Partition

by Barney White-Spunner

  44 Ismay, p.415.

  45 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.167.

  46 The minutes of the Cabinet committee meeting are in ToP, vol. x, No.320, 5 May 1947.

  47 ToP, vol. x, No.290, minutes of the viceroy’s staff meeting, 3 May 1947.

  48 The minutes of the meeting are in ToP, vol. x, No.350, 8 May 1947.

  49 Gandhi’s letter is in ToP, vol. x, No.348, 8 May 1947.

  50 Patel’s AP interview is in ToP, vol. x, No.375.

  51 ToP, vol. x, No.451, Mountbatten’s Personal Report No.7, 15 May 1947.

  52 ToP, vol. x, No.422, Ismay to Mountbatten, 13 May 1947.

  53 Collins & Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India, p.57.

  54 ToP, vol. x, No.402, Nehru to Mountbatten, 11 May 1947.

  55 ToP, vol. x, No.414, Minutes of Viceroy’s Staff Meeting, 12 May 1947.

  56 ToP, vol. x, No.406, Note by Nehru, 11 May 1947.

  57 ToP, vol. x, No.431, Ismay to Mountbatten, 14 May 1947.

  58 ToP, vol x, No.428, Attlee to Mountbatten, 13 May 1947.

  59 Suhrawardy’s correspondence is in ToP, vol. x, Nos.462 and 487, 16 and 19 May 1947.

  60 ToP, vol. x, No.471, Nehru to Mountbatten, 17 May 1947.

  61 ToP, vol. x, No.472, Interview Mountbatten, Nehru and Patel, 17 May 1947.

  62 Mountbatten’s meeting with him is recorded in ToP, vol. x, No.513, 22 May 1947.

  Chapter 6: June

  1 ToP, vol. xi, No.11, Liaquat to Mountbatten, 31 May 1947.

  2 ToP, vol. xi, No.232, Liaquat to Mountbatten, 12 June 1947.

  3 ToP, vol. xi, No.232, Liaquat to Mountbatten, 12 June 1947, and No.234, Ismay to Ghazanfar Ali Khan, 17 Jun 1947.

  4 ToP, vol. xi, No.254, Mountbatten to Ismay, 18 June 1947.

  5 ToP, vol. xi, No.274, Auchinleck to Ismay, 20 June 1947.

  6 Tuker describes the Gurgaon troubles in detail, chapter XXVII.

  7 ToP, vol. xi, No.12, Jenkins to Mountbatten, 31 May 1947.

  8 ToP, vol. xi, No.300, Nehru to Mountbatten, 22 June 1947.

  9 For a full study of the Canal Colonies, which were a fascinating agricultural and social experiment, see Indu Agnihotri’s 1996 paper, ‘Ecology, Land Use and Colonisation: The Canal Colonies of the Punjab’, Centre for Women’s Development Studies.

  10 Kirpalani, Fifty Years with the British, pp.309–10.

  11 Ismay, p.422.

  12 Ismay, p.422, and ToP, vol. xi, No.23, for the full text.

  13 Erskine Crum’s full minutes of this historic meeting are in ToP, vol. xi, No.23, dated 2 June 1947.

  14 ToP, vol. xi, No.24, Gandhi to Mountbatten, 2 June 1947.

  15 V. P. Menon interviewed by Henry Hodson for the BBC 1964.

  16 Ismay, p.424.

  17 ToP, vol. xi, No.28, Administrative Consequences of Partition, 2 June 1947.

  18 Mountbatten’s broadcast, re-agreed with Downing Street, is in ToP, vol. xi, No.44, dated 3 June 1947.

  19 Nehru’s broadcast is in ToP, vol. xi, No.41, and part reproduced by Hodson, p.315.

  20 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.177.

  21 For good coverage of the broadcasts see Hodson, p.315, and ToP, vol. xi, Nos.41–8.

  22 Tuker, p.583.

  23 Tuker, p.302.

  24 Christie, p.102.

  25 The best account of these tortuous negotiations is in Hodson, pp.318–9. They are less well covered in ToP.

  26 Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Massey, MC, ‘Life of an Indian Cavalry Officer’, October 1993, private manuscript.

