Why Maulana Abul Kalam Azad wanted to delay Independence of India by 2 years

India’s first education minister and a freedom fighter, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had fought for the freedom of the country all his life. However, when freedom was just round the corner, with just a few months to go, Maulana Azad made all the efforts that the Independence of India was delayed and the British government stayed in India for two more years.

This was revealed by Maulana himself in his autobiography, India Wins Freedom. The reason he felt so was because Lord Mountbatten had drawn a partition plan for India which initially was not acceptable to him at any cost.

Maulana was the last person in the Congress who felt that the partition of India on communal lines would bring destruction to people on both sides. He was the President of Congress party from 1939 to 1946 and he was a part of Congress’s Working Committee. Being a staunch opponent of the partition of India, he was dejected when even Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had agreed to the proposal of Lord Mountbatten of dividing India. 

The cost of two years

He writes, “Before Gandhiji left for Patna, I made a last appeal to him. I pleaded with him that the present state of affairs might be allowed to continue for two years. De facto power was already in Indian hands and if the de jure transfer was delayed for two years, this might enable the Congress and the League to reach a settlement. Gandhi himself had suggested this a few months ago and I reminded him that two years is not a long period in a nation’s history. If we waited for two years, the Muslim League would be forced to come to terms.”

Maulana Azad was a big supporter of the Cabinet Mission plan which Lord Wavell had proposed. However, after World War 2 ended, the problems between the Muslim League and Congress party were only increasing while the British government wanted to transfer power to India at any cost before June 30, 1948. 

This was the reason why Lord Mountbatten was sent as a Viceroy to India to draw the partition lines and divide India. Mountbatten, within no time, had come to the conclusion that the communal problem could only be resolved by partition. He managed to convince Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru for the same. It was Maulana Azad who didn’t want partition to happen.

After having failed on all fronts from stopping the partition, Maulana had met Mountbatten before he left for London in May 1947. “I thought I would make a last attempt to save the Cabinet Mission plan and accordingly, on the night of May 14, 1947, I met him a the Viceregal Lodge,” he wrote.

‘Delay the partition’

I appealed to Lord Mountabatten to not bury the Cabinet Mission plan. I told him that we should exercise patience for there was still hope that the plan would succeed. If we acted in haste and accepted partition, we would be doing permanent injury  to India.

He further writes, “Till now, the Congress which had been insisting that India should be freed immediately. Now, it was the Congress which asked that the solution of the political problem may be deferred for a year or two.”

Did Mountbatten lie to Maulana Azad?

Lord Mountbatten told  Maulana Azad that he would place a full and true picture before the British cabinet. He said that he would tell the British cabinet that there was an important section of the Congress wanted postponement of the settlement by a year or two. “He assured me that he would tell Mr Atlee and Sir Stafford Cripps what my views in all the matter were,” Azad wrote.

However, to Maulana’s dismay, it turned out that Mountbatten was only allaying his doubts and he had a clear picture of partition of India which he was going to show to the British cabinet.

“Lord Mountbatten gave me the impression that he was not going to London with a clear cut picture of partition nor had he given up the Cabinet Mission plan completely. Later, events made me change my estimate of the situation. The way he acted afterwards convinced me that he had already made up his mind and was going to London to persuade the British cabinet to accept his plan of partition. His words were meant to only allay my doubts. He did not himself believe what he was telling me,” he writes.

Maulana’s fears came true and Lord Mountbtten returned to India on May 30 with a partition plan for India. And finally, India was indeed partitioned. The Muslim majority states were formed into West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) while 500 provinces were left to decide their own fates. Pakistan was formed on August 14, 1947 and India was granted independence on August 15, 1947.