The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 which accompanied the creation of two independent territories, India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is now the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan today is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Partition involves the division of three provinces, Assam, Bengal, and Punjab, based on Hindu or Muslim majority districts. The demarcation boundary of India and Pakistan is known as Radcliffe Line. It also involves the division of the British Indian Army, Royal Indian Navy, Indian Civil Service, railways, and central treasury, between two new territories. The partition was stipulated in the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, as it was called the British government there. Two self-ruled countries in Pakistan and India formally appeared at midnight on 14-15 August 1947.
The partition moved more than 14 million people along religious lines, creating an extraordinary refugee crisis in the newly created territory; there is large-scale violence, with an estimated loss of life that accompanies or precedes the disputed partition and varies between several hundred thousand and two million. The violent nature of the partition creates an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that disrupts their relationship to this day.
The term the Indian partition did not include the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, as well as the separation of Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the British Indian administration. The term also does not include the political integration of prince countries into two new territories, or disputes of annexation or divisions arising in the prince states of Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Jammu and Kashmir, although violence along religious lines broke out in some countries. the prince declared at the time of the partition. This did not include the incorporation of the pockets of French India into India during the period 1947-1954, or the annexation of Goa and other districts of Portuguese India by India in 1961. Other contemporary political entities in the region in 1947, Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, and Maldives are not affected by the partition.
Video Partition of India
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Partisi Bengal (1905)
In 1905, the viceroy, Lord Curzon, during his second term, divided the largest administrative division in British India, the Benghands Presidency, into the majority Muslim provinces of East Bengal and Assam and the majority of the Hindu kingdoms. i> of Bengal (current Indian states in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha). The Curzon Act, the Separation of Bengals - which some people are considered to be extremely precise administrative, and, have been contemplated by various colonial administration since the time of Lord William Bentinck, but never followed up - was to change nationalist politics as something else before. The Bengal Hindu elite, among them many who owned land in East Bengal rented out to Muslim farmers, protested vigorously. The large Bengali Hindu middle class (who ) , disappointed in the prospects of the defeated Bengali in the new Bengal province by Biharis and Oriyas, feeling that Curzon's action was a punishment for their political affirmation. The protests impinging on Curzon's decision take the form primarily from the Swadeshi campaign to buy the British goods boycott. Sporadically - but conspicuous - protesters also commit political violence involving attacks on civilians. But the violence is ineffective, since most of the planned attacks have been committed by the British or failed. The appeal for both types of protests was the slogan Bande Mataram (Bengali, lit: "Hail to the Mother"), the title song by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, who called a goddess mother, who stood up various ways to Bengal, India, and the Hindu Goddess of the River. Riots spread from Calcutta to the areas around Bengal when English-educated Calcutta students returned to their villages and towns. Religious movements of the slogan and political upheaval of the partition were coupled when youths, in groups like Jugantar, took to bomb public buildings, launched armed robbery, and killed British officials. Since Calcutta is the capital of the empire, both anger and slogans are soon becoming known nationally.
The widespread protests, but mostly Hindus, against Bengal separation and fear, behind him, reforms that support the Hindu majority, now led the Muslim elite in India, in 1906, to meet the new young king, Lord Minto, and to request separate voters for Muslims. In relation, they demanded a proportional legislative representation reflecting their status as ex-rulers and their records cooperating with the British. This led, in December 1906, to the establishment of the All India Muslim League in Dacca. Although Curzon, now, has resigned from his position due to a dispute with his military leader Lord Kitchener and back to England, the League supports his distribution plan. The position of the Muslim elite, reflected in the League's position, has been crystallized gradually over the previous three decades, beginning with the 1871 British Indian Census, which first predicted populations in Muslim-majority areas. (For its part, Curzon's desire to defend Muslims in East Bengal has emerged from British unrest since the 1871 census, the first comprehensive census there - and in light of the history of Muslims who fought them in the 1857 and Anglo Second Rebellion - the Tibetan War - of Indian Muslims who rebelled against the Crown.) In the three decades since the census, Muslim leaders in northern India, have experienced public hostility from some new Hindu political and social groups. The Arya Samaj, for example, not only supported the Cow Protection Society in their agitation, but also - confused at the 1871 census Muslim figures - organized the "reversal" of events for the purpose of welcoming Muslims back to the Hindu seafarers. In the United States, Muslims became anxious when, by the end of the nineteenth century, political representation increased, giving more power to Hindus, and Hindus were politically mobilized in the Hindi-Urdu controversy and anti-cattle riots of 1893. In 1905, when Tilak and Lajpat Rai tried to rise to leadership positions in Congress, and the Congress itself united around the symbolism of Kali, Muslim concerns increased. It is not lost on many Muslims, for example, that the call, "Bande Mataram", first appeared in the Anand Math novel where Hindus have fought their Muslim oppressors. Finally, the Muslim elite, and among them Dacca Nawab, Khwaja Salimullah, who hosted the League's first meeting in his big house in Shahbag, realized that a new province with a Muslim majority would directly benefit Muslims who aspire to political power.
