Midnight's Furies

by Nisid Hajari

  84. Merrell to Marshall, 2 May 1947, US: 845.00/5–247.

  85. Herbert Lawrence Hill, “Life in Bombay,” unpublished, Hill Papers, NAM: 2004–11–112.

  86. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 86–87.

  87. Moore, Escape from Empire, 250.

  88. Hastings Ismay to Laura Ismay, 6 April 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/8/5a.

  89. Speech in New Delhi, 13 April 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:89.

  90. Minutes of the Viceroy’s Ninth Miscellaneous Meeting, 1 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:508.

  91. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 87–88.

  92. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 123–124.

  93. Extract from Punjab Fortnightly Report for the Second Half of April 1947, 8 May 1947, IOR: R/3/1/90.

  94. Tara Singh to S. E. Abbott, 13 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:803.

  95. Note by Jenkins, 23 April 1947, IOR: R/3/1/176.

  96. Jenkins to Mountbatten, 18 May 1947, IOR: R/3/1/90.

  97. Maharajah of Patiala to Mountbatten, 18 May 1947, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 86–87, 85.

  98. Note by Jinnah on Revised Draft Proposals, 17 May 1947, QMJP, 1:776.

  99. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 94.

  100. Interview with Norman Cliff, 25 May 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:179–180.

  101. Jenkins to Mountbatten, 18 May 1947, IOR: R/3/1/90.

  102. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:206.

  103. Mountbatten Interview with Lt.-Gen. Sir Arthur Smith, 15 May 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/6.

  104. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 1:208.

  105. Extract from Letter Sent to U.S. Ambassador in London, 3 June 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/7/60/2.

  5. INDIAN SUMMER

  1. Patrick Brendon, “Disaster in Gurgaon,” unpublished, Brendon Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, 41.

  2. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 8, 5 June 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/2.

  3. Brendon, “Disaster in Gurgaon,” Brendon Papers, 18, 12.

  4. Nehru to Agatha Harrison, 22 May 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 2:337.

  5. Hastings Ismay to Laura Ismay, 19 June 1947, Ismay Papers, 3/8/10b.

  6. Mountbatten to Provincial Governors, 31 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 11:30.

  7. Lewis Douglas to Marshall, 2 June 1947, US: 845.00/6–247.

  8. Douglas to Marshall, 29 May 1947, US: 845.00/5–2947.

  9. Record of 2 June Meeting, 2 June 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15562/4.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Eric Mieville to Mountbatten, 26 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:991.

  12. Merrell to Marshall, 29 May 1947, US: 845.00/5–2947.

  13. Jinnah to Yahya M. Merchant, 15 May 1947, and Brenda Blencowe to Jinnah, 31 May 1947, QMJP, 2:790, 798.

  14. Mountbatten Interview with Churchill, 22 May 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/6.

  15. Samuel H. Day to Marshall, 3 June 1947, US: 845.00/6–347.

  16. Christie Diary, 2 June 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  17. Howard Donovan to Marshall, 13 June 1947, US: 845.00/6–1347.

  18. Christie Diary, 4 June 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  19. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 114.

  20. Ibid., 106.

  21. Note by Hastings Ismay, “India: 18 March 1947–18 July 1947,” Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  22. Jinnah’s Broadcast on the Partition of India, 3 June 1947, IOR: L/PJ/10/81.

  23. Nehru’s Broadcast on the Partition of India, 3 June 1947, IOR: L/PJ/10/81.

  24. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 8, 5 June 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/2.

  25. Ismay to Mountbatten, 23 May 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/E83.

  26. Press Conference, 4 June 1947, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 101.

  27. Note to Scott about Sketch Map, 1967, Jenkins Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D807.

  28. Report on the Situation in the Punjab for the First Half of June 1947, National Archives of India (hereafter NAI): F. No. 18/6/1947 Home Pol (I).

  29. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:99.

  30. Ibid., 2:100.

  31. Ishtiaq Ahmed, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy Through Secret British Reports and First Person Accounts (New Delhi: Rupa, 2011), 303–306.

  32. “Lahore Civic Life Paralysed,” Times of India, 23 June 1947, 1.

  33. Ahmed, The Punjab Bloodied, 305.

  34. Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi, 2:296–297.

  35. Nehru to Mountbatten, 22 June 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 3:180.

  36. Ian Talbot, Divided Cities: Partition and Its Aftermath in Lahore and Amritsar, 1947–1957 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 44.

