How British Left India? | The History You Wouldn’t Know!

The question was when and how would India get her freedom. There were four major reasons behind this. The first was the Quit India Movement of 1942. Millions of Indians raised their voices against the British government under Gandhi’s leadership. Second, in 1944-45, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army’s struggle and then the following Red Fort Trials, which gave a big shock to the British government.

Third, the Royal Navy mutiny after this where the Indian soldiers of the British Navy revolted. And fourth, the Second World War. Heavy unemployment, unending economic recession and the uncertain British industries and treasury. After the elections in 1945, Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister in the UK.

And in its manifesto, his party had promised that they would return India’s freedom. Everything was aligned in favour of India’s freedom that even the majority of the British people were in favour of freeing India. The discussions revolved around how to execute this transfer of power. Here, one year before our independence, our nation witnessed a cruel, political game of thrones.

Events of this last year of British occupancy, is rarely mentioned in our history books. Based on thousands of original sources and documents, and letters written by Mountbatten, famous writers Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, wrote their book Freedom at Midnight. This book captures the events of the last year in great detail.

And now Sony Liv has adaptated it into a beautifully executed web series directed by Nikhil Advani. This web series Freedom at Midnight. It has been released recently. I watched the entire series and I liked it a lot. That’s why, in this video, I too would like to tell you the story of this last year. Let’s find out what happened between January 1946 to August 1947.

Friends, in January 1946, the map of the Indian subcontinent looked like this. The British India provinces are shown in yellow and the princely states are in pink. Provinces were basically like states under the British government, there were 17 provinces in total. Out of these, 11 already had elections. You heard it right.

There were elections. Because in 1935, the British government, passed the Government of India Act 1935. Under this, these provinces were given a lot of autonomy and the concept of elected legislators and Indian ministers was introduced in India. It’s a different matter that the power regarding many important subjects continued to be solely with the British.

Like, the British Governor General had the powers of defence, foreign relations, and veto rights. But still, after 1935, Indians were given the freedom to elect our own politicians. And those politicians had power to some extent. That is why in 1937, the first provincial elections were held. Different political parties of the time participated in these elections.

Like Congress, Muslim League, Sikandar Hayat Khan’s Unionist Party. As well as numerous independent candidates. In these elections, around 30 million Indians voted. Although not everyone had the right to vote. There were restrictions too. They had to own some property or land. Consequently, Congress won in 7 out of 11 provinces.

Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, United Provinces, North West Frontier Provinces, Bihar, and Odisha. And the other provinces, got a coalition government. In Punjab, the Unionist Party came into power. In Assam, the Assam Valley Party. The Krishak Praja Party in Bengal supported by the Muslim League. But there was no single winner in Sindh, so many leaders came together to form a coalition.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s party, the Muslim League, faced losses. Many seats were actually reserved for Muslims. Only 22% of those reserved seats were won by the Muslim League. But the elections after this one was quite interesting. 9 years later, in 1946. The next provincial elections could be held only in 1946 because of World War II.

As well as Congress’ protests during the Quit India Movement. By this time, the communal divide between Hindus and Muslims was significant. There were many reasons for this I won’t discuss them in this video I have already discussed those in these videos. There’s a long history behind it. One of the major reasons was that politicians like Jinnah used provocative speeches to incite fear among people.

“One India is impossible, I realised. It will inevitably mean, that the Muslim would be transferred from the domination of the British to the caste Hindu rule.” And as a result, in the 1946 elections, Muslim League won 2 out of the 11 provinces. Bengal and Sindh were completely under Muslim League’s control.

However, Congress won the remaining 9 provinces, and Congress formed the government there. But the point is that out of all the reserved Muslim seats in the provinces, 87% of them were won by the Muslim League. On top of that, the single largest party in Punjab’s province was the Muslim League. Although they didn’t form the government there.

Congress, Akali Dal, and the Unionist Party came together to form the government. All this meant that after 1946, suddenly Jinnah had a lot of political power. The British were forced to negotiate with Jinnah as well. Freedom could not be at Congress’ terms alone. Because from their perspective, this was a democracy, there were elections, and these were the leaders chosen by the people.

