Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio

Louis Mountbatten

He Moved The Date Forward By Ten Months · Last Viceroy of India · 1900–1979

The last Viceroy, who announced the partition plan in June 1947, advanced independence by ten months, and withheld the boundary award until two days after the ceremonies.

Defend these ideas against Mountbatten

Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE, and on it a topic counts as mastered only once you have learned it, proved it in questions, taught it back and defended it against the person with the strongest claim on it. Louis Mountbatten is that person for 2 topics on the course:

• Direct Action and communal violence — History · Colonial rule and the nationalist challenge in India, 1919–47
• Mountbatten, the date, and the consequences of partition — History · Colonial rule and the nationalist challenge in India, 1919–47

Who was Mountbatten?

Born in 1900, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, Mountbatten commanded destroyers and then South East Asia Command during the war. He arrived in Delhi in March 1947 with instructions to end British rule by June 1948, judged within weeks that a united India could not be delivered, and announced the partition plan on 3 June. He then brought the transfer of power forward to 15 August 1947, a date he chose because it was the anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Cyril Radcliffe, who had never been to India, was given five weeks to draw the boundaries between the new states; Mountbatten withheld the award until 17 August, two days after the independence ceremonies. He was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979.

Major achievements

• Ended British rule in India ten months ahead of the deadline he was given
• Secured the accession of most of the princely states before independence
• Negotiated an agreed plan with Congress and the League in under three months

Life in brief

• 1900 — Born at Windsor: A great-grandson of Queen Victoria.
• 1943 — Supreme Commander, South East Asia: Takes the Japanese surrender at Singapore in 1945.
• 1947 — Arrives in Delhi in March: With instructions to end British rule by June 1948.
• 1947 — 3 June: The partition plan is announced.
• 1947 — 15 August: Independence, ten months early; the boundary award is withheld until the 17th.
• 1979 — Killed at Mullaghmore: By an IRA bomb, in County Sligo.

Explore the life of Mountbatten — five chapters

1. HMS Kelly — A royal cousin who wanted to be a sailor
2. South East Asia Command — A theatre that had been losing
3. The Date — Fourteen months brought forward to five
4. The Line — A boundary drawn in five weeks and published in two days
5. The Argument After — Thirty years of defending it, and a boat at Mullaghmore

Read the five-chapter life of Louis Mountbatten →

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