Independence of India -Not a gift

The lecture delivered Stafford Cripps on 5th March 1947 in British Parliament reveals the actual truth of transferring Power to Divided India.  Cripps said;
"What alternatives we had in our disposal ? Practically there were two alternatives - one, to tren then British Secretariat of India by increasing men and military and rule over the country and we could continue for another twenty years rule in India. Secondly, we have to confess that the first alternative is totally impossible.
Hence there is only one possibility and it was not possible to strengthen the British Military to rule over India.

Last weapon to get Pakistan - Direct Action of Muslim League

In pursuance of the resolution of the Muslim League Council , passed on 29 July , the Direct Action. This was enforced on 16 August 1946, "Direct Action Day".
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SEE PHOTOs----- Lot of ten (10) COMPLETE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPERs, the Statesman (Calcutta and Delhi, INDIA) dated May 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27, 1946.  This is a lot of 10 different dated issues.
Contents include the best LOCAL headlines and gruesome coverage of the GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS (on Direct Action Day) in Calcutta, in which over 4000 people were killed in communal riots between HINDUS and MUSLIMS in Calcutta, INDIA.
Direct Action Day (16 August 1946), also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a day of widespread riot and manslaughter between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Bengal province of British India. The day also marked the start of what is known asThe Week of the Long Knives.
The 'Direct Action' was announced by the Muslim League Council to show the strength of Muslim feelings both to British and Congress because Muslims feared that if the British just pulled out, Muslims would surely suffer at the hands of overwhelming Hindu majority, which resulted in the worst communal riots that British India had seen.
The Muslim League and the Indian National Congress were the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India in the 1940s. The1946 Cabinet Mission to India for planning of the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership proposed an initial plan of composition of the new Dominion of India and its government. However, soon an alternative plan to divide the British Raj into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan was proposed by the Muslim League. The Congress rejected the alternative proposal outright. The Muslim League planned a general strike (hartal) on 16 August, terming it as Direct Action Day, to protest this rejection and assert its demand for a separate Muslim homeland.
In those days the situation in Bengal was particularly complex. In the province, Muslims represented the majority of the population (56%, as against 42% of Hindus) and were mostly concentrated in the eastern part. As a result of this demographic structure and specific developments, this province was the only one in which a Muslim League government was in power under the provincial autonomy scheme introduced in 1935 in coalition with the Europeans, and against the hurdle of strong opposition from the Congress, the Communist Party of India and also from a Hindu nationalist party, theHindu Mahasabha. The latter was supported by many members of the rich Marwari trading community, composed of immigrants from Rajasthan, who largely dominated the economy of central Calcutta (although European capital was still important). In consequence, the inhabitants of Calcutta, 64% Hindus and 33% Muslims, were by then divided into two highly antagonistic entities. Against this backdrop, the protest triggered massive riotsin Calcutta. More than 4,000 people lost their lives and 100,000 residents were left homeless in Calcutta within 72 hours. This violence sparked off further religious riots in the surrounding regions of Noakhali, Bihar, United Provinces (modern Uttar Pradesh), Punjab, and the North Western Frontier Province. These events sowed the seeds for the eventual Partition of India.This is a real TIME MACHINE that takes the reader back to the CALCUTTA RIOTS in May, 1946 some 69 years ago!! LOCAL coverage of this tragedy that still haunts the relationship between INDIA and PAKISTAN some 69 years later..  
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Negotiation for transfer of power