Jinnah simply wanted to divide the nation. To make a separate country, Pakistan. On the other hand, the leaders of the Congress Party were against partition. They wanted to keep India united. Interestingly, if you look at Jinnah’s history, he was a member of the Congress Party 26 years ago and talked about Hindus and Muslims living together.

In 1915, when Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, Jinnah welcomed him. He told people about Gandhi’s achievements in South Africa and had praised him at Gurjar Sabha, Jinnah’s grandfather, Premjibhai Meghji Thakkar was a Bhatia Rajput. He converted to Islam when the orthodox Hindus had excommunicated him because he was involved in a fishing business.

That is, until a few generations ago, Jinnah’s family was a Hindu family and the social consequences they had to bear made them decide to change their religion. So that they could run they business properly. In 1920, disagreements started between Jinnah and Congress. Jinnah was disapproved Gandhi’s civil disobedience style.

At 1920’s Nagpur session, a non-cooperation resolution was passed but he was against it. He believed that this wasn’t how freedom would be achieved. “I feel compelled to oppose this motion.” “Mr Gandhi is steering our nation on the wrong path.” After leaving the party Jinnah said that he had nothing to do with this pseudo-religious approach.

That he didn’t want to ally with Congress and Gandhi, he did not believe in inciting mob hysteria. Back then Jinnah was so secular that he opposed Gandhi’s Khilafat movement. This movement began to unite Indian Muslims against the Britishers by raising Muslim issues. But with time, as he was feeling neglected by Congress it gave birth to his ambition.

In the late 1920s, Jinnah gave up politics. He went to London to practise law. He returned only in the mid 1930s and when he did, he was like a completely different person. After returning, he declared himself the only spokesperson of Indian Muslims. “I am the sole spokesperson of Muslims in India.

” He started campaigning to have a new country called Pakistan. Taking his requests to India’s second-last Viceroy, Archibald Wavell. Now, let’s get back to our timeline. The Royal Navy mutiny began in February 1946. And on 24th March 1946, the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee sent the Cabinet Mission to India.

This was a three-member committee which began the negotiations for independence, with the leaders of Congress and Muslim League. They had three main objectives. First, to re-establish the Executive Council of Viceroy. This was a Cabinet of the British India Government, and included all ministries. Viceroy Wavell proposed that apart from Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief, the other members of this council should be Indians.

But Jinnah said that he won’t agree until the right to appoint all Muslim members to the council be given only to the Muslim League. He did not want any Muslim member from any other party to be appointed to that council. He saw himself as the only leader of Muslims. The second objective was to come to an agreement with the Indian leaders so that a new constitution could be drafted for India.

For this, a committee was formed which was later known as the Constituent Assembly of India. It was later led by Dr BR Ambedkar. But the third objective was the most important. To prepare a framework of how India would look, geographically and politically, after the British withdrew. On 16th May, 1946 after some negotiations and discussions the Cabinet Mission presented its plan.

“We have decided on a United India.” “It will look something like this.” They proposed to divide India into three groups of provinces. First, Section A for the Hindu majority areas. Second, Section B for the Muslim majority areas in the North-West, and third, Section C for the Muslim majority areas in the East.

And the land under the Princely States, weren’t discussed much in this proposal. According to this proposal, India was supposed to remain ‘United,’ and there would be only one central government, but the Central government wouldn’t have much power. It would handle defence, external affairs, and communications only and the other powers were supposed to be distributed among these groups of provinces.

To a large extent, the Muslim-dominated areas had autonomy under this plan, so Jinnah accepted this plan. “Jinnah agreed to the plan.” – “If Jinnah has, we should too.” – “Absolutely not!” “Since when did we agree to have communal borders?” “What’ll be the difference between us and Jinnah?” But Congress did not accept this plan initially because Congress leaders were adamant about a proper United India.

They did not want a skeleton government where they would’ve had to work with Jinnah. Pandit Nehru agreed on another objective and was willing to join the Constituent Assembly. His believed that once we form a government, we could later tweak the structure proposed by the Cabinet Mission. But when Pandit Nehru said so to the media, it proved to be a huge mistake.

