With the advent of the Second World War, politics in colonial India created diverse priorities and new contradictions amongst political groups. The Congress party demanded the creation of a central Indian national government in lieu of providing support for war efforts and sought political guarantees of freedom from the colonial state after the war concluded. In contrast, the Muslim League and the communists supported British war efforts against Germany and its allies. The tussle between the Congress and the colonial state had escalated prior to this due to Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declaring India at war in the Second World War in September 1939 without consulting the elected provincial governments or political stakeholders in India. As a protest, all Congress ministries resigned in October 1939. Within the United Provinces (UP), the campaign for releasing revolutionaries and other political prisoners had already created an antagonistic relationship between the colonial state and the provincial government during this short period. The Cripps Mission struggled to secure Indian support for the British war effort. The situation only intensified with Gandhi launching the Quit India movement in August 1942, resulting in the arrest of almost the entire Congress leadership. The war became a moment of uncertainty for both the colonial state and the nationalists due to rising mutual mistrust and antagonism.

After the Second World War, the colonial state initiated negotiations with different political stakeholders in India to explore the possibilities of independence. Extensive deliberations with the Congress, the Muslim League and Sikh leaders resulted in Lord Mountbatten drawing a plan in June 1947 for creating two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. Soon, the British Parliament passed the 1947 Indian Independence Act, which received royal assent on 18 July 1947, and Pakistan and India attained independence in August 1947. The partition of British India into India and Pakistan did not establish peace. Instead, it unleashed spectacular cycles of violence and migration, which various scholars have amply investigated. Administrations across the regions put in place strict preventive and prohibitory measures to control the situation. For example, in UP, the Communal Disturbances Act of 1947, the Indian Arms Act, curfews and the promulgation of section 144 were the instant response of the provincial government. Partition was not a singular moment but a long process that occurred over many years.