History UsefulNotes / ThePartitionOfIndia

In 1940 in Lahore, the Muslim League put out a resolution where it affirmed it's backing for the Two-Nation Theory. Jinnah claimed that Muslims and Hindus were irreconcilably different, and that they would never coexist in peace unless they had their own separate nations. This resolution was known as the Pakistan Resolution, and demanded that the Muslim plurality provinces of Bengal, Sindh, Punjab and the Frontier be granted to the League as a separate nation. The hidden implication within the resolution was also that any other area with a Muslim plurality should join them too - this would become an explosive point later on.

It was only at this point that Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy, realised that the situation had deteriorated too far. He offered to guarantee Dominion Status to India from the British Government. Having not taken the Pakistan idea seriously, Linlithgow supposed that what Jinnah actually wanted was a non-federal arrangement without Hindu domination. To allay Muslim fears of Hindu domination the 'August offer' of 1940 was accompanied with the promise that a future constitution would take the views of minorities into consideration. Unfortunately for him, by that point both the Congress and the League, irreconcilably opposed to each other and the British, told him to get stuffed and called the proposals too little, too late. Both sides demanded ''Purna Swaraj'' - '''Total Independence'''. Which meant no British overlordship, not even in name, not even as a face-saving gesture, nothing at all. OccupiersOutOfOurCountry was now the only thing both sides agreed on.

The Congress started off a second round of Civil Disobedience, the height of it being the "Quit India Movement" in 1942. The objective of the movement was pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin self-explanatory]]. Unfortunately for them, the man in charge of Downing Street was one UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, and being the hardline Imperialist that he was, was willing to brook no defiance from anyone, least of all people he considered [[ValuesDissonance his racial inferiors.]] With the Japanese moving up Malaya and the Fall of Singapore, the prospect of losing India was simply too much for the British, and the movement was ruthlessly suppressed, with Martial Law being declared across India, and hundreds of thousands of people being jailed or outright shot out of hand. A combination of malicious neglect and incompetence also resulted in a famine in Bengal, historically a breadbasket of the north, which made an already horrible situation even worse. Sectarian violence flared up and was aggravated by all of this, resulting in increasing political, social and religious polarization that would have devastating consequences down the line.

In late 1942, Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to negotiate with the Congress for supporting the Empire in the War in exchange for Dominion status after the War ended. The only reason Winnie was even willing to try was because The United States began piling on diplomatic pressure on the British to end their domination of India, and Roosevelt was adamant that the British decolonise. However, desperate to not lose the alliance they'd already made with the Muslim League, the Cripps Mission included a clause that said that no part of the British Indian Empire would be forced to join the post-war Dominion.

Needless to say, the Cripps Mission was doomed to fail from the start, and that's exactly what happened. The League threw out the idea, saying that it was not addressing their Pakistan Resolution and the Congress, with most of its members in jail and adamant about a unified India, also rejected every single proposal, sticking to their "''Purna Swaraj'' or Bust" platform. The end result was the Congress, effectively immobilized by being in jail until August 1945, could do nothing to stop the violence flaring up across India, which the League kept fanning, with sectarian clashes becoming commonplace as the League's supporters clashed with other right wing groups, further deepening the polarization across the subcontinent.

-->-- '''Mohammed Iqbal''', on the concept of Pakistan.

Despite this, in 1946 there were a series of mutinies of Indian Armed Forces across the subcontinent, the worst being that of the Royal Indian Navy in February 1946 at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Karachi. While all the uprisings were suppressed due to the main political parties playing truant as they were afraid of a strong military undermining them post-Independence, the British ultimately saw it as the point of no return. The weekly intelligence summary issued on 25 March 1946 admitted that the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force units were no longer trustworthy, and, as far as the Army was concerned, "only day to day estimates of steadiness could be made".

In early 1946, new elections were held in India. With the announcement of the elections the line had been drawn for Muslim voters to choose between a united Indian state or Partition. Earlier, at the end of the war in 1945, the colonial government had announced the public trial of three senior officers of Subhash Chandra Bose's defeated Indian National Army who stood accused of treason. Now as the trials began, the Congress leadership, although it had never supported the INA, chose to defend the accused officers. The subsequent convictions of the officers, the public outcry against the convictions, and the eventual remission of the sentences created positive propaganda for the Congress, which enabled it to win the party's subsequent electoral victories in eight of the eleven provinces.

British rule had lost its legitimacy for most Hindus and conclusive proof of this came in the form of the 1946 elections with the Congress winning 91 percent of the vote among non-Muslim constituencies, thereby gaining a majority in the Central Legislature and forming governments in eight provinces, and becoming the legitimate successor to the British government for most Hindus. Had the British intended to stay in India, the acquiescence of the Indians to British rule would have been in some serious doubt after those election results.

The Muslim League won the majority of the Muslim vote as well as most of the reserved Muslim seats in the provincial assemblies, and it also secured all the Muslim seats in the Central Assembly. It was finally able to make good on the claim that it and Jinnah alone represented India's Muslims - and Jinnah quickly interpreted this vote as a popular demand for a separate homeland.

The British were desperate at this point, and came up with the Cabinet Mission. Through this mission, Britain hoped to preserve the united India which they and the Congress desired, while concurrently securing the essence of Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan through 'groupings' - what that term meant was never made clear. The Cabinet mission scheme encapsulated a federal arrangement consisting of three groups of provinces. Two of these groupings would consist of predominantly Muslim provinces, while the third grouping would be made up of the predominantly Hindu regions. The provinces would be autonomous but the centre would retain control over defence, foreign affairs and communications. In essence, it was the same nonsense that the British had hoped to push through at the First Round Table Conference.

Needless to say, the League voted in favour of it, and everybody else flat out rejected it. The League was incensed, and proclaimed the 16th of August as "Direct Action Day" to "peacefully" demonstrate the feelings of the League. When asked to specify Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble."

-->-- Unknown Policeman in Calcutta, when asked about the situation on the ground.

The Indian National Congress ended up [[LandslideElection forming the governments in nine provinces]], with the Unionist Party (a Sikh representative group) winning the other two provinces. The Muslims League, to its humiliation, failed to win even a single province and ended up with just a little over a hundred seats. Even worse for them, they failed to do well even in areas that were historically Muslim plurality, with the message coming loud and clear that the locals just weren't interested in the Two-Nation theory at all. The only places they won seats at all were in areas that had a minority of Muslims, and where they could play on the fears of being dominated. But the bigger take-away was that the electorate in general, didn't care about such esoteric points, and cared more about local issues than anything else. It also showed the League a very uncomfortable truth - that it's members were generally seen as [[UpperClassTwit Aristocrats and Elites]], out of touch with the man on the street.

Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, went into a year-long HeroicBSOD, as did most of the League, being forced to sit in the opposition. Unfortunately for everyone, they drew exactly the wrong lessons out of all of this, and came to the conclusion that the only reason they'd lost was because the majority played spoilsport with them, and the only way to ensure "true justice" for Muslims was for them to have not their own state, but their own country. This was the point where the two-nation theory became an inevitability, and set the subcontinent down the path it eventually went.

However, the whole thing was riddled with [[InsistentTerminology "safeguards"]] - which was a polite euphemism for saying that the Viceroy had the final say on what would happen and what wouldn't, as opposed to the will of the elected representatives. It was effectively just window-dressing, and made it clear to anyone with a brain that the British had no intention whatsoever of relinquishing power over India and it's peoples. Despite the provisions guaranteeing equality with British laws and customs, as well as equal treatment for Indians on par with the British, there were a hundred ways to undermine those provisions - all at the behest of the Viceroy, of course.

Both sides have fought four wars, and endless insurrections against each other are commonplace. No one even considers the possibility of peace without being declared traitors and worse by their fellow men. Much like the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, this is one of those arguments that has never really gone away, and probably never will until one side or the other ceases to exist. Given the presence of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirdEyeOfBharat Nuclear]] [[UsefulNotes/PakAttack Weapons]] on the subcontinent, the horrifying nature of the solution is painfully obvious.

In addition, as detailed on the UsefulNotes/TheRaj page, the British never controlled more than two-thirds of the subcontinent. Most of what remained was split up between hundreds of small kingdoms who owed fealty to the British Empire (think the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire and UsefulNotes/AllTheLittleGermanies, '''[[RecycledInSpace In India!]]'''), collectively known as the Princely States. The Big Four were Kashmir (modern day Jammu and Kashmir), Hyderabad (modern day Telangana), Junagadh (modern day Gujarat) and Travancore (modern day Kerala). They all contributed heavily to the British Government in exchange for being more or less autonomous within their own borders, and generally being left alone to do their own thing.

The Partition of [[UsefulNotes/TheRaj British India]], simply called Partition or the Partition Era, refers to the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin splitting of India by the colonial authorities on the eve of the subcontinent's breaking away from British rule]]. More importantly, it refers to the various humanitarian, societal, economic, political, and criminal crises that arose from [[MissingStepsPlan the rushed manner]] the British had carried it out. This event also created a great deal of the [[StartOfDarkness initial vitriol]] between India and Pakistan, which was made [[FromBadToWorse much, much worse]] later by UsefulNotes/TheKashmirQuestion, which itself was a direct consequence of this event.

It's really saying something that in the Indian Subcontinent, almost nobody uses the term "Post-Independence" to refer to the timeline of events after 1947. Instead, the term used is [[MeaningfulRename "Post-Partition".]]

Generally used as a backdrop in a great deal of Indian and Pakistani literature and media due to its tragic and dramatic nature. And it must be said that in most cases, [[LighterAndSofter they're radically toning down the actual tragedy]], because the full-up presentation is way, way worse than any single work can actually encompass.

It must be said that up until 1939, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn most people weren't taking the idea of partition seriously.]] It had existed as something of a speculative concept among the Muslim Elites for quite some time, but the bulk of the subcontinent's population regarded it as fundamentally absurd and wanted nothing to do with it, even Muslims themselves, who saw themselves as fundamentally Indian first and everything else next.

The First Conference was held in November 1930, and was called by UsefulNotes/RamsayMacDonald in the Royal Gallery at the House of Lords in London. The main reason the British even agreed to it was that by that point, India was quickly becoming ungovernable, with the locals [[OccupiersOutOfOurCountry not at all happy]] about being denied representation, equal rights and generally [[EvilColonialist being kicked around and exploited mercilessly]] by the Empire. A number of high-profile assassinations, [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters militant activity]] and small-scale insurgencies were making things explosive, and the high-handedness of the Imperial Police wasn't helping matters in the slightest. Also, [=MacDonald=] (and by extension, most of the Labour Party at the time) was far more favourable to giving the colonies some form of self-government, [[HopeSpot and he figured that he might be able to hammer out a way to ensure the British had their cake and ate it too, while giving the Indians something for the trouble.]]

Needless to say, it didn't work out. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption At All.]]

The British had about 16 representatives at the First Conference, the Indians had about 58 from the British Provinces and 16 from the Princely States. However, most of the Indian delegates weren't leading figures or politicians, but mostly just low-level representatives - [[SarcasmMode for the simple and unsurprising reason]] that most of India's political leadership at that time was rotting in jail due to the Civil Disobedience Movement of the 1930s orchestrated by UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi.

[[UnderStatement To say that it was heavily lopsided in favour of the Princely States and the British is to put it mildly.]] However, some moves forward were made, such as the planning for the setup of a Federal Structure, Provincial Constitutions, Defence Services and all the other factors that go into the development of a Dominion State. The initial plan was that India would eventually turn out like Canada or Australia, with a British Governor-General and a more-or-less local government to run things. So far, so good. Then some bright spark asked about how the Princely States would figure into this calculation. The British suggested that it be built like a [[TheFederation federation]], with a relatively weak centre and relatively strong provinces. The Princely States agreed tentatively, with the condition being that they got to rule their own internal affairs with minimal interference from the Central Government. The Muslim League [[SingleIssueWonk (the only ones actually backing the two-nation theory)]] also agreed to this, figuring that they could create smaller, exclusive Islamic Enclaves which [[StartMyOwn they could then rule as they deemed fit.]]

Naturally, all hell broke loose back in India when the news got out. The people, [[EveryoneHasStandards and damn near every other party than the Muslim League]], threw out the recommendations and demanded a full re-organisation and internal redistricting, with a strong centre and weak states. This demand the Princely States deemed [[NoJustNoReaction unacceptable]], understandably enough, but they engendered very little sympathy from the public, if any at all. This antipathy towards the Princely States was largely because they were seen as a gang of SellOut Lords, who'd compromised their independence for money, so no Indian who wanted self-rule was going to tolerate them. The bitter memory of 1857 also haunted people's minds, when the ancestors of these Lords had [[DividedWeFall fought each other]] instead of the East India Company, resulting in them [[CurbStompBattle getting stomped flat]] by the British later.

