partition of Punjab

Proposals for partitioning Punjab had been made starting in 1908. Its proponents included the Hindu leader Bhai Parmanand, Congress leader Lala Lajpat Rai, industrialist G. D. Birla, and various Sikh leaders.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}} After the 1940 Lahore resolution of the Muslim League demanding Pakistan, B. R. Ambedkar wrote a 400-page tract titled Thoughts on Pakistan.{{citation |last=Ambedkar |first=Bhimrao Ramji |title=Thoughts on Pakistan |year=1941 |publisher=Thacker and company |location=Bombay |orig-year=first published 1940 |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.50130/2015.50130.Pakistan-Or-Partition-Of-India |ref={{sfnref|Ambedkar, Thoughts on Pakistan |1941}}}} In the tract, he discussed the boundaries of Muslim and non-Muslim regions of Punjab and Bengal. His calculations showed a Muslim majority in 16 western districts of Punjab and non-Muslim majority in 13 eastern districts. He thought the Muslims could have no objection to redrawing provincial boundaries. If they did, "they [did] not understand the nature of their own demand".{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|p=73–76}}{{harvnb|Dhulipala, Creating a New Medina|2015 |pp=124, 134, 142–144, 149}}: "Thoughts on Pakistan 'rocked Indian politics for a decade'."

The Punjab region in 1947 consisted of two political entities—the Punjab Province, under direct British rule, and the Punjab States Agency, consisting of the self-governing princely states of the region. Under the Indian Independence Act 1947, the rulers of the princely states were to decide the fate of their state; while the directly ruled province's status was to be decided prior to independence under British supervision.

File:Punjab_1909.jpg

In 1911, Punjab Province had a Muslim majority, forming 50.8 percent of the total population;{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/saoa.crl.25393788 |jstor=saoa.crl.25393788 |access-date=21 June 2025 |title=Census of India 1911. Vol. 14, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables. |year=1911}}{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.62718 |access-date=21 June 2025 |title=Census Of India 1911 Punjab Vol XIV Part II |year=1911 |author=Kaul, Harikishan}} by 1941 – the final census conducted prior to partition – the population shared increased slightly to 53.2 percent. Most Muslims were concentrated in western Punjab; while the non-Muslim population was mainly concentrated in eastern Punjab. Prior to the actual partition, religious violence erupted across the province in late-1946 and early-1947, highlighted by the 1947 Rawalpindi massacres, with riots occurring in major cities including Lahore, Amritsar, Rawalpindi and other parts of Punjab. This was one of the earliest large-scale instances of communal violence leading up to the partition.

By March 1947 when the new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten arrived, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal had not abated. With the British Army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, Mountbatten wanted to advance the date for independence and the transfer of power.{{cite web|title=Indian Independence|url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/|website=British Library: Help for Researchers|publisher=British Library|access-date=2 August 2014|quote=portal to educational sources available in the India Office Records|archive-date=11 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811194426/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/|url-status=dead}} On 2 March 1947, the Punjab Provincial Assembly convened, and the resolution for the partition of Punjab was formally presented. Another view that had arisen within the All-India Muslim League was to keep Punjab unified and incorporate the entire Muslim-majority province into Pakistan including its non-Muslim-majority eastern half. Muhammad Ali Jinnah presented the idea of an autonomous Sikh-majority eastern Punjab within Pakistan, but the plan was rejected by the Shiromani Akali Dal and Indian National Congress.

In June 1947 the nationalist leaders, including Nehru representing the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, and Baldev Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country and Mountbatten was able to rush the British withdrawal forward.{{citation|last = Geva| first = Rotem|title=Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital|location = Stanford, California|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2022|page=113|isbn=9781503631199|lccn=2021051794|quote=On June 3 Mountbatten made his historic announcement that British withdrawal would take place much earlier, on August 15, 1947, and would effectuate the partition of India. Once Nehru, Jinnah, and the Sikh leader Baldev Singh publicly endorsed the plan, the way was paved for a rushed withdrawal}} One month later, on 22 July 1947, the assembly voted with 73 votes in favour of partition and 62 votes against it. With the passing of the resolution for partition of the province, the Punjab Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe was to demarcate Punjab into two provinces. 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.{{cite web|title=The Road to Partition 1939–1947|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/|website=Nationalarchives.gov.uk Classroom Resources|publisher=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214075020/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/ |access-date=2 August 2014|archive-date=14 February 2015 }}

File:Punjabdoabs1.jpgs of the Punjab region {{circa|1947}}.]]

