Midnight's Furies

by Nisid Hajari

  96. Collected Works of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, 1:xxi; Sayeed, Pakistan, 178.

  97. Prison Diary 1942, SWJN, 1st ser., 13:7.

  98. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, 1:297.

  99. Prison Diary 1943, SWJN, 1st ser., 13:244, 122, 154.

  100. Ibid., 13:244, 323–324.

  101. Moon, Divide and Quit, 21.

  102. “Punjab Premier Refuses to Accept Mr. Jinnah’s Demand for League Coalition,” Times of India, 29 April 1944, 9.

  103. Sardar Shaukat Hyat Khan, The Nation That Lost Its Soul (Lahore: Jang, 1995), 126.

  104. I. A. Talbot, “The 1946 Punjab Elections,” Modern Asian Studies 14, no. 1 (1980): 75.

  105. Aiyar, “‘August Anarchy,’” 25.

  106. Census of India, 1941, http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/old_report/TABLE_1941_1.HTM.

  107. E. W. R. Lumby, The Transfer of Power in India, 1945–7 (London: Allen and Unwin, 1954), 62.

  108. H. V. Hodson, The Great Divide: Britain-India-Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1997), 113.

  109. Reply to Debate on All-India Congress Committee Resolution (hereafter AICC) in Bombay, 23 September 1945, SWJN, 1st ser., 14:90–91.

  110. Bertrand Glancy to Wavell, 16 August 1945, Transfer of Power, 6:71.

  111. David Gilmartin, Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan (London: I. B. Tauris, 1988), 219.

  112. Talbot, “The 1946 Punjab Elections,” 75.

  113. Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 218.

  114. Habib to K. H. Khurshid, 3 February 1946, QMJP, 12:545.

  115. Glancy to Wavell, 27 October 1945, Transfer of Power, 6:413–414.

  116. “Defence Implications of a Partition of India into Hindustan and Pakistan,” 1 April 1946, IOR: MSS Eur D714/72.

  117. Record of Interview between Jinnah and Arthur Smith, 28 March 1946, IOR: MSS Eur D714/72.

  118. Woodrow Wyatt, Confessions of an Optimist (London: Collins, 1985), 155–156.

  119. Hatim A. Alavi to Jinnah, 10 June 1946, QMJP, 13:235–236.

  120. Concluding Remarks at AICC Meeting, 7 July 1946, SWJN, 1st ser., 15:237, emphasis added.

  121. Vallabhbhai Patel to D. P. Mishra, 29 July 1946, Sardar Patel and the Partition of India, ed. Prabha Chopra (Delhi: Konark, 2010), 147.

  122. Bourke-White, Halfway to Freedom, 14.

  123. Ibid., 15.

  124. Ispahani, Qaid-e-Azam as I Knew Him, 228.

  3. MADHOUSE

  1. “League Hostility to Mr. Nehru,” Times of India, 17 October 1946, 1.

  2. Address to Jirga of Tribal Leaders at Razmak, 17 October 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:308.

  3. Wavell, 353.

  4. Jinnah to Wavell, 15 October 1946, Jinnah-Wavell Correspondence: 1943–1947, ed. Sher Muhammad Garewal (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, 1986), 110.

  5. Olaf Caroe to Wavell, 23 October 1946, Transfer of Power, 8:786.

  6. Note on Tribal Visit, 24 October 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:324.

  7. Caroe to Wavell, 23 October 1946, Transfer of Power, 8:786.

  8. Fortnightly Summaries and Weekly Reports, DIB, India, National Archives, Kew, London (hereafter TNA): WO 208/5007.

  9. “Tribesmen Acclaim Pakistan,” Times of India, 19 October 1946, 1.

  10. Nehru to Wavell, 23 October 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:194.

  11. Gandhi, Gandhi, 535.

  12. Roy Bucher to Chief of the General Staff, 26 October 1946, Bucher Papers, 7901 – 87.

  13. Tour Diary by Bucher’s Assistant, Bucher Papers, 7901–87.

  14. Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 1:277.

  15. “Strong Steps to Restore Order in Noakhali,” Times of India, 16 October 1946, 1.

  16. “Mob Marching on Chandpur Town,” Times of India, 18 October 1946, 1.

  17. Nehru to Wavell, 15 October 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:51.

  18. Nehru to Wavell, 8 September 1946, ibid., 1:156.

  19. Abell to Wavell, 18 November 1946, Transfer of Power, 9:96.

  20. “Mob Marching on Chandpur Town.”

  21. Talbot, An American Witness, 203.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Tour Diary by Bucher’s Assistant, Bucher Papers, 7901–87.

