Root causes of partition of India | know the real reasons for partition of India
The partition of India was the great accident of history. All this was the result of the ancient policy of the British ‘divide and state taxes’ and the communal thinking of the Muslim League. Many Indians blame Nehru-Gandhi and the Congress as the main reason for the partition. ‘Fundamental Causes of Partition of India, Know the real reasons for the Partition of India’ Was it really only Congress or Gandhi-Nehru responsible for the partition of India? Through this blog, we will study the realities that were actually responsible for the partition of India, we will also get rid of those misconceptions from which we make one sided perception.
At present, many people will be found saying that the partition of India could have been avoided if the Congress and its main leaders Gandhi and Nehru had shown enough intelligence and courage. On the contrary, the people of Pakistan fully justify this partition and call it inevitable. “According to Pandit Nehru, the reason for the communalism of the Muslims was the delay in the emergence of the middle class in them, due to which the Muslim League instilled fear among the Muslim masses. On the slogan ‘Islam is in danger’ all the Muslims gathered under the flag of the League and Jinnah Emerged as a political messiah.” On the other hand, Hindu organizations also created a similar communal atmosphere, in this regard the stand of the Hindu Mahasabha was completely communal. Veer Savarkar clearly spoke of ‘Hindu dominance’ and said that “There is only one end to the Hindu-Muslim conflict and that is that India is Hindustan and Muslims should live here as a minority because in a democracy the majority is the state.” We do”
Root causes of partition of India, know the real reasons for partition of India
With the establishment of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, the geography of this subcontinent changed. With this, the economic, social and political conditions completely changed. There were many reasons for this division. Different people have interpreted it in their own way. According to the socialist writer Ram Manohar Lohia and some other writers, the power-hungry of the veteran Congress leaders, fatigue from the movement, and the personal influence of Mrs. Mountbatten led to the split.
Here it is also important to know the views of the Left. According to leftist writers, communalism is a perverted form of class struggle and the Muslim bourgeoisie and the Muslim middle class resorted to religion and culture to achieve their political goals, which led to the establishment of Pakistan.
due to partition of india
The root cause of the partition of India, was the Congress responsible for the partition? If we look at the root causes of the partition of India, then the notion of considering any one reason responsible for the partition will also be resolved. The partition of India happened due to different reasons, by studying these reasons, we will know the root causes of the partition.
Communalism
The British Empire was not accepted by the Indian people from the very beginning. But the point to be noted here is that there was a section that supported and took advantage of the British state. This was the Hindu and Muslim upper classes. The Hindu business class, which maintained its position during the earlier Muslim rule, also coordinated with the British. But the Hindu upper class took more advantage of the British rule than the Muslim upper class and after getting higher education made its place in the British bureaucracy.
The Muslim upper class was sinking into utter despair because of the decline of the Muslim elite and dwindling employment opportunities. The decline of the Muslim upper class had a direct impact on the general Muslim class. After the revolt of 1857, the situation became more opposite as the British government now adopted the policy of weakening the Muslims and supporting the Hindus. Due to this the Muslim community started hating the Hindus. The British converted this hatred into communalism.
Commenting on this situation, Hudson wrote “It is not possible to divide and rule unless the ruled people are ready to come to terms of division. It is possible that the British took advantage of the Hindu-Muslim rivalry.” Yes, but did not invent this competition.
The birth of revivalist politics
With the establishment of the Congress in 1885, the British had built a security wall for themselves, but this illusion was soon shattered when a vocally aware youth began to criticize the British policies. The moderate leaders of the Congress were now replaced by extremist Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Arvind Ghosh.
These new radical minded revolutionaries, taking the support of their ancient values, coined new slogans on the basis of religion and regional superstition, so that they could win the trust of the Indian people in the glory of ancient tradition and culture. In this sequence, Bal Gangadhar Tilak breathed new life through ‘Ganesh festival’ and ‘Shivaji festival’. Similarly, Arvind Ghosh propagated ‘Kali Panth’ and Lala Lajpat Rai promoted Arya Samaj at the national level. These new extremist leaders revived the pride of India’s ancient culture on the basis of religion and local fundamentalist politics, which gave momentum and a new energy to the movement against the British among Hindus. But the Muslims saw it as a religious conflict. The Muslims distanced themselves from the national movement.
