Pakistan without Calcutta would be like
asking a man to live without his heart
It remains, however, to recount in brief the events in sequel
of the June 3, 1947 Plan. Mountbatten had originally envisaged
the division of British India into three dominions: Hindustan,
Pakistan and the free state of Bengal, each of which was to be
an independent member of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The territories of Pakistan were to include provinces of the West
Punjab, Sind and the NWFP. The state of Bengal was to have the
province of Bengal and the chief commissioner's province of the
Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. A united Greater Bengal was
also championed by Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the chief minister
of Bengal. Jinnah and the Muslim League wanted a united Bengal as a part
of their new state. "Pakistan without Calcutta would be like
asking a man to live without his heart," Jinnah had argued.
Mountbatten seems to have supported the idea of a united Bengal
in order to have a united Indian army. Suhrawardy, however,
emphasised upon Mountbatten to have a separate army of Bengal.
Though the British seemed to have agreed in principle that the
assets of India, including the armed forces, should be divided
between the three states, the difficulties of creating two new
armies for two Muslims successor states were immense. But since
the Congress was not amenable to the idea of a united free state of
Bengal, the proposal was dropped.
Nehru accepted the division
of Bengal thinking that east Bengal would be so unlivable economically
that it would come back into the Indian Union within a few years.
Accordingly, the Muslim majority districts of the province of
Bengal including the Chittagong Hill Tracts were separated from
East Pakistan. However, a referendum in Sylhet district of Assam
was agreed to and it gave its verdict in favour of Pakistan.
The freedom-loving Pathans considered the British Raj to be their
natural enemy and they were happy to find an ally in the Congress,
the other great enemy of the Raj. After World War II, when it
appeared to them that the Congress was replacing the British Raj and
assuming the control of the North-West Frontier Province, the
alliance could not last.
The Muslim League slogans of "no Hindu Raj"
and "Muslim unity" appealed to the Pathans. Since October,
1946, there was a definite swing of the people in favour of the
Muslim League. By December 1946, the Muslim League had decided to extend its
activities to the tribal areas as well. In March 1947, the Muslim League
firmly planted its feet after it launched the Civil Disobedience
Movement against the Congress government in the province.
The provincial government failed to suppress the movement in spite of assistance
of the police and the armed forces. The increasing influence
of the Muslim League was "causing exodus of large numbers of non-Muslims"
from the province. Mountbatten confirmed to the British government
that due to the Muslim League campaign, the situation in the province was
"very explosive."
So far as the NWFP was concerned, the Mountbatten Plan proposed
a referendum to ascertain if the province wished to join Pakistan
or Hindustan. The option of Independence, as demanded by the
Congress, was not agreed to by the British government for being in
contravention of the June 3 Plan. Besides military authorities had
felt that the NWFP, in order to withstand a possible adventure
from the Soviet Union, should be under Muslim domination. The
referendum, held in 2nd week of July 1947, was supervised by the
British army officers of the Indian army.
To the satisfaction of Mountbatten, Gandhi
had advised Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to remain peaceful during
the elections. The results were overwhelmingly in support of
Pakistan. Of the total Muslim electorates, about 60 per cent votes were
cast for Pakistan. The Congress vigorously advocated the idea of "Pathanistan",
but Dr Khan Sahib was reported to be willing to "co-operate
and accept Pakistan if Jinnah would agree to full provincial autonomy."
The province of Sind already had enjoyed the support of the Muslim League
ministry and it voted for Pakistan. In June 1947, the British
Baluchistan also decided unanimously to join the Pakistan Constituent
Assembly at an extraordinary session of the Shahi Jirga.
The case of the Punjab was, however, more complicated. Under the
Mountbatten Plan, the Punjab was to be partitioned like Bengal.
But here, the Congress and the Sikhs demanded protection of their rights.
Accordingly, a boundary commission was created to pacify the Sikhs.
Jinnah and Liaquat violently protested against this to Mountbatten,
but it had little effect. Thus a number of Muslim majority areas
were handed over to the Indian Union.
The decision to do so
was primarily based on military and political grounds. Nehru claimed
a "simpler frontier based on some natural barrier" and
not one with "numerous curves and enclaves," which
would create many difficulties including the question
of defence.
Baldev Singh, the defence member, also supported
Nehru on grounds of defence. Of the Muslim majority areas handed
over to the Indian Union, Gurdaspur and Ferozpur were prominent.
It is a matter of record that initially the salient enclosing
the whole of Ferozpur and areas adjacent to Zira tehsils were
included in Pakistan. But on August 10 or 11, even Jenkins,
the governor of the Punjab, received a secrophone message from
Viceroy House ordering action to "eliminate salient."
As for Gurdaspur district, Justice Muhammad Munir, who was a member
of the Boundary Commission, later observed about his British chairman
that: 'Sir Cyril adopted a circuitous and disingenuous plan to link India
with Kashmir by not drawing a line along any main physical feature
but along an insignificant hill torrent having its origin in Kashmir.'
Excerpted from Making of Pakistan: The Military Perspective, by Dr Noor-ul Haq, Reliance Publishing House, 1997, Rs 395, with the publisher's permission. Readers who wish to buy a copy of this book may write to Reliance Publishing House, 3026/7H, Ranjit Nagar, New Delhi 11 00 08.
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