The government also revoked its treaty rights with the rulers of the princely states and advised them to join in a political union with India or Pakistan.

The religious violence was soon stemmed in good part by the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi, but not before resentment of him grew among Hindu fundamentalists, eventually costing him his life.

It bore fruit eventually in the passage of the Hindu code bills of the mid-1950s, which outlawed patrilineality, marital desertion and child marriages, though evasion of the law continued for years thereafter.

[12] Led by Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress was to lead India to independence from the United Kingdom,[d][13][e][14] and powerfully influence other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.

Late in 1946, the Labour government, its exchequer, and population, moreover, exhausted by the Second World War, [17][18] decided to end British rule in India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948.

Jinnah proclaimed 16 August 1946 "Direct Action Day" with the stated goal of peacefully highlighting the demand for a Muslim homeland in British India.

[22] By March 1947 when the new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten arrived, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal had not abated.

With the British Army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, Mountbatten wanted to advance the date for independence and the transfer of power.

Supporters feel that an early transfer had the effect of forcing Indian politicians into abandoning petty quarrels and accepting their obligations in stopping an outrage that Great Britain was no longer able to control.

Critics feel that if the British had stayed on for another year, had institutions in place for a transition, had the army readied in troublesome areas, a less violent transfer might have resulted.

[27] The Radcliffe Commission, tasked with assigning each district to either Pakistan or India, announced its award on 17 August 1947, two days after the transfer of power.

Most units, which had been recruited locally, had stronger ties to one or other of Punjab's three religious' groups, rendering them unable to maintain neutrality under stress.

[28] The Hindu refugees from the west Punjab arriving in Delhi ended up tearing away the Muslim community there from their established cultural patterns and values, and temporarily destabilized the new government.

(Eventually, as the temple was requisitioned for sheltering the incoming refugees, Gandhi moved to two rooms in Birla House, a large mansion in central Delhi.)

On 18 January Gandhi broke his fast only after significant politicians and leaders of communal bodies showed their commitment to a joint plan for restoration of peace.

Mahatma Gandhi, as he was known in India, was one of the outstanding figures in the world today, ... For a quarter of a century this one man has been the major factor in every consideration of the Indian problem.

[40] It was thought he might assert his claim now, but Gandhi's loss had affected him equally deeply, and although there was still some discord between him and Nehru, he buried himself resolutely in his work on the integration of the princely states.

[40] Sardar Patel and his assistant V. P. Menon employed a combination of threats and inducements, the latter including special privileges and tax-free pensions.

[44] The federal structure is conspicuous for the strength of the central government, which has exclusively exercised control of defence, foreign affairs, railways, ports, and currency.

[46] In the case of the Chief Commissioners' Provinces: the administration was directly by the central government, with the plenary power of legislation belonging to the Dominion legislature.

The female members were: Purnima Banerjee, Kamla Chaudhry, Malati Choudhury, Durgabai Deshmukh, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sucheta Kriplani, Annie Mascarene, Hansa Jivraj Mehta, Sarojini Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Renuka Ray, Leela Roy, Ammu Swaminathan and Dakshayani Velayudhan.

[53] According to historical demographer Tim Dyson: It is damning that the British authorities made few preparations to cope with vast numbers of refugees.

Still, one study by Bharadwaj, Khwaja, and Mian using 1951 census data has suggested that during the period 1947–1951 the Partition caused approximately 14.5 million people to migrate into (i.e. arrived in) India or Pakistan.

[55] Another study by Hill and colleagues suggested that migrants preferred to settle in districts with a high proportion of co-religionists, leading to more religiously homogeneous populations on either side of the newly drawn borders after Partition.

Summing up Tim Dyson says, The sudden refugee flows related to Partition may at the time have been unsurpassed in modern world history.

[58] The new government apprehended clearly that a low level of income and therefore also of demand and prospective investment considerably slowed down development in all areas of the economy, including agriculture, industry, and the service sector.

[58] According to historian Judith M. Brown, such poverty meant "almost perpetual hunger, a monotonous and unbalanced diet at the best of times, cramped and squalid housing, perhaps one change of meagre clothes, insufficient bedding to prevent deaths from cold in the northern Indian winter, children's absence from school for lack of clothes or books or the need to earn to feed the family and no money for doctors or medicines.

[58] In the agricultural sector in the 1940s, most farmers were engaged in subsistence farming; only a small fraction had access to tractors or tube wells; fertilizer use per acre was less than any other country.

To meet the needs of those with the least access, the provision of physicians, nurses, rural clinics, hospitals, schools, and colleges also required special attention from the new government.

[60] Similarly, despite Gandhi's anti-untouchability campaigns of the 1930s, the vast majority of Untouchables remained in a state of ritual pollution and self-abasing poverty—land ownership, education, or skilled work was out of reach.