On 10th July, 1946, Nehru was already the Congress President. He held a press conference in Bombay. In an interview to the media he stated that even though Congress has agreed to the Constituent Assembly, Congress retains the right to change the Cabinet Mission Plan if needed. As soon as Nehru’s statement was published in the newspapers, Jinnah felt that Nehru was planning to force his own ideology.

Jinnah immediately rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan and refused to work with Congress. On 29th July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home and announced that the Muslim League was preparing to start a struggle. He said that if Muslims weren’t given a separate nation, Pakistan, they will start Direct Action.

The next day, on 30th July, Jinnah declared, 16th August 1946 to be the Direct Action Day. He warned Congress and stated that, they did not want a war. But if Congress wanted war, they would accept the offer without hesitation. India would either be divided or destroyed. “If Congress is asking for a war,” “we won’t back down.

” The epicentre of Direct Action Day was Bengal. Because the Muslim League had the most political power in Bengal. In the 1946 elections, the Muslim League won 115 seats out of 250. And Congress was in opposition with only 62 seats. Back then the Chief Minister of Bengal was Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. He is now known as the Butcher of Bengal.

In a statement, Viceroy Wavell talked about him. Calling him one of the most inefficient, conceited, and crooked politicians of India. In the guise of Direct Action Day, this Chief Minister gave free rein to the orthodox, unemployed, frustrated, brainwashed, and anti-social elements on the streets. The goons were left free to do whatever they wanted.

The police were instructed to support the populist movement. Look at what this book has to say. “By the time the massacre was over, Calcutta had become a city of corpses.” The book claims that around 6,000 people were killed. Between 16th August to 19th August, around 15,000 people were injured in Bengal.

But these Direct Action Day riots were only the beginning. Before the partition, our nation saw many more riots. The horrifying fallout of the Direct Action Day was the result of Jinnah’s backing out from the cabinet mission. But perhaps the only good outcome was that Viceroy Wavell invited Nehru and Congress to form the interim government.

On 6th August 1946, Viceroy Wavell invited Nehru to form the government. Two days later, on 8th August, Wavell tried to bridge the gaps between Congress and the Muslim League. He advised Jinnah to cooperate with Congress. Try to understand the timeline. This was happening when the date of Direct Action Day was merely announced.

Before the violence. Violence began on 16th August and just one day before that, on 15th August 1946, Jinnah and Nehru met. Nehru and Jinnah both agreed that communal problems can be solved only through mutual discussions. Nehru said that the controversial issues would be sent to the federal court and if provinces ask for it, then Congress was willing to accept the principle of grouping.

To convince Jinnah, Nehru gave many concessions. He also said that when Congress forms the new government, they would give five seats or five ministries to the Muslim League. But Jinnah’s condition was that only the Muslim League would have the right to nominate all Muslim candidates. This was something that Congress wasn’t willing to accept.

Congress was a secular party. Their leadership included Hindus as well as Muslims. Accepting Jinnah’s demand would’ve meant that that Congress was admitting that only Jinnah had the authority over all Muslims. And that no one else could do anything for the Muslims. This is why these talks never reached a conclusion.

The next day was the Direct Action Day and for many days after that, Bengal remained engulfed in violence. About a week after these events, on 25th August 1946, came a declaration from the Viceroy House. Directing the formation of an interim government. “Thank you for accepting my invitation,” “But there is a condition.

” “His Majesty the King has accepted the resignations of the present members of the Governor-General’s Executive Council.” “His Majesty has been pleased to appoint following:” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Mr M Asif Ali, Mr C Gopalacharya, Mr Sarat Chandra Bose, Dr John Matthai, Sardar Baldev Singh.

These people are appointed by the British government as interim government. The interim government was supposed to take office on 2nd September. but there was one more thing. Two Muslim members were supposed to be appointed later. Interim government means a transitional government. Until the British completely left India, this government was supposed to work through the transition.

A constituent assembly was formed by this interim government, that’s quite interesting too. The drafting committee was led by Dr BR Ambedkar. Interestingly, many people often forget that despite our demand for full sovereignty, the freedom we got in 1947 was actually a dominion status. We got complete freedom to become an independent republic only in 1950, when our constitution was implemented.