The end of the WWII in 1945 also marked the end of freedom struggle of India which commenced under the three leaders, Gndhi, Nehru and Subhas Bose, about a quarter of century (1945) before. The non-violent non cooperation and civil disobedience had practically come to an end in 1933. The violent revolutionary movement , Quit India (do or die) of August 1942 was ruthlessly crushed by the Govt. before the year was over.
The efforts of Subhas Bose to fight the battle for India's freedom with Azad Hind Fauz (INA) with technical assistance from foreign powers also ended in July 1944.
So, the fate of India winning freedom looked gloomy.
There is little doubt that, "the widespread disturbances arising out of the trial of the I.N.A. prisoners , created so dangerous  and tense a situation," . In the mean time election to the Central Legislative Assembly were held , and the results were known towards the end of Dec 1945. the cdongress secured 91.3 % of the votes cast in non-muhammadan constituencies and the Muslim league won 86% of the votes in the muslim constituencies . the final figures were;
Present                                                                                     Previous
1. Congress 57;                                                Congress 36
2. Muslim League 30;                                      Muslim League 25
3. Independents 5;                                            Independents 21
4. Akali Sikhs 2;                                               Nationalist party 10
5 Europeans 8;                                                  Europeans 8
making a total of 102 elected seats and 100 seats,
Both parties were jubilant over their victories.
A cabinet mission came to India and examined the question of a fully sovereign state of Pakistan.
                                                     Table of representation 
                                                               Section A
Province                              General                             Muslim                          Total    
Madras                                      45                                      4                                  49
Bombay                                     19                                      2                                  21
United Provinces                        47                                     8                                  55
Bihar                                           31                                     5                                   36
Cenral Provinces                         16                                     1                                   17
Orissa                                             9                                     0                                     9
                      Total                     167                                   20                                  187
                             
                                                              Section B
Province                             General                    Muslim                Sikh                   Total
Punjab                                     8                                 16                    4                         28
NWFP                                      0                                  3                     0                           3
Sind                                          1                                  3                     0                           4
                     Total                   9                                  22                     4                         35
                                                              Section C
Province                                         General                                       Muslim             Total
Bengal                                                  27                                            33                       60
 Assam                                                    7                                              3                        10
total for British India                                                    292
Maximum for Indian State                                              93
           Total                                                                   385
The Cabinet mission left India on 29 June 1946.

Last round Talks with three Viceroys

                                                                                        Lord Linlithgo (18 April 1936 - 1 st Oct 1943)

Having previously declined both the governorship of Madras and the governor-generalship of Australia (his father was the first Governor-General of Australia), he became the Viceroy of India on 18 April 1936, succeeding Lord Willingdon. Linlithgow implemented the plans for local self-government embodied in the Government of India Act of 1935, which led to government led by the Congress Party in five of the 11 provinces, but the recalcitrance of the princes prevented the full establishment of Indian self-government.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Linlithgow's appeal for unity led to the resignation of the Congress ministries. On 8 August 1940 Lord Linlithgow made a statement on behalf of the British government. It was known as the August Offer and offered greater rights in the governance of India to the Indian people. The proposal was rejected by most Indian politicians, including the Congress Party and the Muslim League. Disputes between the British administration and Congress ultimately led to massive Indian civil disobedience in the Quit India Movement in 1942. Linlithgow suppressed the disturbances and arrested the Congress leaders.

Lord Wavell (1st Oct 1943 - 21 Feb 1947)

In January 1943 Wavell had been promoted to field marshal. When Linlinthgow retired as viceroy in the summer of 1943, Wavell was chosen to replace him, surprisingly, given his poor relationship with Churchill. He himself was again replaced in his military post in June by Auchinleck, who by this point had also experienced setbacks in North Africa. In 1943, Wavell was created a viscount (taking the style Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and of Winchester, in the county of Southampton) and in September, he was formally named Governor-Generaland Viceroy of India.

One of Wavell's first actions in office was to address the Bengal famine of 1943 by ordering the army to distribute relief supplies to the starving rural Bengalis. He attempted with mixed success to increase the supplies of rice to reduce the prices. During his reign, Gandhi was leading the Quit India campaign, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was working for an independent state for the Muslims and Subhas Chandra Bose befriended Japan "and were pressing forward along India's Eastern border".Although Wavell was initially popular with Indian politicians, pressure mounted concerning the likely structure and timing of an independent India. He attempted to move the debate along but received little support from Churchill (who wasagainst Indian independence), nor fromClement Attlee, Churchill's successor as Prime Minister. He was also hampered by the differences between the various Indian political factions. At the end of the war, rising Indian expectations continued to be unfulfilled, and inter-communal violence increased. Eventually, in 1947, Attlee lost confidence in Wavell and replaced him with Lord Mountbatten of Burma.

