the Khizr Hayat ministry, the Punjab exploded: Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore saw killings of Hindus and Sikhs, and the Sikhs under Master Tara Singh vowed revenge. The riots were not spontaneous; they were organised by the volunteer bodies of the communal parties, the Muslim National Guards and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and they were meant to prove that Hindus and Muslims could not live together.
Meanwhile the political machinery stumbled on. Wavell formed the Interim Government on 2 September 1946 with Jawaharlal Nehru as Vice-President of the Executive Council (in effect Prime Minister) and Congress ministers including Vallabhbhai Patel (Home), C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, Jagjivan Ram and Asaf Ali; the League refused to join. On 26 October 1946 Wavell brought the League in, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member and four others, but the League members, who had not withdrawn Direct Action, sat in the government as an opposition; Liaquat's budget of February 1947 was designed to hurt the Hindu business houses that financed the Congress, and every decision was fought. The Constituent Assembly met on 9 December 1946 under Dr Rajendra Prasad, and on 13 December Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution declaring India a sovereign republic; the League boycotted the Assembly and demanded its dissolution.
Gandhi, seventy-seven years old, responded to the killings in his own way. In November 1946 he went to Noakhali and walked from village to village, barefoot, for four months, staying in Muslim and Hindu homes, restoring confidence and asking the Hindus to return; in March 1947 he went to Bihar to do the same among the Muslims. He was, as Mountbatten later said, a one-man boundary force, and his work in Bengal in 1946-47 is among the greatest acts of his life. But the tide of violence made the Congress leaders, Patel above all, conclude that partition was the only alternative to civil war.
- Great Calcutta Killing, 16-19 August 1946: about 5,000 dead, 15,000 injured, 100,000 homeless in four days.
- Noakhali, October 1946: murder, forced conversion and abduction of Hindus; Bihar, October-November 1946: massacre of Muslims, about 7,000 dead.
- Gandhi's Noakhali walk, November 1946 to March 1947: 116 miles on foot through 47 villages, staying in a different village each night.
- Direct Action Day 16 August 1946 → Noakhali October → Bihar November → Interim Government 2 September 1946 (League joins 26 October) → Constituent Assembly 9 December 1946 → Punjab riots March 1947.
Attlee's declaration and the coming of Mountbatten, 1947
By the beginning of 1947 the Interim Government was paralysed, the Constituent Assembly was boycotted by the League, the Punjab was on the edge of war and Wavell was advising a phased British withdrawal that the Cabinet regarded as a plan for scuttle. Attlee decided to cut the knot. On 20 February 1947 he announced in the House of Commons that Britain would transfer power to Indian hands by June 1948, whether or not the Indians had agreed on a constitution, and that if no constitution had been framed by then, the government would decide to whom power should be handed, whether to a central government or to the provinces. He also announced that Wavell would be replaced by Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the King and the wartime Supreme Allied Commander in South-East Asia.
The declaration changed everything. A date had been fixed; the British were going; and the parties now had to decide what they would do with the power that was about to fall to them. The Congress welcomed the statement and, on 8 March 1947, the Working Committee resolved that if India was to be divided, the Punjab and, by implication, Bengal must be divided too, so that their non-Muslim halves would remain in India, a resolution that made partition of the provinces certain if partition of the country came. The League welcomed the statement as a step to Pakistan. In the Punjab the Khizr ministry resigned on 2 March 1947 and the massacres began.
Mountbatten was sworn in on 24 March 1947 with instructions to seek agreement on the Cabinet Mission plan and, failing that, to advise on the manner of transfer. He was given full powers and a deadline, and he worked fast. Within weeks of talks with Nehru, Patel, Gandhi, Jinnah and Liaquat he concluded that a united India was impossible: Jinnah would accept nothing but Pakistan, and the Congress leaders, sickened by the riots and by the League's obstruction in the Interim Government, would accept partition rather than a weak united centre or a civil war. Only Gandhi held out against division, proposing that Jinnah be invited to form the government of all India, a proposal the Congress rejected.
Mountbatten's first plan, drafted in April and known as Plan Balkan, would have transferred power to the provinces separately and let them choose whether to join India, Pakistan or stand alone; when Nehru saw it at Simla on 10 May 1947 he rejected it as a recipe for the break-up of India into many states. V. P. Menon, the Reforms Commissioner, then drafted the alternative that became the June Third Plan: the transfer of power to two Dominions, India and Pakistan, on the basis of Dominion Status, which would allow an early transfer and keep both within the Commonwealth. Mountbatten flew to London, obtained the Cabinet's approval, and returned to announce it.
- Attlee, 20 February 1947: power to be transferred by June 1948; Mountbatten to replace Wavell.
- Congress Working Committee, 8 March 1947: if India is partitioned, the Punjab (and Bengal) must be partitioned too.
- Plan Balkan, rejected by Nehru at Simla on 10 May 1947; V. P. Menon's Dominion Status plan replaced it within days.
- Attlee's declaration 20 February 1947 → Mountbatten Viceroy 24 March 1947 → Plan Balkan rejected 10 May → June Third Plan announced 3 June 1947.
The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947
On 3 June 1947 Mountbatten, Nehru, Jinnah and the Sikh leader Baldev Singh broadcast to the nation the plan for the transfer of power, which had been approved by the British Cabinet and accepted, with reluctance, by the Congress and the League. Its provisions were as follows.
(1) The principle of partition was accepted: British India would be divided into two Dominions, India and Pakistan, and power would be transferred to each. (2) The provincial legislatures of Bengal and the Punjab, meeting in two parts (the members from the Muslim-majority districts and the rest), would each vote on whether the province should be partitioned; if either part voted for partition, the province would be divided, and a Boundary Commission would draw the line. (3) The legislature of Sind would decide which Dominion to join. (4) A referendum would be held in the North-West Frontier Province, where the Congress ministry of Dr Khan Sahib was in office, and in the Muslim-majority Sylhet district of Assam, to decide whether they would join Pakistan. (5) Baluchistan would decide through its Shahi Jirga and the Quetta municipality. (6) Each Dominion would have its own Constituent Assembly; the existing Assembly would continue for India and a new one would be formed for Pakistan. (7) The princely states would be released from British paramountcy and would be free to enter into relations with either Dominion. (8) Power would be transferred on the basis of Dominion Status, with the right to leave the Commonwealth, so that the transfer could take place at once instead of waiting for a constitution; Mountbatten announced on 4 June that the date would be 15 August 1947, ten months earlier than Attlee's deadline.
The plan was carried out with great speed. The Bengal legislature voted on 20 June 1947: the West Bengal members voted for partition, the East Bengal members against, so Bengal was divided. The Punjab legislature voted on 23 June with the same result. Sind's assembly voted to join Pakistan on 26 June. The referendum in the Frontier Province in July, which the Congress under Ghaffar Khan boycotted because it offered only India or Pakistan and not an independent Pathan province, gave a majority for Pakistan; Sylhet voted for Pakistan in July; Baluchistan chose Pakistan. The Congress accepted the plan at the AICC meeting of 14-15 June 1947 by 157 votes to 29, after Gandhi, who opposed partition in his heart, advised acceptance because the Working Committee had given its word; the League's council accepted it on 9 June.
Why did the Congress accept partition? Patel argued that a small, strong India was better than a large, weak one paralysed by the League; Nehru believed that partition would end communalism and let India build a modern state; both feared a civil war that would destroy everything; and Mountbatten had persuaded them that delay would only increase the bloodshed. Gandhi called it a spiritual tragedy but did not oppose his colleagues.
- Bengal vote, 20 June 1947: West Bengal members 58 to 21 for partition; East Bengal members 106 to 35 against, so the province was divided.
- Frontier referendum, July 1947: about 289,000 for Pakistan against 2,900 for India, on a boycott by the Congress and the Khudai Khidmatgars.
- AICC, 14-15 June 1947: the June Third Plan accepted by 157 votes to 29, with Gandhi advising acceptance despite his own opposition to partition.