Now, upon seeing the interim government appointed based on the Congress’ ideologies, Jinnah became relentless. “Rejecting Nehru’s offer proved to be a big mistake.” “We lost all rights to nominate Muslim members.” “The League’s existence is being threatened.” “We’ll play this game.

” “We’ll join the interim government.” On 15th October 1946, he finally agreed on behalf of the Muslim League to become a part of this interim government without any conditions. But there was a twist. Jinnah did not join this. Instead, he nominated Liaquat Ali Khan. This was the same Liaquat Ali Khan who became Pakistan’s first Prime Minister from 1947 to 1951.

Initially, the Muslim League was given only the Finance Ministry. But Nehru had promised Jinnah that the Muslim League would get at least 5 ministries. So later on, they were given Commerce, Railway and Communications, Post and Air, Health, and Parliamentary Affairs Law Ministry. At this point in time, you may think that everything was going well, there was a balanced interim government, so India could remain united, and there’d be no need for a partition.

But after a few months, things started to deteriorate. For Congress and Muslim League to work together became increasingly difficult. The biggest reason behind this was that Hindu-Muslim riots showed no signs of stopping. Within a few weeks of the formation of this new interim government, in the far eastern part of the Bengal province, in Noakhali a large-scale riot broke out.

Noakhali was a Muslim majority area where most of them weren’t financially strong. They were dependent on Hindu moneylenders for their farming and basic needs. But during the Great Depression of 1930, these relations soured. After the Calcutta riots from two months ago, the hatred contained in this area had peaked.

10th October, 1946. In the 200 square mile area of Noakhali town and armed mob started looting. They started fires and killed people. During this time, there were forced conversions too. These were acknowledged by Chief Minister Suhrawardy. But neither did he take any steps to stop these nor did he visit the affected areas.

After the riots, the crowd of refugees came to Calcutta. More than 1,200 people reached Calcutta daily. The most compassionate leader after these riots was Mahatma Gandhi. He was very saddened by these events and wanted to see for himself how people could be so cruel to those they’ve known all their lives.

On 6th November 1946, Gandhi went to Noakhali and stayed there till February 1947. Walking barefoot, he visited all 47 villages of Noakhali and walked about 180 km. His efforts to stop Hindu-Muslim riots were such that since then, no other leader in my opinion, has ever done anything like this to promote communal unity.

Gandhi walked to each and every village and looked for a Hindu and a Muslim leader among the villagers. Then he would talk to them and convince them to live in the same house, under the same roof, to become the guarantor of peace for the village. He repeated this at every village. Bringing together a Hindu leader and a Muslim leader and giving them leadership roles.

This gave the villagers a guarantee of complete peace. They showed the villagers an example of communal harmony. When someone asked Gandhi why he was in Noakhali instead of helping Congress negotiate with Jinnah in Delhi, do you know what he said? “A leader is only a reflection of the people he leads.

” “Their desire to live together in peaceful neighbourliness will be reflected by their leaders.” If the people come together and live in peace, this will be reflected in the politicians. Gandhi believed that people need to come together as champions of peace, he also believed that if all citizens do this, then the partition won’t happen at all.

He spent his time in Noakhali ensuring unity in United India with everyone living peacefully together. On the other hand, Pandit Nehru believed that Gandhi was trying to heal India’s deep wounds one after the other. He said that Gandhi was trying to heal one sore spot after another with ointment. Instead of finding out the cause of these sore spots, and taking part in a holistic plan of action.

Both Nehru and Gandhi were right in their own place. Gandhi’s struggles in Noakhali bore fruits. A few months later, all the news of riots from Bengal had ended. But he was only one man how many places could he visit to stop these riots? On 24th October 1946, Hindus in Bihar started taking revenge for incidents in Noakhali.

The situation in the United Provinces was quite similar. Hatred and this eye for an eye ideology was truly making our nation blind, in Gandhi’s opinion. Gradually Gandhi started realising how strong was Jinnah’s hold over a part of the Muslim society. He believed that the solution to this problem would come if they could persuade Jinnah.

