Unprecedented haste and Act of 1947 (16,17 & 18 July)

 

Unprecedented haste and Act of 1947 (16,17 & 18 July)

The British Assembly passed the Indian Independence Act on July 18, 1947, which led to the partition of India and Pakistan. This event was followed by unprecedented violence, resulting in massive killings, abductions, rapes, and displacement, particularly in Punjab, where Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs suffered greatly. More than 80% casualties were in the Punjab and it was partition of the Punjab. It's striking that the assembly has never expressed regret for the devastating consequences of their decision.

The partition's aftermath saw one of the largest mass migrations in history, with estimates suggesting over 20 million people displaced and up to 2 million killed. The violence was widespread, with women and children being targeted, and many cases of forced conversions, abductions, and killings were reported.

Despite the severity of these events, there seems to be a lack of reflection on the part of the assembly regarding the consequences of their decision. Questions about the pressure behind the decision and the haste with which it was implemented remain unanswered.

It is August 15 today. 

The dawn that brought this day into the world also restored to our people

their long-lost freedom. Through many bleak decades of political serfdom,

millions of us have waited and hoped for this dawn. It has arrived at last

and yet, for us in the Punjab, it is not bright with laughter and buoyant

with song. It is black with sorrow and red with blood.

 Faiz Ahma Fiz .... editorial of The Pakistan Times ... 15 August 1947

 

LORD HAILEY  I am much more conscious at the moment of the many grave considerations which have been put forward in your Lordships' House about this Bill, and about the situation which is likely to arise when it is passed. They are far-reaching considerations of great weight and they have been put forward, if I may be allowed to say so, in a manner which must impress upon everyone the deep sense of concern which your Lordships must feel and do feel for that situation.

It is clear, I think, from what has been said, in all the speeches to-day, that this Bill, whatever its merits or demerits, will not solve the Indian problem........ The eyes of the whole world are to-day upon the leaders of India. It is by their success or failure in the gigantic task which faces them that history will judge them.

LORD PETHICK-LAWRENCE said that there was a danger that the removal of the British overlord-ship would usher in a period of communal strife in India which would leave indelible stains of blood.......I am happy to think that all these dangers have been averted.

we who went to India last year frankly said that there was a solution which we offered to them, but if they were prepared instead to agree on some different solution we were quite willing that they should take that course.

Over smart master  I remember, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, that the College porter left us one afternoon to go to his own home, and he told us that his wife was expecting to give birth to a child that evening. He came back next morning with rather a long face and told us that, instead of the single child that he was expecting to receive into his home, his wife had presented him with twins. Something like that has happened in India. Mother India has been in labor" for a very long time, and everyone has been wondering what would be the character of the infant that would come into being. Lo and behold! instead of one State emerging from the womb of Mother India, twin States are emerging, as described in this Bill

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA AND BURMA (THE EARL OF LISTOWEL)

Just Check the mindset: It was eighty-nine years ago that Parliament, by transferring to a Minister of the Crown the powers of the existing directors of the East India Company, acknowledged that order and social progress in India should be a public responsibility rather than a casual by-product of commerce, or business enterprise, and that its British rulers must be made accountable to Parliament. We began almost at once to associate Indians more closely with the government of India.

 I will not recall the Cripps offer, or the Cabinet Mission Plan, except to say that they were inspired by a great hope and were in themselves a logical development of the liberal trend of British policy since 1917

Even Russian did not say such thing regarding Afghanistan. We think instinctively of the multitude of Government servants, soldiers, teachers, civilian officials, and others, who went out there in their youth to serve far from home, possibly under great difficulties and most hazardous conditions, with no reward to look forward to but the satisfaction of having done their duty.

Bill presented

I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill, the Indian Independence Bill. His Majesty's Government have asked Parliament to assure for this great measure a passage so rapid as to be almost unprecedented

Questions, debates and speeches

3rd and final readings

We take this action, not because it is forced upon us by circumstances outside our control, but because it is consistent with all that we hold to be just and right

last/lost debate

Speech of The Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee)