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Christopher Beaumont's said that Mountbatten pressured Radcliffe to change the boundary in India's favour.

See this BBC article:

The documents repeatedly allege that Mountbatten put pressure on Radcliffe to alter the boundary in India's favour.

Is this true? If yes, why did Mountbatten side with India?

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3 Answers 3

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Yes he did.

According to Jinnah vs Gandhi, the possible reasons include:

  • Mountbatten was a liberal and was opposed to the religion based partition demands of Jinnah(the Father of Nation, Pakistan)
  • Nehru/Gandhi were good with diplomacy and negotiations
  • Mountbatten was not pleased with the demands and negotiation style of Jinnah so it was a personality clash
  • Though Radcliffe was impartial, he answered to Mountbatten and this swung some territory in India's favor
  • There was a timeline to be stuck to, Mountbatten made many screwups and a hasty exit from India to meet the deadline and prevent a possible civil war/bad press for the Crown.
  • The book Jinnah vs Gandhi by Roderick Mattews covers this part of the Gandhi-Jinnah-Montbatten relationship.

All these little factors tilted towards India and Nehru.

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    Any sources for your assertion?
    – Joe
    Dec 13, 2013 at 17:40
  • The book Jinnah vs Gandhi by Roderick Mattews covers this part of the Gandhi-Jinnah-Montbatten relationship.
    – amarprabhu
    Dec 13, 2013 at 17:48
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    So fold it in to your answer. As it stands, you assert that Mountbatten favored India without any support.
    – Joe
    Dec 13, 2013 at 17:51
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    +1 But how come there is no mention of Lady Edwina Mountbatten? See here for a start: theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/06/features.review2
    – Felix Goldberg
    Dec 13, 2013 at 19:17
  • Mountbatten knew. So did their (Mountbattens) daughter. How much influence this had on either party and the political ramifications of the platonic relationship is debatable. Nehru did send a battleship to pay respects when Lady Mountbatten died, so the relationship was indeed important. The Nehru-Lady Mountbatten relationship is speculative whereas the work relationship between Jinnah-Gandhi-Nehru-Mounbatten has been documented, so its better to do political analysis instead of spinning a love story ;)
    – amarprabhu
    Dec 13, 2013 at 20:06
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Yes. Mainly because Jinnah was so arrogant and had a sort of superiority complex that Mountbatten did not like. Also, Jinnah was too eager to create Pakistan as early as possible so that he alone could take the credit for creating a Muslim state. All those irritated Mountbatten and he swung towards Hindus. Thus he favored India by offering majority of fertile regions to her.

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    Hi Mallikarjun, welcome to the site! Some linked references to support your answer could help make it better. A quote from Mountbatten would be even better.
    – Bryce
    Apr 21, 2015 at 6:20
  • He offered fertile regions to India? I thought the subcontinent was divided on the basis of population density of Hindus and Muslims. Can you support this view about fertility?
    – Rajib
    Apr 22, 2015 at 16:32
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    @mallikarjun "Jinnah was so arrogant" (quote) you are yourself being arrogant by saying it. It is a hate speech.
    – user36339
    Jul 26, 2019 at 14:52
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Yes. Believe it or not, when Pakistan invaded Kashmir in '47, it was Mountbatten who convinced the Maharaja of Kashmir to accede to India in return for military assistance to repel the Pakistani invasion.

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    Citations would improve this answer.
    – MCW ♦
    Jul 2, 2016 at 17:20
  • While the Maharaja was forced into acceding to India by the Latter's precondition that India shall not wage war to counter the Pakistani tribes unless Maharaja acceded to India first, I couldn't find any reference that Mountbatten was the sole person responsible for this or acted without authority of Government of India
    – NSNoob
    Aug 7, 2017 at 8:36

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