- June Third Plan: partition into India and Pakistan + partition of Bengal and Punjab by legislative vote + referendum in NWFP and Sylhet + choice for Sind and Baluchistan + states freed from paramountcy + Dominion Status + 15 August 1947.
The Indian Independence Act 1947
To carry out the June Third Plan the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Bill, introduced on 4 July 1947 and passed within a fortnight without amendment; it received the Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and became the Indian Independence Act 1947. It is one of the shortest and most important statutes in Indian history, and the examination often asks for its provisions.
(1) Two Dominions. From 15 August 1947 two independent Dominions, India and Pakistan, would be set up. Pakistan would consist of East Bengal, West Punjab, Sind, British Baluchistan, the North-West Frontier Province (subject to the referendum) and Sylhet; India would consist of the rest of British India.
(2) Governors-General. Each Dominion would have a Governor-General appointed by the King on the advice of the Dominion's government; the same person could hold both offices if both Dominions agreed. Mountbatten became Governor-General of India; Jinnah of Pakistan.
(3) Sovereign legislatures. The Constituent Assembly of each Dominion would be its legislature with full power to make laws, including laws repugnant to any Act of Parliament, and would frame the Dominion's constitution. No Act of the British Parliament passed after 15 August 1947 would extend to either Dominion unless its legislature adopted it.
(4) End of British responsibility. The British government would have no responsibility for the government of India or Pakistan after 15 August 1947. The title Emperor of India would be dropped from the King's style.
(5) End of paramountcy. The suzerainty of the Crown over the princely states would lapse on 15 August 1947, together with all treaties and agreements between the Crown and the rulers; the states would be free to accede to either Dominion.
(6) Interim arrangements. Until new constitutions were framed, each Dominion would be governed under the Government of India Act 1935 with modifications; the Governor-General could adapt that Act by order until 31 March 1948.
(7) Partition of provinces. Bengal and the Punjab would be divided according to the awards of the Boundary Commissions, and Assam would lose Sylhet.
(8) Services and armed forces. The Secretary of State's services (the ICS and others) would cease to be recruited by Britain, with guarantees to existing officers; the armed forces would be divided between the two Dominions.
The Act thus ended one hundred and ninety years of British rule, from Plassey in 1757, and recognised the two new states as fully independent, with Dominion Status as a temporary form. India became a republic under her own Constitution on 26 January 1950, and Pakistan in 1956. The Act's release of the princely states from paramountcy created the problem of integration that the next chapters of this book take up, and which in Odisha meant the merger of twenty-five feudatory states in 1948.
- Passage of the Act: introduced 4 July 1947, passed by both Houses without amendment, Royal Assent 18 July 1947, in force 15 August 1947.
- The King's title: George VI ceased to be Emperor of India; the letters R.I. (Rex Imperator) were dropped from his signature.
- The Governor-General's power to adapt the 1935 Act by order lasted until 31 March 1948; the Constituent Assembly of India completed the new Constitution on 26 November 1949.
- Indian Independence Act 1947: Royal Assent 18 July 1947; appointed day 15 August 1947; two Dominions; sovereign Constituent Assemblies; lapse of paramountcy; end of British responsibility; interim government under the 1935 Act.
Drawing the line: the Radcliffe Award and the division of assets
Two Boundary Commissions, one for Bengal and one for the Punjab, were set up under the same chairman, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, an English lawyer who had never been to India and who was chosen for that very reason, as a man without local prejudice. Each commission had four Indian judges, two nominated by the Congress and two by the League, who cancelled each other out, so that the decision rested with Radcliffe alone. He arrived on 8 July 1947 and was given five weeks to divide two provinces of about 88 million people, using out-of-date maps and census figures, and instructed to draw the line on the basis of contiguous Muslim and non-Muslim majority areas while taking account of 'other factors' such as rivers, railways, canals and the wishes of the Sikhs.
The Radcliffe Award was ready by 12 August but was published only on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, so that the celebrations would not be spoilt; the result was that on 15 August millions of people in the border districts did not know which country they were in. In the Punjab the line ran between Lahore, given to Pakistan, and Amritsar, given to India, cutting the canal colonies, the Sikh homelands and the railway system, and dividing villages, fields and even houses. In Bengal Calcutta went to India and the jute-growing districts to Pakistan; the Chittagong Hill Tracts, which were 97 per cent non-Muslim, went to Pakistan, while Murshidabad and Nadia with Muslim majorities went to India for reasons of river and rail geography. Radcliffe left India the day the award was published, refused his fee, and never returned.
The division of assets was carried out by a Partition Council under Mountbatten with Patel and Rajendra Prasad for India and Liaquat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar for Pakistan, and a Steering Committee of two civil servants, H. M. Patel and Chaudhri Muhammad Ali. Everything was divided in the proportion of about 82.5 to 17.5: the cash balances (Pakistan's share was 75 crore rupees, of which 55 crore were paid after Gandhi's fast of January 1948), the sterling balances, the railways, the government offices, the typewriters, the books of the libraries and, most painfully, the armed forces, whose regiments were split by religion under the supervision of Field Marshal Auchinleck. Officers who had served together for a lifetime parted; the Indian Army lost about a third of its strength to Pakistan.
The princely states, 562 of them, were released from paramountcy by the Act and pressed by Mountbatten to accede to one Dominion or the other before 15 August on the three subjects of defence, foreign affairs and communications. Under the direction of Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon at the States Department, set up on 27 June 1947, all but three, Junagadh, Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir, signed the Instrument of Accession to India by 15 August; those three, and the merger of the acceding states into the provinces, including the feudatory states of Orissa in January 1948, are the subject of later chapters.
- Radcliffe's task: about 175,000 square miles and 88 million people in Bengal and the Punjab divided in five weeks, from 8 July to 12 August 1947.
- Punjab line: Lahore to Pakistan, Amritsar to India, 30 miles apart; the Sikh shrine of Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak's birthplace, fell in Pakistan.
- Division of assets: cash balances split roughly 82.5:17.5; Pakistan's 75 crore included 55 crore that India paid only after Gandhi's fast of January 1948.
- Radcliffe Award: commissions formed July 1947; award ready 12 August; published 17 August 1947.
The human cost: riots, migration and Gandhi's last campaign
The partition of India was the largest and bloodiest migration in human history, and a student must understand its scale. In the weeks before and after 15 August 1947 the Punjab became a slaughterhouse. Sikh and Hindu bands in the east, Muslim bands in the west, armed with the weapons of demobilised soldiers, attacked villages, trains and refugee columns; whole trains arrived at Lahore and Amritsar with every passenger dead; women were abducted and raped by the tens of thousands, and many were killed by their own families to save their honour. In Bengal the movement was slower and less murderous, but it continued for years. The Punjab Boundary Force of 55,000 men under Major-General Rees, set up to keep order, was too small and was disbanded within a month.
The best estimates are that between ten and fifteen million people crossed the new frontiers in 1947-48, Hindus and Sikhs to India, Muslims to Pakistan, and that between two lakh and ten lakh (one million) were killed; the figure is not known and never will be. Refugee columns fifty miles long walked across the Punjab; camps at Kurukshetra held three lakh people; Delhi's population rose by half a million; and in Bengal the refugees from the east filled Calcutta's stations and streets. The new governments, formed only weeks before, had to feed, house and resettle them while their own officials were themselves migrating in the opposite direction.
Odisha, far from both frontiers, was spared the killing, but it received refugees from East Bengal, who were settled in the coastal districts and later in the Dandakaranya scheme in Koraput, and its Muslim minority lived through the tension of 1947 without the massacres that afflicted the north.
Gandhi spent 15 August 1947 not in Delhi but in Calcutta, fasting and praying in a Muslim quarter, Beliaghata, where he had gone with Suhrawardy, the former League premier, to stop the killings. His presence kept Calcutta quiet through August; when riots broke out again on 31 August he began a fast on 1 September and within three days the leaders of every community had signed a pledge of peace, and Calcutta stayed at peace while the Punjab burned. Mountbatten wrote to him that in the Punjab he had 55,000 soldiers and large-scale rioting, while in Bengal Gandhi's one-man boundary force had kept the peace. In September Gandhi went to Delhi, where Muslims were being driven out, and in January 1948 undertook his last fast, from 13 to 18 January, to secure the safety of Delhi's Muslims and the payment of Pakistan's 55 crore rupees. On 30 January 1948 he was shot dead at his prayer meeting in Birla House by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who blamed him for appeasing Muslims. The Father of the Nation was the last martyr of the freedom struggle.
