Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rivers and canals as “other factors” in the partition of India

  • Published:
Water History Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The demand to partition British India was mainly made on the basis of Hindu-Muslim “differences”. However, at the time of drawing boundary line, the Boundary Commission (BC) for Bengal and Punjab also considered “other factors”. In fact, some of the decisions of the BC were highly influenced by the “other factors.” This paper examines how the other factors,’ mainly canals, rivers, and irrigation systems, influenced Radcliffe’s decisions to demarcate the boundary between India and Pakistan. It looks at some of the debates on Radcliffe’s decisions regarding the territory and analyses the bearing of such decisions on the water disputes between India-Pakistan, and India-Bangladesh.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abid Q-A, Abid Massarrat (2011) Boundary Commission Tilting in favour of “Other Factors”. Pakistan Vision 12 No 2:36–65. http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Artical-2_V_12_No_2_Dec11.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed I (2012) The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed. Oxford University Press, Karachi

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed I (2020) Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and Role in History. Penguin Viking, Gurgaon

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali I (1988) The Punjab Under Imperialism:1885–1947. Delhi:Oxford University Press

  • Bagchi S (2017,8 April) “ What is lowdown on sharing of Teesta waters?” The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/the-hindu-explains-teesta-water-sharing/article17894299.ece. Accessed on 9 September 2021

  • Bandyopadhyay S ‘The Return of Caste to Bengal’ The Indian Express, 1 April 2021, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/west-bengal-assembly-elections-2021-caste-politics-bjp-tmc-7253385/. Accessed on 1 April 2021

  • Bikaner R (2012) The Maharajas of Bikaner. New Delhi, Amarlysis

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhavnani N (2014) The Making of Exile: Sindhi Hindus and the Partition of India. Tranquebar Press, Chennai

    Google Scholar 

  • Butalia U (1998) The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Penguin, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarty B (2004) The Partition of Bengal and Assam, 1932–1947. Contour of Freedom London & New York:Routledge

  • Collins, Larry & Lapierre, Dominique (revised edition 2015) Mountbatten & The Partition of India . Vikas Publishing House, Noida

  • Chattha I (2012) Competition for (September 2012) Resources: Partition’s Evacuee Property and Sustenance of Corruption in Pakistan. Modern Asian Studies 42 Issue 5:1182–1211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatterji J (1994) Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and partition 1932–1947.Cambridge. Cambridge University Press

  • Chatterji J (1999a) The Making of a Borderline: The Radcliffe Award for Bengal. In: Singh, Gurharpal and Ian Talbot Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the Subcontinent. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 168–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatterji J (1999b) The fashioning of a frontier: the Radcliffe Line and Bengal’s border landscape, 1947–1952 Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 185–242

  • Chatterji J (2007) The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India ,1947–1967. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chaudhari BB (1994) “ Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal-1859-1885.” In Ludden, David (edited) Agricultural Production and South Asian History(paperback 2005) New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 145–181

  • Chester LP (2002) ‘ The 1947 Partition: Drawing the Indo-Pakistani Boundary. Retrieved from http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2002_01-03/chester_partition/chester_partition.html Accessed on 28 June 2017

  • Chester LP (2009) Borders and Conflicts in South Asia: The Radcliffe Boundary Committee and Partition of Punjab. Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilmartin D (2015) Blood and Water: The Indus River Basin in Modern History. University of California Press, California

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gulhati ND (1973) Indus Waters Treaty: An Exercise in International Mediation. Allied Publishers, Bombay

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardiman D (2008) ‘The Politics of Water in Colonial India: The Emergence of Control .In Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Robert J. Wasson Water First : Issues and Challenges for Nations and Communities in South Asia. New Delhi : Sage Publications, p 47–58

  • Haines D (2014) Disputed Rivers: Sovereignty, Territory and State-Making in South Asia, 1948–1951.Geopolitics 19(3) 632–655

  • Haines D (2017) Indus Divided: India, Pakistan and The River Basin Dispute. Penguin Publications, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen AB (2002) Partition and Genocide Manifestation of Violence in Punjab 1937–1947. India Research Press, Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodson HV (1969) The Great Divide: Britain, India, Pakistan. Hutchinson: London

  • Hussain I (2017) Indus Waters Treaty: Political and Legal Dimensions. Oxford University Press, Karachi

    Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal I (2010) The Bengal Delta: Ecology, State and Social Change, 1840–1943. Palgrave Macmillan, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Islam N (2017, 13 March) ‘Farakka Barrage is hurting Bangladesh and India’ The Daily Star Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/perspective/farakka-barrage-hurting-bangladesh-and-india-1374838. Accessed on 13 March 2017