Thus, these religious and cultural slogans dented the possibility of Muslims and Hindus fighting the British together. And later on these same policies were adopted by the national leadership, due to which communalism was born.
divide and rule policy of the British
After the revolt of 1857, the circumstances changed and the condition of the Muslims became more pathetic than before. In such a situation, the Muslims also decided to adopt the policy of cooperation with the British and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan carried out this work. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan established an educational institution in Aligarh in collaboration with the British for the purpose of making Muslims aware and educated. Now the British started instigating the Muslims against the Hindus and started the policy of divide and rule from here.
After the formation of the Muslim League in 1906, the Muslims started putting their demands in front of the British government. A delegation of Muslims met the Viceroy Lord Minton and demanded a separate electorate for Muslims. This demand of the Muslims was implemented by the Marley-Minto Reform Act of 1909 and separate electorates were given to the Muslims. From here the gap between Hindu-Muslim communalism started widening. There was a difference between Hindus and Muslims on religious, social, and economic grounds, but now there was a difference on political grounds as well. Till now Hindu Muslim communalism was being used only as a policy of divide and rule, the demand of Pakistan reached its climax.
Impact of separate representation of Muslims on Indian politics
In the last 50 years of the nineteenth century, communalism got a lot of fertilizer and it continues till date. When communalism once acted as a weapon in gaining political power, it made its place in Indian politics like a termite and hollowed it out inside. Separate electorates created a barrier in a society that was already plagued by social and economic inequalities. The Montagu Chelmsford Report (1919) itself recognizes that division on the basis of religion and class division would mean, ” Formation of political camps organized against each other and it teaches people to adopt a partisan attitude”.
Motilal Nehru wrote (25 March 1909) to his son Jawaharlal Nehru (who was then studying at Cambridge) of the introduction of the system of separate representation in 1909 that “no matter how much council reform can compensate for this mischief”. . The Congress could not openly oppose this separate representation. The situation became more favorable for the British when the Congress-League Pact (Lucknow Pact 1916) was accepted. Based on this, Chelmsford, while giving separate representation to the Sikhs, said, “Although it is against the democratic ideal, but if this is what both the Congress and the League want, what can we do, and if Muslims are given separate representation, then the Sikhs – -Those who were demanding it on the same grounds— how can it be denied this right? Thus separate representation ruined the national life of India.
The government relaxed the censorship of newspapers that carried communal news while keeping a close watch on the national newspapers. Due to all this, the national revolutionaries and the public felt that the Muslims had become a hindrance in the freedom struggle of the country, on the contrary, the Muslims started thinking that the Congress is a Hindu representation organization, it suppresses them.
Events that took place on the national scene between 1919-1937
The period between 1919 and 1937 was very important for the Indian independence movement. Gandhiji launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920-22 and the Civil Disobedience Movement till 1930-35. But the worst aspect of this period was that communal riots also took place in the country. Which Dr. Ambedkar has called civil war. Muslim leaders projected the Congress as the enemy of Muslims to the Muslim masses, and presented it as a Hindu representation body. This belief was further strengthened when, like Tilak, Gandhi also announced slogans like ‘Go Raksha’, ‘Hindi propaganda’, ‘Ram Rajya’. The Muslims called it the policy of the Congress to establish a Hindu-state.
Some of the Congress leaders, Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya, etc. were also associated with Hindu organizations like Hindu Mahasabha, Arya Samaj etc. These Hindu leaders gave fertilizer and water to the idea of Hindu Rashtra. Lala Lajpat Rai and Lalchand criticized the principle of one nation of the Congress and said that Hindus and Muslims are not one but two nations. Communalism does erupt from time to time and an example of this is the assassination of Swami Shraddhanand on 23 December 1926.
Muslim leader of Congress – Hakim Ajmal Khan. Tyab ji, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Dr. M. A. Ansari, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, Dr. Zakir Hussain who were Pakistani nationalists were rejected by the Muslim masses. Now both the British Government and the Congress had accepted the League as the representative body of the Muslims.
