Writteb by Dr.Waqas Rehman

As Pakistan celebrates its independence on 14th August we the IPPA want to give you the historical perspective of the events that have led to the division of British occupied India.

Geographically the area constituting Pakistan was a part of the British empire throughout much of the nineteenth century. It all began when the East India company began their trade in colonial India in the 17th century, and their rule started from 1757 when they won the battle of Plassey. Following the Indian rebellion of 1957 which was the war of independence for natives, the Government of India act 1858 led to the British crown assuming direct control over much of the Indian subcontinent. The Muslims of India felt the need for a political party that will represent them so All-India Muslim League was founded in 1906, in the context of the circumstances that were generated over the division of Bengal in 1905 and the party aimed at creation of a separate Muslim state.

In 1946, the Labour Government in Britain, exhausted by recent events such as World War two and numerous riots, realised that it had neither the mandate at home, the support internationally, nor the reliability of the British Indian Army for continuing to control an increasingly restless British India. The reliability of the native forces for continuing their control over an increasingly rebellious India diminished, and so the government decided to end the British rule of the Indian Subcontinent. In 1946, the Indian national congress, being a secular party, demanded a single state.

The All India Muslim League, who disagreed with the idea of single state, stressed the idea of a separate Pakistan as an alternative. The 1946 The cabinet mission was sent to try to reach a compromise between Congress and the Muslim League, proposing a decentralized state with much power given to local governments, but it was rejected by both of the parties and resulted in a number of riots in South Asia With all these historical events and loss of trust of Muslims of sub-continent under the guidance and leadership of Quaid eAzam paved the way for a separate Muslim state for the Muslim majority regions of sub-continent.

The British were left with no other option but to divide the sub-continent for that reason the legislation was planned in the form of act of parliament therefore The Indian Independence act was passed by the parliament of the United kingdom divided British India into the two new independent dominions; the Dominion of India (later to become the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later to become the Islamic Republic of Pakistan). The act provided a mechanism for division of the Bengal and Punjab provinces between the two nations with establishment of the office of the Governor General, conferral of complete legislative authority upon the respective Constituent assemblies, and division of joint property between the two new countries. The act later received royal assent on 18 July 1947.

The partition was accompanied by violent riots and mass causalities, and the displacement of nearly 15 million people due to religious violence across the subcontinent; millions of Muslim, Sikhs and Hindu refugees trekked the newly drawn borders to Pakistan and India respectively in the months surrounding independence.

On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan became independent and Muhammad Ali Jinnah was sworn in as its first governor general in Karachi. The Independence of Pakistan
was marked with widespread celebration, but the atmosphere remained heated given the communal riots prevalent during independence in 1947. The country we have today came into being as a result of sacrifices made by our ancestors who made all that possible with their endurance, perseverance and hard work.