Partition of India potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. In June 1947, the nationalist leaders, including Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious lines in stark opposition to Gandhi's views. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new
RMS Viceroy of India interior decoration was designed by the Honourable Elsie Mackay, youngest daughter of James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, who was the chairman of P&O from 1914 until his death in 1932. "Viceroy of India" carried cargo as well as passengers, and her holds were refrigerated for carrying perishables. The ship was launched as "Viceroy of India" on 15 September 1928 by Dorothy, Countess of Halifax, the wife of the Viceroy of India, E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax. The name had been changed to avoid offending Indians, particularly Muslims, for whom the Taj Mahal mausoleum is sacred. Fitting