India topic 4 - Withdrawal and partition

GOIA 1935

• led to provincial elections in 1937, where INC gained of seven provinces

• ended dyarchy and offered full provincial control

• first experience of democracy and all minority groups given separate electorates for proportional representation

• Burma separated from India- key in WW2

Linlithgow’s declaration of war

• didn’t consult Indian people and committed millions to war

• Gandhi and INC Urged other methods and unwilling to support it which led to the day of deliverance

• Left India open to invasion

• M L more willing to support and benefited from this

• viceroy and government still control defence and foreign affairs making the declaration constitutional

Jinnah’s Lahore resolution

• Jinna exploited day of deliverance and Muslim league continued to support the war led to the Lahore Resolution where idea a separate state for Muslims made official in 1940 with the announcement of a new state Pakistan coming with it

Gandhi’s Quit India campaign

• GB really struggling by 1942 -allies at weakest point and worst year

• INC uses to their advantage

• Cripps mission: politicians went to India with offer of Dominion status; however they wanted independence

• most violent campaign: Gandhi referred to it as the do or die campaign

• Churchill and Linlithgow treated violence with violence and sent in GB Army and RAF to suppress it

• suppressed in two weeks and most INC members were imprisoned until 1945

Atlantic Charter (1941)

• Aug 1941: Signed by two out of three primary allied warlords, Roosevelt and Churchill

• clarified that nations had a right to self determination globally

• ‘crusade of good’: Paints themselves as the heroes

• Due to fear of access powers and spread of fascism; way of condemning Germany’s actions

Relevance of the Atlantic charter to India

• Hope for independence raised: crushed by Churchill who claimed it didn't apply to India Burma or British Empire

• independent supported by Secretary of State for India Amery and leader of Labour Attlee

• FDR also begun to pressure him over this

• solidifies Indian nationalist movement

• pressure on Britain against imperialism

Reasons for the first Simla conference

• Began on 25th June 1945

• Wavell returned to New Delhi with new scheme, similar to Cripps

• it included balanced representation of communities, including equal representation for Hindus and Muslims and Dominion status

• extremely unlikely INC would accept

• Adjourned on 14th July - unable to break deadlock

who attended the first Simla conference.

• Wavell offered Dominion: INC wanted Purna Swaraj

• Reached deadlock on how many Muslim members of new executive council would be chosen. Jinnah insisted that they must be nominated by ML

• INC wouldn't accept and clung to hope it could be all inclusive and could be Muslim

• complete disparity between Hindus and Muslims

• INC wanted United India; ML wants separate state

• ML completely disagreed with INC

Context of GB General Election (1945)

• 26 July 1945: Churchill's Tory party lost to Atlee's Labour Party

• good for nationalist cause

• Attlee formed India Committee to create and implement British policy leading to an independent India

• close connections between INC and Labour

• war greatly helped to create connexions especially between Nehru and Cripps

• ML had no relationship - suspicions grew that British Gov was anti Muslim

What did a socialist shift mean for India?

• August 1945: Attlee immediately announced that India would become independent

• need for affective transfer of power

• formed India Committee: create and implement British policy for independence

• 2 World Wars bankrupted the UK and by 1930s and 40s no longer financially viable

• as it cost them more than it made them

• need for hasty decolonization

Importance of the constituent assembly elections (1946)

• Necessary for effective transfer of power

• Transfer of power needs a strong Democratic government in place

• Indians democratically elect constitutional assembly and leaders

• the first past the post system: Indians will be a small minority

• occurred under global political uncertainty post-WW2

How do the elections show a need for a separate Muslim nation?

• INC won 923 seats (58.2%)

• ML won 415 (26.8%)

• The system of voting meant INC would always win election and Muslim voice drowned out

• Muslim voice concentrated in three provinces: Bengal, Sind and Punjab

• INC would always win elections

Who were in the Cabinet Mission?

• Fact finding group of MPs

• MPs within Gov: inform what the government does regarding independence

• AV Alexander - Economic expert, central to independence s

• Stafford Cripps: long standing affinity with INC since mission and Nehru the leading dignitary of INC

• Lord Pethwick-Lawrence: Secretary of state for India

Purpose of the Cabinet Mission

• Make transfer of power easy in India

• gauge strength of support for Pakistan, talking to Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs

• consider what they want

• do everything possible to maintain United India

How successful was the Cabinet Mission?

• Mixed success

• didn't achieve a united India- Pakistan was created

• gave the people what they wanted and able to gauge strength of support for Pakistan - very successful in this sense

What happened at the second Simla conference?

