Lord Mountbatten reached India on March 22, 1947. His
primary task was to complete the transfer of power at the earliest opportunity.
The whole of India was in torment. George Ebel, the Private Secretary to Mountbatten,
informed that India was heading towards civil war. Mountbatten had a rapid
series of 133 interviews with political leaders between March 24 and May 6,
1947. He found Gandhi and Jinnah holding diametrically opposite views. Jinnah
stuck to his demand for Pakistan while Gandhi not agree for partition as long
as he was alive. He even proposed the name of Jinnah as the Prime minister.
Mountbatten described Jinnah as Psychopathic case. The Governor-general ultimately
realized that the partition was the only way out to end the impasse. He
apprehended that any more delay in solving this political deadlock would only
aggravate the communal problem Bengal, Punjab and other areas were
riot-stricken. He was also convinced of the inevitability of the partition.
Nehru, Patel and others were also becoming embarrassed due to the growing
communalism throughout the country.
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