ABSTRACT
As millions across the subcontinent enthusiastically celebrated the arrival of independence on 14-15 August 1947, there were many in the Punjab and Bengal who greeted the birth of the new states with uneasy anticipation. Soon, both provinces would be partitioned, and the boundaries of the new states would be
finalized; but on Independence Day, other than the Viceroy and the man who had been charged with the gargantuan task of delineating the frontier between India and Pakistan, no one knew for certain where the boundaries would actually fall. For the people living in the areas most likely to be affected, there was the anxious wait to find out if they would eventually belong to India or Pakistan. Not wishing for the announcement of the boundaries which had already been decided to disrupt the celebrations, the Viceroy deliberately held back the details of the partition until 17 August, but this postponement only delayed the inevitable fallout.