• early May 1946

• Work through cabinet missions proposals

• proposed creation of all India Union with Hindu heartland and a few Muslim provinces

• fallback proposition: creating two separate independent states, Hindustan and Pakistan

• INC rejected this may statement; Jinnah accepted it as it mentioned Pakistan

• Cabinet Mission then announced formation of an interim government

Importance of the May Statement

• Propose two separate independent states which Jinnah accepted

• shows how the British are moving towards Jinnah's view

• led to formation of an interim government by the cabinet mission

• concern of creating all India Union with minimal damage but also using fallback proposition due to religious divisions

Abul Kalam Azad

• INC president 1940-6

• Jinnah saw this as a cunning device on part of Gandhi as he was Muslim

• intention to bring India together as INC represents Muslims and Hindus

What is a federal India and why was it rejected?

• States have autonomy with a federal government like the USA

• however it could lead to a civil war

Red Fort Trials of INA

• Nov 1945- May 1946

• Put INA traitors on trial many officers: 10 court martials took place and there were 7600 soldiers initially

• executed many INA soldiers found guilty and given long prison sentences - treated like war criminals

• Led to protests and public trials due to the magnitude of crimes, although BBC forbidden from publishing it

why did the Attlee government want to allow independence?

• Pragmatic and practical reasons: Empire costing money not making it

• Right to self-determination and anti-Imperialism are socialist principles

• war fought for freedom and democracy and empire didn't promote this

• emerging Cold War meant it was better to have India on Britain's side

Causes of Jinnah’s call for direct action

• Interim constituent members: INC insists they should appoint them all, ML insists they should appoint the Muslims

• Cripps Mission announced viceroy would choose them all and I NC agreed with this

• He believed INC in Britain were plotting together: Convened ML and called for Muslim hartal

Jinnah’s day of direct action

• Muslims prepared for this to be on 16.8.1946

• Muslim police ordered to take day of holiday in Calcutta as most were: If depleted, chaos will reign

• Calcutta = capital of Raj and Bengal

• Week of bloodlettings and killings between Hindus and Muslims

• Up to 7500 killed, 20k wounded

• Microcosm of civil war, i.e. what would happen without Pakistan

Why was Wavell replaced?

• Attlee having doubts to cope with strains of situation and was worn out, including possibility of civil war

• Replaced with Mountbatten on 31st January 1947

Admiral Viscount Louis Mountbatten of Burma - Viceroy

• Viceroy from 31st January 1947

• royal and uncle of King Charles

• During WW2, Supreme allied commander South-east Asia theatre of war

• Told to avoid partition if possibld

Significance of Mountbatten being viceroy

• princely states had royal to negotiate with as they will lose power and prestige

• Knew of India geopolitically

How long did Mountbatten have to transfer power

• deadline was 30th June 1948

• Achieved independence by 15th August 1947

• MB’s charm offensive worked on Gandhi, not Jinnah due to belief in the Viceroy’s pro-Congress sympathies

• MB quickly realised that, despite orders, partition was necessary

Boundary Commission

• formed to draw new boundaries for India and Pakistan

• Headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a legal expert

• Equal no. of Hindus and Muslims

• Given 5 weeks, outdated maps and charts, and tales of land ownership

Radcliffe line

Border between India and Pakistan formed by division of provinces, e.g. Bengal and Punjab,

What problems did the Boundary Commission face?

• had to split up provinces (Punjab) to make Pakistan

• Need to create country from scratch: New gov, military and civil service

• 17.5% of assets from Raj given to Pakistan

• Around 10m people uprooted from homes, forced to migrate

• 750k (around 1m) killed from massacres in the wake of partition

• Muslims heading West killed by Sikhs and Hindus

• Hindus heading East killed by Muslims and Sikhs

Vapal Pangunni Menon

• the political advisor of Viceroy Mountbatten

• proposed to Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian leaders, the Muslim League's plan to partition India into two independent nations - India and Pakistan,

Sir Cyril Radcliffe

led Boundary Commission to draw up boundaries between India and Pakistan - Radcliffe line

Jinnah’s role in partition

proposed creation of Pakistan, as Muslims virtually powerful in elections

Gandhi’s role in partition

opposed Pakistan and wanted a United India, dreams of unitec India crushed, became an anachronistic figure

Impact of Partition on ordinary Indians

• fear of harm and mass violence

• Greatest mass migration of humans in India

• Forced migration of entire families

Reasons for mass violence

• loss of leaders, i.e. Jinnah and Gandhi

• Fragile: Violence easily erupts and goes in different directions

• Sikhs felt ignored, Hindus wanted united India

Why were Sikhs involved in the violence?

• despite devout loyalty to Britain, British ignored them in negotiations

• Largest proportion in Punjab: Split in half, so forced to live in Pakistan or India

• Separate electorates under Communal Award

• No homeland, protecting territory

Who became PM of India?

• 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru gave a was sworn in as the Dominion of India's prime minister and raised the Indian flag at the Red Fort in Delhi.

