‘Our mission was so very nearly a success: it is sad that it has ended up such a grim and total failure.’
The next landmark moment, in the formation of the Indian Independence Act, was 5 years later when British withdrawal from India was fixed as 30 June 1948 and the appointment of a new Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, was announced.
The Mountbatten Plan, as the 3rd June, 1947 Plan came to be known, sought to effect an early transfer of power on the basis of Dominion Status to two successor states, India and Pakistan. Congress was willing to accept Dominion Status for a while because it felt it must assume full power immediately and meet boldly the explosive situation in the country. As Nehru put it, ‘Murder stalks the streets and the most amazing cruelties are indulged in by both the individual and the mob.’
Formally, the Plan does not lay down the partition of India, but provides machinery for the areas affected by the Pakistan demand to choose, either through their Legislative Assembly representatives or through referendum, between a single Constituent Assembly in accordance with the Cabinet Mission Plan, or a separate Constituent Assembly for a separate State. This involves division of the Punjab and Bengal so that the Moslem-majority areas and non-Moslem majority areas can decide separately. In practice, on the basis of existing representation, this means partition, including almost certainly the partition of the Punjab and Bengal.
The Mountbatten plan simply stated the establishment of the following territories by 15 August 1947:
(1) North West Pakistan, covering Western Punjab, Sind, and possibly the North West Frontier and Baluchistan, with a population of 25 million (18 million Muslims);
(2) Note East Pakistan, covering Eastern Bengal and the Sylhet district of Assam, with a population of 44 million (31 million Muslims). These two areas, divided by a thousand miles, would constitute the Pakistan State or Federation, with a population of 70 million
(3) The Indian Union or Hindustan, covering the rest of British India, with a population of 225 million.
(4) The Princes’ States, covering two-fifths of the area of India with a population of 93 million or one quarter, would join one or other federation, or possibly, in the case of one or two larger States, such as Hyderabad and Travancore, according to their present declared intentions, proclaim their separate independence.
The Muslim League had agreed to accept the verdict of the Boundary Commission as final. The Commission gave India the district of Gurdaspur, which boundary touched with India and Kashmir. Thus, India had got a direct accession to Kashmir. If Gurdaspur was not given to India, there was a problem for the Maharaja of Kashmir to accede to India. As the League's policy was 'accession declared by the ruler', Pakistan has no right, morally or legally, to the accession of Kashmir to Pakistan. Had Jinnah adopted the policy as demanded by the Congress i.e. "accession as decided by the people of the state", Kashmir would have gone to Pakistan. Jinnah failed to realize that the geographical position of the Muslim states in India was not such that they could have a strong and permanent footing for accession to Pakistan. Thus, in principle, Pakistan lost Kashmir and other Muslim state in India.
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