Suffice to say, [[ForegoneConclusion things went downhill after that]], and the Conference ended without much getting done other than agreeing that some form of self-government had to be put in. The Princely States and the League pulling those stunts sowed the seeds of mistrust between them and every other Indian political outfit. [[HowWeGotHere And that, for all practical purposes, is where the problems began.]]

The Second Conference was held in September 1931. There were quite a few differences this time around. To begin with, Gandhi and the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, had come to an agreement that the Indian National Congress (at that time, India's leading political party) had to get ''some'' representation, and Gandhi agreed to be their delegate. Also, Labour had lost the elections, and the new government was a Conservative coalition, who were a lot less sanguine about the prospects of giving [[ValuesDissonance "those filthy darkies" any form of representative government]] at all. [[KnowWhenToFoldEm They caved anyway since to not do so would only make matters worse.]]

The composition was more or less similar to the last time, but with fewer representatives from the Princely States, and Gandhi pretty much dominating the scene, along with a number of other prominent political leaders. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It was even more of a mess than the first one.]] Gandhi outright declared that the Congress was the party of All Indians, that the Untouchables (historically the lowest of the low in India's caste system - think the ''Burakumin'' in Japan) were Hindu and shouldn't be discriminated against (something the Untouchables themselves were kind of split on - which would have consequences down the line that India is still grappling with) and that the idea of a weak Centre with such a diverse populace (culturally and confessionally) was ridiculous. He (and by extension, the Congress and most of India's political parties) outright threw out the scheme of separate electorates and special safeguards for minorities.

Needless to say, the British rejected all of Gandhi's proposals out of hand, as did the Princely States and the Muslim League. The representatives of the Untouchables, [[SourSupporter B.R. Ambedkar]], also refused, citing that they would always be seen as second-class citizens no matter what, [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids since he believed that the prejudice against them was too deeply ingrained into India's fabric to be fully cleansed.]] The actual merit of that position is Flame Bait incarnate in India even to this day - suffice to say, do not bring it up in polite company. [[SincerityMode We mean it.]]

At the end of it, the talks effectively ended with the British agreeing to create a system of Communal Awards [[GoldenMeanFallacy (as a compromise solution)]] to the problem of minority representation, with the provision that any free agreement between the parties could be substituted for this award. Other than that, it was nothing but a total deadlock. The failure of talks further polarised the political landscape, and all the parties began bitterly issuing recriminations against each other, with the Muslim League sticking out as the main villains for sabotaging the talks ([[BothSidesHaveAPoint not without good reason]] - they basically obstructed proceedings along with the Princely States in the Conference, leaving Gandhi and the British frustrated).

[[OminousForeshadowing The first incidents of sectarian violence began to break out roughly around this time, as the goon squads of all the major parties began to duke it out.]] However, it was quelled relatively quickly. [[FalseReassurance This time.]]

With the situation rapidly deteriorating, the British called a third conference in November 1932 to try and talk it out. None of the major Indian political parties attended, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere believing it was no use.]] And within Britain, Labour pretty much sat it out, calling it an exercise in futility - and being in the Opposition at that time probably contributed to their antipathy as well. [[HereWeGoAgain Which meant that it was again mostly delegates who were pushovers or British officials.]]

However, the whole thing was riddled with [[InsistentTerminology "safeguards"]] - which was a polite euphemism for saying that the Viceroy had the final say on what would happen and what wouldn't, as opposed to the will of the elected representatives. It was effectively just window-dressing, and made it clear to anyone with a brain that the British had no intention whatsoever of relinquishing power over India and it's peoples. Despite the provisions guaranteeing equality with British laws and customs, as well as equal treatment for Indians on par with the British, there were a hundred ways to undermine those provisions - [[StatusQuoIsGod all at the behest of the Viceroy, of course.]]

The government held the first Provincial Elections from December 1936 to February 1937 in eleven Provinces. The frontier provinces were excluded, since it was full of nothing but warring tribals and border problems with the Afghans, and the British saw no reaosn to give them any ideas. Roughly 30 Million people had acquired the right to vote, of which 15.1 Million actually did. While an extremely restricted franchise, even the political leaders of the time admitted [[FairForItsDay it was better than nothing at all]]. But the real jolts were to come once the results were released.

The Indian National Congress ended up [[LandslideElection forming the governments in nine provinces]], with the Unionist Party (a Sikh representative group) winning the other two provinces. The Muslims League, to its humiliation, [[EpicFail failed to win even a single province]] and ended up with just a little over a hundred seats. [[FromBadToWorse Even worse for them,]] they failed to do well even in areas that were historically Muslim plurality, with the message coming loud and clear that the locals just weren't interested in the Two-Nation theory at all. [[{{Irony}} The only places they won seats at all were in areas that had a minority of Muslims]], and where they could play on [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the fears of being dominated.]] But the bigger take-away was that the electorate in general, didn't care about such esoteric points, and cared more about local issues than anything else. It also showed the League a very uncomfortable truth - that it's members were generally seen as [[UpperClassTwit Aristocrats and Elites]], out of touch with the man on the street.

[[ThisCannotBe To say that the Muslim League took the results badly is to put it mildly.]] They desperately attempted to form some sort of coalition government with the Indian National Congress, citing the Communal Awards and asking them to not nominate any Muslims or minorities except those put forward by the League. The Congress flat out refused to even consider it, since they figured (correctly) that the League was in no position to make demands, and that as the winners of the popular mandate, they could appoint who they damn well pleased.

Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, went into a year-long HeroicBSOD, as did most of the League, being forced to sit in the opposition. Unfortunately for everyone, they drew exactly the wrong lessons out of all of this, and came to the conclusion that the only reason they'd lost was because the majority played spoilsport with them, and the only way to ensure [[MoralMyopia "true justice"]] for Muslims was for them to have not their own state, but their own country. This was the point where the two-nation theory became an inevitability, and set the subcontinent down the path it eventually went.

[[OminousForeshadowing A fresh wave of sectarian violence broke out some time after the polls, and it was a lot more difficult to crush it out this time around.]] Few people paid attention.

The Provinces, understandably upset, agreed to cooperate with the Viceroy only on the condition that Dominion Status or Total Independence was guaranteed after the War was brought to a conclusion. The British Government naturally refused to issue any such assurance. Jinnah, sensing the opportunity to [[TheDogBitesBack get back at the Congress for denying him power]], offered his full and unconditional support to the British Government, and called upon all Muslims to do the same.

