 Wheeler was present during the 1947 Partition of India into the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India and the accompanying ethnic violence between Hindu and Muslim communities . He was unhappy with how these events had affected the Archaeological Survey , complaining that some of his finest students and staff were now citizens of Pakistan and no longer able to work for him . He was based in New Delhi when the city was <unk> by sectarian violence , and attempted to help many of his Muslim staff members escape from the Hindu @-@ majority city unharmed . He further helped smuggle Muslim families out of the city hospital , where they had taken refuge from a violent Hindu mob . As India neared independence from the British Empire , the political situation had changed significantly ; by October 1947 he was one of the last British individuals in a high @-@ up position within the country 's governing establishment , and recognised that many Indian nationalists wanted him to also leave . 
