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QUAID-I-AZAM UNIVERSITY
PARTITION OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT:
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN
CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
RABIA UMAR ALI
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
2009
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CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the dissertation presently submitted bearing the title
“Partition of the Indian Subcontinent: Planning and Implementation” is the
result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other institution for
any other degree.
Rabia Umar Ali
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History
Quaid-i-Azam University
August 12, 2009
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SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the Ph.D. candidate Rabia Umar Ali has completed her
dissertation titled “Partition of the Indian Subcontinent: Planning and
Implementation” under my supervision. I recommend it for submission in
candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History.
Dr. Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah
Professor and Chairman
Department of History
Quaid-iAzam University.
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QUAID-I-AZAM UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
FINAL APPROVAL
Dated: _________
We hereby certify that we have read the dissertation “Partition of the Indian
Subcontinent: Planning and Implementation” submitted by Rabia Umar Ali in
candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. We deem the said
dissertation to be of sufficient quality to merit the award of the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in History to Rabia Umar Ali.
_____________________
External Examiner A
_____________________
External Examiner B
_____________________
Supervisor
_____________________
Chairman
Department of History
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For all those who ever thought that the land
of their ambition was unachievable.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise be to the Almighty to whom I owe my attempt at completing this work. The
struggle and effort to initiate and fulfill this task has been the blessing and mercy of Allah. I
don’t consider myself worthy of it without the constant strength and direction that He bestowed
upon me at every stage of research and writing.
That I was able to finish the work in time, is the sole accomplishment of my guide,
teacher, colleague, friend and supervisor Prof. Dr. Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah. He became a source of
intense support and inspiration at a time when I had relapsed into a state of confusion and
uncertainty. He has definitely, in my case, played the role of the legendary mentor. His
encouragement infused a new spirit in me and enabled me to pick up the threads from a near to
lost endeavour. I will never be able to thank him enough.
My very profound and emotional gratitude is due to Prof. Dr. Dushka H. Sayyid with
whom I started working on this dissertation a couple of years ago. Her presence and very
qualified academic assistance propelled me to this work. I deeply appreciate and admire her
understanding of my problems, both personal and professional, in the various sittings that we had
in a comfortable, conducive and warm environment of her home. I am very proud of having had
the opportunity to work with her and thank her from the core of my heart.
My late parents, must be smiling down at this achievement. I owe to them what I am
today and miss them beyond words can express. What they inculcated in me in the early years is
what I have as their legacy. May their souls rest in peace and may they get good tidings from this
world. I am sure they are proud and happy.
Bhai, my elder brother, has always been the source of my strength after Abu. I don’t
think I could have even thought of treading on this path without him, always far ahead of me in
academics, and very much beside me in life. His life and work became the major incentive, never
pushing but always there to enquire about my progress, with guidance, suggestions and lots of
helpful insight. To my younger siblings Fakiha and Hamid, to my brother-in-law Hamza and
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sisters-in-law Shaista and Afreen, I am lovingly grateful for their prayers, support and
encouragement.
To Umar, my husband and my partner in life, I am thankful for more than I can say in
words. He bore with me, and my professional needs in a manner that invaluably facilitated my
work. His constant encouragement that I should not give up and his unflinching support made
this work see the light of the day. My accomplishment is basically his effort. My gratitude is also
due to his parents, whose prayers and generous accommodation of my frequent and prolonged
absences made my work very easy.
I am grateful for the delightful presence of my lovely five and a half years old daughter,
Ayesha. She is the reason for the delay in the completion of this work but also my most precious
possession and the most needful distraction. In many ways she made my work pleasant by her
cheerful being, keeping away moments of insanity that one usually has to confront in the
process. Equally special have been my nieces and nephews, Zaynab, Valeed, Mustafa, Rahem,
Samah and Moosa in giving me their blessed and joyful company, when and where possible.
My friends have always been there for me. To name and thank them would require
volumes. But I owe to some more than I thought I would in the end. Farooq stands out among the
rest. He patiently and tirelessly pushed me on until I finished. Here I must acknowledge the
support and encouragement I received from Nadeem Siddiqui, my late colleague whose
friendship and company I miss and would always cherish with great fondness. To Dost and
Kulsoom I owe the final and the most difficult stage. They restored in me a lost confidence and
their youthful energy led me to wind up my work in the best possible way. Naveed, Ishaq,
Fakhar, Shumaila, Shahid, Suleiman, Adeela, Huma, Saira, Junaid, Faizan, Nauman, Omar and
Babar, were my persuasive factors. May Allah bless them, always.