But the optics of the move were horrible. What had been nothing more than a political protest had turned into a sectarian issue thanks to British policy and the League's behaviour. Unsurprisingly, the Indians regarded the League as TheQuisling, siding with their hated oppressors instead of standing by their own countrymen for the cause of Freedom. And the fact that it claimed to speak for all Muslims - despite it being blatantly obvious it wasn't - fuelled sectarian violence across the subcontinent. The fact that the optics of the move made it look like more Muslims were joining the Army than Hindus [[RealityIsUnrealistic (in reality, it was the other way round)]] made the situation even worse, with the Muslim Community feeling that they were taking the bulk of the responsibility for fighting, while the Hindus and everyone else were sitting it out.

In 1940 in Lahore, the Muslim League put out a resolution where it affirmed it's backing for the Two-Nation Theory. Jinnah claimed that Muslims and Hindus were irreconcilably different, and that they would never coexist in peace unless they had their own separate nations. This resolution was known as the Pakistan Resolution, and demanded that the Muslim plurality provinces of Bengal, Sindh, Punjab and the Frontier be granted to the League as a separate nation. The hidden implication within the resolution was also that any other area with a Muslim plurality should join them too - [[ChekhovsGun this would become an explosive point later on.]]

It was only at this point that Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy, [[OhCrap realised that the situation had deteriorated too far.]] He offered to guarantee Dominion Status to India from the British Government. [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt Having not taken the Pakistan idea seriously]], Linlithgow supposed that what Jinnah actually wanted was a non-federal arrangement without Hindu domination. To allay Muslim fears of Hindu domination the 'August offer' of 1940 was accompanied with the promise that a future constitution would take the views of minorities into consideration. Unfortunately for him, by that point both the Congress and the League, [[UnstoppableRage irreconcilably opposed to each other and the British]], told him to get stuffed and called the proposals too little, too late. Both sides demanded ''Purna Swaraj'' - '''Total Independence'''. Which meant no British overlordship, not even in name, not even as a face-saving gesture, nothing at all. OccupiersOutOfOurCountry was now the only thing both sides agreed on.

The Congress started off a second round of Civil Disobedience, the height of it being the "Quit India Movement" in 1942. The objective of the movement was pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin self-explanatory]]. Unfortunately for them, the man in charge of Downing Street was one UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, and being the hardline Imperialist that he was, was willing to brook no defiance from anyone, least of all people he considered [[ValuesDissonance his racial inferiors.]] With the Japanese moving up Malaya and the Fall of Singapore, the prospect of losing India was simply too much for the British, and the movement was ruthlessly suppressed, with Martial Law being declared across India, and hundreds of thousands of people being jailed or outright shot out of hand. A combination of malicious neglect and incompetence also resulted in a famine in Bengal, [[{{Irony}} historically a breadbasket of the north]], which made an already horrible situation even worse. Sectarian violence flared up and was aggravated by all of this, resulting in increasing political, social and religious polarization that would have devastating consequences down the line.

Needless to say, the Cripps Mission was [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption doomed to fail from the start]], and that's exactly what happened. The League threw out the idea, saying that it was not addressing their [[SingleIssueWonk Pakistan Resolution]] and the Congress, with most of it's members in jail and adamant about a unified India, also rejected every single proposal, sticking to their [[SingleIssueWonk "''Purna Swaraj'' or Bust"]] platform. The end result was the Congress, effectively immobilized by being in jail until August 1945, could do nothing to stop the violence flaring up across India, which the League kept fanning, with sectarian clashes becoming commonplace as the League's supporters clashed with other right wing groups, further deepening the polarization across the subcontinent.

Needless to say, the British soon began seeing the League as UnwantedAssistance, as did every other political outfit. This WithUsOrAgainstUs mentality would persist, and would go on to be the last step along a bloody path that had been in the making for the past decade.

Despite this, in 1946 there were a series of mutinies of Indian Armed Forces across the subcontinent, the worst being that of the Royal Indian Navy in February 1946 at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Karachi. While all the uprisings were suppressed due to the main political parties playing truant as [[{{Realpolitik}} they were afraid of a strong military undermining them post-Independence]], the British ultimately saw it as the point of no return. The weekly intelligence summary issued on 25 March 1946 admitted that the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force units were no longer trustworthy, and, as far as the Army was concerned, "only day to day estimates of steadiness could be made".

In early 1946, new elections were held in India. With the announcement of the elections the line had been drawn for Muslim voters to choose between a united Indian state or Partition. Earlier, at the end of the war in 1945, the colonial government had announced the public trial of three senior officers of Subhash Chandra Bose's defeated Indian National Army who stood accused of treason. Now as the trials began, the Congress leadership, although it had never supported the INA, [[ChangedMyMindKid chose to defend the accused officers.]] The subsequent convictions of the officers, the public outcry against the convictions, and the eventual remission of the sentences created positive propaganda for the Congress, which enabled it to win the party's subsequent electoral victories in eight of the eleven provinces.

[[HereWeGoAgain The negotiations between the Congress and the Muslim League, however, stumbled over the issue of the Partition.]]

British rule had lost its legitimacy for most Hindus and conclusive proof of this came in the form of the 1946 elections with the Congress winning 91 percent of the vote among non-Muslim constituencies, thereby gaining a majority in the Central Legislature and forming governments in eight provinces, and becoming the legitimate successor to the British government for most Hindus. [[ImpossibleTask Had the British intended to stay in India, the acquiescence of the Indians to British rule would have been in some serious doubt after those election results.]]

The Muslim League won the majority of the Muslim vote as well as most of the reserved Muslim seats in the provincial assemblies, and it also secured all the Muslim seats in the Central Assembly. [[BecomingTheBoast It was finally able to make good on the claim that it and Jinnah alone represented India's Muslims]] - and Jinnah quickly interpreted this vote as a popular demand for [[StartMyOwn a separate homeland]].

The British were desperate at this point, and came up with the Cabinet Mission. Through this mission, Britain hoped to preserve the united India which they and the Congress desired, while concurrently securing the essence of Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan through 'groupings' - [[TechnoBabble what that term meant was never made clear.]] The Cabinet mission scheme encapsulated a federal arrangement consisting of three groups of provinces. Two of these groupings would consist of predominantly Muslim provinces, while the third grouping would be made up of the predominantly Hindu regions. The provinces would be autonomous but the centre would retain control over defence, foreign affairs and communications. [[RefugeInAudacity In essence, it was the same nonsense that the British had hoped to push through at the First Round Table Conference.]]

