The division of India was carried out on the basis of the Two Nation Theory put forward by the Muslim League. According to that theory, in India there were two nations the Hindus and Muslims. Therefore the Muslim League demanded a separate nation, Pakistan, for the Muslims. The formation of Pakistan was based on the majority of the population of an area. Thus the areas which had Muslim majority became Pakistan and the remaining areas remained as Indian Territory.
It was not easy to implement such a division. There were three reasons for that. First of all in British India, there was not a single area which had only Muslims. There were two areas in which the majority was Muslims, one in the West and the other in the East. Therefore Pakistan was formed consisting of two areas – West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Between therm there were large areas of Indian Territory.
Secondly, not all areas with majority Muslirri population wanted to become part of Pakistan. Khan Abdul Gaffer Khan, who was the leader Of the North - Western Province had objected to the Two Nation Theory. But ignoring his objection, the North West Province was included in Pakistan.
The third problem was that British India’s Punjab and Bengal were areas with Muslim majority. But in these huge provinces there were very many non- Muslims. Therefore the Provinces were divided into Districts and Panchayats depending on the religious majority of the population there. The result was that on the day of Independence many people did not know to which circuitry they belonged India or Pakistan.
It deeply wounded the people. The problem of the minorities in each country was the worst of all. The Hindus and Sikhs in the Pakistani areas and the Muslims in Punjab and Bengal were unfortunate preys to this division of the country. When the division was decided upon, there was large scale violence against the minorities in both the countries.