  24. “Mob Marching on Chandpur Town.”

  25. Talbot, An American Witness, 204.

  26. A British Tale of Indian and Foreign Service, 154.

  27. Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 1:303.

  28. Jad Adams, Gandhi: Naked Ambition (London: Quercus, 2010), 223.

  29. Speech at Prayer Meeting, 17 October 1946, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, 97 vols. to date (New Delhi: Publications Department of the Government of India, 1958–), 92:344 (hereafter CWMG).

  30. Speech at Prayer Meeting, 18 October 1946, ibid., 92:355.

  31. Interview with Jinnah, 22 October 1946, Wavell Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D977/17.

  32. “Mr. Jinnah Condemns Disturbances,” Times of India, 25 October 1946, 1.

  33. Fortnightly Summaries and Weekly Reports, DIB, India, TNA: WO 208/5007.

  34. Interview to Press at Dum Dum Airport, 2 November 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:53.

  35. “Steps to Prevent the Growth of Private Armies,” 14 November 1946, IOR: L / PJ/8/679.

  36. “Volunteer Organisations in India,” Intelligence Bureau, 28 March 1947, TNA: DO 133/58.

  37. “Steps to Prevent the Growth of Private Armies,” 14 November 1946, IOR: L / PJ/8/679.

  38. George E. Jones, Tumult in India (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1948), 211.

  39. “Indian Communal Strife—The Autumn Massacres in Bihar,” Times, 11 February 1947.

  40. “Viceroy’s Talks on Bihar Riots,” Times of India, 4 November 1946, 1.

  41. Report on Bihar Riots by Niranjan Singh Gill, 20 February 1947, QMJP, 1, part 2:53.

  42. Speech at Taregna, 5 November 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:60.

  43. Nehru to Naidu, 5 November 1946, ibid., 1:65.

  44. Interview with Roy Bucher, Oral History Archive, NMML.

  45. Jones, Tumult in India, 212.

  46. Confidential Note, 8 November 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:83.

  47. Nehru to Sardar Patel, 5 November 1946, ibid., 1:63.

  48. Nehru to Naidu, 5 November 1946, ibid., 1:65.

  49. Extract from a Secret Letter from Wavell to Pethick-Lawrence, 22 November 1946, IOR: L/PJ/8/679.

  50. Nehru to Patel, 5 November 1946, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:63.

  51. Report on the Recent Events and Disturbances in Bihar, 6 November 1946, ibid., 1:71.

  52. Nehru to V. K. Krishna Menon, 11 November 1946, ibid., 1:207.

  53. Gandhi to H. S. Suhrawardy, 5 December 1946, CWMG, 93:108.

  54. Gyanendra Pandey, Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism and History in India (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India, 2003), 99.

  55. Notes by Woodrow Wyatt, n.d., Transfer of Power, 9:247.

  56. Interview with Jinnah, 19 November 1946, Wavell Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D977/17.

  57. Fortnightly Summaries and Weekly Reports, DIB, India, TNA: WO 208/5007; “Volunteer Organisations in India,” Intelligence Bureau, 28 March 1947, TNA: DO 133/58.

  58. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 2:802.

  59. Frank Messervy to Bucher, 1 March 1969, Bucher Papers, 7901–87(2).

  60. “Volunteer Organisations in India,” Intelligence Bureau, 28 March 1947, TNA: DO 133/58, from which information for the rest of this paragraph was also drawn.

  61. Hugh Dow to John Colville, 10–11 December 1946, Transfer of Power, 9:328.

  62. Fortnightly Summaries and Weekly Reports, DIB, India, TNA: WO 208/5007.

  63. “Volunteer Organisations in India,” Intelligence Bureau, 28 March 1947, TNA: DO 133/58.

  64. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 50.

  65. This idea, promoted by Wavell’s successor, Lord Louis Mountbatten, has been called into question. But the truth may never be known. A document from General Headquarters India dated 29 July 1947, in IOR: L/WS/1/1057, orders that “All papers in connection
with INDIA COMMAND JOINT OPERATION INSTRUCTION NO. 2 (FIRST REVISION)—‘MADHOUSE’—WILL BE DESTROYED.”

  66. “Flight to Nowhere?,” Time, 16 December 1946, http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,934710-1,00.html.

  67. Madhav Godbole, The Holocaust of Indian Partition: An Inquest (New Delhi: Rupa, 2011), 57.

  68. See Bevin to Clement Attlee, 1 January 1947, TNA: PREM 8/564.

  69. Abell to Wavell, 18 November 1946, Transfer of Power, 9:96.

  70. Patel to Stafford Cripps, 15 December 1946, Chopra, ed., Sardar Patel and the Partition of India, 170.

  71. George Merrell to State Department, 11 December 1946, U.S. Department of State Records, Central Files 1910–January 1963, Record Group 59, National Archives, College Park, Md. (hereafter US): 845.00/12–1146.

