Editing Radcliffe Line (section)

===Events leading up to the Radcliffe Boundary Commissions===
[[File:How India be split up (1947).jpg|thumb|Map illustrating the overall framework of partition. [[Daily Herald (United Kingdom)|''Daily Herald'']] newspaper, 4 June 1947.]]
On 18 July 1947, the [[Indian Independence Act 1947]] of the Parliament of the United Kingdom stipulated that British rule in India would come to an end just one month later, on 15 August 1947. The Act also stipulated the partition of the [[Presidencies and provinces of British India]] into two new sovereign [[dominion]]s: India and Pakistan.

Pakistan was intended as a Muslim homeland, while India remained [[secular]]. Muslim-majority British provinces in the northwest were to become the foundation of Pakistan. The provinces of [[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Baluchistan]] (91.8% Muslim before partition) and [[Sindh]] (72.7%) and [[North-West Frontier Province]] became entirely Pakistani territory. However, two provinces did not have an overwhelming Muslim majority—[[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]] in the northwest (55.7% Muslim) and [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] in the northeast (54.4% Muslim).<ref>Smitha, Independence section, para. 7.</ref> After elaborate discussions, these two provinces ended up being partitioned between India and Pakistan.

The Punjab's population distribution was such that there was no line that could neatly divide the [[Hindus]], [[Muslims]], and [[Sikhs]]. Likewise, no line could appease both the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]], headed by [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah|Jinnah]], and the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] led by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and [[Vallabhbhai Patel]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} Moreover, any division based on religious communities was sure to entail "cutting through road and rail communications, irrigation schemes, electric power systems and even individual landholdings."<ref name="Read, p.483">{{Cite book |last1=Read |first1=Anthony |url=https://archive.org/details/proudestdayindia0000read/page/482/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence |last2=Fisher |first2=David |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=1998 |isbn=9780393045949 |location=New York |pages=483 |quote=After briefly visiting Lahore and Calcutta to meet the members of the two commissions, Radcliffe settled into the Controller's House on the edge of the viceregal estate, avoiding contact with the viceroy as far as possible, to minimize any suspicions of influence and impropriety.}}</ref>