  27 Prem Bhatia interviewed for the BBC, 30 November 1987.

  28 A. K. Damodaran interviewed by the BBC, 1988. British Library Sound Archive R193/8.

  29 ToP, vol. xi, No.164, Attlee to Major Adeane, 12 June 1947.

  30 ToP, vol. xi, No.182, Listowel to Mountbatten, 13 Jun 1947.

  31 Reuters reporting 23 June 1947.

  32 The full breakdown of the results is in ToP, vol. xi, No.278 for Bengal and No.304 for the Punjab.

  33 ToP, vol. x, No.547, India Office Paper on the Division of the Armed Forces, 27 May 1947.

  34 ToP, vol. xi, No.217, Partition Council, 16 June 1947.

  35 ToP, vol. xi, No.416, Partition Council, dated 30 June 1947 and vol. xii, No.77, dated 11 July 1947.

  36 J. G. Pocock, History of 19th King George V’s Own Lancers, p.92.

  37 D. K. Dalit interviewed by the BBC. British Library Sound Archive R193.

  38 ToP, vol. xi, No.39, Viceroy’s Meeting, 3 June 1947, and No.217, Meeting Special Committee of the Indian Cabinet, dated 16 June 1947.

  39 ToP, vol. xi, No.312, Note by Auchinleck, 23 June 1947.

  40 ToP, vol. xi, No.369, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.10, 27 June 1947.

  41 ToP, vol. xi, No.312, Auchinleck minute, dated 23 June 1947.

  42 Wilkinson, p.9,1 and ToP, vol. xi, No.388, Nehru’s meeting with Montgomery, 24 June 1947.

  43 J. P. Cross, manuscript in possession of the author.

  44 ToP, vol. xi, No.329, Montgomery’s meeting with Jinnah, 24 June 1947.

  45 ToP, vol. xi, No.358, Auchinleck to Mountbatten, 26 June 1947.

  46 ToP, vol. xi, No.506, Viceroy’s Personal Report, 4 July 1947.

  47 ToP, vol. xi, No.274, Auchinleck to Ismay, 20 June 1947.

  48 ToP, vol. xi, No.441, Listowel to Attlee, and No. 445, Churchill to Attlee, dated 1 July 1947.

  49 ToP, vol. xi, No.450, Vellodi to Nehru, 1 July 1947.

  50 ToP, vol. xi, No.164, Attlee to HM the King, 12 June 1947.

  51 ToP, vol. xi, No.387, Mountbatten to Webb, 28 June 1947.

  52 ToP, vol. xi, No.319, Mountbatten to Nehru, 24 June 1947.

  53 ToP, vol. xi, No.96, Mountbatten to Caroe, 6 June 1947.

  54 ToP, vol. xi, No.61, Nehru to Mountbatten, 4 June 1947.

  55 ToP, vol. xi, No.311, Mountbatten to Jinnah, 23 June 1947.

  56 Hodson, p.331.

  57 Erskine-Crum’s paper is reproduced by Hodson, p.333.

  Chapter 7: July

  1 Singh Chopra, 1947: A Soldier’s Story, p.15.

  2 For a full account of the Sylhet Referendum operation, see Singh Chopra, pp.25–54.

  3 ToP, vol. xi, No.369, dated 27 June 1947.

  4 Moon, Strangers in India, p.72.

  5 Moon, Strangers in India, p.76.

  6 Quoted by Moon in Strangers in India, p.80.

  7 Morrow, Highness, p.10.

  8 Moon, Divide and Quit, p.97. Much of the following information about Bahawalpur comes from Chapter VI.

  9 Moon, Divide and Quit, p.101.

  10 ICHR 1947, Part 2, Chapter 38, No.1.

  11 ToP, vol. xii, No.234, Press Communique, 25 July 1947.

  12 Hodson, p.356.

  13 Hodson, p.357.

  14 ToP, vol. xi, No.369, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.10, dated 27 June 1947.

  15 ToP, vol. xii, No.228, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.14, dated 25 July 1947.

  16 ToP, vol. xii, No.201, Bhopal to Mountbatten, 22 July 1947.

  17 ToP, vol. xii, No.228, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.14, dated 25 July 1947.

  18 His accession letter is in ToP, vol. xii, No.284, dated 30 July 1947.

  19 Hodson, p.376.