In early 1947, in the months leading up to the deliberations of the Punjab Boundary Commission, the main disputed areas appeared to be in the Bari and Bist doabs. Some areas in the Rechna doab were claimed by the Congress and Sikhs. In the Bari doab, the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, and Montgomery were all disputed.{{harvnb|Spate|1947|pp=126–137}} All districts (other than Amritsar, which was 46.5% Muslim) had Muslim majorities; albeit, in Gurdaspur, the Muslim majority, at 51.1%, was slender. At a smaller area-scale, only three tehsils (sub-units of a district) in the Bari doab had non-Muslim majorities: Pathankot, in the extreme north of Gurdaspur, which was not in dispute; and Amritsar and Tarn Taran in Amritsar district. Nonetheless, there were four Muslim-majority tehsils east of Beas-Sutlej, in two of which Muslims outnumbered Hindus and Sikhs together.

Before the Boundary Commission began formal hearings, governments were set up for the East and the West Punjab regions. Their territories were provisionally divided by "notional division" based on simple district majorities. In both the Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary Commission consisted of two Muslim and two non-Muslim judges with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as a common chairman. The mission of the Punjab commission was worded generally as: "To demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of Punjab, based on ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will take into account other factors." Each side (the Muslims and the Congress/Sikhs) presented its claim through counsel with no liberty to bargain. The judges, too, had no mandate to compromise, and on all major issues they "divided two and two, leaving Sir Cyril Radcliffe the invidious task of making the actual decisions."

{{main|Radcliffe Line}}

A crude border had already been drawn up by Lord Wavell, the viceroy of India prior to his replacement as viceroy, in February 1947, by Lord Louis Mountbatten. In order to determine exactly which territories to assign to each country, in June 1947, Britain appointed Sir Cyril Radcliffe to chair two boundary commissions—one for Bengal and one for Punjab.{{cite web|title=Peacocks at Sunset|url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/peacocks-at-sunset/|website=Opinionator: Borderlines|publisher=The New York Times|access-date=15 July 2012|author=Frank Jacobs|date=3 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120714183923/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/peacocks-at-sunset/|archive-date=14 July 2012|url-status=live}}

The commission was instructed to "demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of the Punjab on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will also take into account other factors."Mansergy Other factors were undefined, giving Radcliffe leeway, but included decisions regarding "natural boundaries, communications, watercourses and irrigation systems", as well as socio-political consideration.{{harvnb|Read & Fisher, The Proudest Day|1998|p=483}} Each commission also had four representatives—two from the Indian National Congress and two from the Muslim League. Given the deadlock between the interests of the two sides and their rancorous relationship, the final decision was essentially Radcliffe's.

After arriving in India on 8 July 1947, Radcliffe was given just five weeks to decide on a border. He soon met with his fellow college alumnus Mountbatten and travelled to Lahore and Calcutta to meet with commission members, chiefly Nehru from the Congress and Jinnah, president of the Muslim League.{{harvnb|Read & Fisher, The Proudest Day|1998|pp=482–483}} He objected to the short time frame, but all parties were insistent that the line be finished by the 15 August British withdrawal from India. Mountbatten had accepted the post as viceroy on the condition of an early deadline.{{harvnb|Read & Fisher, The Proudest Day|1998|p=418}}: "He wrote to then Prime Minister Clement Attlee, 'It makes all the difference to me to know that you propose to make a statement in the House, terminating the British 'Raj' on a definite and specified date; or earlier than this date, if the Indian Parties can agree a constitution and form a Government before this.'" The decision was completed just a couple of days before the withdrawal, but due to political considerations, not published until 17 August 1947, two days after the grant of independence to India and Pakistan.

The boundary commission's final report for the partition was submitted by Cyril Radcliffe to Viceroy Lord Mountbatten on 13 August 1947; and was announced by the viceroy on 17 August 1947.

Punjab was officially divided into two provinces, with the west incorporated into Pakistan and the east into India. The territorial demarcation was as following:

East Punjab: Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jullundur, Kangra, Ludhiana, Ferozepore, Ambala, Karnal, Rohtak, Hissar, Gurgaon, Simla District, Gurdaspur district—only including Gurdaspur, Batala, Pathankot tahsils (except Shakargarh Tehsil), and Patti, Khemkaran town with 186 villages of Kasur tehsil of Lahore district.