  72. Alex von Tunzelmann, Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (New York: Picador, 2007), 151.

  73. Wavell, 390.

  74. Notes by Woodrow Wyatt, n.d., Transfer of Power, 9:247.

  75. John McLaughlin Short to Louis Mountbatten, 18 March 1947, Mountbatten Papers, Hartley Library, University of Southampton: MB1/E159.

  76. Minutes of Conference on 6 December, SWJN, 2nd ser., 1:139.

  77. Wavell, 391.

  78. R. J. Moore, Escape from Empire: The Attlee Government and the Indian Problem (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 205.

  79. Winston Churchill to Jinnah, 11 December 1946, Jinnah Papers, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 10762/8.

  80. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 53.

  81. Dean Acheson to Waldemar Gallman, 30 November 1946, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946: The British Commonwealth, Western and Central Europe (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), 97.

  82. Talbot, An American Witness, 201.

  83. Lelyveld, Mahatma Gandhi, 301.

  84. Adams, Gandhi, 255.

  85. Nehru to Gandhi, 28 February 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:621.

  86. See appendices VI and VII, CWMG, 93:417–422.

  87. “Extract from Secret Information,” 9 January 1947, enclosure, Transfer of Power, 9:508–509.

  88. Moore, Escape from Empire, 305–306.

  89. Discussion between Sir Frederick Burrows and Khawaja Nazimuddin, 8 January 1947, enclosure, Transfer of Power, 9:535.

  90. Merrell to George Marshall, 22 April 1947, US: 845.00/4–2247.

  91. Mountbatten’s Aides-Memoire, Part 3, Situation in the Provinces, TNA: PREM 8/1450.

  92. Merrell to Marshall, 27 January 1947, US: 845.00/1–2747.

  93. Jack Morton, “Indian Episode: A Personal Memoir,” unpublished, IOR: MSS Eur D1003/1.

  94. Khan, The Nation That Lost Its Soul, 153.

  95. Ibid., 152.

  96. Lionel Carter, ed., Punjab Politics: Governors’ Fortnightly Reports and Other Key Documents, 2 vols. (New Delhi: Manohar, 2007), 1:233.

  97. Evan Jenkins to Wavell, 15 February 1947, IOR: R/3/1/178.

  98. Glancy to Wavell, 16 August 1945, Transfer of Power, 6:71.

  99. Jenkins to Wavell, 29 February 1947, IOR: R/3/1/178.

  100. Rajmohan Gandhi, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten (New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2013), 57.

  101. Stephens, Pakistan, 133.

  102. Weekly Reports of DIB, India, 21 January 1939, IOR: L/PJ/12/481.

  4. “PAKISTAN MURDABAD!”

  1. Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana: The Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 211.

  2. Final Draft Statement of Britain’s India Policy, 20 February 1947, TNA: FO 371/63529.

  3. The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton: 1918–40, 1945–60, ed. Ben Pimlott (London: Jonathan Cape, 1986), 389.

  4. Wavell, 423.

  5. Jenkins to Wavell, 29 February 1947, IOR: R/3/1/178.

  6. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:49–50.

  7. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 11, 4 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/6.

  8. Gopal Singh, A History of the Sikh People (New Delhi: Allied, 1979), 699. Many reports emphasize Singh’s drawing his sword, although he himself always denied having done so.

  9. Lambert, Hindu-Muslim Riots, 211.

  10. Memoir of A. J. V. Arthur, Deputy Commissioner of Multan, IOR: MSS Eur F180/63.

  11. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:62.

  12. “Volunteer Organisations in India,” Intelligence Bureau, 28 March 1947, TNA: DO 133/58.

  13. John J. Macdonald, U.S. Consul General in Bombay, to Marshall, 8 March 1947, US: 845.00/3–847(b).

  14. Merrell to Marshall, 8 March 1947, US: 845.00/3–847(a).

  15. Minutes of Viceroy’s Thirteenth Miscellaneous Meeting, 11 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:759.

  16. Lord Wavell’s map even shows the Punjab district of Gurdaspur—a bone of contention at independence—where it would eventually end up, in India. See Wavell to Pethick-Lawrence, 7 February 1946, ibid., 6:912–913.

  17. Nehru to Menon, 23 February 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:45.

  18. Nehru to Gandhi, 24 February 1947, ibid., 2:53.

  19. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:71, 73.

