Mountbatten Radcliffe And Riots
I was not even aware of kashmir radcliffe said.
Mountbatten radcliffe and riots. Radcliffe was given the chairmanship of the two boundary committees set up with the passing of the indian independence act. The allegation of pakistanis was that mountbatten put pressure on radcliffe to give india firozepur and zira tehsils to provide a link with jammu and kashmir. Mountbatten made the decision to leave india in 1947 rather than 1948 decided to accelerate independence because of the increasing communal violence in 1946 there were riots caused by the muslim leagues direct action day. To decide the fate of 400 million indians and draw lines of division on poorly made maps mountbatten brought in cyril radcliffe a barrister who had never set foot in india before then and would.
Abul kalam azad expressed concern over the likelihood of violent riots to which mountbatten replied. Mountbattens formula was to divide india and at the same time retain maximum possible unity. I heard about it long after i returned to london. When mountbatten announced the partition the line fly through punjab and bengal.
Learning of this mountbatten arranged lunch for radcliffe and persuaded him to alter this position in favour of india under pressure from nehru. At least on this question i shall give you complete assurance. He was faced with the daunting task of drawing the borders for the new nations of pakistan and india in a way that would leave as many hindus and sikhs in india and muslims in pakistan as possible. Millions started migrating from the places where lived for decades and generationsover 15 million people migrated and nearly 1 millions died on riots.
I shall see to it that there is no bloodshed and riot. I am a soldier and not a civilian. Mountbatten concluded that the situation was too volatile to wait even a year before granting independence to india. Whom to be blamed lets look from everyones side.
His arrival saw large scale communal riots in delhi bombay and rawalpindi. The radcliffe line was the boundary demarcation line between the indian and pakistani portions of the punjab and bengal provinces of british indiait was named after its architect sir cyril radcliffe who as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissions for the two provinces received the responsibility to equitably divide 175000 square miles 450000 km 2 of territory with 88 million.