March 1947. Politically, Congress received another big shock. In Punjab, the Muslim League successfully overthrew the coalition government. This province was extremely important for the Muslim League because without this province, Pakistan could never be a separate country. There were riots in Rawalpindi and on 2nd March 1947, Chief Minister Khizr Hayat Tiwana had to resign under the pressure of the public and violence.

But despite the government being overthrown, the Muslim League could not form its own government because the other parties had been fed up with the Muslim League by this point. Akali Dal’s Sikh leader, Master Tara Singh, started chanting slogans “Down with Pakistan” outside the Punjab Legislative Assembly Building.

This angered the supporters of Muslim League leading to more riots. This time in Lahore. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee was also getting frustrated. The Indian riots were bad news for him too because they exposed his failures. He appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India’s last Viceroy and shifted all the responsibilities on him.

From stopping the riots to convincing Jinnah and Nehru, negotiating and doing whatever it took to make the problem go away. 22nd March, 1947. Mountbatten came to India and two weeks later on 5th April he met Jinnah. Mountbatten did not want India’s partition. He wanted United India so his proposal to Jinnah talked of United India.

But Jinnah rejected it. The negotiations continued. 7th April 8th April, 9th April, 10th April. But nothing worked. On the other hand, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel were completely fed up with Jinnah’s demands. Muslim League was interfering in the interim government’s every other decision. “It’s time to end the zamindari system.

” “Zamindars have a legal right to their lands.” “The government can’t take it away.” The Government wasn’t allowed to work while there were riots all over the country. Due to all this, Nehru and Sardar Patel had come to an agreement of accepting the idea of an independent Pakistan.

They knew that if the government had to continue working under the same circumstances, it would spell doom for the country. That is why all the members of Congress finally accepted the plan of making Pakistan an independent state. But one person was still against it. Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was still trying his best to stop India being torn apart.

To keep India united. On 1st April 1947, Gandhi met Mountbatten regarding this matter. There are original photos and videos of this meeting as you can see on the screen. Gandhi requested Mountbatten not to divide India. “Please, Lord Louis, don’t do it.” Mountbatten replied that the partition is the last option.

He would do it only when there remains no other way. And at that point, he could see no other way. “I can hand-in-heart assure you that dividing India is the last thing I want.” “It’s a solution that I’d refuse to resort to if there’s any other choice.” Gandhi was so desperate to prevent the partition that he told Mountbatten to make Jinnah the Prime Minister.

“Make Jinnah the Prime Minister.” “What?” “You can’t be serious.” Gandhi was willing to have 300 million Hindus be governed by Jinnah. He was willing because this was the only way to keep the country united. He asked Mountbatten to invite the Muslim League to form a government.

And if Jinnah rejects this proposal, then Congress should be allowed to form a government, where Gandhi believed that some leaders of the Muslim League would be given a place. Mountbatten agreed to this, but on one condition. He asked Gandhi to convince Congress first. If Congress agreed to this, Mountbatten was are willing to do it.

“What about Congress?” “Oh, I have to try!” “Leave that to me.” “Jawahar and Sardar are like my sons.” “At my word, they will do or die.” Gandhi was very confident that Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel would do as he asked them to. He went to them with this offer and requested them to let Jinnah be the Prime Minister.

“Do you love power more than your country?” “Do you really doubt us?” “Then hold on to your country.” “And let Jinnah have the power.” But Nehru and Sardar Patel had already seen what kind of a person Jinnah was. After working with the Muslim League for months in the interim government, they weren’t ready to accept this at any cost.

Both Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel refused to do as Gandhi asked them to do. “I followed you all my life, forgive me, for I can’t anymore.” “The sacrifices of so many cannot, and will not be forgotten in the face of the ambition of one man!” It was a painful and shocking moment for Gandhi.

Because until then, Nehru and Patel always did as Gandhi told them to do. They obeyed him and followed his path. But at this point, they weren’t ready to accept this at any cost. Now when everyone had agreed to the partition, Mountbatten prepared a new plan, the Dickie Bird Plan. This plan was passed in the British Cabinet on 2nd May 1947, but not without some drama.

