Midnight's Furies

Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition by Nisid Hajar, Houghten Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. 

Independence from Great Britain

This is a book about what happened in August, 1947, when Britain gave its colony India its independence. Simultaneously when it freed India, it also partitioned India into Muslim and Hindu countries. Clement Atlee was British Prime Minister during the partition of India. 

Timeline Before Partition

• 1937: The Congress Party rejected partnership with the Muslim League. power sharing

• 1943: Viscount Archibald Percival Wavell became viceroy of India in

• August 1946, Calcutta: Jinnah promoted Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946 and H. S. Suhrawardy the chief minister of zBengal declared it to be an official holiday in Bengal. In the Great Calcutta Killing, five thousand people were killed. Muslims killing Hindus, Hindus killing Muslims.

• October 1946, Bihar: Congress Party members in Bihar declared 25 Oct 46 Noakhali Day. In response to Hindu's being killed in Calcutta in August 1946, Hindus later killed many Muslims in Bihar.

• Winston Churchill argued, on 12 December 1946, against British making a 'shameful flight" from India 

• March 1947, Punjab: four thousand Punjabis lost their lives in rioting

Hindu Leaders

• Mohandas K. Gandhi promoted his Quit Ondia movement, meaning that the British should quit India. 

• Jawaharlal Nehru: president of Indian National Congress. 

• Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, popularly known as “Sardar”, was Deputy Prime Minister. 

Muslim Leaders

• Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was president of the Muslim League. Jinnah was concerned that India's Muslim minority would always be outvoted by its Hindu majority. Jinnah was nicknamed the Quaid, promoted partition. Ali Jinnah thought that Pakistan would never become a theocracy.  

• Liaquat Ali Khan, the deputy of Ali Jinnah. 

• Khurshid Anwar was a Pathan from the Northwest frontier province. He was the commander of the Muslim League National Guards, which was a military wing. 

Partition

The Boundary Commission, created by British Lord Mountbatten, drew the border. Viscount "Dickie" Mountbatten drew the Partition Line. Sir Cyril Radcliffe was chairman of the Boundary Commission. The Boundary Force polices the partition. The partition occurred at midnight between August 14 and August 15, 1947. There were 5 million Sikhs in the Punjab. The Punjab was officially split between Pakistan and India. Lahore went to Pakistan while Amritsar went to India. 

Jammu and Kashmir were full of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs. Hari Singh was the Maharajz of the  Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. The partition gave all of it to India.

Calcutta in West Bengal went to India. 

There was a partitioning the integrated Indian Army between India and Pakistan. Government funds were divided between India and Pakistan

Population Transfers After Partition

After partition there were population transfers of one or two million Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to India. Pakistan lost many Hindu and Sikh businessmen. There were hundreds of thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees in Delhi. 

The Fight Over Jammu and Kashmir

Pakistan was unhappy that all of Kashmir and Jammu went to India, so after partition, Pakistan invaded Kashmir. The Pathan tribesmen, the Sikhs and the Hindu Goondas were largely responsible for the killings. Currently, in Kashmir, there is a line of control that is the current de facto border between Pakistan and India.