- Migration 1947-48: about 10 to 15 million people crossed the borders; deaths estimated between two lakh and one million; tens of thousands of women abducted.
- Calcutta, 1 to 4 September 1947: Gandhi's fast ended when Hindu, Muslim and Sikh leaders pledged to prevent further riots, and the pledge held.
- Gandhi's last fast, 13 to 18 January 1948, Delhi: the Cabinet released 55 crore rupees to Pakistan and the communities pledged the safety of Muslims; he was assassinated on 30 January 1948.
The midnight of freedom, 14-15 August 1947
The date of 15 August was chosen by Mountbatten because it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender; Indian astrologers found it inauspicious, so the Constituent Assembly met on the night of 14 August and the transfer took place at the stroke of midnight, which fell on a luckier day.
In Karachi on 14 August 1947 Mountbatten handed power to Jinnah, who became Governor-General of Pakistan, with Liaquat Ali Khan as Prime Minister. In Delhi, in the Constituent Assembly chamber, the members gathered on the evening of 14 August. Sucheta Kripalani sang Vande Mataram; Dr Rajendra Prasad presided; and at the approach of midnight Jawaharlal Nehru rose to move that the members take a pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people. His speech, Tryst with Destiny, is the most famous in modern Indian history: long years ago, he said, India had made a tryst with destiny, and now the time had come to redeem the pledge; at the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world slept, India would awake to life and freedom; a moment came, which came but rarely in history, when an age ended and the soul of a nation, long suppressed, found utterance. He spoke of Gandhi, of the servants of India, of the pains of partition, and of the tasks ahead, the ending of poverty, ignorance and disease. As midnight struck a conch was blown, and the members took the pledge. Outside, the crowds of Delhi shouted through the night.
On the morning of 15 August 1947 Mountbatten was sworn in as the first Governor-General of free India and Nehru as Prime Minister, with a cabinet that included Patel, Azad, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar (Law), Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and John Matthai. In the evening the tricolour was hoisted at India Gate before a crowd of half a million, and on 16 August Nehru hoisted it from the ramparts of the Red Fort, beginning the custom that every Prime Minister has followed. The Union Jack came down quietly; Mountbatten had asked that it not be lowered in public, and the request was honoured.
In Orissa the day was celebrated in Cuttack, the capital, where the Premier Harekrushna Mahtab hoisted the national flag, and in every town and village of the province; prisoners were released, sweets distributed and the memory of Eram, Inchudi and Laxman Naik recalled. The feudatory states, however, celebrated under their rajas, whose paramount power had lapsed and who now had to decide their future; the first of them, Nilgiri, was taken over by the Orissa government in November 1947 after its Prajamandal rose again, and the rest merged on 1 January 1948.
Gandhi was in Calcutta, fasting; he sent no message, saying that he had run dry. The freedom he had fought for had come, but not the India he had wanted.
- Nehru's Tryst with Destiny, Constituent Assembly, midnight 14-15 August 1947: 'At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.'
- First cabinet of free India, 15 August 1947: Nehru (PM, External Affairs), Patel (Home, States), Azad (Education), Ambedkar (Law), Rajendra Prasad (Food), Matthai (Railways), Mookerjee (Industry).
- Nilgiri, 14 November 1947: the first princely state in India to be taken over after independence, by the Orissa government under Mahtab.
- 14 August 1947: Pakistan born at Karachi. Midnight 14-15 August: Tryst with Destiny, Delhi. 15 August: Mountbatten Governor-General, Nehru Prime Minister; flag at India Gate. 16 August: flag at the Red Fort.
Why was India partitioned? The causes
The examination commonly asks for the causes of partition, and the answer should combine long-term, medium-term and immediate factors.
British policy of divide and rule. From the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and the separate electorates of the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909, which the Act of 1919 and the Communal Award of 1932 extended, the British treated Muslims as a separate political community with its own representatives, so that Muslim politicians had to appeal to Muslims alone and had no need of a national platform. During the war the government favoured the League as a loyal counterweight to the Congress.
The growth of communal politics. The Muslim League (1906) and the Hindu Mahasabha (1915) both preached that religion defined the nation; the Khilafat unity of 1920 collapsed into riots in the 1920s; and the Two-Nation Theory, formulated by Muhammad Iqbal in 1930 and by Jinnah after 1937, gave the League an ideology.
Congress failures. The Congress, though secular in principle, was seen by many Muslims as a Hindu body; its refusal of coalition with the League in the United Provinces in 1937, the Wardha scheme of education and the singing of Vande Mataram were used by the League to spread fear; and the Congress never built a Muslim mass base outside the Frontier.
The Lahore Resolution and the war years. The demand for Pakistan in 1940 gave Muslims a simple goal; and the absence of the Congress from politics from 1942 to 1945, while the League organised, allowed the League to capture the Muslim vote in 1946.
Jinnah's leadership. Jinnah, once the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, became after 1937 the sole spokesman of the League, brilliant, inflexible and determined; he used the League's veto at Simla, the Cabinet Mission and the Interim Government, and Direct Action, to make a united India unworkable.
The failure of the Cabinet Mission plan. The plan of May 1946 was the last chance for unity; the disagreement over grouping, Nehru's press conference and the League's withdrawal destroyed it.
Communal violence. The killings of 1946-47 in Calcutta, Noakhali, Bihar and the Punjab convinced the Congress leaders that a united India would mean civil war, and made partition seem the lesser evil.
Haste. Attlee's deadline and Mountbatten's advancement of the date to 15 August 1947 left no time for an orderly division, and the speed contributed to the bloodshed, though it may have prevented a longer war.
Historians differ on the weight of these causes; some blame British policy, some the League, some the Congress, and some the general breakdown of trust. What is certain is that partition was decided not by the mass of the people of either community, most of whom had never voted, but by a handful of leaders under the pressure of violence and time.
- Separate electorates: introduced 1909, extended 1919 and 1932; the Nehru Report of 1928 had proposed to abolish them and was rejected by the League.
- 1937: the Congress refused a coalition with the League in the United Provinces after winning a majority; the League's Pirpur Report of 1938 accused the ministries of anti-Muslim conduct.
- 1946: the League won about 440 of 495 Muslim provincial seats, which Jinnah called a plebiscite for Pakistan.
- Causes of partition = divide and rule + communal politics and the Two-Nation Theory + Congress failures + Lahore Resolution and the war years + Jinnah + failure of the Cabinet Mission + violence of 1946-47 + haste.
Significance of independence for India and Odisha
Independence on 15 August 1947 was the culmination of a struggle that had begun, in Odisha's memory, with the Paika Rebellion of 1817 and, in the nation's memory, with 1857; the student should be able to assess what it meant.
For India. A colonial possession of 340 million people became a sovereign state, the largest to gain freedom from a European empire, and its example encouraged the freedom movements of Asia and Africa. Freedom came, unlike in most colonies, largely by non-violent mass action, which gave the new state a moral standing in the world and a tradition of democracy. The Constituent Assembly, already at work, gave India a constitution in 1949 based on universal adult franchise, fundamental rights and a secular, federal republic, the ideals of the Karachi resolution of 1931. The princely states, released by the Act, were integrated within two years, so that free India was larger and more united than British India had ever been. Against these gains stood the cost: partition, a million dead, fifteen million uprooted, the loss of a quarter of the country, the assassination of Gandhi and a permanent enmity with Pakistan that produced war over Kashmir within months.
