India will celebrate its 78th birthday on Thursday (August 15, 2024) Independence Day is celebrating. Whenever this day comes, the sacrifice of the brave soldiers who gave us freedom is remembered. There are many unheard stories related to independence and partition. One such story is about the division of the British Indian Army. When India and Pakistan were divided, the army was also divided. However, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was adamant on the division of the two armies even before the partition, in which 98 percent of the Muslim soldiers of the army chose Pakistan. Among them, there were some Muslims who refused to go to Pakistan. Among them were Lieutenant Colonel Inayat Habibullah, Brigadier Muhammad Usman and Brigadier Muhammad Anees Ahmed Khan.
Brigadier Muhammad Usman, while fighting the tribesmen in October 1947, had said, ‘Death is inevitable sooner or later, but what can be better than dying in the battlefield. I am dying, but I will not let the area for which we fought fall into the hands of the enemy.’ These three Muslim army officers were among only 554 officers who chose India over Pakistan.
Jinnah was adamant on dividing the army
HM Patel, author of the book ‘Rights of Passage’, has written in his book, ‘No Muslim from Pakistan could join the Indian state and no non-Muslim from India could join the armed forces of Pakistan.’ This condition was put before the soldiers at the time of division of the army. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had raised the demand for division of the army even before the partition of Pakistan and India. His argument was that security would be needed for the new country, so he would not take power until the army was divided.
Liaquat Ali wrote a letter to Mountbatten
On 7 April 1947, Liaquat Ali, a member of the Partition Council, wrote a letter to British Viceroy Mountbatten and talked about the division of the army. In this letter, Liaquat Ali wrote, ‘Pakistan is of no use without an army.’ Mountbatten tried to convince Jinnah and Liaquat Ali a lot and also agreed to take responsibility for the law and order of India, but both of them remained adamant on their demand. On 20 June, Liaquat Ali said that he and Jinnah had decided that until we are not given the army, we will not take the rule of the Pakistan government in our hands, so the transfer of the army should be started immediately.
Claude Auchinleck was given the responsibility of dividing the army
After this letter from Liaquat Ali, this matter was put before the Congress and their consent was taken. After this, on 4 July, Mountbatten said that all the leaders have agreed for the transfer of the army. The then Army Chief Claude Auchinleck was given the responsibility of dividing the army and a plan was prepared for this. John Connell, author of the biography of Claude Auchinleck, wrote, ‘The division of the army was decided on 25 April itself. However, this was only a political decision, bypassing administrative and diplomatic things.’
Claude Auchinleck had written a letter to Mountbatten and warned him
The time when this decision of division of the army was taken was a very delicate situation. While on one hand the exchange of soldiers was going on, on the other hand the situation in Punjab was very delicate. In such a situation Auchinleck had written a letter to Mountbatten saying, ‘Army units are divided into small pieces in the whole of North India, they will have to be brought together and the exchange of soldiers will take 6 months. In such a situation, if any incident happens or the situation worsens, then the army will not be able to come back to a position where it can handle law and order.’
On one hand there is violence in Punjab and on the other hand there is division of the army
In view of the situation in Punjab, Punjab Boundary Force (PBF) was formed, which had 15 Indian and 10 Pakistani battalions and they were deployed near the Punjab border. This was the last time when the Indian Army was working as a unit. Despite the deployment of PBF soldiers, more than two lakh people were killed. It is written about this on the website of the Indian Army that this violence was like a civil war. On September 1, PBF was disbanded.
How many soldiers did India and Pakistan get after partition?
When the soldiers were divided, every third Muslim soldier chose Pakistan. There were more than 4 lakh soldiers in the British Indian Army, out of which 3 lakh, 91 thousand were army soldiers, 13 thousand were in the Air Force and 8,700 were in the Navy. After the partition, 2 lakh 60 thousand soldiers went to India and 1 lakh 31 thousand went to Pakistan. 10 thousand Air Force soldiers went to India, while 3 thousand went to Pakistan and 5,700 Navy soldiers went to India and 3 thousand went to Pakistan. Before the partition, 30 to 36 percent of the soldiers in the British Indian Army were Muslims, but after the partition only 2 percent remained, while 98 percent chose Pakistan.
Military equipment was also divided
Weapons were also distributed among the army. The army had military equipment weighing a total of 1 lakh 65 thousand tons, out of which it got 4 boats, 12 minesweepers and 1 warship. Pakistan got 2 small boats and 4 minesweepers. Apart from these, most of the navy training bases and officers also went to Pakistan’s territory, while there were very few officers in India who knew how to operate warships and other navy ships.