  20 Copland, The Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, p.229.

  21 ToP, vol. xii, No.317, Listowel to Mountbatten, 1 August 1947.

  22 ToP, vol. xii, No.264, Herbert to Mountbatten, 29 July 1947.

  23 ToP, vol. xi, No.112, Monckton to Mountbatten, 9 June 1947.

  24 ToP, vol. xii, No.390, Monckton to Churchill, 9 August 1947.

  25 The violence in Rampur is described in ICHR, 1947, Part 2, Chapter 43, Nos.1 and 3.

  26 Singh, The House of Marwar, p.179.

  27 Hodson, p.380.

  28 Singh, p.181.

  29 Recounted to the author by Dhananajaya Singh, Hanwant Singh’s descendant, and also recorded in ToP, vol. xii, No.489, dated 16 August 1947.

  30 For good coverage of the Qalat issue see Dr Yaqoob Khan Bangash
, A Princely Affair: Accession and Integration of Princely States in Pakistan 1947–55.

  31 ToP, vol. xii, No.265, Mountbatten to Dholpur, 29 July 1947.

  32 ICHR, 1947, Part 2, Chapter 40, No.35, Gandhi addressing a Prayer Meeting on 29 July 1947.

  33 Morrow, p.8.

  34 Copland, p.236.

  35 ICHR, 1947, Part 2, Chapter 38, No.55.

  36 ICHR, 1947, Part 2, Chapter 40, No.35, Gandhi addressing a Prayer Meeting on 29 July 1947.

  37 ToP, vol. xii, No.302, Viceroy’s Personal Report, 1 August 1947.

  38 ToP, vol. xii, No.302, Viceroy’s Personal Report, 1 August 1947.

  39 ToP, vol. xi, No.229, Nehru set out his thoughts on Kashmir in a long memo to the viceroy on 17 June 1947, from which all these quotes are taken.

  40 ToP, vol. xii, No.262, Minutes by Henderson and Rumbold, 28 July 1947, and No.263, India Office Minute, 28 July 1947.

  41 ToP, vol. xii, No. 340, Mountbatten to Listowel, 4 August 1947.

  42 ToP, vol. xi, No.162, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.9, dated 12 June 1947.

  43 ToP, vol. xii, No.272, Jenkins to Mountabtten, 29 July 1947, and No.292, Jenkins to Mountbatten, 30 July 1947.

  44 ToP, vol. xii, No.148, Auchinleck to Partition Council, 17 July 1947.

  45 The Punjab Boundary Force’s composition is detailed in Rees’s Post Operational Report held by Sussex University Library, SxMs 16 Rees Papers No.1.

  46 The Intelligence Summaries are in the British Library IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4276.

  47 The order is in ToP, vol. xii, No.267, dated 29 July 1947.

  48 ToP, vol. xii, No.169, Listowel to Mountbatten, dated 18 July 1947.

  49 ToP, vol. xii, No.302, Viceroy’s Personal Report, 1 August 1947.

  50 ToP, vol. xii, Nos.287, Minutes of Viceroy’s Miscellanuous Meeting, 30 July 1947, and No.302, Viceroy’s Personal Report No.15, 1 August 1947.

  Chapter 8: August

  1 Christie, p.63.

  2 Christopher Beaumont, ‘The Partition of India’, private papers in possession of his son.

  3 Christopher Beaumont, A Judge Remembers, Andrew Roberts, BBC Radio 4, IWM 14577/2/1-2.

  4 See Note 2 above.

  5 Beaumont interviewed by a luckless Belgian interviewer, whom he treated roughly, for an unknown radio programme. British Library Sound Archive C63/89-93 and quoted by kind permission of the Beaumont family.

  6 ToP, vol. xii, No.337, Jenkins to Mountbatten, dated 4 August 1947.

  7 ToP, vol. xii, No.345, Punjab CID Report, dated 5 August 1947.

  8 Kirpalani, pp.319–21.

  9 Letter, dated 7 August 1947, Rees Papers, Sussex University Library, SxMs 16/2.

  10 Report of the Punjab Boundary Force, 15 November 1947. British Library IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4319.