Needless to say, the League voted in favour of it, and everybody else flat out rejected it. The League was incensed, and proclaimed the 16th of August as [[DeadlyEuphemism "Direct Action Day"]] to [[BlatantLies "peacefully"]] demonstrate the feelings of the League. When asked to specify Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. [[ShutUpKirk When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine.]] Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? [[TroubleEntendre I also am going to make trouble.]]"

Following Jinnah's declaration of 16 August as the Direct Action Day, acting on the advice of R.L. Walker, the then Chief Secretary of Bengal, the Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, requested the Governor of Bengal Sir Frederick Burrows to declare a public holiday on that day. Governor Burrows agreed. [[HopeSpot Walker made this proposal with the hope that the risk of conflicts, especially those related to picketing, would be minimized if government offices, commercial houses and shops remained closed throughout Calcutta on the 16th.]] Unfortunately, the Hindu businesses, and the Hindu community in Bengal in general, [[ShameIfSomethingHappened regarded this as little more than a thinly veiled threat]], and refused to close up shop, defiantly refusing to follow the order.

On the morning of the 16th, Suhrawardy gave a speech to the [[PowderKegCrowd assembled followers]] of the League in Calcutta, preaching that they be restrained in their dealings - [[SarcasmMode but he rather spoilt the effect]] by asserting that till 11 o'clock that morning all the "injured persons" (read - targets of injustice) were Muslims, and the Muslim community had only retaliated in self-defence. The implication went out to the dumber and more bloodthirsty sections of the assembly (many of whom were armed with [[BatterUp sticks]] and knives) that it was an open invitation to disorder. As such, within an hour, massive communal riots flared up all across the city, and would continue [[AnarchyIsChaos the entire week]], in some of the [[RapePillageAndBurn worst atrocities seen till date in the region]] - a record that wouldn't be eclipsed [[FromBadToWorse until a year later.]]

The British were caught completely off-guard by this horrifying turn of events. It must be said that the local authorities, under the League's control, deliberately downplayed the situation, allowing the rioters to go after anyone they didn't like. The targets retaliated, burning down whole districts, [[SerialEscalation which only made the situation worse.]] Finally, the Army had to be mobilised, and the riots were only put down once the [[NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]] were [[GodzillaThreshold sent in.]] The butcher's bill came up to 10,000 dead, Hindu and Muslim alike. [[BeneathNotice Funnily enough, the Europeans and Christians were left alone, as both sides expended their vitriol on each other.]][[note]]To be clear, this wasn't because they didn't want to. It's just that they hated each other more than the Europeans. And that butcher's bill is a conservative estimate.[[/note]]

Needless to say, it effectively made the Partition [[ForegoneConclusion an inevitability.]] Too much blood had been spilled, too many grudges had been made, for any sort of peaceful resolution to come out of it. And the fact that the League had (whether by inaction or deliberate malice) not quelled the rioting made for the worst optics.

-->-- '''Sir David Radcliffe''', in an [[NotSoStoic unusually candid]] moment of [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone reflection]] on the Borders drawn.

By this point, British India was in total chaos. The old Viceroy, Linlithgow, was recalled and [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Field Marshal Archibald Wavell]], was sent in to try and resolve the situation somehow. Mahatma Gandhi also met with Jinnah in September 1944 (several times). Every meeting was described as an exercise in futility, and Gandhi himself remarked that it was [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness testing his patience beyond what he considered possible.]] The fundamental problem was that for Jinnah and the League, Partition had become so much of an ''ideé fixe'' that they were absolutely unwilling to consider any alternatives. Wavell waited long enough, lost his patience and, in one final desperate attempt, called the Shimla Conference in June 1945 to try and see if any headway could be made.

[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It was not to be.]] The Conference descended into chaos on the very first day of the meeting, after Jinnah used some [[ClusterFBomb rather unfortunate language]] against the Congress and Gandhi. Four days later, the Conference was reconvened (mostly to try and let everyone cool off from the exchange on the first day) and Wavell announced that he was setting up a new Council to study the idea of Partition, it's possibilities and what could be done. He asked both sides to submit a list of candidates. The candidates were chosen with a completely sectarian view, the League appointing Muslims and the Congress appointing everyone else. Wavell and the Congress objected to the Leagues's selection, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat at which point Jinnah refused to cooperate until he received explicit affirmation that the League, and the League alone, was representative of India's Muslims.]]

Worse was yet to come. A number of senior leaders had looked over the lands the League was demanding and realized that the League had no idea of the situation on the ground. Where they talked of Muslim Majority provinces, in reality most were just Muslim ''Plurality'' and the overwhelming majority of the populations within most of the regions the League was asking for [[{{Irony}} were non-Muslims]]. Ambedkar noted that the League [[BelievingTheirOwnLies "didn't seem to know what it was doing, or was distorting the facts"]], and that they would get only about half of the regions they'd asked for. [[CassandraTruth As it turned out, he was spot on about that.]]

When the Cabinet Mission had it's first meeting in May of 1946, it unveiled it's intentions to the parties in attendance. The British wanted to keep India and its Army united so as to keep it in their system of 'Imperial Defence' even after granting it Independence - [[DirtyCommunists against the Soviet Union]]. To preserve India's unity, the British held preparatory discussions with the elected representatives of British India and the Indian states so as to secure agreement to the method of framing the constitution, to set up a constitution body and to set up an Executive Council with the support of the main Indian parties. Trouble was, [[SingleIssueWonk Jinnah didn't care.]] The League presented it's own plan, with a partitioned state. [[HereWeGoAgain The plan was rejected by the Cabinet Mission and the talks again ended in failure.]]

The Viceroy began organising the transfer of power to a Congress-League coalition, in an attempt to try and get some kind of consensus going. But in a [[UnusualEuphemism "provocative speech"]] on 10 July 1946 Nehru was quoted in the press as saying "We are not bound by a single thing except that we have decided to go into the Constituent Assembly". By this Nehru effectively "torpedoed" any hope for a united India, [[SelectiveObliviousness or at least that's how the League saw it.]] Having been "duped in such a way", Jinnah withdrew the Muslim League's acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan on 17 July.