Impact of 1937 Elections on Indian Politics
Responsibility in the Division of Geographical Formation
The north-west geographical conditions also played a supporting role in the formation of an independent Muslim state. The states in the north-western border of India (Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Kashmir) were Muslim-majority states and all these states were geographically connected to each other. This geographical location gave birth to the concept of Pakistan and Muhammad Iqbal and Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (he was the first to talk of creating a separate Muslim state) coined the term Pakistan. After 1940, the concept of one nation was rejected by the Muslims.
Progressive development of the notion of Pakistan
The Muslim League was established (Dhaka) in 1906, but it took many years to accept it as the only representative body of the Muslims. In the Lucknow session of 1916, the Congress negotiated with the League, making the League the representative body of the Muslims. accepted as The confession had two consequences, one, the Congress lost its right to oppose this strategy, which allowed the British government to apply it to other religious sects as well, secondly the Muslim League was now accepted as the only representative body of the Muslims. . When Motilal Nehru rejected Jinnah’s 13-point proposal in January 1929, Jinnah walked out in despair. After this the Muslim fundamentalists in the League intensified the Muslim communalism.
How was Pakistan born? Iqbal, Rahmat Ali real birthplace of Pakistan
Jinnah not only unified the Muslim League but also forged relations with other Indian minority communities. In the First Round Table Conference (which was boycotted by the Congress), the Muslim League was successful in negotiating a minority settlement in which all sections of Indian politics, except the upper caste Hindus, supported the Muslims.
On the eve of the Round Table Conference, the famous Indian poet Muhammad Iqbal set a target for the Muslim League. He said that “It would be better if we accept that Indian Muslims have every right to develop in their own country as they wish. To fulfill this objective, he said in his presidential speech at the annual session of the Muslim League in 1930 that He would like to see Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh, and Balochistan united into one state. He further said, “The creation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State. I know the ultimate destiny of the Muslims, especially the Muslims in North-West India. Is.
Muhammad Iqbal even said that Ambala Division should be separated to make this state clearly Muslim majority, but he clearly said that the Muslim state would be a part of India only. Jinnah shrugged off this proposal as the imagination of a poet at that time.
Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, a student of Cambridge University, was very much attracted to this demand and ‘in 1933 he coined the word Pakistan’, he demanded that one of these provinces should be known. There should be an independent union.
Elections of 1937 and Muslim League Reaction
The Act of 1935 integrated Muslim-dominated areas, separating Sindh from Bombay and giving full statehood to the North-West Frontier Province. In the 1937 election results, the Congress was victorious in six Hindu-majority provinces and the North-West Frontier Province. In Muslim-majority areas, the League was defeated by other parties instead of the League. Congress-majority states refused to form government in alliance with the League. After this the League started creating a communal atmosphere by accusing the Congress of being Hindu.
Congress cabinet, Muslim League, demand for an independent Muslim state (Pakistan)
The Muslim League accused the Congress ministries of adopting a policy of discrimination against Muslims. In 1939, when all the provincial ministries of the Congress resigned collectively, the League celebrated this day as ‘Liberation’ Day. The Aligarh Professor (Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s view) The plan emphasized for the first time that Indian Muslims were a nation in themselves and could not be subordinated to or dominated by the British or any other caste. Therefore he demanded the reconsideration of two sovereign states “India – Muslim India and Hindu India”.
Lahore proposal of Muslim League
The proposal for the formation of a separate state for the Muslims was passed in the Lahore session of the Muslim League on 23 March 1940. It said “India’s problem is not inter-communal in character but clearly international in nature and should be considered as such, the only way left for us now is to convert India into ‘autonomous national states'”. Let the major nations be separated by dividing.” Jinnah made a clear declaration in the meeting that the Muslims would not accept a constitution in which the Hindus had a majority.
Liaquat Ali Khan said “The demand for Pakistan today is not based on Hindu-majority fear at the centre. On the contrary, it is the aspiration of a nation, behind which lies the spirit of forging its ideals and culture. This aspiration is not based on achieving total domination.” cannot be pacified, which would mean domination over all departments of the state without exception.
Effect of Lahore Resolution and Framework of Partition
The demand for a separate Muslim state was very clear in the Lahore Resolution. Initially the Congress did not take it seriously. Dr. Ambedkar appealed to every important section in India from the point of view of public opinion to find a solution to the communal problem because ultimately the political independence of India depends on it.
