The rejected maps of India's division

The demand of Pakistan had started brimming in the 1930s-40s era, a time when the world was about to hit The Great Depression and World War 2. This was also the time when it was about to decide British India's fate as the independence movement had caught spark all throughout the country and few British had already started to anticipate their final days in India. As time would pass, although the War didn't have a direct effect on Indian towns (except for a few skirmishes at Bombay and Calcutta), the political environment between the British, the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress would be constantly coughed up on the topics of 'independence' and 'partition'. Several propositions were made, the most popular one among these rejected maps is of Choudhary Rahmat Ali who formulated a certain 'Continent of Dinia' dividing British India into 3 different Muslim 'nations':

1. Pakistan - comprising today's Pakistan and the Indian states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana (except the district of Mahendragarh), the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh and the Trans-Karakoram Tract that was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963, but never recognised by India. This would be divided into 4 provinces : 
1. Balochistan
2. Afghania
3. Kashmir
4. Punjab
2. Bang-i-Islam - comprising of today's entire northeast India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal (except the district of Puruliya). It would be divided into two provinces :
1. Bengal 
2. Assam
3. Usmanistan - the Princely State of Nizam's Hyderabad that comprises today's Marathwada region of Maharashtra, the Indian state of Telangana and the Hyderabad-Karnataka division of Karnataka. 

The rest of India would be divided into Hindu dominating provinces such as Rajistan, Hindoostan, Maharashtar and Dravidia (spellings as per the author). However, this post is to discuss two other such maps that were proposed by others, but are too interesting to know about. 

Proposal by Dr Abdul Latif of Hyderabad: 1939

In January 1939, nine months prior to the start of World War 2, the Muslim League assigned the responsibility of preparing the Pakistan design to Dr Syed Abdul Latif of Hyderabad. He proposed a federation comprising four Muslim and 11 Hindu 'cultural zones'. These are listed as follows: 

1. North-West Block - comprising today's Pakistan, the POK area, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Indian state of Punjab, Haryana (except the district of Mahendragarh that comprised of Princely States of Loharu, Jind, Dujana and Nabha. This would be a full-fledged Muslim zone.
2. Delhi-Lucknow Block - The entire zone of United Provinces (today's Uttar Pradesh minus Uttarakhand) that stretched between Delhi to Lucknow, comprising of today's districts such as Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Gautam Budh Nagar (NOIDA), Mathura, Mahamaya Nagar, Etah, Budaun, Moradabad, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur (partially), Hardoi, Sitapur, Barabanki, Lucknow, Unnao, Kanpur (both Dehat and Urban), Firozabad, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad and Kannauj. The region would be a mix of Hindu and Muslim zones. 
3. Rajastan (and not Rajasthan) - consisting of today's Rajasthan state (except Ajmer-Merwara, Sirohi and the Princely States of Tonk), the western portion of Madhya Pradesh that was formerly Madhya Bharat (except Bhopal State and enclave of Tonk state around Shajapur area).
4. Hindustan - The remaining portion of Uttar Pradesh along with Uttarakhand (except the districts of Tehri, Haridwar, Uttarkashi and Dehradun) plus western Bihar, the Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand regions of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh respectively. This would be a full-fledged Hindu zone. 
5. Gujrat (or Gujarat) - consisting of today's Gujarat state (except the Princely State of Junagadh), and the districts of Maharashtra such as Nandurbar, Dhule, Nashik, Palghar, Thane and even Mumbai. The Rajasthani district of Sirohi was also included. 
6. Maharashtra - interestingly, the state of Maharashtra proposed in 1939 was nowhere closer to what it is today. Then Maharashtra consisted of the Konkan belt of today's Maharashtra (including the Princely States of Deccan States) plus the districts of Madhya Pradesh such as Hoshangabad, Harda, Khandwa, Betul, Burhanpur, Khargone, Barwani, Narsinghpur, Chhindwara, Seoni, Balaghat, Mandla and the remaining Maharashtra districts of Chandrapur (partially), Gadchiroli (partially), Gondia, Nagpur, Wardha and Bhandara. 
7. Orissa - comprising of today's Odisha state plus the remaining parts of Chhattisgarh (except the Princely States of Bastar and Kanker). This again would be a Hindu zone. 
8. West Bengal - the eastern part of Bihar, the whole of West Bengal state (except North & South 24 Parganas, Kolkata, parts of Howrah, Hooghly, Bardhaman, Nadia and Murshidabad districts) and the state of Jharkhand would be a Hindu cultural zone of West Bengal. The Rajshahi and Rangpur states of Bangladesh were also included. 
9. North East Block - the remaining portions of West Bengal, Bangladesh and entire northeast India would come under a Muslim North East Block. 
10. Deccan Block - the former Princely State of Hyderabad with a long tunnel-like division through Andhra Pradesh connecting the Bay of Bengal just above Chennai or Madras. This would be a mix of Hindu and Muslim zone. 
11. Andhra - today's Andhra Pradesh state plus the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh and parts of Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra. 
12. Kanara - the remaining parts of Bombay State such as Kanara, Dharwar, Belgaum, Bijapur and the entire Princely State of Mysore would make up a Hindu cultural zone of Kanara. This would also consist of the South Kanara district that is made up of today's Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram and Palakkad regions of Kerala. 
13. Malabar - as the name suggests, this would be the remaining Malabar portion of Kerala. 
14. Tamilnad (and not Tamil Nadu) - this Hindu cultural zone would consist of the remaining parts of the Madras province. 
15. Other zones - Ajmer-Merwara was considered to be a Free City zone while the Muslim states of Tonk, Bhopal and Junagadh would remain separate from joining the adjoining zones. The territory of Berar (which is today districts of Buldhana, Akola, Amaravati, Washim and Yavatmal) would be considered as a Muslim Protectorate. 