  37. Note by H. Gordon Minnigerode, U.S. Consul in Karachi, 8 July 1947, US: 845.00/7–847.

  38. Anonymous to Liddell, 8 July 1947, QMJP, 3:157.

  39. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:101.

  40. Mountbatten Interview with V. K. Krishna Menon, 22 April 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.

  41. Mountbatten to Wilfred Francis Webb, 28 June 1947, Transfer of Power, 11:720.

  42. Christie Diary, 25 June 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  43. George Frederick Heaney, “The Winding Trail,” unpublished, Heaney Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, 291.

  44. Mountbatten to William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, 2 July 1947, Transfer of Power, 11:826.

  45. Meeting of the Partition Council, 27 June 1947, ibid., 11:676.

  46. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 10, 27 June 1946, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/4.

  47. Ibid.

  48. Mountbatten to Jinnah, 2 July 1947, QMJP, 3:75.

  49. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 11, 4 July 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D28/4.

  50. Ibid.

  51. V. Shankar, My Reminiscences of Sardar Patel, vol. 1 (Delhi: Macmillan India, 1974), 27.

  52. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 14, 25 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/7.

  53. Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 12 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.

  54. Meeting between Jinnah and Ismay, 24 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.

  55. Note of Mountbatten Interview with Jinnah, 4 July 1947, Walter Turner Monckton Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford University: Dep. Monckton Trustees 29, No. 60.

  56. Donovan to Marshall, 22 July 1947, US: 845.00/7–2247.

  57. A. G. Noorani, The Destruction of Hyderabad (New Delhi: Tulika, 2013), 146.

  58. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 142, 140.

  59. Christie Diary, 25 July 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3; Henry Grady to Marshall, 28 July 1947, US: 845.00/7–2847.

  60. Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997), 628.

  61. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 143.

  62. Record of Interview with Mr. Jinnah on 26 July 1947 (by Ali Yavar Jung), Monckton Papers, Dep. Monckton Trustees 29, No. 114.

  63. Ibid.; Mountbatten to Ismay, 8 July 1947, Transfer of Power, 12:22.

  64. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 60.

  65. Bourke-White, Halfway to Freedom, 196–197.

  66. Nehru to Menon, 31 July 1945, SWJN, 1st ser., 14:385.

  67. Nehru to Naidu, 20 June 1946, ibid., 15:385.

  68. Mountbatten Interview with Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel, 29 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.

  69. Nehru to Gandhi, 28 July 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 3:265.

  70. Ibid.

  71. Grady to Marshall, 5 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–547.

  72. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:190.

  73. Fortnightly Report for the Punjab, Second Half of July 1947, NAI: F. No. 18/7/47 Poll (I).

  74. Lambert, Hindu-Muslim Riots, 214.

  75. Michael Edwardes, The Last Years of British India (London: New English Libra
ry, 1963), 227.

  76. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:178.

  77. Tara Singh to Ian Stephens, 21 January 1948, Stephens Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University: Box 32.

  78. Mountbatten Interview with Giani Kartar Singh and Baldev Singh, 30 June 1947, enclosure, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15554/8.

  79. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:146.

  80. Ibid., 2:249, emphasis added.

  81. Penderel Moon to Short, 11 July 1947, John McLaughlin Short Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F189/18; Moon to his father, 12 July 1947, Moon Papers, IOR: MSS Eur F230/20.

  82. Interview with Ismay, 17 August 1964, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 740.

  83. Moon, Divide and Quit, 87.

  84. French, Liberty or Death, 333.

  85. Nehru to Mountbatten, 21 July 1947, Transfer of Power, 12:285–286.

  86. O. H. K. Spate Diary, 7 August 1947, Spate Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University.

  87. French, Liberty or Death, 321.

  88. Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj, 200.

  89. Ibid., 197.

  90. Listowel to Mountbatten, 9 May 1947, Transfer of Power, 10:712.

  91. Interview with Cyril Radcliffe, 23 July 1964, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 744.

  92. Mountbatten Interview with Patel, Jinnah, Liaquat, and Capt. Gerald Savage, 5 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.

  93. Donovan to Marshall, 29 December 1947, US: 845.00/12–2947.

  94. In Quest of Jinnah, 41.

  95. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:223.

  96. Ibid., 2:221–222.

  97. Jenkins to Aloys Michel, 27 November 1967, enclosure, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/K34.

  98. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:219.

