Lord Mountbatten, the last Governor-General and Viceroy of India, arrived in Delhi on March 22, 1947. He came charged with the mission to make a peaceful transfer of power from British to Indian hands by June, 1948. “It is a mission”, Prime Minister Attlee said in the Parliament, “not as has been suggested of betrayal on our part, it is a mission of fulfillment.”

When Mountbatten arrived in India, there was wide spread communal tension all over the country. Fights were breaking out sporadically, and Bombay and other places had fairly heavy casualties several times. The Punjab, in particular, was seething with communal passions.

Lord Mountbatten’s first task was to make the acquaintance of the great political antagonists – the leaders of the Congress and of the Muslim League – and he succeeded in a short time in winning their confidence and admiration.

By the middle of April 1947, Mountbatten worked out a Partition Plan, the principles of which were that if partition came, it should be the responsibility of the Indians; Provinces should have the right to determine their own future; Bengal and the Punjab should be partitioned; Sylhet district in Assam should have the option to join East Bengal; and there should be general elections in North-West Frontier Province. The Plan was discussed at a conference of Provincial governors on April 15 and 16. The governors “all agreed on two points. First, that a quick decision was a great importance; and secondly, that a united India was now out of the question. No one liked the idea of Partition, but no one could suggest how it could be avoided.”

On April 26, Mountbatten “decided to send Ismay and George Abell back to London with the first draft of the Plan, to hammer it out clause by clause with the (British) Government and officials concerned.”

The text of the draft plan which Ismay took to London, under this Plan, “The Indian Peninsula was to be partitioned into two independent sovereign states, one predominantly Hindu, to be called India, and the other predominantly Muslim, to be called Pakistan.” The Congress Working Committee that met on May 1, formally accepted Partition.

In addition to the vote taken in the legislatures, there were plebiscites to decide for or against Pakistan in Sylhet District of Assam and in N.W.F.P. Baluchistan made its choice by a process of consultation. In every case the Muslim majority areas opted for Pakistan.

On 3rd June 1947, in New Delhi studio of All India Radio, the four key leaders formally announced their agreement to divide the sub-continent into two separate, sovereign nations. Lord Mountbatten spoke first. His words were confident, his speech brief, and he perhaps deliberately adopted a tone of understatement. Nehru followed, and spoke in a rather sad tone, saying “the great destiny of India was taking shape with travail and sufferings”. He urged the nation to accept the plan, and concluded, “It is with no joy in my heart that I commend these proposals to you.” Jinnah spoke next, and concluded by saying a momentous decision has been taken to create an Islamic State on the sub-continent and ended his speech with the words PAKISTAN ZINDABAD.

As a result of its victory in the elections the Congress assumed power in eight provinces. From July 1937 to October 1939, the Congress Ministries ruled eight of the 11 Indian Provinces. This period was extremely crucial in the history of Hindu-Muslim relations. The conclaves and correspondence the Quaid had with the Congress leaders such as Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Gandhi did not lead to any compromise. The Muslim Mass – Contact Campaign launched by the Congress failed miserably. The Congress Ministries in the Hindu-majority provinces invariably persecuted the Muslims. The complaints about ill-treatment, injustice and tyranny were so numerous and persistent that the Council of the Muslim League at its meeting of March 20, 1938 appointed a Special Committee, headed by Raja Syed Muhammad Mehdi, to make inquiries and submit a report.