For Odisha. Independence completed what the province had sought since 1903: an Odia province within a free India. The Congress ministry of Harekrushna Mahtab, in office since April 1946, became the government of a state in a sovereign country and at once took up the two tasks that the Act had left open. The first was the merger of the feudatory states: the twenty-five states of the Eastern States Agency, whose rajas had been released from paramountcy, were the natural territory of the province; the Prajamandals rose again in Nilgiri in November 1947, and by 1 January 1948, under the persuasion of Patel and Mahtab, the rulers signed the merger agreements, doubling the area of the state. The second was the recovery of the Odia-speaking areas left outside in 1936, a demand only partly met. Independence also opened the way for the founding of the new capital at Bhubaneswar in 1948, the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi begun in 1948, the abolition of zamindari, and the university at Cuttack that had been founded in 1943; these are the subjects of later chapters on the development of Odisha.
The heroes remembered. The freedom of 1947 was won by the people of every province, and Odisha's contribution, from Buxi Jagabandhu and the Paikas to Gopabandhu Das, Madhusudan Das, Rama Devi, Laxman Naik, the martyrs of Eram and Papadahandi and the boy Baji Rout, is taught so that students may know that the freedom they enjoy was paid for in their own villages.
- Constituent Assembly of India: met 9 December 1946, adopted the Constitution 26 November 1949, in force 26 January 1950; Orissa's members included Biswanath Das, Harekrushna Mahtab, Nityananda Kanungo, Santanu Kumar Das and Bodhram Dube.
- Merger of the Orissa states: 23 rulers signed merger agreements at Cuttack on 14-15 December 1947; the states were taken over on 1 January 1948, with Mayurbhanj following on 1 January 1949.
- Capital moved from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar: foundation laid by Nehru on 13 April 1948.
Key Concepts
- Labour government of 1945
- The British government of Clement Attlee elected in July 1945, pledged to Indian self-government and responsible for the transfer of power.
- Simla Conference 1945
- Wavell's conference of June-July 1945 to form a new Executive Council, which broke down on Jinnah's demand that only the League nominate Muslims.
- Two-Nation Theory
- The doctrine of Jinnah and the Muslim League that Hindus and Muslims were separate nations who could not live in one state, the basis of the demand for Pakistan.
- Cabinet Mission
- The mission of Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander in March-June 1946 that proposed a united India with a weak centre, grouped provinces and a Constituent Assembly.
- Grouping
- The Cabinet Mission's arrangement of the provinces into sections A, B and C, which the League saw as a step to Pakistan and the Congress refused to treat as compulsory.
- Direct Action Day
- 16 August 1946, the day fixed by the Muslim League to demonstrate for Pakistan, which became the Great Calcutta Killing.
- Interim Government
- The Indian government under Nehru formed on 2 September 1946, joined by the League in October, which was paralysed by League obstruction.
- Constituent Assembly
- The body of 389 members elected in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission plan that first met on 9 December 1946 and framed the Constitution of India.
- Attlee's declaration
- The announcement of 20 February 1947 that Britain would transfer power by June 1948 and replace Wavell with Mountbatten.
- Plan Balkan
- Mountbatten's first plan of April 1947 to transfer power to the provinces separately, rejected by Nehru as a recipe for the break-up of India.
- June Third Plan
- The Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 for partition into India and Pakistan, with division of Bengal and the Punjab, referendums and Dominion Status.
- Indian Independence Act 1947
- The British statute of 18 July 1947 that created the two Dominions of India and Pakistan from 15 August 1947 and ended British responsibility and paramountcy.
- Lapse of paramountcy
- The provision of the Independence Act by which the Crown's suzerainty over the princely states ended on 15 August 1947, leaving them free to accede.
- Radcliffe Award
- The boundary lines drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe dividing Bengal and the Punjab, published on 17 August 1947.
- Boundary Commission
- The two commissions of 1947, each of four Indian judges under Radcliffe, whose Indian members cancelled each other so that Radcliffe decided the line.
- Instrument of Accession
- The document by which a princely state joined India or Pakistan on the subjects of defence, foreign affairs and communications.
- Tryst with Destiny
- Nehru's speech to the Constituent Assembly at midnight on 14-15 August 1947 marking India's awakening to freedom.
- Punjab Boundary Force
- The force of 55,000 men set up in August 1947 to keep order in the partitioned Punjab, too small for the task and disbanded within a month.
- Gandhi's Calcutta fast
- The fast of 1 to 4 September 1947 by which Gandhi stopped the renewed riots in Calcutta and secured a peace pledge from all communities.
- Merger of the Orissa states
- The agreements of December 1947 by which the rulers of the feudatory states of Orissa handed their states to the provincial government from 1 January 1948.
End-of-Chapter Trial Paper & Test Questions
Topic-wise questions to test your understanding of every concept in this chapter.
-
What were the proposals of the Cabinet Mission? Why did the plan fail? / कैबिनेट मिशन के प्रस्ताव क्या थे? यह योजना क्यों विफल हुई?
Show answer
The Cabinet Mission of Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and Alexander, after rejecting the demand for Pakistan as impracticable, published its plan on 16 May 1946. It proposed a Union of India including British India and the princely states, dealing only with defence, foreign affairs and communications; all other powers to the provinces; the provinces grouped into three sections, A for the Hindu-majority provinces including Orissa, B for the Punjab, Frontier and Sind, and C for Bengal and Assam, each section free to frame a group constitution, with a province able to opt out after the first election; a Constituent Assembly of 389 members elected by the provincial legislatures with communities voting separately; and an immediate Interim Government of Indians. The plan gave the League the substance of Pakistan in groups B and C and the Congress a united India. The League accepted it on 6 June 1946 and the Congress on 25 June, but the Congress insisted that grouping was not compulsory. When Nehru said on 10 July that the Congress would enter the Assembly free to change the plan, Jinnah treated this as repudiation, withdrew the League's acceptance on 29 July and called for Direct Action; the League then boycotted the Constituent Assembly and obstructed the Interim Government. Mutual distrust over grouping and the communal violence that followed destroyed the last plan for a united India. / पेथिक-लॉरेंस, क्रिप्स और अलेक्ज़ेंडर के कैबिनेट मिशन ने पाकिस्तान की माँग को अव्यावहारिक कहकर अस्वीकार करने के बाद 16 मई 1946 को अपनी योजना प्रकाशित की। इसमें ब्रिटिश भारत और रियासतों को मिलाकर एक भारतीय संघ प्रस्तावित था जो केवल रक्षा, विदेश मामलों और संचार का काम देखता; शेष सभी शक्तियाँ प्रांतों को; प्रांतों को तीन खंडों में समूहित किया गया, क, उड़ीसा सहित हिंदू-बहुल प्रांतों के लिए, ख, पंजाब, सीमांत और सिंध के लिए, और ग, बंगाल और असम के लिए, प्रत्येक खंड समूह-संविधान बनाने को स्वतंत्र, और कोई प्रांत पहले चुनाव के बाद बाहर निकल सकता था; प्रांतीय विधानमंडलों द्वारा समुदायों के अलग-अलग मतदान से निर्वाचित 389 सदस्यों की संविधान सभा; और तुरंत भारतीयों की अंतरिम सरकार। योजना ने लीग को समूह ख और ग में पाकिस्तान का सार और कांग्रेस को अखंड भारत दिया। लीग ने 6 जून 1946 को और कांग्रेस ने 25 जून को इसे स्वीकार किया, परन्तु कांग्रेस ने ज़ोर दिया कि समूहीकरण अनिवार्य नहीं है। जब नेहरू ने 10 जुलाई को कहा कि कांग्रेस योजना बदलने को स्वतंत्र होकर सभा में जाएगी, तो जिन्ना ने इसे अस्वीकृति माना, 29 जुलाई को लीग की स्वीकृति वापस ली और सीधी कार्रवाई का आह्वान किया; फिर लीग ने संविधान सभा का बहिष्कार किया और अंतरिम सरकार में बाधा डाली। समूहीकरण पर परस्पर अविश्वास और उसके बाद की सांप्रदायिक हिंसा ने अखंड भारत की अंतिम योजना को नष्ट कर दिया।
-
What happened on Direct Action Day and what were its consequences? / सीधी कार्रवाई दिवस पर क्या हुआ और इसके क्या परिणाम हुए?
Show answer
After withdrawing its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission plan, the Muslim League fixed 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day to demonstrate that Muslims would fight for Pakistan. In most of India it passed as a hartal, but in Calcutta, where the League ministry of H. S. Suhrawardy declared a public holiday and the police stood aside, it became the Great Calcutta Killing: from 16 to 19 August Muslim and Hindu mobs murdered, burnt and looted until the army restored order, leaving about five thousand dead, fifteen thousand injured and a hundred thousand homeless. The consequences were terrible. The killing set off a chain of communal massacres: Hindus were murdered and forcibly converted in Noakhali in October 1946, Muslims were massacred in Bihar in retaliation in October and November, Garhmukteshwar in the United Provinces followed, and in March 1947 the Punjab exploded after the fall of the Khizr ministry. The violence, organised by the volunteer bodies of the communal parties, was meant to prove that Hindus and Muslims could not live together, and it convinced the Congress leaders, Patel above all, that partition was the only alternative to civil war. Gandhi answered by walking through the villages of Noakhali and Bihar to restore peace. / कैबिनेट मिशन योजना की स्वीकृति वापस लेने के बाद मुस्लिम लीग ने यह दिखाने के लिए कि मुसलमान पाकिस्तान के लिए लड़ेंगे, 16 अगस्त 1946 को सीधी कार्रवाई दिवस निश्चित किया। भारत के अधिकांश भागों में यह हड़ताल के रूप में बीता, परन्तु कलकत्ता में, जहाँ एच. एस. सुहरावर्दी की लीग सरकार ने सार्वजनिक अवकाश घोषित किया और पुलिस अलग खड़ी रही, यह महान कलकत्ता हत्याकांड बन गया: 16 से 19 अगस्त तक मुस्लिम और हिंदू भीड़ों ने हत्या, आगजनी और लूट की जब तक सेना ने व्यवस्था बहाल नहीं की, जिसमें लगभग पाँच हज़ार मरे, पंद्रह हज़ार घायल हुए और एक लाख बेघर हुए। परिणाम भयानक थे। इस हत्याकांड ने सांप्रदायिक नरसंहारों की शृंखला छेड़ दी: अक्टूबर 1946 में नोआखाली में हिंदुओं की हत्या और ज़बरन धर्मांतरण हुआ, प्रतिशोध में अक्टूबर-नवंबर में बिहार में मुसलमानों का नरसंहार हुआ, संयुक्त प्रांत के गढ़मुक्तेश्वर में भी ऐसा हुआ, और मार्च 1947 में खिज़र मंत्रिमंडल के पतन के बाद पंजाब भड़क उठा। सांप्रदायिक दलों के स्वयंसेवी संगठनों द्वारा आयोजित यह हिंसा यह सिद्ध करने के लिए थी कि हिंदू और मुसलमान साथ नहीं रह सकते, और इसने कांग्रेस नेताओं को, सबसे बढ़कर पटेल को, विश्वास दिलाया कि गृहयुद्ध का एकमात्र विकल्प विभाजन है। गांधीजी ने शांति बहाल करने के लिए नोआखाली और बिहार के गाँवों में पैदल घूमकर उत्तर दिया।
-
Describe the main features of the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947. / 3 जून 1947 की माउंटबेटन योजना की मुख्य विशेषताओं का वर्णन कीजिए।
Show answer
The Mountbatten Plan, broadcast on 3 June 1947 by Mountbatten, Nehru, Jinnah and Baldev Singh and accepted by the Congress and the League, laid down the method of transferring power. It accepted the principle of partition into two Dominions, India and Pakistan. The legislatures of Bengal and the Punjab, meeting in two parts, would vote on whether their provinces should be divided, and if either part voted for division a Boundary Commission would draw the line. The Sind legislature would choose its Dominion; referendums would be held in the North-West Frontier Province and the Sylhet district of Assam; and Baluchistan would decide through its Shahi Jirga. Each Dominion would have its own Constituent Assembly, the existing one continuing for India. The princely states would be freed from paramountcy and left to enter relations with either Dominion. Power would be transferred on the basis of Dominion Status, with the right to leave the Commonwealth, so that the transfer could take place at once, and Mountbatten fixed the date as 15 August 1947. In the following weeks Bengal and the Punjab voted for partition, Sind and Baluchistan chose Pakistan, and the Frontier and Sylhet referendums went to Pakistan, the Frontier Congress boycotting because an independent Pathan option was not offered. / 3 जून 1947 को माउंटबेटन, नेहरू, जिन्ना और बलदेव सिंह द्वारा प्रसारित और कांग्रेस तथा लीग द्वारा स्वीकृत माउंटबेटन योजना ने सत्ता हस्तांतरण की विधि निर्धारित की। इसने दो डोमिनियनों, भारत और पाकिस्तान, में विभाजन का सिद्धांत स्वीकार किया। बंगाल और पंजाब के विधानमंडल दो भागों में बैठकर मतदान करते कि उनके प्रांत बँटें या नहीं, और यदि कोई भाग विभाजन के पक्ष में मत देता तो सीमा आयोग रेखा खींचता। सिंध का विधानमंडल अपना डोमिनियन चुनता; उत्तर-पश्चिम सीमांत प्रांत और असम के सिलहट जिले में जनमत-संग्रह होते; और बलूचिस्तान अपने शाही जिरगे से निर्णय करता। प्रत्येक डोमिनियन की अपनी संविधान सभा होती, मौजूदा सभा भारत के लिए जारी रहती। रियासतें सर्वोच्चता से मुक्त होकर किसी भी डोमिनियन से संबंध बनाने को स्वतंत्र होतीं। सत्ता डोमिनियन स्टेटस के आधार पर, राष्ट्रमंडल छोड़ने के अधिकार सहित, हस्तांतरित होती ताकि हस्तांतरण तुरंत हो सके, और माउंटबेटन ने 15 अगस्त 1947 की तिथि तय की। अगले हफ़्तों में बंगाल और पंजाब ने विभाजन के पक्ष में मत दिया, सिंध और बलूचिस्तान ने पाकिस्तान चुना, और सीमांत तथा सिलहट के जनमत-संग्रह पाकिस्तान के पक्ष में गए, सीमांत कांग्रेस ने बहिष्कार किया क्योंकि स्वतंत्र पठान विकल्प नहीं दिया गया था।
-
State the main provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947. / भारतीय स्वतंत्रता अधिनियम 1947 के मुख्य प्रावधान बताइए।
Show answer
The Indian Independence Act, passed by the British Parliament without amendment and given Royal Assent on 18 July 1947, provided as follows. From 15 August 1947 two independent Dominions, India and Pakistan, would be set up, Pakistan consisting of East Bengal, West Punjab, Sind, British Baluchistan, the Frontier Province subject to referendum and Sylhet, and India of the rest. Each Dominion would have a Governor-General appointed on the advice of its government, and one person could hold both offices. The Constituent Assembly of each Dominion would be a sovereign legislature with full power to make laws and frame a constitution, and no future Act of Parliament would apply to it unless adopted. The British government would have no responsibility for either Dominion after 15 August 1947, and the title Emperor of India would be dropped. The paramountcy of the Crown over the princely states would lapse, with all treaties, leaving the states free to accede to either Dominion. Until new constitutions were made, each Dominion would be governed under the Government of India Act 1935 with modifications, which the Governor-General could adapt by order until 31 March 1948. Bengal and the Punjab would be divided by the Boundary Commissions and Assam would lose Sylhet. Recruitment to the Secretary of State's services would end with guarantees to serving officers, and the armed forces would be divided. The Act ended British rule after one hundred and ninety years. / ब्रिटिश संसद द्वारा बिना संशोधन पारित और 18 जुलाई 1947 को शाही स्वीकृति प्राप्त भारतीय स्वतंत्रता अधिनियम में निम्नलिखित प्रावधान थे। 15 अगस्त 1947 से दो स्वतंत्र डोमिनियन, भारत और पाकिस्तान, स्थापित होंगे, पाकिस्तान में पूर्वी बंगाल, पश्चिमी पंजाब, सिंध, ब्रिटिश बलूचिस्तान, जनमत-संग्रह के अधीन सीमांत प्रांत और सिलहट, और भारत में शेष भाग। प्रत्येक डोमिनियन का अपनी सरकार की सलाह पर नियुक्त गवर्नर-जनरल होगा, और एक व्यक्ति दोनों पद धारण कर सकता है। प्रत्येक डोमिनियन की संविधान सभा कानून बनाने और संविधान रचने की पूर्ण शक्ति वाली संप्रभु विधायिका होगी, और संसद का कोई भावी अधिनियम उस पर तब तक लागू न होगा जब तक वह उसे अपनाए नहीं। 15 अगस्त 1947 के बाद ब्रिटिश सरकार की किसी डोमिनियन के प्रति कोई ज़िम्मेदारी नहीं होगी, और भारत के सम्राट की उपाधि हटा दी जाएगी। रियासतों पर ब्रिटिश सर्वोच्चता सभी संधियों सहित समाप्त हो जाएगी, और रियासतें किसी भी डोमिनियन में सम्मिलित होने को स्वतंत्र होंगी। नए संविधान बनने तक प्रत्येक डोमिनियन का शासन संशोधनों सहित भारत सरकार अधिनियम 1935 के अंतर्गत होगा, जिसे गवर्नर-जनरल 31 मार्च 1948 तक आदेश द्वारा अनुकूलित कर सकेगा। बंगाल और पंजाब सीमा आयोगों द्वारा विभाजित होंगे और असम सिलहट खो देगा। भारत-सचिव की सेवाओं में भर्ती सेवारत अधिकारियों को गारंटी के साथ समाप्त होगी, और सशस्त्र सेनाएँ बाँटी जाएँगी। इस अधिनियम ने एक सौ नब्बे वर्ष के ब्रिटिश शासन को समाप्त कर दिया।
-
How was the boundary between India and Pakistan drawn? What problems did it create? / भारत और पाकिस्तान के बीच सीमा कैसे खींची गई? इससे क्या समस्याएँ उत्पन्न हुईं?