Lord Mount Batten (21 Feb 1947 - 15Aug 1947) 

His experience in the region and in particular his perceived Labour sympathies at that time led to Clement Attlee appointing him Viceroy of India on 20 February 1947 charged with overseeing the transition of British India to independence no later than 1948. Mountbatten's instructions emphasised a united India as a result of the transference of power but authorised him to adapt to a changing situation in order to get Britain out promptly with minimal reputational damage. Soon after he arrived, Mountbatten concluded that the situation was too volatile for even that short a wait. Although his advisers favoured a gradual transfer of independence, Mountbatten decided the only way forward was a quick and orderly transfer of independence before 1947 was out. In his view, any longer would mean civil war. The Viceroy also hurried so he could return to his senior technical Navy courses.

Lord and Lady Mountbatten at Mussoorie with Congress leaderSardar Patel, his daughter Manibehn Patel and Nehru in the background.

Mountbatten was fond of Congress leaderJawaharlal Nehru and his liberal outlook for the country. He felt differently about the Muslim leaderMuhammed Ali Jinnah, but was aware of his power, stating "If it could be said that any single man held the future of India in the palm of his hand in 1947, that man was Mohammad Ali Jinnah." During his meeting with Jinnah on 5 April 1947, Mountbatten tried to persuade Jinnah of a united India, citing the difficult task of dividing the mixed states of Punjaband Bengal, but the Muslim leader was unyielding in his goal of establishing a separate Muslim state called Pakistan.Given the Britishgovernment's recommendations to grant independence quickly, Mountbatten concluded that a united India was an unachievable goal and resigned himself to a plan for partition, creating the independent nations of India and Pakistan.Mountbatten set a date for the transfer of power from the British to the Indians, arguing that a fixed timeline would convince Indians of his and the British government's sincerity in working towards a swift and efficient independence, excluding all possibilities of stalling the process.

Among the Indian leaders, Mahatma Gandhi emphatically insisted on maintaining a united India and for a while successfully rallied people to this goal. During his meeting with Mountbatten, Gandhi asked Mountbatten to invite Jinnah to form a new Central government, but Mountbatten never uttered a word of Gandhi's ideas to Jinnah. And when Mountbatten's timeline offered the prospect of attaining independence soon, sentiments took a different turn. Given Mountbatten's determination, Nehru and Patel's inability to deal with the Muslim League and lastly Jinnah's obstinacy, all Indian party leaders (except Gandhi) acquiesced to Jinnah's plan to divide India^] which in turn eased Mountbatten's task. Mountbatten also developed a strong relationship with the Indian princes, who ruled those portions of India not directly under British rule. His intervention was decisive in persuading the vast majority of them to see advantages in opting to join the Indian Union. On one hand, the integration of the princely states can be viewed as one of the positive aspects of his legacy.^[ But on the other, the refusal of Hyderabad, Kashmir, and Junagadh to join one of the dominions led to future tension between Pakistan and India.

Mountbatten brought forward the date of the partition from August 1948 to 15 August 1947.^[46] The uncertainty of the borders caused Muslims and Hindus to move into the direction where they felt they would get the majority. Hindus and Muslims were thoroughly terrified, and the Muslim movements from the East was balanced by the similar movement of Hindus from the West.

Gandhi and Jinnah talks - 1944

Gandhi , while in prison, had expressed the desire that the Congress and League should take a unified decision regarding the future of India. But Govt. did not allow him to take any step. Meanwhile Rajagopalachri launched an extensive campaign on the need to arrive at an understanding between the Congress and the League. Many organisations and  individuals had suggested to have talks with Gandhi and Jinnah.
Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay by the British on 9 August 1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his personal life. His 50-year-old secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack 6 days later and his wife Kasturba died after 18 months' imprisonment on 22 February 1944; six weeks later Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. He was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out of detention to an altered political scene—theMuslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage" and the topic of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi met Jinnah in September 1944 in Bombay but Jinnah rejected, on the grounds that it fell short of a fully independent Pakistan, his proposal of the right of Muslim provinces to opt out of substantial parts of the forthcoming political union
Accordingly Gandhi met Jinnah in Sept 1944. The main features of the proposals were as follows;
1.