Congress’s attitude on the partition resolution (Lahore Resolution)
The Lahore Resolution created confusion in the Congress. Gandhiji, expressing concern in ‘Harijan’ in September 1940, wrote, “The proposal for partition has changed the condition of the Hindu-Muslim problem. are in position and now they should be ready for the final fight”.
When the Cripps Resolution of 1942 spoke of the independence of the states to remain separate from India, the Congress realized that it would be difficult to keep the states which did not voluntarily join the Union of India for a long time. Therefore, on 2 April 1942, the Congress passed a resolution in which it recognized the principle of self-determination.
To overcome this impasse, C. Rajagopalachari decided to formulate a formula which is acceptable to all parties. But even these attempts were unsuccessful.
Partition Problems and Alternative Ways to Prevent Partition
The partition of India was not just a division of a community, it involved many problems, such as the separation of a natural-geographical unit, the Indian Army and the division of assets and liabilities; The problem of Punjab and Bengal in which apart from Muslim Hindu population was also very large. This will not solve the problem of minorities because even after partition there will be a large number of minorities on both sides. Many people expressed serious concerns.
In 1944, an unsuccessful attempt was made to solve the problem with the Sapru Committee, in which a new scheme of equality between upper caste Hindus and Muslims was introduced in the Union Cabinet to satisfy the Muslim League.
The problem was further complicated by the advent of the Cabinet Mission in May 1946 and the subsequent deliberations. The Cabinet Mission proposal was in a way a final attempt in the efforts being made to keep India united. The general elections of 1946 recognized the Congress and the Muslim League as the two communal forces of the country as the League won the majority of Muslim majority seats. She was This strengthened Jinnah’s hands, he became more determined on the demand of Pakistan.
The coalition government formed under the Cabinet Mission Plan – whose Prime Minister was Jawaharlal Nehru – the Muslim League refused to join it (because the Congress had conditioned the merger of the League with the Congress) and on 16 August 1946 It was decided to consider it as Direct Action Day. Muslim leaders gave extremely provocative speeches from the stage, which created an atmosphere of tension. Although the League joined the government with certain conditions (not to interfere with cooperation)
Communal riots before partition
Fierce communal riots broke out in places like Calcutta, Noakhali, Bihar, Garhmukteshwar etc. And by March 1947, it spread to the whole of Punjab. These riots proved Hindu-Muslim unity a thing of the past. Now the Congress leadership was fed up with the tricks of the League and many of them were eager to get power soon, even if it came at the cost of Partition. Now the communal forces of the country have activated their respective organizations. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Muslim National Guard and Akali Dal fighters were inciting youth of their respective religious sects to sacrifice their rights. This communal power struggle intensified when in February the British government announced an early transfer of power to the responsible Indians. Gandhi appealed to the Cabinet Mission not to pursue the plan of Partition, but to no avail because now the entire Congress Working Committee (including Patel and Nehru) had accepted Partition as the only solution to the problem.
Mountbatten plan and partition of India
After long deliberations, Mountbatten came up with his plan, which was a sign that the Indian leadership was ready to compromise in any situation.
The British government announced the partition of India on 3 June 1947, in which the partition of Punjab and Bengal was also considered because it was demanded by the parties apart from all the Muslims of these provinces. Jinnah disagreed with this and denounced it as “a sly action motivated by hatred and bitterness” as it would “distort and fragment” the Pakistan that Muslims would get. But the League had no choice but to accept this plan as it was the logical conclusion of the arguments on which Pakistan was demanded. As a result, on 14 August 1947, Pakistan was registered on the world map as a new nation. Independent India was formed on 15 August 1947.
Conclusion
Partition was not just between two countries, but it was geographical, cultural, religious and a huge number of human resources were exchanged. The partition of India brought a terrible tragedy to the Indian people, especially the people of Punjab and Bengal. Lakhs of people were rendered homeless, thousands of innocent people were mercilessly murdered by their own brothers and a large number of women were abducted and converted to religion. About one million people died and 1.45 crore came as refugees. Thus, the country’s partition due to the negligence or erroneous actions of the Congress and the nationalists, the aspirations of the Muslim bourgeoisie and the colonial power to retain power for as long as possible, resulted in a heavy cost to the people.