Here are some facts about India's independence and partition:
1) In early 1947 British Prime Minster Clement Atlee announced that Britain would leave India no later than June 1948. The decision came after years of dissatisfaction and non-violent resistance, termed 'satyagraha' by Mahatma Gandhi.
2) Newly-appointed viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, oversaw the birth of the modern states of India and Pakistan. They came into being at midnight on August 15 1947, as astrologers could not decide on an auspicious date. Mountbatten attended one transfer of power ceremony in Karachi on the morning of the 14th, and another at 11 pm in Delhi. Pakistan's Independence Day is August 14, India's is August 15.
3) The border was drawn by a London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. Appointed head of the Boundary Commission on June 3 1947, he submitted his partition map on August 13. The Radcliffe Award split Pakistan into two separate areas, East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh,) and West Pakistan, with India in between.
4) Millions found themselves on the 'wrong side' of the border after August 1947's Indian Independence Act. An estimated 14.5 million people crossed the border in the months immediately after partition. Hundreds of thousands were killed in resulting clashes.
5) The ruler of the autonomous Jammu and Kashmir princely state had not decided which side to join by August 1947. Pakistan still believes the state should have become part of Pakistan, because the majority of its population is Muslim. But the Hindu Maharaja finally agreed to join India in October 1947.
1) In early 1947 British Prime Minster Clement Atlee announced that Britain would leave India no later than June 1948. The decision came after years of dissatisfaction and non-violent resistance, termed 'satyagraha' by Mahatma Gandhi.
3) The border was drawn by a London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. Appointed head of the Boundary Commission on June 3 1947, he submitted his partition map on August 13. The Radcliffe Award split Pakistan into two separate areas, East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh,) and West Pakistan, with India in between.
4) Millions found themselves on the 'wrong side' of the border after August 1947's Indian Independence Act. An estimated 14.5 million people crossed the border in the months immediately after partition. Hundreds of thousands were killed in resulting clashes.
5) The ruler of the autonomous Jammu and Kashmir princely state had not decided which side to join by August 1947. Pakistan still believes the state should have become part of Pakistan, because the majority of its population is Muslim. But the Hindu Maharaja finally agreed to join India in October 1947.
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