  99. Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten, 139.

  100. Note by Ismay, “India: 18 March 1947–18 July 1947,” Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  101. Claude Auchinleck to Ismay, 20 June 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15563/3.

  102. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:219, 230.

  103. Grady to Loy W. Henderson, 9 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–947.

  6. OFF THE RAILS

  1. Moon, Divide and Quit, 110–111.

  2. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:133.

  3. Hector Bolitho, Jinnah: Creator of Pakistan (London: Oxford University Press, 2006), 174.

  4. Allan Perry-Keene, “Reflected Glory,” unpublished, Perry-Keene Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University.

  5. Talbot, An American Witness, 357.

  6. Ikramullah, From Purdah to Parliament, 157.

  7. Singh, Jinnah, 572.

  8. Jinnah Press Conference, 13 July 1947, QMJP, 3:1004.

  9. Interview in Bombay Chronicle, 12 August 1947. Chopra, ed., Sardar Patel and the Partition of India, 179.

  10. Spate Diary, 15 August 1947, Spate Papers.

  11. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 17, 16 August 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D32/1.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Nehru to Mountbatten, 9 August 1947, Transfer of Power, 12:618.

  14. Maharajah of Bikaner to Mountbatten, 10 August 1947, ibid., 12:662.

  15. Note about Sketch Map, Jenkins Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D807.

  16. Christie Diary, 12 August 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  17. Remarks on boundary award from Pakistan Times, 21 August 1947, QMJP, 5:404–405.

  18. Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 17, 16 August 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D32/1.

  19. Talbot, An American Witness, 331.

  20. Shahid Amin, Disastrous Twilight: A Personal Record of the Partition of India (London: Leo Cooper, 1986), 229.

  21. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:233.

  22. Ibid., 2:229.

  23. Typescript of Draft for a Talk by George Maconachie Brander, IOR: MSS Eur F409.

  24. Fikr Taunsvi, “The Sixth River—A Diary of 1947,” in Lahore 1947, ed. Ahmad Salim (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel, 2003), 27, 28.

  25. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:228, 230, 227, 226.

  26. Ibid., 2:231, 233.

  27. Grady to Marshall, 14 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–1447.

  28. Grady to Henderson, 9 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–947.

  29. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight (New York: Avon, 1975), 284–285.

  30. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, 1:362.

  31. “Mr. Nehru’s Message,” The Hindu, 15 August 2010, 1.

  32. Charles Thompson to Marshall, 27 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–2747.

  33. Das, From Curzon to Nehru, 262.

  34. Talbot, An American Witness, 337.

  35. Report of the Punjab Boundary Force, IOR: L/MIL/17/5/4319, p. 24.

  36. Informal Minutes of Joint Defence Council Meeting, 16 August 1945, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 490.

  37. Speech at Red Fort, 16 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:2.

  38. Note by Conference Secretary on Meeting at Ambala, 17 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15549/2.

  39. Lord Mountbatten’s Note on Discussion with Nehru, 19 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:11.

  40. Nehru to Gandhi, 22 August 1947, ibid., 4:14.

  41. The account here and over the next four paragraphs is taken from an untitled article by D. G. Harington-Hawes in Blackwood’s Magazine, February 1948, 81–91, IOR: D1225/20.

  42. R. C. B. Bristow, Memories of the British Raj: A Soldier in India (London: Johnson, 1974), 153, 159.

  43. Situation in the Punjab Boundary Force Area, 25 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15565.

  44. Report of the Punjab Boundary Force, IOR: L/MIL/17/5/4319, p. 34.

  45. Ian Morrison, “Moslem Slaughter by Sikhs Reported,” New York Times, 25 August 1947, 1.

  46. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:94.

  47. Bristow, Memories of the British Raj, 153.

  48. Jasdev Singh Sandhu, Giani Kartar Singh: A Commemorative Volume (Patiala: S. Jasdev Singh Sandhu Foundation, 2001), 82–83.

  49. Carter, ed., Punjab Politics, 2:147.

  50. Note by E. G. Willan of Conversation with BBC’s H. R. Stimson, 5 September 1947, TNA: DO 133/59.

  51. Nehru to Gandhi, 22 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:14; Nehru to Gandhi, 25 August 1947, ibid., 4:23.

  52. Ian Copland, “The Master and the Maharajas: The Sikh Princes and the East Punjab Massacres of 1947,” Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (July 2002): 657–704.

