Timeline
3 June 1947
The Mountbatten Plan, announced on , set out the procedure for partitioning British India into the dominions of India and Pakistan.
20 February 1947
Attlee had already declared on that Britain would quit India by June 1948 at the latest.
15 August 1947
Mountbatten announced as the date of transfer at a press conference, advancing it from the earlier June 1948 horizon.
18 July 1947
On the British Parliament enacted the Indian Independence Act 1947, giving statutory effect to the plan.
17 August 1947
Sir Cyril Radcliffe chaired both boundary commissions, and the Radcliffe Line was published on , two days after independence.
Positions at a glance
Indian National Congress
The Mountbatten Plan, formally announced on 3 June 1947 and therefore also known as the June 3 Plan, was the British scheme that determined the mechanics by which British India would be partitioned and power transferred to successor governments. Its legal foundation lay in the appointment of Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten as Viceroy of India in March 1947, replacing Field Marshal Lord Wavell, with an explicit mandate from Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government to effect a transfer of power. Attlee had already declared on 20 February 1947 that Britain would quit India by June 1948 at the latest. The plan superseded the May 1946 Cabinet Mission scheme, which had proposed a loose three-tier federation with grouped provinces and had failed because neither the Indian National Congress nor the All-India Muslim League could reconcile their interpretations of its grouping clause. By early 1947 the deepening communal violence—particularly the Great Calcutta Killings of August 1946 and the subsequent disturbances in Noakhali, Bihar, and Punjab—had convinced Mountbatten that a unified transfer was unworkable.
All-India Muslim League
The Mountbatten Plan, formally announced on 3 June 1947 and therefore also known as the June 3 Plan, was the British scheme that determined the mechanics by which British India would be partitioned and power transferred to successor governments. Its legal foundation lay in the appointment of Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten as Viceroy of India in March 1947, replacing Field Marshal Lord Wavell, with an explicit mandate from Prime Minister Clement Attlee's Labour government to effect a transfer of power. Attlee had already declared on 20 February 1947 that Britain would quit India by June 1948 at the latest. The plan superseded the May 1946 Cabinet Mission scheme, which had proposed a loose three-tier federation with grouped provinces and had failed because neither the Indian National Congress nor the All-India Muslim League could reconcile their interpretations of its grouping clause. By early 1947 the deepening communal violence—particularly the Great Calcutta Killings of August 1946 and the subsequent disturbances in Noakhali, Bihar, and Punjab—had convinced Mountbatten that a unified transfer was unworkable.
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On 3 June 1947, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten announced the partition plan over All India Radio alongside Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, fixing 15 August 1947 as the transfer date.
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