West Punjab: Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Attock, Shahpur, Lyallpur, Jhang, Multan, Montgomery, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Shakargarh Tehsil of Gurdaspur district, Lahore District—only including Lahore Tahsil, Chunian Tehsil, and Kasur town, with the remaining 136 villages of Kasur Tehsil.

The Radcliffe Commission, tasked with assigning each district to either Pakistan or India, announced its award on 17 August 1947, two days after the transfer of power.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} It divided the Sikh-dominated regions of the Punjab in equal proportion between the two dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Sikh groups, which had feared the worst, had been preparing to mount a vigorous opposition to the award.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

To counter the expected violence, the British Raj government had formed a 50,000-strong Indian Boundary Force. When the violence began, the Force proved ineffectual. Most units, which had been recruited locally, had stronger ties to one or other of Punjab's three religious' groups, rendering them unable to maintain neutrality under stress.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Within days of the Boundary Commission's award, large-scale communal violence broke out on both sides of the new border.{{cite web|title=The Road to Partition 1939–1947|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/|website=Nationalarchives.gov.uk Classroom Resources|publisher=National Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214075020/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/ |access-date=2 August 2014|archive-date=14 February 2015 }} Long columns of refugees began moving east and west in search of safety in the newly formed dominions.{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs engaged in retaliatory attacks as the situation descended into widespread chaos, marked by brutal atrocities; lines of civilians and oxcarts traveling in both directions were attacked and overwhelmed while refugee trains were intercepted, and their occupants killed, regardless of age or gender{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}} – the 1947 Amritsar train massacre and the 1948 Gujrat train massacre being amongst the most infamous examples. By September 1947, the arrival of Hindu refugees from West Punjab into Delhi unsettled the established Muslim community and temporarily destabilized the newly formed Indian government.Spear 1990 - [https://archive.org/details/historyofindiavo00perc/page/238/mode/2up?view=theater 238-239 page of History of India part -2]{{sfn|Spear|1990|p=238}}

The violence in the Punjab has been described by some scholars as a 'retributive genocide' between the religions.{{cite web|url=http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|title=The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes|first=Paul R.|author-link=Paul Brass|date=2003|publisher=Carfax Publishing: Taylor and Francis Group|pages=81–82 (5(1), 71–101)|quote=In the event, largely but not exclusively as a consequence of their efforts, the entire Muslim population of the eastern Punjab districts migrated to West Punjab and the entire Sikh and Hindu populations moved to East Punjab in the midst of widespread intimidation, terror, violence, abduction, rape, and murder.|last=Brass|work=Journal of Genocide Research|access-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319072448/http://faculty.washington.edu/brass/Partition.pdf|archive-date=19 March 2015|url-status=dead}} The Pakistani government claimed that 50,000 Muslim women were abducted and raped by Hindu and Sikh men and similarly the Indian government claimed that Muslims abducted and raped 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|title=Violent Belongings: Partition, Gender, and National Culture in Postcolonial India|last=Daiya|first=Kavita|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59213-744-2|pages=75|quote=The official estimate of the number of abducted women during Partition was placed at 33,000 non-Muslim (Hindu or Sikh predominantly) women in Pakistan, and 50,000 Muslim women in India.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=P7a-FuiMcTYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA75|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|title=Revisiting India's Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics|last1=Singh|first1=Amritjit|last2=Iyer|first2=Nalini|last3=Gairola|first3=Rahul K.|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4985-3105-4|pages=14|quote=The horrific statistics that surround women refugees-between 75,000–100,000 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh women who were abducted by men of the other communities, subjected to multiple rapes, mutilations, and, for some, forced marriages and conversions-is matched by the treatment of the abducted women in the hands of the nation-state. In the Constituent Assembly in 1949 it was recorded that of the 50,000 Muslim women abducted in India, 8,000 of then were recovered, and of the 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women abducted, 12,000 were recovered.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113610/https://books.google.com/books?id=tmA0DAAAQBAJ&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|title=Women and the Politics of Violence|last=Abraham|first=Taisha|publisher=Har-Anand Publications|year=2002|isbn=978-81-241-0847-5|pages=131|quote=In addition thousands of women on both sides of the newly formed borders (estimated range from 29,000 to 50,000 Muslim women and 15,000 to 35,000 Hindu and Sikh women) were abducted, raped, forced to convert, forced into marriage, forced back into what the two States defined as 'their proper homes,' torn apart from their families once during partition by those who abducted them, and again, after partition, by the State which tried to 'recover' and 'rehabilitate' them.|access-date=24 October 2021|archive-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116113853/https://books.google.com/books?id=cm4PBNdaFjYC&q=50+000+Muslim+women+partition&pg=PA131|url-status=live}} The two governments agreed to repatriate abducted women and thousands of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women were repatriated to their families in the 1950s.

