Editing Radcliffe Line (section)

====Pakistani view on the award of Gurdaspur to India====

Pakistan maintains that the Radcliffe Award was altered by [[Louis Mountbatten|Mountbatten]]; Gurdaspur was handed over to India and thus was manipulated the accession of Kashmir to India.<ref>{{citation |last=Zaidi |first=Z. H. |title=Pakistan Pangs of Birth, 15 August–30 September 1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/05-pakistan-pangs-of-birth-19470815-19470930/page/379/mode/2up?view=theater |pages=378–379 |year=2001 |publisher=Quaid-i-Azam Papers Project, National Archives of Pakistan |isbn=9789698156091 |access-date=17 March 2022 |archive-date= }}</ref> In support of this view, some scholars claim the award to India "had little to do with Sikh demands but had much more to do with providing India a road link to Jammu and Kashmir."<ref>{{citation |last=Ziring |first=Lawrence |title=Pakistan in the Twentieth Century: A Political History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bONtAAAAMAAJ |year=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Karachi |isbn=978-0-19-577816-8 |ref={{sfnref|Ziring, Pakistan in the Twentieth Century|1997}}|page=62}}</ref>

As per the 'notional' award that had already been put into effect for purposes of administration ad interim, all of Gurdaspur district, owing to its Muslim majority, was assigned to Pakistan.<ref name="archive.org">{{citation |title=The Reminiscences of Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan by Columbia University |url=https://archive.org/details/SirZafrullaKhanInterviews |year=2004 |page=155 |access-date=20 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730140644/https://archive.org/details/SirZafrullaKhanInterviews |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> From 14 to 17 August, Mushtaq Ahmed Cheema acted as the [[Deputy commissioner#India and Pakistan|Deputy Commissioner]] of the Gurdaspur District, but when, after a delay of two days, it was announced that the major portion of the district had been awarded to India instead of Pakistan, Cheema left for Pakistan.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gurdaspur – the dist that almost went to Pak |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/community/gurdaspur-the-dist-that-almost-went-to-pak/120526.html |date=15 August 2015 |newspaper=The Tribune India |access-date=21 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170726205717/http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/community/gurdaspur-the-dist-that-almost-went-to-pak/120526.html |archive-date=26 July 2017 |url-status=live  }}</ref> The major part of Gurdaspur district, i.e. three of the four sub-districts had been handed over to India giving India practical land access to Kashmir.<ref name="https">{{citation |title=The Reminiscences of Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan by Columbia University |url=https://archive.org/details/SirZafrullaKhanInterviews |year=2004 |page=158 |access-date=20 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730140644/https://archive.org/details/SirZafrullaKhanInterviews |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=live  }}</ref> It came as a great blow to Pakistan. Jinnah and other leaders of Pakistan, and particularly its officials, criticized the award as 'extremely unjust and unfair'.<ref>{{citation |last=Zaidi |first=Z. H. |title=Pakistan Pangs of Birth, 15 August-30 September 1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/05-pakistan-pangs-of-birth-19470815-19470930/page/379/mode/2up&view=theaterH-Zaidi/9789698156091 |page=380 |year=2001 |publisher=Quaid-i-Azam Papers Project, National Archives of Pakistan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728213824/https://www.bookdepository.com/Quaid-I-Azam-Mohammed-Ali-Jinnah-Papers-Pakistan-Pangs-Birth-15-August-30-September-1947-Z-H-Zaidi/9789698156091 |isbn=9789698156091 |quote=The division of India is now finally and irrevocably effected. No doubt we feel that the carving out of this great independent Muslim State has suffered injustices. We have been squeezed in as much it was possible, and the latest blow that we have received was the award of the Boundary Commission. It is an unjust, incomprehensible and even perverse award. |access-date=20 July 2017 |archive-date=28 July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Muhammad Zafarullah Khan]], who represented the Muslim League in July 1947 before the Radcliffe Boundary Commission, stated that the boundary commission was a farce. A secret deal between Mountbatten and Congress leaders had already been struck.<ref>{{citation |title=Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Tahdith-i-Ni'mat |year=1982 |publisher=Pakistan Printing Press |page=515}}</ref> [[Mehr Chand Mahajan]], one of the two non-Muslim members of the boundary commission, in his autobiography, has acknowledged that when he was selected for the boundary commission, he was not inclined to accept the invitation as he believed that the commission was just a farce and that decisions were actually to be taken by Mountbatten himself.<ref>{{citation |title=Mehr Chand Mahajan, Looking Back: The Autobiography Bombay |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.119631/2015.119631.Looking-Back#page/n113/mode/2up |year=1963 |page=113 |access-date=21 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730140644/https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.119631/2015.119631.Looking-Back#page/n113/mode/2up |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> It was only under British pressure that the charges against Mountbatten of last minute alterations in the Radcliffe Award were not officially brought forward by Pakistani Government in the UN Security Council while presenting its case on Kashmir.<ref>{{citation |last=Sohail |first=Massarat |title=Partition and Anglo-Pakistan relations, 1947–51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jBuAAAAMAAJ |year=1991 |publisher=Vanguard |pages=76–77|isbn=9789694020570 }}</ref>

Zafrullah Khan states that, in fact, adopting the tehsil as a unit would have given Pakistan the Firozepur and Zira tehsils of the Firozpur District, the Jullundur and Nakodar tehsils of Jullundur district and the Dasuya tehsil of the Hoshiarpur district. The line so drawn would also give Pakistan the princely state of Kapurthala{{efn|Princely States were given the option of either acceding to one of the two countries (India and Pakistan) or declaring independence. The ruler of Kapurthala acceded to India.}} (which had a Muslim majority) and would enclose within Pakistan the whole of the Amritsar district of which only one tehsil, Ajnala, had a Muslim majority. It would also give Pakistan the Shakargarh, Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils of the Gurdaspur district. If the boundary went by Doabs, Pakistan could get not only the 16 districts which had already under the notional partition been put into West Punjab, including the Gurdaspur District, but also get the Kangra District in the mountains, which was about 93% Hindu and was located to the north and east of Gurdaspur. Or one could go by commissioners' divisions. Any of these units being adopted would have been more favourable to Pakistan than the present boundary line. The tehsil was the most favourable unit.<ref name="archive.org"/> But all of the aforementioned Muslim majority tehsils, with the exception of Shakargarh, were handed over to India while Pakistan didn't receive any Non-Muslim majority district or tehsil in Punjab.<ref name="CheemaRiemer1990"/> Zafruallh Khan states that Radcliffe used district, tehsil, thana, and even village boundaries to divide Punjab in such a way that the boundary line was drawn much to the prejudice of Pakistan.<ref name="archive.org"/> However, while Muslims formed about 53% of the total population of Punjab in 1941, Pakistan received around 58% of the total area of the Punjab, including more of the most fertile parts.

According to Zafrullah Khan, the assertion that the award of the Batala and Gurdaspur tehsils to India did not 'affect' Kashmir is far-fetched. If Batala and Gurdaspur had gone to Pakistan, Pathankot tehsil would have been isolated and blocked. Even though it would have been possible for India to get access to Pathankot through the Hoshiarpur district, it would have taken quite long time to construct the roads, bridges and communications that would have been necessary for military movements.<ref name="https"/>