Independence & Partition · 14–15 August 1947
Independence and Partition
Under the Mountbatten Plan, British India was divided into India and Pakistan. Freedom came with mass migration and violence.
Causes
- Communal polarisation
- Failure of the Cabinet Mission
- Britain's rush to withdraw
Consequences
- Around 10–15 million displaced
- Hundreds of thousands killed
- Integration of princely states began
Significance
The end of colonial rule and the start of a new nation, shaped by the trauma of partition.
People
Sources
- Bipan Chandra et al., India's Struggle for Independence (Penguin, 1988)
- Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, From Plassey to Partition (Orient BlackSwan, 2004)
- NCERT, Themes in Indian History Part III, Class XII