  11 Moon, Divide and Quit, pp.95–6.

  12 ToP, vol. xii, No. 459, Jenkins to Mountbatten, 13 August 1947; No.484, dated 13 August 1947; and No.448, dated 12 August 1947.

  13 Hawthorn’s report is in ToP, vol. xii, No.432, dated 11 August 1947.

  14 V. P. Menon interviewed by Henry Hodson, BBC Radio, 12 September 1964.

  15 Tuker, p.407.

  16 The Daily Telegraph published an account of this incident in February 1992 based on Beaumont’s papers. He wrote two accounts, ‘The Partition of India’ and ‘The Truth of the Partition of the Punjab in August 1947’. Both have been kindly made available to the author by his son, Robert Beaumont. Originally deposited in All Souls, Christopher Beaumont decided to publish when Mountbatten’s Private Secretary, Sir George Abell, died in 1989, the only other man whom he thought knew the true story. Beaumont had also made his papers available to his grandson who was reading history at Oxford; he reproduced his grandfather’s account in his exam papers only to be marked down. ‘It is a mistake’, Christopher Beaumont noted, ‘to know more about the subject than the examiners.’

  17 For fuller public coverage of the Ferozepore issue, listen to Christopher Beaumont, A Judge Remembers, Andrew Roberts, BBC Radio 4, IWM 14577/2/1-2.

  18 ToP, vol. xii, No.489, Viceroy’s Personal Report, 16 August 1947.

  19 Christie, p.106.

  20 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, pp.225–6

  21 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, pp.228–9

  22 Christie, p.106.

  23 ToP, vol. xii, No.489, Viceroy’s Personal Report, dated 16 August 1947.

  24 The Times, 15 August 1947.

  25 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.229.

  26 Kushwant Singh interviewed by the BBC World Service British Library Sound Archive C991/13.

  27 Kushwant Singh, C991/13.

  28 Daily Telegraph, 15 August 1947.

  29 Collins & Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight, p.317.

  30 Daily Telegraph, 15 August 1947.

  31 Ismay, pp.434–5.

  32 ToP, vol. xii, No.489, Mountbatten to Listowel, 16 August 1947.

  33 Tuker, p.413.

  34 Daily Telegraph, 15 August 1947.

  35 The Times, 15 August 1947.

  36 J. P. Cross’s personal reminiscences shared with the author.

  37 Behr, pp.54–7.

  38 Pocock, p.92.

  39 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, pp.220–1.

  40 Collins & Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight, p.323.

  41 The Radcliffe Awards are reproduced in full in ToP, vol. xii, No.488, dated 12 August 1947.

  42 The minutes of the Boundary Commissions Award Conference are at ToP, vol. xii, No.487, dated 16 August 1947.

  43 Quoted in BBC documentary India-Pakistan Partition 1947 (2007), edited by Tarun Rajpoot.

  44 See Note 16 above.

  45 PBF Post Operation Report, 15 November 1947, p.9. British Library, IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4319.

  46 Bristow, p.153.

  47 Abdul Haq talking to BBC Radio 4 in 2000. Imperial War Museum Sound Archive 31490. In 1961 he came to England to find an older brother and ended up living in Leeds.

  48 Rees’s notes taken at the conference; SxMs16, 15 August 1947.

  49 Bristow, p.163.

  50 Bristow, p.165.

  51 Moon, Divide and Quit, pp.134–5.

  52 Collins & Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight, p.361.

  53 Collins & Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight, p.363.

  54 Taken from Collins & Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight, pp.367–8.

  55 John Moores talking in BBC documentary India-Pakistan Partition 1947 (2007).

  56 Naffese Chohan, a retired shopkeeper from Nottingham, talking to BBC Radio Cleveland. British Library Sound Archive C900/01580.

