The partition of India was carried out based on the Indian Independence Act of 1947, which was based on the Mountbatten Plan. This act stipulated that two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, would be created on August 15, 1947, and the British government would transfer power to them. With independence, the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan) was established on August 14, and the Indian Union (later the Republic of India) on August 15. This process primarily involved the division of the Bengal province of British India into East Pakistan and West Bengal (part of India), and the Punjab province into West Punjab (part of Pakistan) and East Punjab (part of India). During this period, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma (now Myanmar) also separated from British India, but this is not considered part of the partition of India. Similarly, the partition of Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh are not considered part of this event. Nepal and Bhutan were independent states at the time and were not affected by the partition.
At midnight on August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan officially became two independent nations. However, the power transfer ceremony for Pakistan took place in Karachi on August 14, so that the last British Viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, could attend both ceremonies in Karachi and New Delhi. Therefore, Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day on August 14, and India on August 15.
The partition of India affected millions of people. An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people were killed in the violence that accompanied the partition, and approximately 14.6 million people were displaced, forced to flee to a country with their majority religious community.
Women's Rehabilitation
Both sides promised each other that they would try to bring back the women who had been abducted and raped during the riots. The Indian government claimed that 55,000 Hindu and Sikh women were abducted, while the Pakistani government claimed that 12,000 Muslim women were abducted during the riots.
Unlike previous riots, the riots of Direct Action Day in Calcutta specifically targeted women. Many Hindu women were abducted during the Noakhali violence. Violence against women also occurred during the 1946 massacre of Muslims in Bihar. Thousands of women were abducted in the Patna district alone. In Bihar, Hindu women committed suicide by jumping into wells. In November 1946, in the town of Garhmukteshwar, Muslim mobs publicly humiliated Hindu girls and women, stripped them naked, paraded them through the streets, and raped them. In Amritsar, Muslims publicly paraded naked women who had been raped through the streets and then set them on fire.
Most Hindu and Sikh women refused to return to India, fearing their families would never accept them. Muslim women had the same fear, but their families mostly accepted them upon their return.
Background
The British rulers in India always followed the policy of 'divide and rule'. They divided the Indian population into different groups based on their religion. Some of their policies discriminated against Hindus, while others discriminated against Muslims. By the 20th century, Muslims began to fear the Hindu majority, and Hindus felt that the British government and Indian leaders were giving special privileges to Muslims and discriminating against Hindus. Therefore, when the spirit of independence began to grow in India, there was competition among the leaders of both communities to control the freedom movement.
In 1906, several Muslim leaders founded the Muslim League in Dhaka. These leaders believed that Muslims had fewer rights than Hindus and that the Indian National Congress represented only Hindus. The Muslim League raised several demands at different times. In 1930, at a conference of the Muslim League, the famous Urdu poet Muhammad Iqbal first raised the demand for a separate state for Muslims in his speech. In 1935, the Sindh Provincial Assembly also raised the same demand. Iqbal and Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar asked Mohammad Ali Jinnah to support this demand. Until then, Jinnah seemed to be in favor of Hindu-Muslim unity, but gradually he began to accuse the Congress leaders of neglecting the interests of Muslims. In 1940, at the Lahore session of the Muslim League, Jinnah clearly stated that he wanted two separate nations. He said:
"The religions, ideologies, customs, and literature of Hindus and Muslims are completely different... Keeping a country together where one community is a majority and the other a minority will only increase discontent and ultimately lead to the destruction of such a country." Hindu organizations like the Hindu Mahasabha were staunchly opposed to the partition of India, but they believed that there were differences between Hindus and Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi believed that Hindus and Muslims could and should live together. He was a staunch opponent of partition. For many years, Gandhi and his followers tried to prevent Muslims from leaving the Congress, and in the process, they faced the wrath of both Hindu and Muslim extremist leaders. The British government deliberately fostered misunderstandings between the Hindu and Muslim communities. The Muslim League observed Direct Action Day in August 1946 and instigated violent riots in Kolkata, resulting in the deaths of approximately 5,000 people and injuries to many others. In this atmosphere, pressure mounted on all leaders to accept the partition of the country in order to prevent complete chaos from engulfing the nation.
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