Nehru became the head, vice-president in title, [[TheManBehindTheMan but possessing the executive authority.]] [[TheDragon Sardar Vallabhai Patel]] became the home member, responsible for internal security and government agencies. Congress-led governments were formed in most provinces, with the League in control of Sindh and the Bengal. Jinnah and the League condemned the new government, [[TroubleEntendre and vowed to agitate for Pakistan by any means possible.]] Disorder arose in Punjab and Bengal, including the cities of Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. [[RapePillageAndBurn Over 5,000 people were killed across India, and Hindu, Sikh and Muslim mobs began clashing routinely.]] Wavell stalled the Central government's efforts to stop the disorder, and the provinces were instructed to leave this to the governors, [[OrcusOnHisThrone who did nothing to try and stop the violence]] - mostly because they were toothless under the Government of India Act [[HOistByHisOwnPetard that the British had introduced not too long ago.]] To end the disorder and rising bloodshed, Wavell encouraged Nehru to ask the League to enter the government. While Patel and most Congress leaders were opposed to conceding to a party that was organising disorder, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm Nehru conceded in hope of preserving communal peace.]]

League leaders entered the council under the leadership of Liaquat Ali Khan, the future first Prime Minister of Pakistan who became the finance minister, [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering but the council did not function in harmony]], as separate meetings were held by League ministers, [[SpannerInTheWorks and both parties vetoed the major initiatives proposed by the other]], highlighting their ideological differences and political antagonism. At the arrival of the new (and proclaimed as the last) viceroy, Lord Mountbatten of Burma in early 1947, Congress leaders expressed the view that the coalition was unworkable - [[AllForNothing and the one thing they did not want, the Partition, was now an inescapable reality]].

Attlee had appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy, who was given the task to oversee British India's independence by June 1948, with the instruction to avoid partition and preserve a United India, [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords but with adaptational authority to ensure a British withdrawal with minimal setbacks.]] Mountbatten had hoped to revive the Cabinet Mission scheme for a federal arrangement for India, but despite his initial keenness for preserving the Centrality of Power the tense communal situation caused him to conclude that Partition had become necessary for a quicker transfer of power.

However, the Congress, now realizing the inevitability of the task ahead, decided to make it as miserable as possible for the League. In the vindictive words of Sardar Patel and V.P. Menon (his advisor) [[PyrrhicVictory "We will give them nothing but a moth-eaten scrap for what they've done."]] And they had precisely the tools with which to do it.

Between the months of December 1946 and January 1947, Patel worked with Menon on the latter's suggestion for a separate dominion of Pakistan created out of Muslim-majority provinces. Put simply, most of the areas the League had demanded were a Muslim plurality, [[ExactWords but not a majority.]] Which meant that they wouldn't get them, and would only get the Frontier Provinces (bordering Afghanistan) and about half of Bengal - nothing more. In simple terms, Pakistan would have the poorest, fallow, troublesome provinces to rule, and with little hope of improving them with their meagre resources.

Predictably, the League was furious, but Mountbatten had had enough, and told Jinnah in no uncertain terms that he could take what he was being offered, or get nothing at all. The end result was that the League got less than half of the provinces they'd wanted, [[OutGambitted and with everything they desired locked solidly out of their reach.]] Jinnah reportedly just sat in StunnedSilence throughout the subsequent negotiations.

->"''I fully appreciate the fears of our brothers from [the Muslim-majority areas]. [[SadisticChoice Nobody likes the division of India and my heart is heavy. But the choice is between one division and many divisions.]] We must face facts. We cannot give way to emotionalism and sentimentality. The Working Committee has not acted out of fear. But I am afraid of one thing - [[AllForNothing that all our toil and hard work of these many years might go waste or prove unfruitful.]] My nine months in office has completely disillusioned me regarding the supposed merits of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Except for a few honorable exceptions, [[TheQuisling Muslim officials from the top down to the peons are working for the League.]] The communal veto given to the League in the Mission Plan would have blocked India's progress at every stage. Whether we like it or not, de facto Pakistan already exists in the Punjab and Bengal. Under the circumstances I would prefer a de jure Pakistan, which may make the League more responsible. [[HopeSpringsEternal Freedom is coming.]] We have 75 to 80 percent of India, which we can make strong with our own genius. [[SarcasmMode The League can develop the rest of the country.]]''"

Late in 1946, the Labour government in Britain, its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, decided to end British rule of India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere However, with the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence.]] In June 1947, the nationalist leaders, including Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious lines - in stark opposition to Gandhi's views. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal.

[[ChekhovsGun Remember the name we gave to the folder? This is where it becomes significant.]]

Faced with this, but unwilling and unable to spend more time hashing out the situation, the British sent in Sir Cyril Radcliffe to draw out a Partition line based on what data he had available. Radcliffe went on record saying that he knew the maps were out of date - his concerns were dismissed out of hand with the brusque dismissal of "There's no time. Get it done. No excuses." [[RealPolitik The absence of some experts and advisers, such as the United Nations, was deliberate, to avoid delays. The absence of outside participants also satisfied the British Government's urgent desire to save face by avoiding the appearance that it required outside help to govern — or stop governing — its own empire.]]

->''Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. [[DawnOfAnEra At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.]] It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.''

For once, there was little violence. [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing People thronged the streets, rejoicing in their freedom after decades of struggle.]] It was truly the EndOfAnEra, and there was a wave of optimism and joy that had seldom been seen even in the least dark days of Imperial rule. [[HopeSpot Everything seemed possible.]]

The population of undivided India in 1947 was approximately 390 million. After partition, there were 330 million people in India, 30 million in West Pakistan, and 30 million people in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). This figure was soon to change. [[OhCrap All of these events would soon be overshadowed by the carnage that would follow.]]

Those few days of joy were soon punctured by the dawning reality that now ''significant'' populations of minorities were on the sides of the Radcliffe Lines where they shouldn't have been. [[RealPolitik Largely so that they wouldn't have to deal with the situation, the British had deliberately not shared all the details of the Partition Plan to the local authorities, so they wouldn't have to deploy their resources.]] So it wasn't until the lines had been drawn, with no concern for the opinions of the people actually affected by them, that those in the redrawn areas knew which country they were "supposed" to be in. [[RealPolitik The idea was that they could hand over the problem to the new governments, wash their hands off of the whole thing, and then deplore the violence when it inevitably broke out, mostly because the Empire didn't have the resources to deal with it in the aftermath of World War II.]]

[[SincerityMode See the page image? That's should give you some idea of the the state of the fleeing peoples. If you're the sort to get easily depressed, you might want to skip reading the rest of this section.]]

[[SchmuckBait Still here? Don't say we didn't warn you.]]

In panic, many people sold off, or just flat out abandoned, most of their possessions, property and in some cases [[SadisticChoice even their families]], packed up what little they could and began to cross over to what they hoped was safety on the other side of the border. Trouble was, the sectarian tensions stirred up by the League and other right-wing organizations on all sides, along with a near total breakdown of law and order as the British hastily pulled out of several areas, resulted in widespread rioting, looting, arson. Practically every kind of atrocity that could be perpetrated was now unfolding in front of two woefully unprepared nations and an Empire that no longer cared to keep the peace. [[ScyllaAndCharybdis And the refugees found themselves smack dab in the middle of this orgy of violence.]] And those refugee columns were targeted by the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic rioters and right-wing militia]] with extreme prejudice.

Many millions of Muslims packed up and began fleeing towards Pakistan. Even more non-Muslims packed up and began fleeing towards India. ''' '' Upward of 17 Million People crossed over the newly drawn borders '' ''', hoping to find safe haven and set up new lives from the wreckage of their old ones, in what has been described as the greatest mass-migration of human beings in all of recorded history. For reference, the Migrant Crisis of Europe in 2017 involved ''less than 3 Million''.

** '''The Punjab:''' The mostly Muslim western part of the province became Pakistan's Punjab province; the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became India's East Punjab state [[{{UsefulNotes/IndianStatesAndUnionTerritories}} (later divided into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh)]]. Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and the fears of all such minorities were so great that the Partition saw many people displaced and much intercommunal violence. It was little more than retributive genocide, ethnic cleansing and demographic restructuring in the most brutal fashion possible. The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. [[RapePillageAndBurn Estimates of the number of deaths vary, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 2,000,000.]] The worst case of violence during among all regions is concluded to have taken place in the Punjab. [[KillEmAll Virtually no Muslims survived in East Punjab and virtually no Hindus or Sikhs survived in West Punjab.]] Many cities were turned to nothing but piles of rubble and became ghost towns for many years. One of the reasons for the staggering scale of the violence was that most of the people there had been former soldiers or serving troops just returned from World War II. They needed little incentive to erupt into violence, and there were weapons pretty much ''everywhere'' in a thoroughly militarised society. [[NightmareFuel The results can be imagined, and are stomach-turning in the extreme.]]

** '''Bengal:''' The province of Bengal was divided into the two separate entities of West Bengal, awarded to the Dominion of India, and East Bengal, awarded to the Dominion of Pakistan. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan in 1955, and later became the independent nation of {{UsefulNotes/Bangladesh}} after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. While the Muslim majority districts of Murshidabad and Malda were given to India, the Hindu majority district of Khulna and the Buddhist majority, but sparsely populated, Chittagong Hill Tracts were given to Pakistan by the Radcliffe plan. The killings here were less gory and protracted, [[DamnedByFaintPraise but that's not saying much.]]

** '''Sindh:''' Most of Sindh's prosperous middle class at the time of Partition was Hindu. At the time of Partition there were 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis, though most were concentrated in cities such as Hyderabad, Karachi, Shikarpur, and Sukkur. Hundreds of Hindus residing in Sindh were forced to migrate. Some anti-Hindu violence in Sindh was precipitated by the arrival of Muslim refugees from India with minimal local Muslim support for the rioters. Sindhi Hindus faced low scale rioting unlike the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs who had to migrate from West Punjab. [[PowderKegCrowd However, on the 6th of December 1947, communal violence broke out in Ajmer in India, precipitated by an argument between Sindhi Hindu refugees and local Muslims in the Dargah Bazaar.]] Violence in Ajmer again broke out in the middle of December with stabbings, looting and arson resulting in mostly Muslim casualties. Many Muslims fled across the Thar Desert to Sindh in Pakistan. [[SerialEscalation This sparked further anti-Hindu riots in Hyderabad, Sindh.]] On 6th of January 1948, anti-Hindu riots broke out in Karachi, leading to an estimated 1100 casualties. In all, about 776,000 Sindhi Hindus fled to India. [[HereWeGoAgain The arrival of Sindhi Hindu refugees in North Gujarat's town of Godhra sparked the March 1948 riots there which led to an emigration of Muslims from Godhra to Pakistan.]]

** '''Delhi:'''For centuries Delhi had been the capital of the Mughal Empire and of previous Turkic Muslim rulers of North India. The series of Islamic rulers keeping Delhi as a stronghold of their empires left a vast array of Islamic architecture in Delhi and a strong Islamic culture permeated the city. The 1941 Census listed Delhi's population as being 33.22% Muslim. However, thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Punjab poured into the city, fleeing the butchery in the west. [[PowderKegCrowd This created an atmosphere of upheavals as anti-Muslim pogroms rocked the historical stronghold of Indo-Islamic culture and politics.]] Pakistani diplomats alleged that the Indian government was intent on eliminating Delhi's Muslim population or was indifferent to their fate. Most accounts of the Delhi violence put the figure of Muslim casualties in Delhi as being between 20,000–25,000 dead. Tens of thousands of Muslims were driven to refugee camps regardless of their political affiliations and numerous historic sites in Delhi (such as the Purana Qila) were transformed into squalid refugee camps. At the culmination of the tensions in Delhi 330,000 Muslims were forced to flee the city to Pakistan. [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide The 1951 Census registered a drop of the Muslim population in the city from 33.22% in 1941 to 5.33% in 1951.]]

The death toll from the events of the Partition are generally accepted to be somewhere around '''2.5 Million Dead'''. Another '''2.23 Million''' are missing, Hindus and non-Hindus, and are also generally written off as dead, bringing the butcher's bill to roughly '''5 Million'''. Close to '''14 Million''' people were displaced, refugees in either India or Pakistan, and their bitter hatred would form the nucleus of most of India and Pakistan's political hawks, who have ''never'', not ever agreed to peace.

[[TearJerker The refugee trains have never stopped.]] Even now, people routinely flee across the borders. However, since 1971, [[{{Irony}} most of them have been fleeing to India. The flow to Pakistan has all but dried up.]]

->''There is frequent reference to a telegram allegedly sent by the Pakistani raiders to their military headquarters during the invasion of Kashmir in 1948: [[RapePillageAndBurn “All women raped, all Sikhs killed.”]]''

[[FromBadToWorse And this is where it starts getting messier than ever before.]] What, you thought what happened so far was bad? [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids Oh, you innocent naive soul, you.]]

