Tribal Areas in Favour of Indian Union - 13-08-1947

Tribal Areas in Favour of Indian Union

Letter from Vallabhbhai Patel to Louis Mountbatten, 13 August 1947

My dear Lord Mountbatten,

A deputation of the Chittagong Hill Tribes saw me this morning and expressed to me their grave apprehension that their area was going to be included in East Bengal under the Boundary Commission award. I am unaware of the source of their information, but they seemed to be well convinced that this was going to happen. I have told them that the proposition was so monstrous that if it should happen, they would be justified in resisting to the utmost of their power and count on our maximum support in such resistance.

Personally, I feel it is inconceivable that such a blatant and patent breach of terms of reference should be perpetrated by the Chairman of the Boundary Commission. We have all along felt that the future of this area was not at all in doubt. No fair reading of the terms of reference or appreciation of the factual position could make a 97 per cent non-Muslim area a part of the award relating to the boundary of East Bengal. Such a decision would also jeopardize the position of the adjoining Tripura State which is a Hindu State with predominantly Hindu population, which has acceded to the Indian Dominion and has joined the Union Constituent Assembly.

I, therefore, feel bound to draw your attention to the serious consequences which would follow such a manifestly unjust award. There is no doubt from the report of the Tribal Areas Committee who collected unimpeachable evidence on the spot and whose views I represented to the Chairman of the Commission in a letter (copy enclosed) which I sent to him as Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Constituent Assembly, that the entire population of this area is in favour of remaining in the Indian Union.

Any award against the weight of local opinion and of the terms of reference, or without any referendum to ascertain the will of the people concerned must, therefore, be construed a collusive or partisan award and will have, therefore, to be repudiated by us. I make this statement with a full sense of responsibility as one who was party to the setting up of the Commission. But you cannot clearly expect us to submit to a proceeding which would be in violation of the basic conception underlying the Commission’s terms of reference.

I must also point out that public reaction would wholly and overwhelmingly support us in such repudiation. Already there is considerable doubt whether they would get an impartial award under the novel and strange procedure adopted by the Chairman of not even hearing the arguments. Many persons have come and complained to me that he has rendered himself liable, by this means, to being influenced by circles in your secretariat whose antipathies to India and sympathies with the League are well known. The selection, as secretary of the Commission, of one of the European officers of the Punjab, who are generally associated in public mind with pro-League sympathies, has not mended matters. I have generally adopted an indifferent attitude to these complaints, but if the award confirms the worst fears entertained by the public, it is impossible for me to predict the volume of bitterness and rancour which would be let loose and I am certain that this will create a situation which both you and I may have to regret.

Yours sincerely, Vallabhbhai Patel

Reference : Towards Freedom & Sardar Patel Corrospondence Vol. IV, pp. 174-5

VANDE MATARAM

 

Indian Independence | Indian Freedom Struggle | Indian National Movement

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Lord Mountbatten and Rajendra Prasad - 15-08-1947

Lord Mountbatten and Rajendra Prasad - 15-08-1947

Letter to Dr. Rajendra Prasad from Lord Mountbatten – 14-08-1947

 

Dear Dr. Rajendra Prasad,

 

I cannot leave my active participation in Cabinet work without writing a line to express my sincere appreciation of the loyal support you have given me as a Member of the Interim Government during my short period of Viceroyalty. No one could pretend that the Coalition Ministry was an easy partnership, particularly with partition looming so large in the background; but you and your colleagues made my task easy and thus proved yourselves true statesmen of whom your country can well be proud.

I shall look forward to the honour of being received by you as President of the Constituent Assembly tomorrow.

With this letter I am sending you a small informal photograph of myself in the hope that you will accept it as a souvenir of the historic time that we were colleagues together in the Cabinet.

All best wishes to you and the Dominion of India.

 

Yours Sincerely,

Mountbatten of Burma

 

Letter to Lord Mountbatten from Rajendra Prasad – 15-08-1947

 

Dear Lord Mountbatten,

Please accept my sincere thanks for the very kind and generous letter appreciating the work of the Interim Cabinet. I need hardly assure you that I have felt it a proud privilege to be associated with you, and although the position undergoes a change today, I am looking forward to serve the country under your guidance. We need sympathy and support and your great experience of men and affairs and especially your sympathetic understanding of our problems will be invaluable to us.

Let me also offer my grateful appreciation of the photograph which you have sent me and the kindly feeling behind the present. I will treasure it as a souvenir of our happy association in a most momentous period of our history.

 

Yours sincerely

Rajendra Prasad

President

 

Ref : CORRESPONDENCE AND SELECT DOCUMENTS - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
photo courtesy : photo division of india

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Jinnah's Accused for Partition

Jinnah's Accused for Partition

Letter from Vallabhbhai Patel to Mountbatten - 3rd June 1947

My Dear Lord Mountbatten

I am deeply distressed at the abuse by Mr. Jinnah of the hospitality extended to him by All India Radio and his breach of the rules of Broadcast which, as you are aware, are almost as inviolable as the laws of nature. I had not seen the script before the broadcast but I notice later that not only did he depart from the script but he has also committed a sacrilege by making a political partition and propagandist broadcast. Had I known it in time I would certainly have prevented him from turning All India Radio into a Muslim League platform by not only justifying a movement which has resulted in so much bloodshed and destruction of property but also by appealing to Frontier voters to vote according to League persuasion.

I fully realise that you yourself did not expect, or had not sufficient notice to prevent it but I am really disappointed that he should have taken undue advantage of the courtesy and consideration extended to him by you, particularly on a solemn occasion when India and the whole world were watching us. I only hope that its consequences will not be equally mischievous and that he stood before the listeners self-condemned.

Yours sincerely,

Vallabhbhai Patel

Sardar Patel Correspondence - Vol 4