Mountbatten had added an additional clause to his plan. He gave every province an option to either join India or Pakistan, or to remain independent. This clause was supposed to be applicable only to the Bengal province. If Bengal wanted to become a separate country, as it became later on. But at that time, Chief Minister Suhrawardy proved to Mountbatten that even Bengal’s Hindu Congress leaders wanted to have an independent state.

So, this was Mountbatten’s three-nation theory. And do you know what is interesting? Jinnah too approved of this three-nation theory. He believed that people living in Bengal are vastly different from those living in West Pakistan. So, to Jinnah, there was nothing wrong with them being a separate country.

But Pandit Nehru had a problem with this. There were 559 princely states. If all of them had the option of joining India or Pakistan or being independent, then our nation would simply disintegrate. When this plan was passed in Britain, Mountbatten showed it to Nehru before showing it to Jinnah. Nehru lost all control when he read it.

He was furious with Mountbatten. He told him that it wasn’t a plan for India’s freedom, the plan aimed at India’s disintegration. That it would break India into small pieces. Leading to Balkanisation. “If the Maharajas are left to their own devices, India will be divided into 500 fragments!” -“It will not come to this.

” -“What if it does?” “After three centuries of divide and rule, you’ll leave us fragmented and quit!” Mountbatten did not think that Nehru would be so furious at the plan. So he went to political commission VP Menon immediately. And asked him to prepare a new partition plan. According to the Mountbatten’s instructions, Menon completed this task in just 6 hours between lunch and dinner.

VP Menon advised that the power should be transferred to two independent British Dominions, India and Pakistan. And the provinces should be divided based on their elected representatives. The only exception would be Bengal and Punjab, which would be divided into two parts. Jinnah had initially rejected this plan.

He asked for a referendum in the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan. VP Menon accepted Jinnah’s request for a referendum and assured Congress that the possibility of the princely states remaining independent would be minimised. Mountbatten refused any sort of dominion status for the Princely States and advised them to choose either India or Pakistan.

And while choosing, they should follow their geographical contiguity. Deciding based on their geographical closeness to each of the two areas. By August 1947, there was a small possibility of being somewhat independent for the Princely States. If a Princely State wanted, it could have retained some autonomy.

But matters related to defence, foreign affairs, communication, and other sensitive issues, they had to depend on the central government. That’s why the autonomy was merely symbolical. 3rd June 1947, this new plan was finally put forward and this time everyone accepted it. Pandit Nehru, Patel, JB Kripalani, Baldev Singh, Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, and Abdur Rab Nishtar.

All of them sat together at a conference table with Mountbatten where this plan was collectively endorsed. You can see many real photos of this meeting here. No one was completely happy. Everyone had to compromise in some way. People were worried about how this partition would be executed. Will all Muslims have to leave India or will they be forced to leave? The princely states were fighting their own battles.

Will they be successful in trying to be completely independent? The answers to all these questions weren’t with anyone. But on 15th August 1947, at midnight, Pandit Nehru hoisted the Indian flag. And India got its freedom at midnight. In the partition that followed, about 15 million people migrated. More than 1 million people were killed and there were forced religious conversions overnight.

More than 75,000 women were kidnapped and raped. This led to the saga of how Sardar Patel worked tirelessly to unite all the princely states. A separate video can be made on this. If you have some time, I would definitely recommend this web series on Sony Life, ‘Freedom at Midnight’. What I told you here was only the short version.

Actually, this series is 7 episodes long. Each episode is about 40 minutes to 1 hour long. There are a lot of things that I couldn’t add in this video. There are many interesting facts and relatively unknown facts which will surprise you. Like the friendship between Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru. On what points did they agree? And where did they disagree? How similar were their ideologies? This has been beautifully depicted in detail.

That’s why I’m recommending this series. Anyway nowadays, there are many films on historical events full of a lot of propaganda. Things are presented in a distorted way. But this series isn’t like that. This series is completely based on a book. And this book was written in 1975 after a lot of research.

Thank you very much!