• On 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, Nehru became the Republic of India's first prime minister.

What happened to Gandhi?

• Abstaining from the official celebration of independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress.

• he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 194

• The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India.

• Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948.

What happened to Jinnah?

elected as First Governor General of Pakistan, died in September 1948

Repercussions of Quit India

• only 216 soldiers went absent without leave

• 1000 deaths and 3000 injuries

• Attacks on Europeans

threat of invasion

• The whole of Asia lay open to the Japanese as Hong Kong Thailand and the Philippines had been captured in addition to Singapore

• Pushed on into Burma and Japanese forces lapping at India’s Eastern boundaries

• Insufficient armed forces

america’s influence

• Atlantic charter - self-determination once war ended

• Roosevelt deemed India essential to war effort

• Agreed on Cripps Mission

Bengal Famine

• Death rate rose from 1.2m to 1.9m

• Deaths due to smallpox. Malaria, cholera and pneumonia

• Rice price multiplied by 10

• Congress deemed to be due to diversion of foodstuffs to troops

• 1-3m deaths

Direct Action

• 5000 deaths, 20000 injured, 100000 homeless

• Killings and bloodletting, looting and arson across India

• Made partition a stronger likelihood

Interim government

• Nehru is PM

• Jinnah refused to be part of gov

• ML responsible for home affaird

Plan Balkan

• allowed states and provinces to decide own future

• Recipe for anarchy

• Rejected and destroyed due to the fact it would produce an impoverished Pakistan

Mountbatten Plan

• Areas of NW in state of riot and rebellion

• Attlee’s declaration led to bloody contests of supremacy in the Punjab

• 18th May 1947

• Announced that two separated dominions of Pakistan and India to be created

Quit India and its repercussions

• on the 9th August when INC sanctioned the campaign Gandhi, Nehru and most party leaders were arrested and interned

• thousands of local activists then rounded up, with offices raided, files taken and funds frozen.

• Gandhi urged demonstrators to become their own leaders - horrific round of riots, killings attacks on Europeans and damage/destruction to government property

• in light of massing of Japanese troops on the borders - stations and signal boxes wrecked, railway tracks torn up and telegraph lines torn down

• over 1000 deaths and 3000 casualties

• attacked revenue offices and police stations

• military remained loyal - only 216 officers of Indian regiments on absent without leave

• didn’t attract support

• non-cooperation brought detention, despair and death

Bengal Famine

• caused by: run of poor harvests, distribution failures, loss of imports, wartime price inflation and severe weather conditions

• crop yield in 1943 worst recorded of the century

• annual death rate rose from 1.2m to 1.9m

• people dying from diseases associated with malnutrition - smallpox, malaria, cholera and pnuemonia

• starving crowded into Calcutta in their thousands - find relief, begging and dying in the streets

• Japanese invasion encouraged hoarding for those who could and fear that the famine would become a recruiting agent for the INA

• May 1943: price of rice increased tenfold, Wavell took immediate action to coordinate rationing and try to stop profiteering by diverting troops from the war effort

• Churchill initially refused to divert GB merchant shipping to take gain to Bengal

• FDR refused when asked to lend American ships to bring in wheat from Australia

• 1943-46: 1-3m died and in some areas whole villages were wiped out

• Jinnah: accused the British government of incompetence and irresponsibility - Churchill’s gov wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes if this had happened in London instead of Calcutta

• INC blamed crisis on diversion of foodstuffs to British troops - INC and ML made political capital out of the crisis

• Wavell began running battle with Whitehall - buy more grain for India

• Churchill more focused on war effort and only listened to Cherwell’s advice that the famine was a statistical invention

• Wavell’s request for a million tons of grain met with an offer of 250k tons and a request for Indian rice

• June 1944: Wavell had extracted 450,000 tons of grain

economic impact of the war

• British investment in India fell during the 1930s, so Indian capitalists/entrepreneurs now investing significantly

• Indian importing less and less from GB: 1928-29, they spent £83m, this fell to £39m in 1935-36. Indian govs put increasingly high tariffs on imported goods as they found home-produced cotton goods were cheaper than imported from Lancashire, meaning Lancashire cotton exports to India collapsed. Japanese competition squeezed British goods out of Indian market - cost of production lower and therefore cheaper. Crisis for British export trade

• 1931: Reserve bank of India established. Could set the value of its own currency and the rupee no longer tied to the value of the sterling

• 1933 onwards: Britain had paid £1.5m a year to running costs of the Indian army and they agreed to pay for an army modernisation programme in 1939

• Indian troops had mobilised in the war against Japan, as well as in Italy and North Africa. This was mostly covered by the British - by 1945, the Indian gov had £1.3bn in the Reserve Bank of India, enabling them to provide capital for Indian-based enterprises and initiatives

• by 1945, Britain facing a desperate economic situation and had to shift focus to meet peacetime demands but Britain owed £2.73bn by the end of the war and also needed to undertake an enormous programme of reconstruction.

shifting Indian loyalties: the Raj or Indian nationalism?