World War I, Lucknow Pact: 1914-1918
World War I will prove to be a turning point in imperial relations between Britain and India. 1.4 million Indian and British troops from the British Indian Army will take part in the war and their participation will have a wider cultural impact: news of Indian soldiers fighting and dying with British troops, as well as troops from areas such as Canada and Australia, will travel to far-flung corners of the world in both print and new media from radio. Therefore, the international profile of India will increase and will continue to increase during the 1920s. It was to lead, inter alia, to India, under its own name, becoming founding member of the League of Nations in 1920 and participating, under the name, "Les Indes Anglaises" (British India), at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. Back in India, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress, it will cause calls for greater self-government for the Indians.
The Lucknow 1916 Congress of Congress is also the site of a joint effort that can not be anticipated by Congress and the Muslim League, an opportunity provided by wartime partnerships between Germany and Turkey. Since the Sultan of Turkey, or the Caliph, have also sporadically claimed the guardianship of the Islamic holy places of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and since Britain and their allies are now in conflict with Turkey, doubts began to emerge. rising among some Indian Muslims about the "religious neutrality" of Britain, a doubt that has arisen as a result of the reincarnation of Bengal in 1911, a decision which is considered unfavorable to Muslims. In the Lucknow Pact, the League joins Congress in proposals for a larger self-rule campaigned by Tilak and his supporters; In return, Congress received separate voters for Muslims in the provincial legislature as well as the Imperial Legislative Council. In 1916, the Muslim League had between 500 and 800 members and did not yet have a wider audience among Indian Muslims in subsequent years; in the League itself, the treaty has no unanimous support, since most have been negotiated by a group of Muslim "Young Parties" from the United States (UP), most notably, the two brothers Mohammad and Shaukat Ali, who have embraced Pan-Islamic Reason; However, it did get the support of a young lawyer from Bombay, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who later rose to a leadership role both in the League and the Indian independence movement. In later years, as the full consequences of the pact unfold, it is seen as benefiting the Muslim minority of provinces like UP and Bihar over the Muslim majority in Punjab and Bengal; Nevertheless, at that time, the "Lucknow Pact", was an important milestone in nationalistic agitation and seen by the British.
Montagu-Chelmsford Reform: 1919
State Secretary for India, Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford presented the report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding journey through India last winter. After more discussions by the government and parliament in Britain, and other tours by the Franchise and Functions Committee for the purpose of identifying which of the Indian population can vote in the upcoming elections, the Government of India Act of 1919 (also known as Montagu- Reform Chelmsford) in December 1919. The new law magnified both the provincial and Imperial legislative councils and lifted the Indian government's road to "the official majority" in an unfavorable vote. Although departments such as defense, foreign affairs, criminal law, communications and income tax are supported by Viceroy and the central government in New Delhi, other departments such as public health, education, land income, local self-government are transferred to the province. The provinces themselves must now be managed under a new dyarchical system, where some areas such as education, agriculture, infrastructure development and local self-government are preserving Indian ministers and legislatures, and finally Indian voters, while others such as irrigation, land, police, prison and media control remained within the scope of the British governor and its executive board. The new law also makes it easier for Indians to be accepted as civil servants and army officer corps.
