The Mountbatten Plan and the Transfer of Power: Final Negotiations with M.A. Jinnah (1947)

Sub title : The 20th February 1947 Statement, Correspondence, and the Path to Partition

Subject: Indian Independence Act 1947 | Mountbatten Plan | Partition of India

Date of publication: 1947

Language: English

Page: 121 p.

Source: National Archives of Pakistan

Serial no: 27335

Keyword: Mountbatten Plan | Transfer of Power — 20th February 1947 Statement | M.A. Jinnah — Lord Mountbatten | Partition — Indian Independence | NWFP | Constituent Assembly | Two Independent States | June 1948 Deadline

Abstract: This collection contains the definitive British Government statement of 20 February 1947, announcing the intention to transfer power to Indian hands by June 1948 and the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Viceroy to oversee the process. It is followed by the intense personal correspondence between Mountbatten and M.A. Jinnah in the subsequent months. The documents cover Mountbatten's immediate outreach to Jinnah, his direct intervention in the volatile politics of the North-West Frontier Province, and the critical, secretive negotiations in May 1947 over the final plan for the transfer of power. This includes the receipt of proposals for the creation of "Two Independent States" and Jinnah's insistence on seeing Nehru's comments, highlighting the tense, triangular negotiations that culminated in the June 3rd Plan and the eventual Partition of India.

Description: A foundational collection of documents marking the final, irreversible stage in the creation of Pakistan. It begins with the historic announcement in the House of Commons that set a firm deadline for British withdrawal and replaced Viceroy Wavell with Mountbatten. The subsequent letters reveal Mountbatten's hands-on, relentless approach and his complex relationship with Jinnah, whom he pressured to control League supporters in the NWFP. The core of the collection is the top-secret exchange of proposals in May 1947, which explicitly framed the outcome as the creation of two independent states, demonstrating that Partition had become the central, accepted mechanism for the transfer of power months before it was officially announced to the public. SCANNED BY: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF PAKISTAN.

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