  20. Stephens, Pakistan, 145.

  21. Richard Mead, Churchill’s Lions: A Biographical Guide to the Key British Generals of World War II (Stroud: Spellmont, 2007), 298.

  22. Stephens, Pakistan, 145.

  23. Ibid., 145–146.

  24. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:87.

  25. G. D. Khosla, Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India, reprinted in The Partition Omnibus (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002), 110–111.

  26. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:72.

  27. Ibid., 1:137.

  28. Short to Mountbatten, 3 November 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E159.

  29. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, 1:338.

  30. Maharajah of Patiala to Mountbatten, 18 May 1947, Kirpal Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab 1947 (Delhi: National Book Shop, 1991), 86–87.

  31. Jones, Tumult in India, 225.

  32. Reginald Schomberg to Attlee, 11 May 1947, Clement Richard Attlee Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford University: MS Attlee, Box 53, f. 268.

  33. Mountbatten Interview with the Rajah of Faridkot, 17 April 1947, enclosure, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15554/8.

  34. Reginald Savory Diary, 19 April 1947, Savory Papers, NAM: No. 89.

  35. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:111, 118.

  36. Ibid., 1:120, 122.

  37. Ibid., 1:89.

  38. Interview with Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, 20 March 1947, Jenkins Papers, IOR: R/3/1/176.

  39. Ibid.

  40. John Terraine, The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten (London: Hutchinson, 1968), 126.

  41. Brian Hoey, Mountbatten: The Private Story (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1994), 189; Tom Driberg, Ruling Passions (London: Jonathan Cape, 1977), 214.

  42. Christopher Thorne, Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain and the War against Japan, 1941–1945 (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978), 336–337.

  43. Wavell, 419.

  44. Mountbatten to Attlee, 17 February 1947, TNA: PREM 8/563.

  45. Moore, Escape from Empire, 225.

  46. Comments by Reginald Brockman on Draft of November 1968 Nehru Memorial Lecture, “Reflections on the Transfer of Power and Jawaharlal Nehru,” Mountbatten Papers, MB1/K202(1).

  47. Alan Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1951), 45–46.

  48. Jack Bazalgette, The Captains and the Kings Depart: Life in India 1928–46 (Oxford: Arnate Press, 1984), 131.

  49. Savory Diary, 17 April 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  50. Abell to Jenkins, 31 March 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15551/3.

  51. Donald Foster, “The Sunlit Silences: An Experience of India,” unpublished, IOR: MSS Eur C380/1.

  52. Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 180.

  53. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 1, 2 April 1947, IOR:
MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/9.

  54. Hastings Ismay to Laura Ismay, 28 March 1947, Ismay Papers, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London: 3/8/3.

  55. Speech at Opening Plenary of Asian Relations Conference, 23 March 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:506.

  56. Nehru to Asaf Ali, 7 April 1947, ibid., 2:517.

  57. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 49.

  58. Note by F. V. Duckworth, Commissioner of Labour, Malaya, 4 April 1946, IOR: L/PJ/8/636.

  59. Mountbatten Interview with Nehru, 24 March 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  60. Tunzelmann, Indian Summer, 177.

  61. QMJP, 1, part 1:286n.

  62. Viceroy’s Fourth Staff Meeting, 28 March 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/2.

  63. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 6 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  64. Lord Mountbatten’s Reflections on Mr. Jinnah 29 Years Later, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/K137A.

  65. Viceroy’s Seventh Staff Meeting, 3 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/2.

  66. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 8 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  67. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 10 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  68. Viceroy’s Thirteenth Staff Meeting, 11 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/3.

  69. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 10 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  70. Governors’ Conference, 1st Day, 15 April 1947, IOR: L/PO/6/123.

  71. Mountbatten Interview with Nehru, 24 March 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/4.

  72. Viceroy’s Thirteenth Staff Meeting, 11 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/3.

  73. Viceroy’s Eighteenth Staff Meeting, 21 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/3.

  74. Merrell to Marshall, 21 April 1947, US: 845.00/4–2147.

  75. Ibid.

  76. Viceroy’s Staff Meeting, 19 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/3.

  77. Viceroy’s Eighteenth Staff Meeting, 21 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/3.

  78. Plain Mr. Jinnah, 288.

  79. Mountbatten Interview with Liaquat, 19 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/6.

  80. Minutes of the Viceroy’s Seventh Miscellaneous Meeting, 23 April 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:380.

  81. Ibid.

  82. Hastings Ismay to Mountbatten, 10 May 1947, ibid., 10:755.

  83. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 26 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/6.