ABSTRACT

Chapter 6 described how investment on a large scale in new technologies began to change the geography of India in the latter part of the nineteenth century; in particular, attention was paid to the development of communications and to large-scale canal irrigation. Of all the areas where such irrigation was developed, one stood out for the extent to which schemes and rivers were interconnected, and settlement patterns radically changed. This was the land of the Five Rivers – the Punjab, India’s granary and source of high quality cotton. In Chapter 8 the problems that Sir Cyril Radcliffe faced in drawing up new international frontiers in Punjab and Bengal were discussed, along with his definitive (but unexplained) conclusions – the new lines drawn on the map. Radcliffe’s line dividing India from Pakistan in the Punjab had been drawn between Lahore and Amritsar across the canal systems precisely where Coupland had said an international boundary would be wholly inappropriate. Radcliffe hoped that both sides would cooperate in the running of the integrated canals. Since not all arrangements could possibly have been ready by 15 August 1947, several commissions continued to sit for a specified period to sort out any remaining business and any tangles that might arise. The Arbitral Tribunal, which was to arbitrate on operational disputes, had a designated lifespan until 31 March 1948.