  • James L (2000) Raj-The Making and Unmaking of British India. Griffin Publishers, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan Z (2004) The Reminiscences of Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan Interviews Conducted by Professors Wayne Wilcox and Aislie T Embree For Columbia University With An Introduction by Prof Dr Pervez Perwazi https://www.alislam.org/library/books/Sir-Zafrulla-Khan-Interviews.pdf

  • Lahiri- Dutt K, Samanta G (2014) People and Life on the Chars of South Asia: Dancing with the River. Foundation Books, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehta JS. The Indus Water Treaty: A Case Study in the Resolution of International River Basin Conflict(National Resources Forum, vol 12 No. 1 (1988) p 69–77

  • Michel AA (1967) The Indus Rivers: A Study of the Effects of Partition ;. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India Indus Water Treaty (1960) http://mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/6439/Indus Accessed on 27 June 2017

  • Mountbatten L (1989) Mountbatten Explains Raza, Hashim, S Mountbatten and the partition of India. Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi, pp 49–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Naqvi SA (2013) Indus Waters and Social Change: The Evolution And Transition of Agrarian Society in Pakistan. Oxford University Press, Karachi

    Google Scholar 

  • Partition Proceedings Volume VI, Reports of the Members and Awards of the Chairman of the Boundary Commissions (1950) Superintendent, Government Printing West Bengal Government Press

  • Palijio RB (2003) Sindh-Punjab Water Dispute 1859–2003. Centre for Peace and Development. http://www.sanipanhwar.com/Sindh-Punjab%20Water%20Dispute%201858-2003 %20by%20Rasul%20Bux%20Palijo.pdf. Accessed on 21 march 2021

  • Qasmi UA, Robb MA (2017) Muslims against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ranjan A (2018) India-Bangladesh Border Disputes: History and Post-LBA Dynamics. Springer, Singapore

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ranjan A (2020) “ India Pakistan hydroelectricity issues: “questions”, “differences” and “disputes” India Review Volume 19 Issue 5, 2020, pp 427–447

  • Ranjan A (2021) Contested Waters: India’s Transboundary Water Disputes in South Asia. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawat RS (2001) ‘Partition Politics and Acchut Identity: A Study of Scheduled Castes Federation and Identity Politics’. In: Kaul, Suvir (eds) The Partitions Memory: The Afterlife of the Division of India. Permanent Black, Ranikhet, pp 111–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Raghavan S (2013), 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. Ranikhet: Permanent Black

  • Salman MA, Kishor U (2002) Conflicts and Cooperation on south Asia’s International Rivers. A Legal Perspective.Washington D.C.;The World Bank, p 44

  • Savarkar VD (1949) Hindu Rashtra Darshan Bombay. V.V. Bambardekar Press

  • Schendel WV (2009) A History of Bangladesh ,Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta N (2007) Bengal Divided: The Unmaking of a Nation (1905–1971). Penguin, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinha UK (2021) Indus Basin Uninterrupted: A History of Territory & Politics from Alexander to Nehru. Penguin, Gurgaon

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah A (2014) The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Singh K (1991) Select Documents on Partition of Punjab-1947: India and Pakistan, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal-India and Punjab-Pakistan Delhi. National Book Shop

  • Spate O (1991) On the Margins of History : From the Punjab to Fiji .Canberra: National Centre for Development Studies. Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University

  • Stone I (1984) Canal Irrigation in British India: Perspectives on technological change in a peasant economy Cambridge. Cambridge University Press

  • The Gazette of India Extraordinary Part-I –Secs. 1,Ministry of External affairs (2020), Government of India Retrieved from www.pib.nic.in/archive/docs/DVD_13/...BR/EXT-1950-05-02_1259.p

  • The Hindu (1948) Sharing of Punjab Water, May 6. Indo-Pakistan Agreement

  • Talbot I, Singh G (2009) The Partition of India. Cambridge University Press, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Talbot I, ‘Punjab Under C (2007) Order and Transformation in British India’. Journal of Punjab Studies 14No(1):1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • The Indian Express “Blood and water cannot flow together: PM Modi at Indus Water Treaty meeting” 2016, 27 September. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/indus-water-treaty-blood-and-water-cant-flow-together-pm-modi-pakistan-uri-attack/

  • Whitcombe E (1996) edition) “ The Environmental Cost of Irrigation in British India: Waterlogging, Salinity and Malaria” in David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha (edited) Nature, Culture, Imperialism : Essays on the Environmental History of South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 237–259

  • Whitcombe E (1971) Agrarian Conditions in Northern India: The United Provinces Under British Rule. Thomson Press Limited, New Delhi, 1860–1900

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Amit Ranjan

Authors
  1. Amit Ranjan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amit Ranjan.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ranjan, A. Rivers and canals as “other factors” in the partition of India. Water Hist 13, 319–335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-021-00286-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-021-00286-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation