MOUNTBATTEN AND “MOTH-EATEN PAKISTAN:” A CASE STUDY OF THE PARTITION OF PUNJAB
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Abstract
Lord Mountbatten as Governor General of India was assigned to wrap up the British imperial structure and undertake partition. He held meetings with the leaderships of both Congress and Muslim League but failed to convince them. Mountbatten then reached an understanding with Jawharlal Nehru secretly and formulated the 3rd June Plan which was approved by the British government for the partition of India along with the partition of Punjab and Bengal. Two boundary commissions under the chairmanship of Sir Cyril Radcliffe were formed to demarcate the boundaries of Punjab and Bengal. He was assisted in his work by the four High Court judges from each of both the provinces. The commissions within a six week time submitted their reports on 9 August 1947. Despite commitments, Mountbatten not only influenced the commissions but also offered changes to please Nehru. After the announcement of Boundary Award on 16 August 1947, the two major communities of Muslims and Sikhs in Punjab totally rejected it. While in Bengal, the reaction was comparatively mild. Punjab became the hub of communal tension because Mountbatten had given a truncated and a moth-eaten Pakistan and Jinnah called it an unjust, perverse and incomprehensible award. This article will mainly focus on Mountbatten’s role in the unjust division of Punjab which caused massacre, migration and Kashmir and water issues in future. The current research focuses the question that the way Pakistani Leadership blamed Mountbatten for his decisive role, was he really responsible for all the happenings?
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