Partition of India - Communal Backdrop - Part I

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Previously, I talked about India's Independence Day celebrations on August 15 when it became free from British imperialistic rule in 1947. Today, I would like to shed some light on the tragic developments that took place in the state of Punjab in Northwest India in the summer and fall of 1947 when India was partitioned into two sovereign nations of India and Pakistan simulataneously while it gained independence.

A day before on August 14, 1947, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was created and comprised of two parts-West Pakistan with the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), and East Pakistan with the province of Bengal. East Pakistan later became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971. (See the map)

Essentially, Indian subcontinent was partitioned as a whole with the two large British provinces ofPunjab in the Northwest and Bengal in the East divided roughly in half with predominantly Muslim regions becoming a part of Pakistan and its predominantly Hindu regions becoming a part of India. Making matters more complex and messy was the the difficulty in arranging the accession of princely Indian states to one country or the other before the set dates of independence for India and Pakistan leading to the genesis of the current Kashmir conundrum to be addressed later. These princely rulers were not under the direct colonial rule and had their own legal arrangements with the British Crown.

The split of the country is directly linked to the British strategy of divide and rule which became their diehard policy ever since the violent and widespread revolt of 1857 when Indian soldiers both Hindu and Muslims had mutinied in unity and almost overthrown the British colonists. Thereafter, the colonies had come under the direct rule of the British Crown. (Earlier the colonies belonged the East India Company that had initially come to India to trade for spices, cotton, and other indigenous goods in the 1600s.) The 1857 revolt is also referred to the First war of Independence as it had the first stirring of Indian nationalism. The British government shaken to the core by this strength in communal unity, followed consistently and actively its infamous policy of divide and rule at every echelon of government and society. The result- was that the Muslims under the leadership of Mohammed Ali Jinnah of the Muslim League were demanding a separate state i.e. Pakistan. The demand for an Islamic state after independence led to the partition of India with horrific consequences.

Before British rule, the Muslim rulers especially the last ruling dynasty, the Mughuls, had made India their home in the truest sense. Consequently there was fusion of Muslim and local art, architecture and daily life customs leading to the creation of some of the finest works of art and architecture like the Taj Mahal in Agra, still held in awe by the world. For centuries both the religions were followed by indigenous people who shared the same languages, socio-cultural mores, and history. Due to the British calculated policies of separatism, the Muslims and Hindus, who had lived relatively peacefully for generations with occasional clashes that were generally localized and small-scale, now started harboring mutual suspicion and hatred which led later to major organized violence.

British imperialism was a different story. India's wealth was drained for centuries and racism was acutely felt by the "natives". Case in point - My father, a very erudite man, who almost killed himself literally studying around the clock to make it through the rigorous Indian Civil Service examination so as to join the exclusive ranks of the bureaucracy did not last long under the nakedly discriminatory British administration. He was too proud, too independent and too brilliant to put up with the injustices. But that is a story for another time.

The partition of India resulted in one the largest and bloodiest migration of its kind in the world when according to most estimates between 10 and 12 million minorities crossed the boundaries between India and Pakistan. This period was marked by unbelievable communal violence and bloodshed characterized by riots, loot, arson, murder, rape and abduction with unimaginable atrocities committed against women, children and the elderly. The most common and potent form of violence was massacres by mobs on both sides of the border, inflamed by communal passions who butchered defenseless families in trains, village and refugees who were trying to flee from one side of Punjab to the other. This violence resulted in the brutal killing of some 2 million Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus. It would be no exaggeration that the country is still healing from the wounds from these devastating events...

Post-partition, Pakistan's border with India has caused innumerable border clashes leading to heightened mutual antagonism and hostilities which have assumed global dimensions and grave international concerns because both the countries have nuclear capabilities since 1998. Three Indo-Pak wars have already been fought in 1948, 1965, and 1971, as well as the Kargil conflict of 1999. As a child, I experienced the two wars of 1965 and 1971 and will write about those terrifying experiences later.