Regions Most Affected by Riots

The communal riots had started in August 1946 itself, but with the announcement of partition and independence, the situation became more inflamed. The regions through which the Radcliffe line was drawn became most violent and maximum number of murders, rapes and abduction of women and children took place. Armed bands of Sikhs (and Hindus) and Muslims roamed the cities and countryside of Punjab, committing unbelievable crimes.

A war of extermination was launched on both sides of the border, when refugee trains are reported to have arrived sometimes carrying only dead bodies. According to an estimate, around 180,000 were killed (60,000 from the west and 120,000 from the east).

The regions of Bengal, due to the presence of Gandhi and his efforts through fasts, experienced less violence in comparison to Punjab.

Riots began in Delhi, with a massacre of Muslims in revenge for Punjab (Gandhian fasts had a temporary impact). In Bihar, prior to partition, in October 1946, Hindu peasants, allegedly instigated by Hindu landlords to divert attention from agrarian problems, killed Muslims. This was followed by violence in Garhmukteswar in the United Province where Hindu pilgrims killed thousand Muslims. But after partition, due to Gandhi’s initiatives, no massacres took place

in these regions.

Why so many casualties The governor-general anticipated the danger of riots and assembled a boundary force of 50,000 men. But Nehru’s decision to not allow British troops into the matter proved devastating—the boundary force themselves got divided along communal affiliations. Further, the European officers were busy preparing to leave India. According to Lockhart, the Commander-in-Chief of the

Views

The systematic failure of British governments to contemplate or prepare for any planned transfer of power to India is epitomised by the fact that a man of Radcliffe’s background and lack of experience (he had never been east of Gibraltar before he came to India) should have been asked to embark on such a fundamental task so very late in the day.

—Walter Reid, Keeping the Jewel in the Crown

With limitations of time, knowledge and understanding, it was virtually impossible to deal adequately with the often vital accessories of a boundary line—such as the location of the canal head waters in relation to the canals themselves, communications by road and rail, the fate of mixed or isolated populations and such ‘invisible’ problems as the location of pasture lands in relation to villagers’ flocks and herds.

—Percival Spear

He (Radcliffe) tried to take account of irrigation canals and water supplies so that there was enough water in the central Punjab, but on the scale with which he was dealing, he was bound to make mistakes. If villages weren’t bisected by the boundary they were separated from the villagers’ fields, railway stations from the towns they served and communities from the resources on which they relied.

Walter Reid, Keeping the Jewel in the Crown

They had absolutely no conception. They asked me to come in and do this sticky job for them, and when I had done it they hated it. But what could they expect in the circumstances? Surely, they must have realised what was coming to them once they had decided on partition. But they had made absolutely no plans for coping with the situation.

—Radcliffe, quoted by Leonard Mosley,

The Last Days of the British Raj

Indian Army (August 15–December 31, 1947), the widespread disorder would have been under control if all the personnel from civil and armed services had been placed in their respective new countries.