A large number of Indians are now eligible, though, for national voting, they constitute only 10% of the total adult male population, many of whom are still illiterate. In the provincial legislature, Britain continues to exercise control by setting aside chairs for special interests that they deem cooperative or useful. In particular, rural candidates, who are generally sympathetic to British administration and less confrontational, are assigned more seats than their urban counterparts. Seats are also reserved for non-Brahmins, landowners, businessmen, and college graduates. The principle of "communal representation", an integral part of the Minto-Morley Reform, and more recently from the Lucknow-League Muslim League, is reaffirmed, with seats reserved for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and domiciled in Europe , in the provincial and Imperial legislative councils. The Montagu-Chelmsford Reform gave India the most significant opportunity to train legislative powers, especially at the provincial level; However, the opportunity was also limited by the limited number of voters, by the small budget available to the provincial legislature, and by the presence of special rural and special seats seen as British control instruments.
Two theories of the nation
Two nations are the ideology that the main identity and unification of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent is their religion, not their language or ethnicity, and therefore Indian Hindus and Muslims are two different countries, regardless of ethnicity or other similarities. The two-nation theory is the founding principle of the Pakistan Movement (ie the ideology of Pakistan as a Muslim nation-state in South Asia), and the separation of India in 1947.
The ideology that religion is the decisive factor in defining the citizenship of Indian Muslims is done by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who calls it the rise of Muslims for the creation of Pakistan. It is also a source of inspiration for some Hindu nationalist organizations, for various reasons such as the redefinition of Indian Muslims as non-Indian foreigners and second-class citizens in India, the expulsion of all Muslims from India, the establishment of a Hindu state by law. in India, a ban on conversion to Islam, and the promotion of conversion or conversion from Muslim India to Hinduism.
Hindu leader Mahasabha Lala Lajpat Rai is one of the first people who demanded to divide Indian branches by Muslims and Non-Muslims. He wrote at The Tribune December 14, 1924:
According to my scheme, Muslims will have four Muslim Countries: (1) Pathan Province or North-West Frontier; (2) West Punjab (3) Sindh and (4) East Bengal. If there is a compact Muslim community in another part of India, large enough to form a province, they must also be formed. But it must be clearly understood that this is not a united India. This means a clear separation from India to Indian Muslims and non-Muslim Indians.
There are various interpretations of the two-nation theory, based on whether these two postulated groups can coexist in one area or not, with very different implications. One interpretation argues for sovereign autonomy, including the right to secession, for Muslim-majority areas in the Indian subcontinent, but without population transfer (ie Hindus and Muslims will continue to live together). A different interpretation states that Hindus and Muslims are "two different and often antagonistic ways of life, and therefore they can not co-exist in one country." In this version, population transfers (ie the total abolition of Hinduism from Muslim-majority areas and the total abolition of Muslims from predominantly Hindu areas) is a desirable step towards the complete separation of two incompatible states that "can not coexist in harmonious relations".
The opposition to theory comes from two sources. The first is the concept of an Indian nation, of which Hindus and Muslims are two interconnected communities. This is a basic principle of a modern and officially secular Indian Republic. Even after the formation of Pakistan, the debate over whether Muslims and Hindus are different nationalities or does not continue in that country as well. The second source of opposition is the notion that while Indians are not a single nation, neither are Muslims or Hindus on the continent, and rather are relatively homogeneous units of continental provinces that are true nations and deserve sovereignty; This view has been conveyed by the sub-nationalities of Baloch, Sindhi, and Pashtun in Pakistan and the sub-nationalities of Assam and Punjabi in India.