• the argument that Britain needed India as a bulwark of British power in Asia no longer carried much weight

• Indian politicians protesting against the deployment of Indian forces in Indonesia and Indo-China and Indian politicians regarded it as unacceptable that their forces were being used to prop up decaying French and Dutch Empires when people were trying to distance themselves from the Raj

• 2.5m Indian men and women joined the armed forces

• 15,740 Indian officers by 1940

• ICS was severely undermanned by 1945 because of need for men to work in the armed forces

• there were 429 British and 510 Indian ICS officers remaining in India

Labour government’s Indian policy

• 26 July 1945: Labour power swept into power with 393 seats and a 12% swing

• Nehru met with them to pass an independence bill at Stafford Cripps’ house, although Muslim demands for separate representation within the Indian subcontinent had become stronger

• Attlee and his cabinet turned their attention to how power should be transferred

Indian committee

• Lawrence became SoS India

• Arthur Henderson spoke on his behalf in the Commons

• Chancellor Cripps and Attlee took control of parliamentary matters relating to India

• charged with creating and implementing British policy for independence

Labour-Congress Axis

• Congress forged links with the Labour party

• relied on the party to give voice to their opinions in the British press and the Commons

• strong relationship between Cripps and Nehru - both highly intellectual and dedicated to radical reform of their respective countries

• gathered around like-minded politicians, including Menon: London-based Indian socialist and driving force behind India League

• Muslim League had no relationship with any British political party - suspicion that Labour was Anti-Muslim

interim government under Nehru

• sworn in on 2 September 1946 with Nehru as PM

• viceroy still nominally responsible for the governance of India but carry out decisions of Indian ministers and the Executive Council, carrying out the wishes of Congress

• Nehru responsible for foreign affairs

• Sardar Patel: Congress’ general secretary who took on home affairs. Sidelined the viceroy by insisting intelligence reports sent to INC administration

• Congress running India

• Wavell persuaded Jinnah to join Executive Council but refused to due to Nehru and sent Liaquat Ali Khan

• Wavell proposed the League should become responsible for home affairs to give it more power

• Jinnah became finance minister when Congress threatened to bring down whole government

interim government - evacuation plan

• Wavell warned the SoS that he couldn’t contain the situation by force, requesting support

• grew concerned that India was on the brink of civil war

• British civilians and families moved to heavily protected safe zones near the coast and evacuated in an orderly way from Calcutta and Karachi

• CinC Auchinleck would withdraw all British troops in a similarly orderly manner

• Attlee refused to contemplate this plan and considered a replacement for viceroy

gaining the constituent Assembly and losing a viceroy

• 7 December 1946: Constituent Assembly met but never completed its task

• Wavell worn out and it became clear that a men with fresh ideas was needed to complete India’s independence

• Attlee wrote to Wavell on 31 January 1947 removing him from his post and offered an Earldom

• Mountbatten agreed to become India’s last viceroy

• February 1947: Attlee announced to the Commons that the government had resolved to transfer power to responsible Indian hands no later than 30 June 1948

Mountbatten and the decision to withdraw

• flamboyance, left-wing tendencies and determination as a man of action brought a refreshing change to Indian politics and hope that the Congress-League deadlock could be broken

• spent his first 4 weeks in India consulting with Indian ministers, politicians and own staff

• charm and flattery somewhat worked but clear determination taken to cultivate the friendship of men

• Cordial relations quickly achieved between Mountbatten and Gandhi, Nehru and other INC leaders

• Jinnah not interested in relations with Mountbatten

British withdrawal and communal violence

• millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs terrified that after independence they would end up in a country hostile to their faith

• abandoned their homes and livelihoods, packed their possessions and left

• walked, crammed into bullock carts and tried to make it through the railway system.

• Muslims heading west were butchered by Sikhs and Hindus in India

• Hindus and Sikhs heading east were murdered by Muslims in Pakistan

• ten million people tried to move during Summer 1947 but 1m never made it

• when violence in the Punjab was at its height, most British troops were kept in their barracks and then evacuated from the country

• inadequate force of 50k troops were dispatched to bring order and mostly stayed in the barracks

Independence for India and Pakistan

• midnight on 14 August 1947: Nehru spoke in Constituent Assembly

• Mountbatten forces to be content with governor-general of India alone, not Pakistan

• Jinnah: flew from Delhi to Karachi on 7 August to become governor-general of Pakistan

• Gandhi: didn’t want to stay in Delhi for independence celebrations but left for Bengal