Process of partition

The division of British India into two sovereign nations, India and Pakistan, was not a simple line drawn on a map. It was a painful, chaotic process that unfolded over months, driven by the principle of religious majorities but plagued by geographical, political, and human complications.

The core decision was to use the principle of religious majorities as the basis for partition. This meant that areas where Muslims formed a majority of the population would become part of Pakistan, while the rest would remain with India. What sounds like a straightforward rule immediately ran into four major difficulties.

First: the geography of Muslim-majority areas. There was no single, contiguous belt of Muslim-majority territory in British India. Instead, there were two distinct zones of concentration — one in the northwest and one in the northeast. These two regions were separated by over a thousand miles of Indian territory. The only solution was to create a Pakistan that itself was divided into two parts: West Pakistan and East Pakistan, with India lying between them.

Second: not all Muslim-majority areas wanted to join Pakistan. The North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) was a clear example. Its leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (known as the 'Frontier Gandhi'), was a staunch opponent of the two-nation theory and wanted the NWFP to remain with India. Despite his popularity and the clear sentiment of his people, his voice was ignored. The NWFP was forced to become part of Pakistan.

Third: the problem of mixed provinces. Two of the largest Muslim-majority provinces — Punjab and Bengal — had huge populations of non-Muslims (Hindus and Sikhs) who were in the majority in many districts. The decision was made to bifurcate (split) these two provinces. The new boundary would be drawn based on the religious majority at the district level, or even lower. This was a slow, agonising process. The final boundary award was not announced until after Independence Day (15 August 1947). This meant that millions of people woke up on the day of freedom without knowing whether they were citizens of India or Pakistan.

Fourth and most intractable: the problem of minorities. Once the borders were drawn, lakhs of people found themselves on the 'wrong' side. Hindus and Sikhs living in areas that became Pakistan, and Muslims living in the Indian parts of Punjab, Bengal, and even Delhi, suddenly became unwanted minorities in their own homes. They were seen as aliens in the land where their families had lived for centuries. …