The
Radcliffe Commission, dividing Bengal and Punjab, completed its work and reported to Mountbatten on 12 August; the last Viceroy held the maps until the 17th, not wanting to spoil the independence celebrations in both nations. There had already been ethnically charged violence and movement of populations; publication of the
Radcliffe Line dividing the new nations sparked mass migration, murder, and ethnic cleansing. Many on the "wrong side" of the lines fled or were murdered, or murdered others, hoping to make facts on the ground which would reverse the commission's verdict. Radcliffe wrote in his report that he knew that neither side would be happy with his award; he declined his fee for the work. Christopher Beaumont, Radcliffe's private secretary, later wrote that Mountbatten "must take the blame—though not the sole blame—for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished".
[151] As many as 14,500,000 people relocated between India and Pakistan during and after partition.
[151] Jinnah did what he could for the eight million people who migrated to Pakistan; although by now over 70 and frail from lung ailments, he travelled across
West Pakistan and personally supervised the provision of aid. According to Ahmed, "What Pakistan needed desperately in those early months was a symbol of the state, one that would unify people and give them the courage and resolve to succeed."
Jinnah speaks at Karachi in 1946
Along with Liaquat and
Abdur Rab Nishtar, Jinnah represented Pakistan's interests in the Division Council to appropriately divide public assets between India and Pakistan.
[154] Pakistan was supposed to receive one-sixth of the pre-independence government's assets, carefully divided by agreement, even specifying how many sheets of paper each side would receive. The new Indian state, however, was slow to deliver, hoping for the collapse of the nascent Pakistani government, and reunion. Few members of the
Indian Civil Service and the
Indian Police Servicehad chosen Pakistan, resulting in staff shortages. Crop growers found their markets on the other side of an international border. There were shortages of machinery, not all of which was made in Pakistan. In addition to the massive refugee problem, the new government sought to save abandoned crops, establish security in a chaotic situation, and provide basic services. According to economist Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin in her study of Pakistan, "although Pakistan was born in bloodshed and turmoil, it survived in the initial and difficult months after partition only because of the tremendous sacrifices made by its people and the selfless efforts of its great leader."
The
Indian Princely States, of which there were several hundred, were advised by the departing British to choose whether to join Pakistan or India. Most did so prior to independence, but the holdouts contributed to what have become lasting divisions between the two nations. Indian leaders were angered at Jinnah's courting the princes of
Jodhpur,
Bhopal and
Indore to accede to Pakistan—these princely states did not border Pakistan, and each had a Hindu-majority population.
[157] The coastal princely state of
Junagadh, which had a majority-Hindu population, did accede to Pakistan in September 1947, with its ruler's
dewan, Sir
Shah Nawaz Bhutto, personally delivering the accession papers to Jinnah. The Indian army occupied the principality in November, forcing its former leaders, including Bhutto, to flee to Pakistan, beginning the politically powerful
Bhutto family.
The most contentious of the disputes was, and continues to be, that over the
princely state of Kashmir. It had a Muslim-majority population and a Hindu
maharaja, Sir
Hari Singh, who stalled his decision on which nation to join. With the population in revolt in October 1947, aided by Pakistani irregulars, the maharaja
acceded to India; Indian troops were airlifted in. Jinnah objected to this action, and ordered that Pakistani troops move into Kashmir. The
Pakistani Army was still commanded by British officers, and the commanding officer, General Sir
Douglas Gracey, refused the order, stating that he would not move into what he considered the territory of another nation without approval from higher authority, which was not forthcoming. Jinnah withdrew the order. This did not stop
the violence there, which has broken into war between India and Pakistan from time to time since.
Some historians allege that Jinnah's courting the rulers of Hindu-majority states and his gambit with Junagadh are evidence of ill-intent towards India, as Jinnah had promoted separation by religion, yet tried to gain the accession of Hindu-majority states.
[160] In his book
Patel: A Life,
Rajmohan Gandhi asserts that Jinnah hoped for a plebiscite in Junagadh, knowing Pakistan would lose, in the hope the principle would be established for Kashmir.
[161] Despite the
United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 issued at India's request for a plebiscite in Kashmir after the withdrawal of Pakistani forces, this has never occurred.
In January 1948, the Indian government finally agreed to pay Pakistan its share of British India's assets. They were impelled by Gandhi, who threatened a fast until death. Only days later,
Gandhi was assassinated by
Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who believed that Gandhi was pro-Muslim. Jinnah made a brief statement of condolence, calling Gandhi "one of the greatest men produced by the Hindu community".
In a radio talk addressed to the people of USA broadcast in February 1948, Jinnah said:
| “ | The Constitution of Pakistan is yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, I do not know what the ultimate shape of the constitution is going to be, but I am sure that it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam. Today these are as applicable in actual life as these were 1300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair play to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. | ” |
In March, Jinnah, despite his declining health, made his only post-independence visit to
East Pakistan. In a speech before a crowd estimated at 300,000, Jinnah stated (in English) that
Urdu alone should be the national language, believing a single language was needed for a nation to remain united. The
Bengali-speaking people of East Pakistan strongly opposed this policy, and in 1971 the official language issue was a factor in the region's secession to form
Bangladesh.
After the establishment of Pakistan, Pakistani currency notes had the image of
George V printed on them. These notes were in circulation till 30 June 1949. But on 1 April 1949, these notes were stamped with "Government of Pakistan" and were used as legal tenders. On the same day, the then
Finance Minister of Pakistan,
Malik Ghulam Muhammad, presented a new set of seven coins (
Re. 1,
₨.
1⁄2,
₨.
1⁄4,
A. 2,
A. 1,
A. 1⁄2 and
Pe. 1) to Jinnah in the Governor House and were issued as the first coins minted by the Government of Pakistan
