Britain's rushed withdrawal split India along religious lines. Partition left violence, refugees and open disputes that fed later wars.
By 1947 Britain could no longer hold India. The Indian National Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted a single secular state. The Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued that Muslims were a separate nation and needed their own state.
The last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, brought independence forward to August 1947. British India was divided into India and Pakistan. Pakistan had two parts, West and East, separated by about 1,600 kilometres of Indian territory.
The new border was drawn in a few weeks. Violence between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims killed hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps up to a million. About 12 to 15 million people fled across the new borders.
Partition left disputes over territory, assets, refugees and water. Pakistan, the smaller and weaker state, feared that India had never accepted its existence.
More than 560 princely states had to join one country or the other. Most did so quickly. Kashmir did not.
- Independence
- 15 August 1947.
- Two-nation theory
- Jinnah: Muslims a separate nation.
- Refugees
- About 12 to 15 million people.
Worked example: Linking Partition to later conflict
How did decolonisation cause conflict?
- Speed: a rushed British exit left borders and assets unsettled.
- Ideology: two visions of nationhood, secular and religious.
- Insecurity: Pakistan feared the larger India.
- Unfinished business: the princely states, above all Kashmir.
Watch out for this
Partition settled the borders between India and Pakistan.
Partition left key questions open, above all the future of Kashmir, which became the focus of war in 1947 and 1965.
Check your understanding
What did the Muslim League argue in the 1940s?
- Muslims were a separate nation and needed their own state.
- India should stay united under British rule.
- Religion had no place in politics.