The election of a Labour government in Britain in July 1945 brought closer the prospect of Indian independence, although it was not then expected that independence would also bring the partition of India. Once Japan had surrendered, Indian Army troops were used to keep order in French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies, pending the return of colonial authority. After a mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy in early 1946, a British Cabinet Mission was despatched to secure agreement on a united, independent India. The principal Indian parties—the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress—could not, however, agree on political formula for unity. With communal riots affecting India from August 1946, there was growing concern that this unrest might undermine Indian Army discipline. The new Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was instructed to keep the Indian armed forces united, if possible, even if India itself had to be partitioned. By April 1947, however, the Muslim League leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, was insisting that Pakistan must have its own army. Division was bound to be difficult because many Indian Army regiments were segregated by religion down to subunit level, while the Indian Navy and Air Force were mixed throughout. Nevertheless, at independence in August 1947, most of the armed forces were successfully partitioned between India and Pakistan without communal animosity disrupting military discipline. After independence, the Indian Army’s ten Gurkha regiments, recruited in Nepal, were also peacefully divided between India and Britain. On the other hand, the 23,000-strong Punjab Boundary Force, assigned to keep order along the new frontier between India and Pakistan, proved unable to prevent the extensive communal violence that accompanied partition.