India — Partition and the challenges of independence
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Question
What is the Two-Nation theory?
Answer
The idea, championed by the Muslim League, that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations with irreconcilable interests and therefore needed separate states.
Question
Who led the Muslim League and became Pakistan's first Governor-General?
Answer
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who shifted from seeking safeguards within India to demanding a fully separate state of Pakistan.
Question
What happened on Direct Action Day, 16 August 1946?
Answer
The Muslim League called mass protests for Pakistan; communal riots erupted in Calcutta, killing thousands and convincing many that Hindus and Muslims could not share one state.
Question
Who was Lord Mountbatten and what was his role?
Answer
Britain's last Viceroy of India (1947), who drew up the plan to partition British India into India and Pakistan and moved independence forward to August 1947.
Question
What did the Radcliffe Line do?
Answer
Drawn by Cyril Radcliffe in just weeks with outdated maps and little local knowledge, it fixed the new border through Punjab and Bengal, splitting communities and farmland.
Question
Roughly how many people were displaced by Partition, and how many died?
Answer
About 10–15 million people crossed the new borders, the largest migration in history; estimates of deaths from violence range from several hundred thousand to about two million.
Question
Who was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and what was his main achievement?
Answer
India's Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, who (with V.P. Menon) persuaded or pressured over 550 princely states to accede to India, earning the title 'Iron Man of India'.
Question
What is 'accession' in the context of the princely states?
Answer
The legal act by which a princely state's ruler signed an Instrument of Accession, joining either India or Pakistan after 1947.
Question
Why was Kashmir different from most princely states?
Answer
Its Hindu ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, ruled a Muslim-majority population and delayed choosing, until a Pashtun tribal invasion from Pakistan forced him to accede to India in exchange for military help.
Question
What was the outcome of the first India–Pakistan war (1947–48)?
Answer
UN-mediated ceasefire in January 1949 left Kashmir divided by a Line of Control, with India holding about two-thirds and Pakistan the rest — a dispute still unresolved today.
Question
What was Nehru's approach to nation-building as India's first Prime Minister?
Answer
He built a secular, parliamentary democracy, promoted five-year economic plans and industrial self-sufficiency, and pursued non-alignment in foreign policy.
Question
What is the States Reorganisation Act (1956)?
Answer
A law that redrew India's internal state boundaries along linguistic lines, addressing regional identity while keeping India unified under central government.
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Topic 12.6 hub
Independence of India (1857–1964)
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