Show answer
Two Boundary Commissions, for Bengal and for the Punjab, were set up under Sir Cyril Radcliffe, an English lawyer chosen because he had never been to India and had no local prejudice; each had four Indian judges, two Congress and two League nominees, who cancelled each other out, so that Radcliffe alone decided. He reached India on 8 July 1947 and had five weeks to divide provinces of 88 million people with out-of-date maps and census figures, instructed to follow contiguous majority areas while considering rivers, canals, railways and the Sikhs. The Radcliffe Award was ready by 12 August but published only on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, so that for two days millions did not know which country they were in. The line put Lahore in Pakistan and Amritsar in India, thirty miles apart, cut the canal colonies and Sikh homelands, divided villages and fields, gave the largely non-Muslim Chittagong Hill Tracts to Pakistan and the Muslim-majority Murshidabad to India for geographical reasons, and left Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. The problems were immense: the partition of the Punjab and Bengal set off the migration of ten to fifteen million people and the killing of hundreds of thousands, disputes over river waters and enclaves lasted for decades, and both sides accused Radcliffe of injustice; he refused his fee and never returned to India. / बंगाल और पंजाब के लिए दो सीमा आयोग सर सिरिल रैडक्लिफ़ की अध्यक्षता में बनाए गए, एक अंग्रेज़ वकील जिन्हें इसलिए चुना गया क्योंकि वे कभी भारत नहीं आए थे और उनका कोई स्थानीय पूर्वाग्रह नहीं था; प्रत्येक में चार भारतीय न्यायाधीश थे, दो कांग्रेस और दो लीग के नामित, जो एक-दूसरे को निरस्त कर देते थे, इसलिए निर्णय अकेले रैडक्लिफ़ का था। वे 8 जुलाई 1947 को भारत पहुँचे और उनके पास पुराने नक्शों और जनगणना आँकड़ों से आठ करोड़ अस्सी लाख लोगों के प्रांतों को बाँटने के लिए पाँच सप्ताह थे, निर्देश था कि नदियों, नहरों, रेलवे और सिखों का ध्यान रखते हुए सटे हुए बहुसंख्यक क्षेत्रों का अनुसरण करें। रैडक्लिफ़ अवार्ड 12 अगस्त तक तैयार था परन्तु स्वतंत्रता के दो दिन बाद 17 अगस्त 1947 को प्रकाशित हुआ, जिससे दो दिन तक लाखों लोग नहीं जानते थे कि वे किस देश में हैं। रेखा ने लाहौर को पाकिस्तान में और अमृतसर को भारत में रखा, तीस मील की दूरी पर, नहर बस्तियों और सिख गृहभूमि को काटा, गाँवों और खेतों को बाँटा, मुख्यतः गैर-मुस्लिम चटगाँव पहाड़ी क्षेत्र को पाकिस्तान और मुस्लिम-बहुल मुर्शिदाबाद को भौगोलिक कारणों से भारत को दिया, और ननकाना साहिब को पाकिस्तान में छोड़ा। समस्याएँ विशाल थीं: पंजाब और बंगाल के विभाजन ने एक से डेढ़ करोड़ लोगों के पलायन और लाखों की हत्या को जन्म दिया, नदी जल और परिक्षेत्रों पर विवाद दशकों चले, और दोनों पक्षों ने रैडक्लिफ़ पर अन्याय का आरोप लगाया; उन्होंने अपनी फीस लेने से इनकार किया और कभी भारत नहीं लौटे।
-
Describe the human cost of the partition of India. / भारत विभाजन की मानवीय कीमत का वर्णन कीजिए।
Show answer
The partition of 1947 caused the largest and bloodiest migration in history. In the weeks before and after 15 August the Punjab became a slaughterhouse: Sikh and Hindu bands in the east and Muslim bands in the west, armed with the weapons of demobilised soldiers, attacked villages, refugee columns and trains, some of which arrived at Lahore or Amritsar with every passenger dead; tens of thousands of women were abducted and raped, and many were killed by their own families. The Punjab Boundary Force of 55,000 men was too small and was disbanded within a month. Between ten and fifteen million people crossed the new borders in 1947-48, Hindus and Sikhs to India and Muslims to Pakistan, in columns fifty miles long, and between two lakh and one million were killed, a figure that will never be known exactly. Camps such as Kurukshetra held three lakh refugees, Delhi's population rose by half a million, and Calcutta filled with refugees from East Bengal, whose slower migration continued for years. The new governments, weeks old and losing their own officials to migration, had to feed, house and resettle them. Odisha, far from the frontiers, was spared the killing but received refugees from East Bengal who were settled on the coast and later in Dandakaranya. Gandhi stopped the killing in Calcutta by his presence and fast of September 1947 and fasted again in Delhi in January 1948 for the safety of Muslims, and was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu extremist for that very work. / 1947 के विभाजन ने इतिहास का सबसे बड़ा और सबसे रक्तरंजित पलायन उत्पन्न किया। 15 अगस्त से पहले और बाद के हफ़्तों में पंजाब वधशाला बन गया: पूर्व में सिख और हिंदू गिरोहों और पश्चिम में मुस्लिम गिरोहों ने, सेवामुक्त सैनिकों के हथियारों से लैस होकर, गाँवों, शरणार्थी काफ़िलों और रेलगाड़ियों पर हमला किया, जिनमें से कुछ लाहौर या अमृतसर हर यात्री के मृत होने की स्थिति में पहुँचीं; हज़ारों महिलाओं का अपहरण और बलात्कार हुआ, और अनेक को उनके अपने परिवारों ने मार डाला। 55,000 सैनिकों की पंजाब सीमा सेना बहुत छोटी थी और एक महीने में भंग कर दी गई। 1947-48 में एक से डेढ़ करोड़ लोगों ने नई सीमाएँ पार कीं, हिंदू और सिख भारत की ओर और मुसलमान पाकिस्तान की ओर, पचास मील लंबे काफ़िलों में, और दो लाख से दस लाख के बीच लोग मारे गए, एक ऐसा आँकड़ा जो कभी ठीक-ठीक ज्ञात नहीं होगा। कुरुक्षेत्र जैसे शिविरों में तीन लाख शरणार्थी थे, दिल्ली की आबादी पाँच लाख बढ़ी, और कलकत्ता पूर्वी बंगाल के शरणार्थियों से भर गया, जिनका धीमा पलायन वर्षों चलता रहा। कुछ हफ़्ते पुरानी और अपने ही अधिकारियों को पलायन में खो रही नई सरकारों को उन्हें भोजन, आवास और पुनर्वास देना पड़ा। सीमाओं से दूर ओडिशा हत्याओं से बचा रहा परन्तु उसने पूर्वी बंगाल के शरणार्थियों को स्वीकार किया जिन्हें तट पर और बाद में दंडकारण्य में बसाया गया। गांधीजी ने सितंबर 1947 में अपनी उपस्थिति और उपवास से कलकत्ता में हत्याएँ रोकीं और जनवरी 1948 में मुसलमानों की सुरक्षा के लिए दिल्ली में फिर उपवास किया, और उसी काम के लिए 30 जनवरी 1948 को एक हिंदू चरमपंथी द्वारा उनकी हत्या कर दी गई।
-
Why did the Congress accept the partition of India? / कांग्रेस ने भारत के विभाजन को क्यों स्वीकार किया?