  53. Donovan to Marshall, 18 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1847.

  54. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:135.

  55. Report of the Punjab Boundary Force, IOR: L/MIL/17/5/4319, p. 27.

  56. Note by Conference Secretary on Meeting at Ambala, 17 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15549/2.

  57. B. S. Grewal to Commissioner, Ambala Division, 20 August 1947, Singh, ed., Select Documents on Partition of the Punjab, 499.

  58. Moon, Divide and Quit, 119.

  59. Donovan to Marshall, 29 August 1947, enclosure, US: 845.00/8–2947.

  60. Moon, Divide and Quit, 121.

  61. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:143, 90, 226.

  62. M. S. M. Sharma, Peeps into Pakistan (Patna: Pustak Bhandar, 1954), 146.

  63. Statement by Jinnah, 24 August 1947, QMJP, 5:530.

  64. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:81.

  65. Statement by Jinnah, 24 August 1947, QMJP, 5:530.

  66. Ibid.

  67. Moon, Divide and Quit, 217, 139.

  68. Humphrey Evans, Thimayya of India: A Soldier’s Life (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960), 256–257, 259.

  69. Jon Stallworthy, Louis MacNeice (New York: Norton, 1995), 358.

  70. Evans, Thimayya of India, 257.

  71. Ahmed, The Punjab Bloodied, 428.

  72. Ibid., 427.

  73. Donovan to Marshall, 27 August 1947, US: 845.00/8–2747.

  74. Nehru to Mountbatten, 31 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:44.


  75. Morrison, “Moslem Slaughter by Sikhs Reported.”

  76. Nehru to Mountbatten, 27 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:25–26.

  77. Sampuran Singh to Patel, 27 August 1947, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, 1945–50, 10 vols., ed. Durga Das and Vallabhbhai Patel (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1971 – 1972), 4:256.

  78. Carter, ed., Partition Observed, 1:396.

  79. Chandulal Trivedi to Mountbatten, 28 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15552/1.

  80. Interview to the Press, 28 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:33, 37.

  81. Cable to Menon, 28 August 1947, ibid., 4:29.

  82. Interview to the Press, 28 August 1947, ibid., 4:31.

  83. Note for the Joint Defence Council by Auchinleck on the Future of the Punjab Boundary Force, 29 August 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15552/1.

  84. Governor-General’s Personal Report No. 1, 2 September 1947, Mountbatten Papers, MB1/D86.

  85. Nehru to Mountbatten, 31 August 1947, SWJN, 2nd ser., 4:44.

  86. “Pandit Nehru’s Pledge to Punjab Minorities,” Times of India, 2 September 1947, 1.

  87. Ibid.

  88. Thompson to Marshall, 17 September 1947, US: 845.00/9–1747.

  89. Gandhi to Patel, 1–2 September 1947, CWMG, 96:319.

  90. Gandhi to Nehru, 30 August 1947, ibid., 96:305.

  91. A. J. Wilson, “Transfer of Power: A Personal Narrative of Events in India from August–October 1947,” William Robin Palmer Ridgeway Papers, NAM: 1963 – 05–49.

  92. Patel to Govind Ballabh Pant, 23 October 1947, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, 4:430.

  93. Heaney, “The Winding Trail,” 301.

  94. Rajmohan Gandhi, Patel: A Life (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1990), 427.

  95. Pandey, Remembering Partition, 122, 124.

  96. “The Disturbances in Delhi,” 3 October 1947, IOR: L/WS/1/748.

  97. H. M. Patel, Rites of Passage: A Civil Servant Remembers, ed. Sucheta Mahajan (Delhi: Rupa, 2005), 80.

  98. Patel to Rajendra Prasad, 5 September 1947, Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, 4:338.

  99. Zahid Hussain to Mohammed Ikramullah, 2 September 1947, QMJP, 5:465.

  100. Note by Ismay of His Conversations with Jinnah, 12–14 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15561/2.

  101. George Cunningham Diary, 4 September 1947, IOR: MSS Eur D670/6.

  102. Savory Diary, 2 September 1947, Savory Papers, No. 89.

  103. Christie Diary, 4 September 1947, Christie Papers, IOR: MSS Eur D718/3.

  104. Mountbatten Interview with Auchinleck, 15 July 1947, IOR: MSS Eur IOR Neg 15560/7.