This proposal envisaged voluntary transfers of the population to have greater cultural homogeneity and perhaps this was the major reason for its rejection. At the time of World War 2, migrating billions of people into new zones would be a hugely challenging (and impractical) task, a fragment of what was ultimately seen during the 1947 partition. This would also go against Pandit Nehru's dream of a homogeneous India having both Hindus and Muslims living together. 

Proposal for a regional organisation based on river basins: 1943

A British officer named M.W. Yeatt proposed dividing British India into four river basins. They are listed as follows: 

1. Indus - comprising of today's Pakistan, entire undivided Punjab, Kashmir, Rajputana (except the Princely States of Sirohi, Bharatpur, Karauli and Dholpur)
2. Ganges - comprising of today's Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, the former Vindhya Pradesh state, Baghelkhand and Bundelkhand regions and the Princely States of Kotah, Karauli, Dholpur and Bharatpur. It would also consist of the Eastern States Agency, Orissa and Puruliya district of today's West Bengal. 
3. Delta - comprising of today's West Bengal (except Puruliya district), Bangladesh and entire northeast India. 
4. Deccan - remaining India, i.e. Gujarat, Maharashtra, and the entire Deccan region until the tip of Kanyakumari and including parts of Rajasthan such as Sirohi and the Princely States of Banswara and Dungarpur. 

While Indus and Delta region would comprise of the Muslim majority population, Ganges and Deccan would be of Hindu populace. But due to some reasons, this idea was also rejected. 

Other proposals

Few other noteworthy proposals that got rejected are mentioned here. The Premier of Punjab Sir Sikander Hayat Khan outlined the Federation of seven Divisions in his book in 1953 without mentioning the name 'Pakistan'. A Calcutta based Maulvi Sahib presented a Muslim State under 'Pakistan Khilafat Scheme' from Afghanistan to Assam and Himalaya to Vindhyachal shifting Hindus from UP and Bihar. Few scholars of Aligarh Muslim University devised a plan to divide India into six divisions with the help of Chaudhri Rahmat Ali (who is credited with coining the name PAKISTAN). Rahmat Ali had also gone far to change India's name as Dinia and Muslim Asia zone as Pak-Asia. In 1946, the Muslim League had demanded the sovereign Muslim State of Pakistan that originally comprised of today's Pakistan plus undivided Punjab, Kashmir, and the entire Bengal and northeast India as its eastern corridor. And it was this plan that was bifurcated later in 1947 into what became East and West Pakistan in August. 

Not only this but there were several Sikh proposals of demanding independent sovereigns such as Azad Punjab (1943), Sikhistan (1946) and Khalistan (1946), all by rearranging the Punjab States. 

However, all these proposals were rejected and British India got divided into the territories about which we all know. Below here are two maps of the proposals mentioned above: 

Map suggested by Dr. Syed Abdul Latif in 1939.
Orange areas denote Hindu majority regions while
green ones are Muslim dominated territories. 
A mix of two colours denote Muslim/Hindu dominated areas with 
Hindu/Muslim minority population.

Reorganisation of Indian subcontinent based on river basins
by MW Yeatts, in 1943.

Key source : Schwartzberg Digital South Asia Library