Violent outbreak of Quit India movement (contd-1)

Gandhi and other leaders were arrested on the morning of 9th August.
On that day, 9th August, there were disturbances  in Bombay, Ahmedabad and Poona , but the rest of the country remained quiet .
On 10 August disturbances spread also in Delhi and a few owns in UP, but no serious repercussions were reported in other places.
From August 11, the situation began to deteriorate rapidly. From then onwards, apart from the hartals, protest protest meetings and similar demonstrations. Outbreaks spread Bombay, Madras, U.P., C.P. and other places. The damages and destruction were confined to railways, P & T lines, in different provinces of Assam, Orissa, the Punjab, Bihar, N.W.F.P., etc.Attacks were on communication, transport, and Govt. Properties.
In U.P. 104 railway stations were attacked and damaged , 15 being burnt, 16 derailments were caused, about 100 instances of sabotage to railway tracks were reported. Over 425 cases of sabotage to telephone and telegraph lines. A 190 post offices were destroyed  or severely damaged , and 32 employees of the P&T department were attacked. !6 members of the police force and 332 were injured. arrests totalling 16,089 were made in connection with the disturbances through out the province."the  'total amount of collective fine imposed was Rs. 28,32, 000 which was promptly realised
The all India figures of damages and sabotages are as follows;
Railway stations ......                          250
Post offices attacked ......                      50
Post Offices burnt    .......                       50
Post Offices damaged     .....                200
Telegram and telephones cut  ...      3,500 places
Police stations burnt ....                         70
Other Govt.  buildings damaged ....      85
With the close of first phase of violent mass disorders three new tendencies became apparent - 1. orthodox non-violent, 2. dev. of serious crimes, 3. drift towards terrorism.
In some particular places movements took the shape of SWARAJ , for long or short periods.
As in Midnapore of W.B., Ballia in U.P.
But the quit India  movement ended in failures and Gandhi was destined to play any further activities inn India's Freedom Struggle.
Even Gandhi wrote to Lord Wavell on 27 July 1944 that he was prepared to advise the Working Committee to renounce mass civil disobedience and to give full co-operation in the  war effort if a declaration of immediate Indian Independencewere made available.
Gandhi and Jinnah talks started on 9th Sept 1944 but failed.

Violent outbreak of Quit India movement -1942

On 8 August 1942 at the All-India Congress Committee session in Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched the 'Quit India' movement. The next day, Gandhi, Nehru and many other leaders of the Indian National Congress were arrested by the British Government. Disorderly and non-violent demonstrations took place throughout the country in the following days.

By the middle of 1942, Japanese troops were approaching the borders of India. Pressure was mounting from China, the United States and  Britain to solve the issue of  the future status of India before the end of the war. In March 1942, the Prime Minister dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the War Cabinet, to India to discuss the British Government's Draft Declaration. The draft granted India Dominion status after the war but otherwise conceded few changes to the British Government Act of 1935. The draft was unacceptable to the Congress Working Committee who rejected it. The failure of the Cripps Mission further estranged the Congress and the British Government.

Gandhi seized upon the failure of the Cripps Mission, the advances of the Japanese in South-East Asia and the general frustration with the British in India. He called for a voluntary British withdrawal from India. From 29 April to 1 May 1942, the All India Congress Committee assembled in Allahabad to discuss the resolution of the Working Committee. Although Gandhi was absent from the meeting, many of his points were admitted into the resolution: the most significant of them being the commitment to non-violence. On 14 July 1942, the Congress Working Committee met again at Wardha and resolved that it would authorize Gandhi to take charge of the non-violent mass movement. The Resolution, generally referred to as the 'Quit India' resolution, was to be approved by the All India Congress Committee meeting in Bombay in August.

On 7 to 8 August 1942, the All India Congress Committee met in Bombay and ratified the 'Quit India' resolution. Gandhi called for 'Do or Die'. The next day, on 9 August 1942, Gandhi, members of the Congress Working Committee and other Congress leaders were arrested by the British Government under the Defence of India Rules. The Working Committee, the All India Congress Committee and the four Provincial Congress Committees were declared unlawful associations under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908. The assembly of public meetings were prohibited under rule 56 of the Defence of India Rules. The arrest of Gandhi and the Congress leaders led to mass demonstrations  throughout India. Thousands were killed and injured in the wake of the 'Quit India' movement. Strikes were called in many places. The British swiftly suppressed many of these demonstrations by mass detentions; more than 100,000 people were imprisoned.

The 'Quit India' movement, more than anything, united the Indian people against British rule. Although most demonstrations had been suppressed by 1944, upon his release in 1944 Gandhi continued his resistance and went on a 21-day fast. By the end of the Second World War, Britain's place in the world had changed dramatically and the demand for independence could no longer be ignored.