The freedom struggle's final phase, Partition & integration

From Quit India to the Crisis of 1945-46

The Quit India movement, launched on 8 August 1942 at the Bombay session of the AICC with Gandhi's call to 'Do or Die', marked the freedom struggle's most militant mass phase. The Congress Working Committee was arrested at dawn on 9 August 1942 under the Defence of India Rules; leaderless, the movement turned spontaneous and violent, with parallel governments established at Ballia (Chittu Pandey), Tamluk (Jatiya Sarkar, Midnapore) and Satara (Prati Sarkar under Nana Patil). The British crushed it by 1943 but conceded that India could no longer be governed by the old order.

Subhas Chandra Bose, having escaped to Germany in 1941, reached Singapore in July 1943, reorganised the Indian National Army and proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) on 21 October 1943. The INA's 1945-46 trials at the Red Fort — the Shah Nawaz Khan, P.K. Sahgal and G.S. Dhillon case — became a rallying point; Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Nehru appeared for the defence.

The Wavell Era and the Cabinet Mission

The Simla Conference (June-July 1945), convened by Viceroy Wavell, collapsed over Jinnah's insistence that the Muslim League alone nominate Muslim members. The 1945-46 elections gave Congress overwhelming general-seat majorities and the League nearly all reserved Muslim seats, hardening the two-nation polarity. The RIN Mutiny of February 1946 at Bombay signalled that even the armed services were slipping.

The Cabinet Mission (Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps, A.V. Alexander) arrived in March 1946 and on 16 May 1946 rejected Pakistan, proposing instead a three-tier federation: autonomous provinces grouped into Sections A, B and C, with a weak Centre handling defence, foreign affairs and communications. Congress and the League both accepted, then quarrelled over the compulsory grouping clause. Jinnah withdrew acceptance and called Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946, triggering the Great Calcutta Killings (over 4,000 dead) and communal carnage across Noakhali, Bihar and the Punjab. The interim government under Nehru was sworn in on 2 September 1946; the League joined reluctantly on 26 October 1946 but worked to wreck it from within. By early 1947 the constitutional deadlock and spreading violence had made a united transfer of power impossible.

The Mountbatten Plan and Partition

Clement Attlee's statement of 20 February 1947 fixed June 1948 as the deadline for British withdrawal and named Lord Mountbatten the last Viceroy. Confronted with ungovernable communal violence, Mountbatten advanced the date. The Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947) accepted Partition: provincial assemblies of Bengal and Punjab would vote on division, Sind and Baluchistan would decide separately, the NWFP and Sylhet would hold referenda. The Indian Independence Act 1947, passed by the British Parliament on 18 July 1947, created the two Dominions of India and Pakistan from 15 August 1947 and lapsed British paramountcy over the princely states.

The Radcliffe Boundary Commission, chaired by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, drew the Bengal and Punjab lines; the awards were published only on 17 August 1947, two days after independence, unleashing one of history's largest forced migrations — an estimated 10-15 million displaced and up to a million killed. Gandhi spent Independence Day fasting in Calcutta to quell rioting.

Integration of the Princely States

With paramountcy lapsing, 565 princely states became legally free to accede to either Dominion or stay independent. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as Home Minister, and V.P. Menon, Secretary of the States Department (created 5 July 1947), secured accession through the Instrument of Accession, ceding defence, external affairs and communications. By 15 August 1947 all but three had acceded.

Junagadh's Muslim Nawab acceded to Pakistan despite a Hindu-majority population; India intervened and a plebiscite in February 1948 confirmed accession to India. Hyderabad's Nizam sought independence; after the breakdown of the Standstill Agreement and Razakar violence, India launched Operation Polo (Police Action) on 13 September 1948, annexing the state in five days. Jammu and Kashmir's Maharaja Hari Singh acceded on 26 October 1947 after a Pakistan-backed tribal invasion; the Instrument of Accession brought Indian troops and produced the dispute that endures.

Mahatma Gandhi's Assassination

Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a consequence of the communal bitterness Partition had inflamed. The integration of states, completed largely by 1949 and constitutionalised through the States Reorganisation that followed, transformed a fragmented subcontinent into a unified Indian Union.

Why This Matters for the Exam

This lesson serves Prelims GS and Mains GS-1 (the syllabus item 'The Freedom Struggle — its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country'). It is among the most heavily tested segments of modern history.

How It Is Tested

Prelims favours precise factual recall: the dates of the Cabinet Mission (16 May 1946), the Direct Action Day (16 August 1946), the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947), the Indian Independence Act (18 July 1947), and the three holdout states (Junagadh, Hyderabad, Kashmir). A recurring PYQ trap pairs leaders with events — e.g. associating the Cabinet Mission's three-tier grouping with the wrong body, or confusing the Wavell Plan (Simla 1945) with the Cabinet Mission Plan. Know that the Cabinet Mission rejected Pakistan but its grouping scheme effectively foreshadowed partition.

Mains demands analytical synthesis. Past questions have asked candidates to evaluate whether Partition was inevitable, to assess Sardar Patel's role in integration, and to weigh the contributions of the INA trials and the RIN Mutiny in accelerating British departure. UPSC 2013 asked about the Quit India Movement's distinguishing features; integration of princely states is a perennial GS-1 favourite.

High-Yield Facts to Retain

Memorise: parallel governments of Quit India (Ballia, Tamluk, Satara); Azad Hind proclamation (21 October 1943); Radcliffe awards published 17 August 1947; Instrument of Accession and V.P. Menon's role; Operation Polo (13 September 1948); Junagadh plebiscite (February 1948); Kashmir accession (26 October 1947). For Mains, structure answers around three drivers of the final transfer of power — mass upheaval (Quit India, INA, RIN), Labour government pragmatism, and communal polarisation — and always link integration to Patel and Menon. A strong answer distinguishes legal lapse of paramountcy from the political achievement of accession.