Editing Radcliffe Line (section)

===Final negotiations===
[[File:Punjab-Districts 1911.png|thumb|right|Pre-partition Punjab province]]
In March 1946, the British government sent a [[1946 Cabinet Mission to India|Cabinet Mission]] to India to find a solution to resolve the conflicting demands of Congress and the Muslim League. Congress agreed to allow Pakistan to be formed with 'genuine Muslim areas'. The Sikh leaders asked for a Sikh state with [[Ambala Division|Ambala]], [[Jalandhar Division|Jalandher]], [[Lahore Division|Lahore]] Divisions with some districts from the [[Multan Division]], which, however, did not meet the Cabinet delegates' agreement. In discussions with Jinnah, the Cabinet Mission offered either a 'smaller Pakistan' with all the Muslim-majority districts ''except Gurdaspur'' or a 'larger Pakistan' under the sovereignty of the Indian Union.{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=87–89}} The Cabinet Mission came close to success with its proposal for an Indian Union under a federal scheme, but it fell apart in the end because of Nehru's opposition to a heavily decentralised India.<ref>{{citation |last1=Metcalf |first1=Barbara D. |last2=Metcalf |first2=Thomas R. |title=A Concise History of Modern India |edition=Third |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7UgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA216 |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-53705-6 |pages=216–217 |access-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730140644/https://books.google.com/books?id=c7UgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA216 |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=live  }}: "... the Congress leadership, above all Jawaharlal Nehru, [...] increasingly came to the conclusion that, under the Cabinet mission proposals, the centre would be too weak to achieve the goals of the Congress ..."</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |title=The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D63KMRN1SJ8C |year=1994 |orig-year=first published 1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45850-4 |pages=209–210}}: "Just when Jinnah was beginning to turn in the direction that he both wanted and needed to go, his own followers pressed him to stick rigidly to his earlier unbending stance which he had adopted while he was preparing for the time of bargaining in earnest."</ref>

In March 1947, [[Lord Mountbatten]] arrived in India as the next viceroy, with an explicit mandate to achieve the transfer of power before June 1948. Over ten days, Mountbatten obtained the agreement of Congress to the Pakistan demand except for the 13 eastern districts of Punjab (including Amritsar and Gurdaspur).{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=94–95}} However, Jinnah held out. Through a series of six meetings with Mountbatten, he continued to maintain that his demand was for six full provinces. He "bitterly complained" that the Viceroy was ruining his Pakistan by cutting Punjab and Bengal in half as this would mean a 'moth-eaten Pakistan'.{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=95–96}}<ref>{{cite book |first=T. G. |last=Fraser |title=Partition In Ireland India And Palestine: Theory And Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-yuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |date=1984 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-17610-6 |page=123 |access-date=7 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730140643/https://books.google.com/books?id=a-yuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |archive-date=30 July 2018 |url-status=live  }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Robin James |title=Mountbatten, India, and the Commonwealth |journal=Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=4–53 |quote=Though Mountbatten thought the concept of Pakistan 'sheer madness', he became reconciled to it in the course of six interviews with Jinnah from 5 to 10 April. Jinnah, whom he described as a 'psychopathic case', remained obdurate in the face of his insistence that Pakistan involved the partition of Bengal and the Punjab.}}</ref>

The Gurdaspur district remained a key contentious issue for the non-Muslims. Their members of the Punjab legislature made representations to Mountbatten's chief of staff [[Lord Ismay]] as well as the Governor telling them that Gurdaspur was a "non-Muslim district". They contended that even if it had a marginal Muslim majority of 51%, which they believed to be erroneous, the Muslims paid only 35% of the land revenue in the district.{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=98–99}}

In April, the Governor of Punjab [[Evan Meredith Jenkins|Evan Jenkins]] wrote a note to Mountbatten proposing that Punjab be divided along Muslim and non-Muslim majority districts and proposed that a Boundary Commission be set up consisting of two Muslim and two non-Muslim members recommended by the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He also proposed that a British judge of the High Court be appointed as the chairman of the commission.{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=97–98}} Jinnah and the Muslim League continued to oppose the idea of partitioning the provinces, and the Sikhs were disturbed about the possibility of getting only 12 districts (without Gurdaspur). In this context, the Partition Plan of 3 June was announced with a notional partition showing 17 districts of Punjab in Pakistan and 12 districts in India, along with the establishment of a Boundary Commission to decide the final boundary. In Sialkoti's view, this was done mainly to placate the Sikhs.{{sfn|Sialkoti, Punjab Boundary Line Issue|2014|pp=108–109}}