Cyril RadcliffeCyril Radcliffe: The man who drew the partition line.
Cyril John Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe, GBE, PC, QC, FBA (30 March 1899 – 1 April 1977) was a British lawyer and Law Lord best known for his role in the Partition of India. He served as the first chancellor of the University of Warwick from its foundation in 1965 to 1977.
Sir Cyril RadcliffeIndia–Pakistan borderLength3,323 kilometres (2,065 mi)HistoryEstablished17 August 1947 Creation of the Radcliffe Line by Sir Cyril Radcliffe due to the Partition of IndiaCurrent shape2 July 1972 Demarcation of the Line of Control after ratification of the Shimla Treaty5 more rows
The boundary demarcation line between India and Pakistan known as the Radcliffe Line came into force on 17 August 1947. The boundary line is named after Sir Cyril Radcliffe the man who had the thankless job of drawing the lines of Partition to carve out Muslim majority Pakistan from India.
Cyril John RadcliffeCyril John Radcliffe, also decorated as the 1st Viscount Radcliffe was a British lawyer and retired judge, best known for his role in the partition of British India. After submitting the finalised partition drawing - called the Radcliffe Award - on 17 August 1947, he left India, never to return till his dying day.
The British Prime Minister Attlee appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy, giving him the task to oversee British India's independence by 30 June 1948, with the instruction to avoid partition and preserve a United India, but with adaptable authority to ensure a British withdrawal with minimal setbacks.
In a 1933 pamphlet, Now or Never, Rahmat Ali and three Cambridge colleagues coined the name as an acronym for Punjab, Afghania (North-West Frontier Province), Kashmir, and Indus-Sind, combined with the -stan suffix from Baluchistan (Balochistan).
Choudhry Rahmat AliThe map above was created by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who was a Pakistani nationalist and is often credited with coming up with the name 'Pakistan.
It was named after its architect, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who, as chairman of the Border Commissions, was charged with equitably dividing 450,000 square kilometres (175,000 sq mi) of territory with 88 million people.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah became disillusioned with politics after the failure of his attempt to form a Hindu-Muslim alliance, and he spent most of the 1920s in Britain. The leadership of the League was taken over by Sir Muhammad Iqbal, who in 1930 first put forward the demand for a separate Muslim state in India.