Summary J The last phase of India’s struggle for freedom, began with the ‘Anti-War Individual Satyagraha’ launched in November . J The calm, however, was only a prelude to the storm that rocked the British Empire with the Quit India Movement of . J Despite brutal repressive measures, the mass upsurge did not fade away and the INA trials and the RIN mutiny bear evidence to this. J The dark side of the struggle for freedom too was to manifest during the seven years beginning with the idea of separate nation for Muslims, vaguely expressed, at the Lahore session of the Muslim League.
J It culminated in the Partition of India along with freedom, taking a heavy toll of human lives in communal riots. J Free India was born with the challenge to the idea of secularism. Meanwhile the functioning of the interim government was far from smooth with animosity between the Congress and the League growing by the day. The ‘informal’ meetings of the cabinet intended to settle differences before any proposal was taken to the formal meeting that the Viceroy presided over, could not be held from the very beginning.
The proverbial last straw was the budget proposals presented by Liaquat Ali Khan in March . The finance minister proposed a variety of taxes on industry and trade and proposed a commission to go into the affairs of about big business houses and inquire into the allegations of tax evasion against them. Khan called this a ‘socialistic budget’. This, indeed, was a calculated bid to hit the Indian industrialists who had, by this time, emerged as the most powerful supporters of the Congress.
The intention was clear: to hasten the partition and prove that there was no way that the League and the Congress could work together towards independence. British Prime Minister Atlee’s statement in Parliament on February , , that the British were firm on their intention to leave India by June set the pace for another stage. Lord Wavell was replaced as Viceroy by Lord Mountbatten on March , . Mountbatten Plan M o u n t b a t t e n came up with a definite plan for partition.
It involved splitting up Punjab into West and East (where the west would go to Pakistan) and similar division of Bengal wherein the Western parts will remain in India and the East become Pakistan. The Congress Working Committee, on May , conveyed its acceptance of the idea of partition to Mountbatten. The viceroy left for London soon Lord Mountbatten Last Phase of Indian National Movement Andaman and Nicobar Islands Hyderabad Junagadh Jammu and Kashmir Sri Lanka Nepal Bhutan Burma West Bengal East Bengal Pakistan Pakistan