Show answer
The Congress, which had fought for a united India for sixty years, accepted partition in June 1947 for several reasons. The Muslim League's sweep of the Muslim seats in 1946 and Jinnah's inflexible demand for Pakistan had shown that no settlement short of partition would win the League's consent, and the League's obstruction in the Interim Government from October 1946, where Liaquat Ali Khan's budget was used to fight the Congress, convinced Patel that a united India with the League inside the government would be ungovernable. The communal killings in Calcutta, Noakhali, Bihar and the Punjab from August 1946 to March 1947 persuaded the leaders that the alternative to partition was a civil war that would destroy the country. Patel argued that a smaller, strong India was better than a larger, weak one with a paralysed centre under the Cabinet Mission grouping; Nehru believed that partition would remove communalism from Indian politics and allow the building of a modern secular state. Mountbatten persuaded them that delay would only increase the bloodshed and that Dominion Status would allow an immediate transfer. The Congress also secured the partition of the Punjab and Bengal so that their non-Muslim halves stayed in India. Gandhi opposed division in his heart, called it a spiritual tragedy and offered to let Jinnah form the government of all India, but he advised the AICC on 14 June 1947 to accept the plan since the Working Committee had given its word, and it was accepted by 157 votes to 29. / साठ वर्षों से अखंड भारत के लिए लड़ने वाली कांग्रेस ने जून 1947 में कई कारणों से विभाजन स्वीकार किया। 1946 में मुस्लिम सीटों पर मुस्लिम लीग की व्यापक विजय और पाकिस्तान के लिए जिन्ना की अडिग माँग ने दिखाया कि विभाजन से कम कोई समझौता लीग की सहमति नहीं जीतेगा, और अक्टूबर 1946 से अंतरिम सरकार में लीग की बाधा, जहाँ लियाकत अली ख़ान के बजट का उपयोग कांग्रेस से लड़ने में हुआ, ने पटेल को विश्वास दिलाया कि सरकार के भीतर लीग के साथ अखंड भारत शासन-योग्य नहीं होगा। अगस्त 1946 से मार्च 1947 तक कलकत्ता, नोआखाली, बिहार और पंजाब की सांप्रदायिक हत्याओं ने नेताओं को समझाया कि विभाजन का विकल्प ऐसा गृहयुद्ध है जो देश को नष्ट कर देगा। पटेल का तर्क था कि कैबिनेट मिशन के समूहीकरण के अंतर्गत लकवाग्रस्त केंद्र वाले बड़े, कमज़ोर भारत से छोटा, सशक्त भारत बेहतर है; नेहरू का विश्वास था कि विभाजन भारतीय राजनीति से सांप्रदायिकता हटाएगा और आधुनिक धर्मनिरपेक्ष राज्य बनाने देगा। माउंटबेटन ने उन्हें समझाया कि देरी केवल रक्तपात बढ़ाएगी और डोमिनियन स्टेटस तत्काल हस्तांतरण संभव करेगा। कांग्रेस ने पंजाब और बंगाल का विभाजन भी सुनिश्चित किया ताकि उनके गैर-मुस्लिम भाग भारत में रहें। गांधीजी हृदय से विभाजन के विरोधी थे, उन्होंने इसे आध्यात्मिक त्रासदी कहा और जिन्ना को पूरे भारत की सरकार बनाने देने का प्रस्ताव रखा, परन्तु उन्होंने 14 जून 1947 को अखिल भारतीय कांग्रेस समिति को योजना स्वीकार करने की सलाह दी क्योंकि कार्यसमिति वचन दे चुकी थी, और यह 29 के मुकाबले 157 मतों से स्वीकृत हुई।
-
Explain the causes of the partition of India. / भारत विभाजन के कारणों की व्याख्या कीजिए।
Show answer
Partition resulted from long-term, medium-term and immediate causes. The British policy of divide and rule, from the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and the separate electorates of 1909, extended in 1919 and 1932, made Muslims a separate political community whose politicians needed only Muslim votes, and during the war the government favoured the League as a loyal counterweight to the Congress. Communal organisations, the Muslim League of 1906 and the Hindu Mahasabha of 1915, preached that religion defined the nation, and the Two-Nation Theory of Iqbal and Jinnah gave the League an ideology. The Congress, secular in principle, was seen by many Muslims as a Hindu body; its refusal of coalition with the League in the United Provinces in 1937 and the League's Pirpur Report spread fear, and the Congress never built a Muslim mass base outside the Frontier. The Lahore Resolution of 1940 gave Muslims the simple goal of Pakistan, and the absence of the Congress from politics from 1942 to 1945 let the League capture the Muslim vote in 1946. Jinnah's inflexible leadership and use of the veto at Simla, in the Cabinet Mission talks and in the Interim Government made a united India unworkable. The failure of the Cabinet Mission plan over grouping in July 1946 destroyed the last chance of unity, and the communal killings from Calcutta to the Punjab convinced the Congress that partition was the lesser evil. Finally, the haste of Attlee's deadline and Mountbatten's date left no time for any alternative. / विभाजन दीर्घकालिक, मध्यकालिक और तात्कालिक कारणों का परिणाम था। 1905 के बंगाल विभाजन और 1909 के पृथक निर्वाचन से, जो 1919 और 1932 में विस्तारित हुए, ब्रिटिश फूट डालो और राज करो की नीति ने मुसलमानों को ऐसा अलग राजनीतिक समुदाय बना दिया जिसके नेताओं को केवल मुस्लिम मतों की आवश्यकता थी, और युद्ध के दौरान सरकार ने कांग्रेस के प्रतिकार के रूप में लीग को वफ़ादार दल मानकर संरक्षण दिया। 1906 की मुस्लिम लीग और 1915 की हिंदू महासभा जैसे सांप्रदायिक संगठनों ने प्रचार किया कि धर्म राष्ट्र को परिभाषित करता है, और इक़बाल तथा जिन्ना के द्विराष्ट्र सिद्धांत ने लीग को विचारधारा दी। सिद्धांततः धर्मनिरपेक्ष कांग्रेस को अनेक मुसलमान हिंदू संस्था मानते थे; 1937 में संयुक्त प्रांत में लीग से गठबंधन से इनकार और लीग की पीरपुर रिपोर्ट ने भय फैलाया, और कांग्रेस सीमांत के बाहर कभी मुस्लिम जनाधार नहीं बना सकी। 1940 के लाहौर प्रस्ताव ने मुसलमानों को पाकिस्तान का सरल लक्ष्य दिया, और 1942 से 1945 तक राजनीति से कांग्रेस की अनुपस्थिति ने लीग को 1946 में मुस्लिम मत जीतने दिया। जिन्ना के अडिग नेतृत्व और शिमला, कैबिनेट मिशन वार्ताओं तथा अंतरिम सरकार में वीटो के प्रयोग ने अखंड भारत को अव्यावहारिक बना दिया। जुलाई 1946 में समूहीकरण पर कैबिनेट मिशन योजना की विफलता ने एकता का अंतिम अवसर नष्ट किया, और कलकत्ता से पंजाब तक की सांप्रदायिक हत्याओं ने कांग्रेस को विश्वास दिलाया कि विभाजन कम बुरा विकल्प है। अंततः, एटली की समय-सीमा और माउंटबेटन की तिथि की जल्दबाज़ी ने किसी विकल्प के लिए समय नहीं छोड़ा।
-
Describe how India celebrated the coming of independence on 14-15 August 1947. / 14-15 अगस्त 1947 को भारत ने स्वतंत्रता के आगमन का उत्सव कैसे मनाया?
Show answer
Because astrologers found 15 August inauspicious, the transfer was timed for midnight, which fell on a luckier day. On 14 August Mountbatten handed power in Karachi to Jinnah as Governor-General of Pakistan. That evening the Constituent Assembly met in Delhi under Dr Rajendra Prasad; Sucheta Kripalani sang Vande Mataram, and as midnight approached Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his Tryst with Destiny speech, declaring that at the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world slept, India would awake to life and freedom, and that a moment had come when an age ended and the soul of a nation found utterance; a conch was blown at midnight and the members took a pledge of service to India. On the morning of 15 August Mountbatten was sworn in as Governor-General of India and Nehru as Prime Minister with a cabinet including Patel, Azad, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar, Mookerjee and Matthai; in the evening the tricolour was hoisted at India Gate before half a million people, and on 16 August Nehru raised it on the Red Fort, beginning a tradition. Across the country prisoners were released, sweets distributed and flags hoisted; in Orissa the Premier Harekrushna Mahtab hoisted the flag at Cuttack and the province remembered its martyrs. Gandhi, in Calcutta, fasted and prayed among riot victims and sent no message, saying that he had run dry, because the freedom that had come was accompanied by partition. / ज्योतिषियों द्वारा 15 अगस्त को अशुभ पाए जाने के कारण हस्तांतरण मध्यरात्रि पर तय हुआ, जो एक शुभ दिन पर पड़ती थी। 14 अगस्त को माउंटबेटन ने कराची में पाकिस्तान के गवर्नर-जनरल के रूप में जिन्ना को सत्ता सौंपी। उस शाम दिल्ली में डॉ. राजेन्द्र प्रसाद की अध्यक्षता में संविधान सभा बैठी; सुचेता कृपलानी ने वंदे मातरम् गाया, और मध्यरात्रि निकट आते ही जवाहरलाल नेहरू ने अपना 'नियति से साक्षात्कार' भाषण दिया, यह घोषणा करते हुए कि मध्यरात्रि के घंटे पर, जब विश्व सो रहा होगा, भारत जीवन और स्वतंत्रता के लिए जागेगा, और वह क्षण आ गया है जब एक युग समाप्त होता है और एक राष्ट्र की आत्मा को अभिव्यक्ति मिलती है; मध्यरात्रि पर शंख बजा और सदस्यों ने भारत की सेवा की प्रतिज्ञा ली। 15 अगस्त की सुबह माउंटबेटन ने भारत के गवर्नर-जनरल और नेहरू ने प्रधानमंत्री के रूप में शपथ ली, जिनके मंत्रिमंडल में पटेल, आज़ाद, राजेन्द्र प्रसाद, आंबेडकर, मुखर्जी और मथाई थे; शाम को इंडिया गेट पर पाँच लाख लोगों के सामने तिरंगा फहराया गया, और 16 अगस्त को नेहरू ने लाल किले पर इसे फहराकर एक परंपरा आरम्भ की। पूरे देश में बंदी छोड़े गए, मिठाइयाँ बँटीं और झंडे फहरे; उड़ीसा में प्रधानमंत्री हरेकृष्ण महताब ने कटक में झंडा फहराया और प्रांत ने अपने शहीदों को याद किया। कलकत्ता में गांधीजी दंगा-पीड़ितों के बीच उपवास और प्रार्थना में रहे और कोई संदेश नहीं भेजा, यह कहते हुए कि वे सूख गए हैं, क्योंकि जो स्वतंत्रता आई थी वह विभाजन के साथ आई थी।
-
What did independence mean for Odisha? / स्वतंत्रता का ओडिशा के लिए क्या अर्थ था?
Show answer
For Odisha independence completed the goal that its leaders had pursued since 1903: an Odia province within a free India. The Congress ministry of Harekrushna Mahtab, in office since April 1946, became the government of a state in a sovereign republic and immediately took up the tasks left open by the Independence Act. The first was the merger of the twenty-five feudatory states, whose rajas had been released from paramountcy; the Prajamandal of Nilgiri rose in November 1947 and the state was taken over, the first princely state in India to be merged, and under the persuasion of Sardar Patel and Mahtab the rulers signed merger agreements at Cuttack in December 1947, so that on 1 January 1948 the states came under Odisha, nearly doubling its area, with Mayurbhanj following in 1949. The second was the demand for the Odia-speaking areas left outside in 1936, only partly met. Independence also opened the way for the new capital at Bhubaneswar, whose foundation Nehru laid in April 1948, the Hirakud dam begun in 1948, the abolition of zamindari and the growth of Utkal University. Odisha was spared the partition killings but received refugees from East Bengal, settled on the coast and later in Dandakaranya. Above all, independence honoured the sacrifices of Odisha's own people, from the Paikas of 1817 through Gopabandhu Das, Madhusudan Das, Rama Devi and Laxman Naik to the martyrs of Eram and Papadahandi. / ओडिशा के लिए स्वतंत्रता ने वह लक्ष्य पूरा किया जिसका पीछा उसके नेता 1903 से कर रहे थे: स्वतंत्र भारत के भीतर एक ओड़िया प्रांत। अप्रैल 1946 से पदस्थ हरेकृष्ण महताब का कांग्रेस मंत्रिमंडल एक संप्रभु गणराज्य में एक राज्य की सरकार बन गया और तुरंत स्वतंत्रता अधिनियम द्वारा छोड़े गए कार्यों में जुट गया। पहला था पच्चीस करद रियासतों का विलय, जिनके राजा सर्वोच्चता से मुक्त हो चुके थे; नीलगिरि का प्रजामंडल नवंबर 1947 में उठा और रियासत अधिग्रहीत की गई, जो भारत में विलय होने वाली पहली रियासत थी, और सरदार पटेल तथा महताब की समझाइश से शासकों ने दिसंबर 1947 में कटक में विलय समझौतों पर हस्ताक्षर किए, जिससे 1 जनवरी 1948 को रियासतें ओडिशा के अधीन आ गईं, जिसने उसका क्षेत्रफल लगभग दोगुना कर दिया, और 1949 में मयूरभंज भी जुड़ा। दूसरा था 1936 में बाहर छूटे ओड़िया-भाषी क्षेत्रों की माँग, जो केवल आंशिक रूप से पूरी हुई। स्वतंत्रता ने भुवनेश्वर की नई राजधानी का मार्ग भी खोला, जिसकी नींव नेहरू ने अप्रैल 1948 में रखी, 1948 में आरम्भ हीराकुद बाँध, ज़मींदारी उन्मूलन और उत्कल विश्वविद्यालय का विकास। ओडिशा विभाजन की हत्याओं से बचा रहा परन्तु उसने पूर्वी बंगाल के शरणार्थियों को स्वीकार किया, जिन्हें तट पर और बाद में दंडकारण्य में बसाया गया। सबसे बढ़कर, स्वतंत्रता ने ओडिशा के अपने लोगों के बलिदानों को सम्मानित किया, 1817 के पाइकों से लेकर गोपबंधु दास, मधुसूदन दास, रमा देवी और लक्ष्मण नायक होते हुए ईरम और पापड़ाहांडी के शहीदों तक।
Related Laws & Principles
Explore allFoundational laws & principles behind this chapter. Each one opens a full page — what it says, why it matters, five practice questions and the mistakes to avoid.