A commission to divide Punjab

The Punjab Boundary Commission was set up in 1947 to divide the province. Its report names four judicial members—Din Muhammad, Muhammad Munir, Mehr Chand Mahajan and Teja Singh—and Cyril Radcliffe as chair. Its terms referred to contiguous Muslim and non-Muslim majority areas and other factors. The report is the chair’s account of the process and decision, not every submission or affected person’s perspective.[1]

Hearings and competing claims

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes the commission’s public hearings in Lahore from 21 to 31 July 1947. It records arguments about population, property, irrigation, transport and religious sites as parties advanced different claims. These interests could not always be reconciled in a single boundary. The encyclopedia summarises the arguments; it is not a verbatim record of every hearing. A fuller study can compare the memoranda and proceedings with maps and population data used at the time. Sikh, Muslim and Hindu political organisations were not the only people affected by the eventual line. According to the encyclopedia, Radcliffe did not attend these public sittings because he was also chairing the Bengal commission; the judicial members later failed to agree, leaving him to decide.[2]

A compressed timetable

A University of Pennsylvania history thesis by Plum Xu examines the hearings and the final award in the context of land, labour and water. It describes public sessions taking place under a short deadline before the transfer of power and notes that the awards were announced on 17 August. The study is a later interpretation of archival and scholarly evidence, not a contemporary commission document. Its focus on infrastructure and land makes clear that the drawing of a political boundary had practical implications for agriculture, transport and people’s daily lives. The commission’s work must be understood alongside the violence and displacement of 1947.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Cyril Radcliffe, Punjab Boundary Commission. Report of the Punjab Boundary Commission ↗Written source · Source date: 1947-08-12 · Locator: Report, paragraphs 1–7: members, terms, hearings and chairman’s decision. Accessed 2026-11-04.Rechecked the Wikisource transcription of the chairman’s report. The original signed report and the complete hearing submissions were not independently examined.Return to A commission to divide Punjab, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Satyā M. Rāi; Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Punjabi University. Punjab Boundary Commission ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Hearings and submissions. Accessed 2026-11-05.Written source inspected; political claims and historical interpretations attributed. The encyclopedia entry’s author signature was rechecked.Return to Hearings and competing claims, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Plum Xu. A Province Divided: Land, Labor, and Water During the 1947 Partition of Punjab, India ↗Written source · Source date: 2023 · Locator: Final boundary award and hearings. Accessed 2026-11-03.Written source inspected; political claims and historical interpretations attributed.Return to A compressed timetable, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-HIS-0124 · English edition · human review not performed