INDIAN CIVIL WAR
YEARS: 1947-1948 | DEATHS: 500000
World War II not only changed the map of the world and reduced Britain to a second rate power, it also helped mature British public opinion on India. The Labour Party’s victory in 1945 helped reassess the merits of the traditional policies. While the British prepared to transfer power to India, the Muslim League renewed its demand for the formation of Pakistan. When it appeared that the Congress had no desire to share power with the Muslim League at the center, Jinnah declared August 16, 1946 as Direct Action Day, which brought communal rioting in many places in the north. Partition seemed preferable to civil war. On June 3, 1947, Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy (1947) and Governor-General (1947-48), announced plans for partition of the British Indian Empire into secular but Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, which itself was divided into east and west wings on either side of India.
At midnight, on August 15, 1947, amidst ecstatic shouting of "Jai Hind" (Long Live India), India became an independent nation, with its first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his famous speech on India’s "tryst with destiny." Concurrently, the Muslim northwest and northeast of British India were separated into the nation of Pakistan. Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs followed this partition. The area of Kashmir in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of controversy that erupted into the First Indo-Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949.
Source: Wikipedia |