Pakistan celebrating independence did not even know where it is in the globe//17th August Radcliffe line history

 Radcliffe Line

After the partition of India on 17 August 1947, the Radcliffe Line became the border between India and Pakistan.  The line was demarcated by the Boundary Commission headed by Cyril Radcliffe, who was authorized to fairly divide 1,75,000 square miles (4,50,000 sq km) of area among 88 million people.

Lord Mountbatten announced the partition of the Indian sub-continent and the creation of two new states / nations on 14 August 1947 in Pakistan (Muslim nation) and on 15 August 1947 in India (Republic of India).  In this division, not only the Indian sub-continent was split into two, but Bengal was also divided and the eastern part of Bengal was separated from India to become East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).  At the same time, Punjab was partitioned and Pakistan was created.  In this division, railways, army, historical heritage, central revenue, all were divided equally.  The main people who participated in this division of the Indian continent were Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Lord Mount Baton, Cyril Radcliffe, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and some of the main activists of both organizations (Indian National Congress and Muslim League).  The most important of these was Cyril Radcliffe, who was entrusted with the responsibility of the India-Pakistan dividing line by the British rule.

Pakistan celebrating independence did not even know where it is in the globe:

3 June 1947. The news was broadcast on All India Radio at exactly eight o'clock in the night. But today, in the role of Radio Announcer, there were three people who had the eyes of the whole country, Mountbatten, Pandit Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. First, Mountbatten declared independence of India. After this, Jinnah congratulated the Muslims of the country on realizing the dream of Muslim Homeland. He also appealed to them to maintain peace. After this, Nehru spoke of accepting the proposal of partition in a very earnest voice, while describing his part of India as secular. It was recorded as '3 June Plan' or 'Mountbatten Plan' in later history.

Although it was decided that India would be free as two separate countries, but no one knew exactly which area would come to which part. This was the same period when violence started in Punjab and Bengal. In the villages of Punjab, Sikhs and Muslims were armed and engaged in protecting their villages. So that at the time of partition, they can get their village included in Hindustan or Pakistan. Later, we got the same confusion in Renu's novel 'Maail Aanchal'. Renu records that there was a rumor about the village Kalimuddinpur in Purnia district of Bihar that this village survived as part of Pakistan. The name of this village was Muslim. The people of Pakistan had demanded that they should get this village.

On 14 August 1946, due to the 'Direct Action Day' of the Muslim League, Calcutta had witnessed fierce riots for ten days. About five thousand people were killed in these riots. The communal atmosphere has never improved since this day. Mountbatten knew the consequences of partition of India. He did not want to take the stigma of this Kaltayam on his head. In such a situation, on 15 July 1947, as soon as the British Parliament passed India's Act of Independence, they set a date for India's independence a month later. But till that time he had no strong blue print of partition.

This tricky task was assigned to Cyril Radcliffe, a British barrister. Radcliffe arrived in India on 8 June 1947. His image in the British lawyer fraternity was that of a settled and rational man. He had only 36 days to distribute this continent. Radcliffe knew that every line drawn on the map would be soaked with blood on the ground.

After talking to Viceroy Mountbatten of India, he started his work. Two transboundary commissions were created to accomplish this task. The first for Punjab and the second for Bengal. Both commissions were to be chaired by Radcliffe. Apart from this, two members from Congress and Muslim League were part of this commission. Abu Sahel Mohammad Akram and SA Rahman on behalf of the Muslim League in the Boundary Commission of Bengal. At the same time, Justice CC Biswas and BK Mukherjee were representing the Congress. In the Punjab bifurcation commission, justices Mehar Chand Mahajan and Teja Singh were from the Congress side. The Muslim League gave Deen Mohammed and Mo. Munir was sent to this commission. Radcliffe was also taking the help of his personal secretary Christopher Beaumont.

On 14 August 1947, Mountbatten joined Karachi to celebrate the independence of a new Muslim country. People were shaking hands and greeting them. The next day he was to participate in a similar ceremony in India. Till that time, apart from him and Radcliffe, no one had a map of this new country. After the celebration of independence, on 17 August 1947, Radcliffe introduced new maps of both countries. Lahore was given to Pakistan. At the same time Gurdaspur, Pathankot came to India. Malda, Murshidabad in Bengal also came to India despite having almost equal numbers. In Chittagong, more than 90 percent of the Buddhist population was left handed over to the new Muslim country.

How Pakistan got Lahore

Senior journalist of India Kuldeep Nayyar lived in Sialkot at the time of Partition. He was one of the few people who later met Radcliffe in London.

Sharing his experiences with Radcliffe, Kuldeep Nayar said, "I wanted to know how he drew the line of division." He did not hide anything from me. "

Kuldiv Nayar Radcliffe had said while narrating the incident, "I got 10-11 days to draw the boundary line." At that time, I just visited once by plane. Nor did I have a map of the districts. I saw that the property of Hindus is more in Lahore. But I also found that there was no major city in the part of Pakistan. I removed Lahore from India and gave it to Pakistan. Now call it right or something but this was my helplessness. People of Pakistan are angry with me but they should be happy that I gave them to Lahore. "

Millions of people lost their lives due to Partition. Did Radcliffe regret it? Kuldeep Nayyar said that there was no direct talk to Radcliffe about this, but he felt from the conversation that Radcliffe was a sensitive person and he felt very guilty.

Radcliffe never returned to India

British actor Tom Beard, who plays Radcliffe in the drama 'Drawing the Line', also believes that he was a decent and non-partisan man, but in the end he might not be able to do his job properly.

During the rehearsal of the play, Tom stated, "I think Radcliffe wanted to do the whole job in the right way. He was thrown into a very complicated job, he had very little time. Radcliffe wanted to do a fair job but They were not able to do it. They break it, they get shattered. In fact, they had no idea in the beginning how big this work is and what the human-political implications of it can be. "

The actors working in the drama believe that the generations of splitting that took place more than 60 years ago are also being faced by generations today. Indian-origin Paul Beazley plays Jinnah.

Speaking to the BBC, he said, "People are still carrying the burden of formal legacy of partition. Look at Kashmir, it is like a battlefield today. Pakistan and India have fought many wars. Thousands of people are killed in the battle of two such countries. Who have been one till two generations ago. Wherever formalism happens, it leaves its mark. Just replace that power with a new power. "

This drama is important for the people of India and Pakistan because Radicliffe was the one whose drawn line cut a country into two nights, while for the Britishers, this drama is like a lesson in history of how an event has brought millions of people. Became the reason for the death of

After partition, lakhs of people left their homes to go across the border, but in the meantime, Cyril Radcliffe never returned to India.