After the Second World War, Britain under Prime Minister Clement Attlee sent a Cabinet Mission to India in 1946 to arrange for an orderly transfer to independence. The Cabinet Mission proposed a federal arrangement consisting of three groups of provinces. Two of these groupings would consist of predominantly Muslim provinces, while the third grouping would be made up of the predominantly Hindu regions. But the Congress leaders rejected the idea citing that it would leave the Center weak.
Since the Lahore Resolution of 1940, the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had been demanding a separate nation for Muslims. The failure to reach a power-sharing formula between the Congress and the Muslim League only strengthened the League’s stance. Lord Louis Mountbatten was sent to India tasked to oversee British India’s independence by June 1948. Lord Mountbatten presented the June 3 Plan for the division of India into India and Pakistan. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave his approval and lobbied other Congress leaders to accept the proposal, even as Gandhiji opposed Partition. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan; Thus British India was partitioned into two independent States: India and Pakistan. While India celebrates 1-Day on August 15, Pakistan does so on August 14.
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