I owe a special gratitude to Dr. and Mrs. Saeed-ud-Din Ahmad Dar and Chacha and
Chachi for their faith in my abilities, not only supporting and encouraging me but giving me the
joy and blessings of their parental prayers.
The department of History is my second home. I am what I learnt from it. My teachers
have always been my incentive to prove myself in an ever better way. They are my beacons of
light. Dr. Aslam Syed, Dr. M. Naeem Qureshi, Dr. Rafique Afzal, Dr. Sikandar Hayat, Dr. Riaz
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Ahmad, Dr. Dushka Sayyid, Dr. Wiqar Ali Shah and Mr. (late) Aziz Ahmad Chaudhry have
contributed immensely to my progress and growth. I also wish to thank my colleagues Dr. Javed
Haider Syed, Dr.Tanvir Anjum, Dr. Ilhan Niaz and Fouzia for their encouragement.
The staff at the department of History is my extended family. Altaf sahib, Akbar sahib,
Sarwar, Sarwar Masih, Raheem Dad, Faheem and above all Qaim and Zahid have given to me
and my work a support that comes from only very dear people with whom a special bond of
longevity of association is shared. At home, Nazakat made my life very comfortable by taking
most of the domestic responsibilities off my shoulders in the most crucial days of writing. I wish
to thank him for those frequent cups of tea that made the burden of my work lighter.
Lastly, I must acknowledge the cooperation of the institutes where I worked and from
where I was able to collect my research material. I am deeply indebted to the Razi-ud-Din
Siddiqui Library, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, National Institute of Historical and
Cultural Research, Islamabad, National Documentation Centre, Islamabad, National Library,
Islamabad, National Archives, Islamabad, Lahore Museum Library, Lahore, Quaid-i-Azam
Library, Lahore, Department of History, Punjab University, Lahore, Punjab Public Library,
Lahore and Baha-ud-Din Zakriya University, Multan for the research facilities they provided. In
the U.S.A., University of California, Santa Barabara and Brown University, Rhode Island
deserve a special thanks. In the U.K. I had the opportunity of working for a considerable period
of time. My gratitude is due to the Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship, which enabled me to work
at the School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London, at British Library,
London, Newspaper Collection Colindale, London, The National Archives, Kew Gardens,
London and University of Glasgow, Scotland. I am especially thankful to all those who helped
me out in these institutions and made my work considerably easier.
The responsibility of all factual details and errors is entirely mine.
Rabia Umar Ali
August, 2009
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ABSTRACT
India’s Partition was an event of momentous significance for the three major
communities, the Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs who were at the time residing in
the subcontinent. It was an equally important phenomenon for the British who
were to withdraw their rule and thereby signify an imperial retreat from India.
Independence was announced on the 15th of August 1947 after which the two
sovereign States of India and Pakistan emerged on the map of the world. The
Muslims of the subcontinent had gained a separate homeland and the struggle for
freedom by the Indians in general had reached fruition.
Partition as a landmark and a milestone was achieved. The manner it
actually came about and the numerous stages that its making and implementation
went through, is mainly the subject of this study. Lord Mountbatten’s role in the
capacity of the last Viceroy of United India gets the major part of attention as he
was not only the Crown representative in India, but also the man on the ground
taking major decisions. His relationship with other political leaders and his
handling of the situation was crucial in the communally tense and volatile Indian
situation.
The planning for partition and more so its implementation required a
meticulous and impartial approach. It was a highly sensitive matter where
communities were turning into nationalities and an imperial power was foregoing
its control of almost a century. The decisions regarding schedules and time frame,
division of assets, handling of Princely States, the issue of Governor-Generalship
and choice of personalities to manage the various departments had to be taken
carefully. It was a British responsibility, India still being a subject state. The task,
however, was not delivered in the spirit of an unbiased arbitral approach with
much left to be desired. The result was a hasty and flawed partition and its
repercussions so strong that they still hang visibly on the region’s horizon,
determining and defining the nature and character of the relationship between the
two major of States of South Asia, India and Pakistan.
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