  57 Kirpalani, p.342.

  58 BBC documentary India-Pakistan Partition 1947 (2007).

  59 Rees Papers, SxMs 16, Notebook, 27 August 1947.

  60 Rees Papers SxMs 16, Notebook, 25 August 1947.

  61 Bristow, p.168.

  62 Rees Papers, SxMs16, 25 August 1947.

  63 Rees Papers, SxMs 16, 30 August 1947.

  64 Rees Papers, SxMs 16, 27 August 1947.

  65 Punjab Boundary Force Post Operation Report, 15 November 1947, p.18. British Library IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4319.

  Chapter 9: September

  1 Tuker, p.427, after talking to employers in Calcutta.

  2 Tuker p. 427.

  3 Indian Express, 1 July 1997, Gopal Mukherjee interviewed by Andrew Whitehead.

  4 The 1 September Calcutta riot is well covered by Tuker, pp.424–8, from where these quotes are taken.

  5 Singh Chopra, pp.55–6.

  6 V. P. Menon quoted by Singh Chopra, p.57.

  7 Paddy Massey interview, IWM Sound Archive 19975.

  8 Kirpalani, p.330.

  9 Kirpalani, p.331.

  10 Ismay, pp.434–6.

  11 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.244.

  12 James Cameron interviewed. British Library Sound Archive C1398/1368.

  13 Ismay, p.438.

  14 Behr, pp.59–63.

  15 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.246.

  16 Guardian, 1 September 1947.

  17 Christopher Beaumont,
A Judge Remembers, Andrew Roberts, BBC Radio 4, IWM 14577/2/1-2.

  18 Tuker, p.495.

  19 Tuker, p.494.

  20 Dhillon talking on BBC documentary India-Pakistan Partition 1947 (2007).

  21 Moon, Divide and Quit, p.217.

  22 Gurdeep Singh interviewed for the Amritsar Partition Museum.

  23 Maynard Hastings Pockson, interviewed by Conrad Wood. Imperial War Museum Sound Archive 10632.

  24 Kirpalani, pp.328–9.

  25 Singh Chopra, p.201.

  26 Ismay, p.441.

  27 Tuker quoting a Dogra officer, pp.486–7.

  28 Bristow, p.182.

  29 Ismay, pp.438–9.

  30 Lawrence James, Raj, p.637.

  31 British Library Sound Archive C900/01580.

  32 British Library IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4319, p.32.

  33 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.239, quoting Hindustan Times, 27 August 1947.

  34 Bristow, p.168, quoting Humphrey Evans’s Thimayya of India: A Soldier’s Life.

  35 Auchinleck to Mountbatten, dated 13 September 19. Quoted by Hamid in Disastrous Twilight, pp.249–50.

  36 Alexander Greenwood, Field Marshal Auchinleck.

  37 Mountbatten to Auchinleck, 26 September 1947, quoted by Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, pp.254–8.

  38 Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p.265.

  39 Tuker, pp.455–9, quoting press reports.

  40 Ismay, p.442.

  41 Tuker, p.453.

  42 Bolitho, p.200, quoting Messervy.

  43 Tuker, p.455.

  44 Hindustan Standard, 26 September 1947.

  45 Hansard, 27 September 1947.

  Chapter 10: October

  1 Bolitho, Jinnah, p.209.

  2 Birnie’s proper name was Colonel Eugene St John Birnie, Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force), born 1900.

  3 Bolitho, p.213. Bolitho’s is an engaging account. He was evidently very fond of Jinnah and he does occasionally stray into hagiography.

  4 Bolitho, p.197.

  5 Bolitho, p.198.

  6 Alice Faiz interviewed in Lahore, 11 October 1995, by Andrew Whitehead. SOAS Library, India: A People Partitioned OA3.

  7 Saleem Siddiqi interviewed by the BBC. British Library Sound Archive C900.

  8 Moon, Divide and Quit, pp.228–9.

  9 Symonds, The Making of Pakistan, pp.99–100.

  10 Chatterji, The Spoils of Partition, p.159.

  11 The most important studies are by Professor Joya Chatterji whose The Spoils of Partition (Cambridge, 2007) is the determining work.

  12 Hodson, p.420.

  13 Ghosh, The Moments of Bengal Partition, pp.12 and 27.

  14 Exact figures remain hard to determine. Those given here come from the respective Indian and Pakistani censuses of 1951, corroborated by Chatterji, pp.105–6.