On 17 August 1947 after the partition of India the Radcliffe Line was declared as the boundary between India and Pakistan. The line was named after Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was assigned to divide the territory of 4, 50,000 km square into 88 million people.
The idea behind the line was to create a line which divides India among the religious demographics in which Muslim community became a part of the new nation named Pakistan and the Hindu and Sikh community would remain in India.
Today its western side still served as the Indo- Pakistani border and eastern border as the India- Bangladesh border. Already the crude boundary was decided by Lord Wavell, the viceroy of India. In order to assign accurately which part or territory to assign to each country, Britain appointed Sir Cyril Radcliffe to chair for two Boundary Commissions- One for Bengal and One for Punjab.
The Radcliffe boundary commission consisted of 5 people – a chairman, 2 members nominated by the Muslim League and 2 members nominated by the Indian National Congress.
