ON 15 July 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 1947. Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten formed a Commission led by Radcliffe to demarcate the boundaries of the two proposed new states, with four judges appointed as members to represent Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. Among them, Justice Din Muhammad and Justice Munir represented the proposed Pakistan, while Justice Mahajan and Justice Teja Singh represented the proposed state of India.
India created numerous problems for Pakistan. Initially, Pakistan faced a shortage of resources, making daily government operations challenging. The Hindu Bania reluctantly accepted the partition plan but did not genuinely accept the creation of Pakistan, as it shattered their dream of an Akhand Bharat (undivided India). Consequently, Nehru colluded with Lord Mountbatten to undermine Pakistan from the start.
Radcliffe carried out his duty, and with the assistance of the commission members, demarcated the borders, clearly indicating the inclusion of Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, and their surrounding areas in Pakistan. However, the Hindu Bania’s conspiratorial mindset was not prepared to accept this, as Nehru had already planned to control the Ferozepur Headworks to stop the flow of water to Pakistan. Mountbatten fully supported him in this endeavor, and when the Radcliffe Award was issued on 17 August 1947, it had been altered to include Ferozepur and Gurdaspur in India.
In Punjab, Radcliffe’s arbitration decision severed adjacent Muslim-majority areas from Pakistan, but not a single non-Muslim majority area was taken from India. Adjacent majority tehsils of Gurdaspur, Batala, and Pathankot from the Gurdaspur district were given to India to establish a link with Jammu and Kashmir. The Muslim-majority tehsil of Ajnala in the Amritsar district was also given to India, and two tehsils from the Jalandhar district, Nakodar and Jalandhar, along with Ferozepur and Zira, were handed over to India.
The border was drawn in such a way that the Ferozepur Headworks, which irrigated much of Pakistan’s land, were included in India. Chaudhry Muhammad Ali recounts that when he visited the Viceroy as a representative of Pakistan, he saw a map in the Chief of Staff’s room with lines indicating that all these Muslim-majority tehsils were to be included in Pakistan. However, Mountbatten influenced Radcliffe to alter this award.
Mountbatten similarly manipulated the situation regarding the independent state of Jammu and Kashmir, failing to apply the partition formula that required independent states to decide whether to join Pakistan or India based on their majority population. The Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir had already decided to join Pakistan before its formation, making its inclusion in Pakistan clear.
However, Nehru, in collusion with Mountbatten, delayed Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. Through his conspiratorial planning, he arranged the purchase of Kashmir by negotiating with Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, on October 27, 1947, and subsequently sent Indian troops into Kashmir under the pretext of this agreement. The Hindu Bania’s control over Kashmir persists to this day. Behind this injustice was Mountbatten, who used his influence to change the award.