Attentive readers will no doubt remember when we noted in the first folder that the British never controlled more than a third of India at any given time. The rest of India was split up into ''hundreds'' of Princely States, essentially semi-autonomous sections which acknowledged Britain as their suzerain, in exchange for protection and lower taxation, while providing troops and a tithe of their income. [[MeetTheNewBoss Now, with the Empire gone, they had to deal with the newly formed Dominions of India and Pakistan.]]

Most of them had relatively little by way of choice. It was straightforward - [[JoinOrDie join India or Pakistan, or be assimilated forcefully and the Nobles reduced to penury.]] In most cases, there was no resistance. Most were too small and meaninglessly ineffective to put up any real opposition, [[YouWillBeAssimilated and were absorbed without incident into their country of choice.]]

[[SpannerInTheWorks With three exceptions - Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir.]]

All three were headaches of the first magnitude. All of them had rulers who did not share the religious roots of their subjects. Junagadh and Hyderabad were Hindu-majority states with Islamic rulers, and Kashmir was a Muslim-plurality state with a Hindu ruler. [[ImplacableMan Sardar Vallabhai Patel]] used [[ShameIfSomethingHappened merciless coercion]] to include the first two into India - in Junagadh's case with a naval blockade and by instigating a popular uprising against the Nawab (roughly analogous to a European Duke) who fled the region to Pakistan - his Prime Minister was a certain [[YoungFutureFamousPeople Shahnawaz Bhutto]], whose family continues to be a thorn in India's side right up until the present day. Hyderabad was integrated into India through a [[InsistentTerminology "Police Action"]] (in actual fact, a full-scale invasion) and with near universal popular support in the state for it. For these reasons, he's known as [[RedBaron "The Iron Man of India."]]

So instead, he decided that Kashmir would be an independent state. As a strategically located entity of considerable size and economy, Kashmir could pull it off. Less than a year after the choice, this independence was put to the test. Afghan tribal armies known as "Lashkars" began an assault on the Kashmir State Forces in North-West Kashmir near the city of Gilgit. Almost at once, the garrison protecting Gilgit, the Gilgit Scouts, revolted and proclaimed loyalty to Pakistan, which was believed to have supported these lashkars. Soon the nearby vassal states of Hunza and Nagar independently pledged their loyalty to Pakistan as well, and it became clear that the Maharaja's forces were about to be routed. [[AintTooProudToBeg In desperation, Maharaja Hari Singh appealed to India to step in and assist.]]

Jawaharlal Nehru agreed on the condition that Kashmir accede to India. [[KnowWhenToFoldEm Having little choice in the matter]], Hari Singh agreed and soon his state forces were officially absorbed into India, and New Delhi joined the fight. So began the First Kashmir War. This ended early in 1948 in a ceasefire that divided Kashmir in two, with a large chunk of northern Kashmir in Pakistani hands along with a smaller, but more populated, sliver of the western edge of the princely state. [[StatusQuoIsGod This ceasefire line has remained in place since then with little variation.]]

So, to sum up, India and Pakistan went to war with each other within ''two months'' of Partition, over a land dispute which was no doubt inflamed further by the butchery on both sides of the Radcliffe Line. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Welcome to the Subcontinent.]]

-> ''[[PyrrhicVictory India is free but she has not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom....]]''

The Partition's legacy has been immense. More than a billion live in it's shadow, looming over every facet of the subcontinent's politics. India and Pakistan, born in blood and carnage, with endless suspicion and hostility on both sides, both on the Governmental level and even at the public level, [[ThisIsUnforgivable have never forgiven each other.]] [[BlameGame Both sides see each other as responsible for the horrors of the Partition, blaming each other endlessly for the problem.]] The only thing constant about the politics of the subcontinent is this - ''' ''[[RevengeBeforeReason Nothing is forgotten, and Nothing will be forgiven.]]'' '''

Both sides have fought four Wars, and endless insurrections against each other are commonplace. No one even considers the possibility of peace without being declared traitors and worse by their fellow men. Much like the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, this is one of those arguments that has never really gone away, and probably never will until one side or the other ceases to exist. Given the presence of [[{{UsefulNotes/TheThirdEyeOfBharat}} Nuclear]] [[{{UsefulNotes/PakAttack}} Weapons]] on the subcontinent, [[NightmareFuel the horrifying nature of the solution is painfully obvious.]]

[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Every attempt to find peace between the neighbors has ended in abject failure.]] Every time an olive branch is extended, some fresh atrocity breaks out, sparking fury and the resumption of hostilities. Both sides take [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating a perverse pleasure]] in humiliating or bringing down each other in any way possible, no matter how petty or serious. Peace on the subcontinent has always been seen as a TragicDream, a mistake and a folly of a naive WideEyedIdealist who'll be [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids broken to reality]] faster than glass breaking when it is thrown against a rock.

[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It was not to be.]] The Conference descended into chaos [[UpToEleven on the very first day]] of the meeting, after Jinnah used some [[ClusterFBomb rather unfortunate language]] against the Congress and Gandhi. Four days later, the Conference was reconvened (mostly to try and let everyone cool off from the exchange on the first day) and Wavell announced that he was setting up a new Council to study the idea of Partition, it's possibilities and what could be done. He asked both sides to submit a list of candidates. The candidates were chosen with a completely sectarian view, the League appointing Muslims and the Congress appointing everyone else. Wavell and the Congress objected to the Leagues's selection, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat at which point Jinnah refused to cooperate until he received explicit affirmation that the League, and the League alone, was representative of India's Muslims.]]

Many millions of Muslims packed up and began fleeing towards Pakistan. Even more non-Muslims packed up and began fleeing towards India. ''' '' Upward of 17 Million People crossed over the newly drawn borders '' ''', hoping to find safe haven and set up new lives from the wreckage of their old ones, [[UpToEleven in what has been described as the greatest mass-migration of human beings in all of recorded history.]] For reference, the Migrant Crisis of Europe in 2017 involved ''less than 3 Million''.

Needless to say, the League voted in favour of it, and everybody else flat out rejected it. The League [[BerserkButton was incensed]], and proclaimed the 16th of August as [[DeadlyEuphemism "Direct Action Day"]] to [[BlatantLies "peacefully"]] demonstrate the feelings of the League. When asked to specify Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. [[ShutUpKirk When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine.]] Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? [[TroubleEntendre I also am going to make trouble.]]"