Mountbatten's decision to hasten the transfer of power has received both praise and criticism over the years. Supporters feel that an early transfer had the effect of forcing Indian politicians into abandoning petty quarrels and accepting their obligations in stopping an outrage that Great Britain was no longer able to control. Critics feel that if the British had stayed on for another year, had institutions in place for a transition, had the army readied in troublesome areas, a less violent transfer might have resulted.{{sfn|Metcalf|Metcalf|2006|p=220}}

The most significant consequence of partition in relation to demography was the sudden shift towards religious homogeneity that occurred in all districts across Punjab owing to the new international border that cut through the province in 1947. This rapid demographic shift between the 1941 census and 1951 census was primarily due to wide scale migration between 1946 and 1948, but also caused by large-scale religious cleansing riots which were witnessed across the region at the time. According to historical demographer Tim Dyson, in the eastern regions of Punjab that ultimately became Indian Punjab following independence, districts that were 66% Hindu in 1941 became 80% Hindu in 1951; those that were 20% Sikh became 50% Sikh in 1951. Conversely, in the western regions of Punjab that ultimately became Pakistani Punjab, all districts became almost exclusively Muslim by 1951.{{sfn|Dyson|2018|pp=188–189}}

A direct result of the religious cleansing that accompanied the partition of Punjab, stark religious demographic shifts occurred as noted above, documented by the 1941 and 1951 censuses in west and east Punjab. By 1951, the Muslim population in Indian Punjab numbered 300,246 persons (1.8%) in contrast with a population of approximately 5,237,584 persons (30.9%) in 1941.{{efn|name=EastPunjab1941}} Similarly, the 1951 census in Pakistani Punjab recorded a Hindu population of 33,052 persons (0.2 percent) as opposed to a population that numbered 2,373,466 persons (13.7%) in 1941.{{efn|name=WestPunjab1941}} Additionally, the Sikh and Jain populations numbered 1,530,112 persons (8.8%) and 9,520 persons (0.1%) respectively in 1941;{{efn|name=WestPunjab1941}} neither religious community was enumerated in the 1951 census of Pakistani Punjab as the combined population had declined to a negligible level – only 35 persons (0%) were classified as "other" in the entire province.

Exact religious population figures for 1941 relative to post-partition Indian and Pakistani Punjab borders are not available due to administrative complexities; granular and detailed sub-tehsil demographic data and statistics did not form part of the 1941 census – Kasur Tehsil in Lahore District was split between India and Pakistan; Patti sub-tehsil (including the town of Patti, Khemkaran and 186 nearby villages) fell on the eastern side of the Radcliffe Line, in contemporary India. The remaining area of Kasur sub-tehsil (136 villages) fell on the western side of the Radcliffe Line, in contemporary Pakistan.

The 1951 census revealed significant refugee movement due to the partition; 25% of Pakistani Punjab's population was born in India, while 16% of Indian Punjab's population was born in Pakistan.{{sfn|Dyson|2018|p=188}}

• Partition of Bengal (1947)

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Dyson|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Dyson|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8}}
• {{citation|last1=Metcalf|first1=B.|last2=Metcalf|first2=T. R.|author1-link=Barbara Metcalf|author2-link=Thomas R. Metcalf|year=2006|title=A Concise History of Modern India|edition=2nd|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-68225-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuESgYNYPl0C}}
• {{Citation |last1=Read |first1=Anthony |last2=Fisher |first2=David |date=1998 |title=The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60qjQgAACAAJ |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393045949 |ref={{sfnref|Read & Fisher, The Proudest Day|1998}}}}
• {{citation|last=Spear|first=Percival|author-link=Percival Spear|title=History of India, Volume 2: From the sixteenth century to the twentieth century|publisher=Penguin|year=1990|orig-year=1978|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2H_v0t5jTkC|isbn=978-0-140-13836-8}}

{{Indian independence movement}}

{{Pakistan Movement}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Punjab, Pakistan}}

{{Punjab, India}}

Category:History of Punjab

Category:History of Pakistan

Punjab

Category:Partition (politics)

Category:1947 in India