Muslim homeland, elections province, World War II, Lahore Resolution: 1930-1945
Although Choudhry Rahmat Ali in 1933 produced pamphlets, Now or Never , where the terms "Pakistan", "pure land", which consists of Punjab, Northwest Frontier Province (Afghanistan), Kashmir, Sindh, and Balochistan, created for the first time, the pamphlet did not attract political attention. Not long after, a Muslim delegation to the Parliamentary Committee on the Reform of the Constitution of India paid little attention to the idea of ​​Pakistan, calling it "unreasonable and impractical". In 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald accepted Ambedkar's request for "Pressured Class" to have separate representation in the central and provincial legislatures. The Muslim League prefers the award for potentially undermining the leadership of the Hindu caste. But Mahatma Gandhi, seen as a leading advocate for Dalit rights, went quickly to death to persuade the British to cancel the nomination. Ambedkar had to retreat when it seemed that Gandhi's life was threatened.
Two years later, the Indian Government Act of 1935 introduced provincial autonomy, increasing the number of voters in India to 35 million. More importantly, the issue of law and order is for the first time transferred from the British authorities to the provincial government led by the Indians. This raises Muslim worries about Hindu domination in the end. In the election of the Indian province of 1937, the Muslim League performed its best in the Muslim minority provinces of the United States, where it won 29 of the 64 protected Muslim seats. However, in Muslim-majority areas of Punjab and Bengal regional parties outperformed the League. In Punjab, Unionist Part of Sikandar Hayat Khan, won elections and formed a government, with support from the Indian National Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal, which lasted for five years. In Bengal, the League must share power in a coalition led by A. K. Fazlul Huq, leader of the Krishak Praja Party.
Congress, on the other hand, with 716 victories in a total of 1585 provincial assembly chairs, was able to form a government in 7 of India's 11 provinces of Britain. In his manifesto, Congress declared that religious issues were less important to the masses than to economic and social issues, however, the election revealed that Congress only contested 58 out of a total of 482 Muslim seats, and among them, only won. 26. At the UP, where Congress wins, he offers to share power with the League on condition that the League ceases to serve as the only Muslim representative, which is rejected by the League. This proved to be a mistake for alienating Congress further from the Muslim masses. In addition, the new UP provincial government announced the protection of cows and the use of Hindi. The Muslim elites in the UP are increasingly alienated, when they see the chaotic scenes of Raj's new Congress, where rural people who sometimes appear in large numbers in government buildings, can not be distinguished from administrators and law enforcement personnel.
The Muslim League conducts its own investigation into Muslim conditions under the provinces governed by Congress. The findings of such an inquiry raised the fear amongst the future Muslim masses of Hindu dominance. The view that Muslims will be treated unjustly in independent India dominated by Congress is now part of Muslim public discourse. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the young king, Lord Linlithgow, declared war on behalf of India without consulting Indian leaders, leading the provincial congressional ministry to resign in protest. The Muslim League, which functions under state protection, on the contrary, organizes "Liberation Day", celebrations (from congressional domination) and supports Britain in the war effort. When Linlithgow, meeting with nationalist leaders, he gave Jinnah the same status as he did to Gandhi, and a month later described the Congress as a "Hindu organization."
In March 1940, in the three-day annual League session in Lahore, Jinnah gave a two-hour speech in English, in which the argument of the two states states, states, in the words of the historian Talbot and Singh, that "Muslims and Hindus. is an irreconcilable monolithic religious community and as such there is no compulsory solution that does not satisfy the aspirations of the former. " On the last day of the session, the League passed, what came to be known as Lahore Resolution, sometimes also the "Pakistani Resolution", demanded that "areas where Muslims are numerically predominantly in the North-West and East of the Indian zones should grouped into independent states where constituent units must be autonomous and sovereign. "Despite being established more than three decades earlier, the League will garner support among South Asian Muslims only during the Second World War.
Viceroy Linlithgow proposed in August 1940 that India was given the status of Power at the end of the war. Having not taken Pakistani ideas seriously, Linlithgow suspects that what Jinnah really wants is a non-federal arrangement without Hindu dominance. To allay Muslim fears of Hindu dominance, the 'August offer' is accompanied by a promise that the future constitution will take a minority view into consideration. Neither Congress nor the Muslim League are satisfied with the offer and both refuse it in September. Congress once again embarked on a civil disobedience program.
In March 1942, with Japan moving rapidly on the Malay Peninsula after the Fall of Singapore, and with America supporting independence for India, Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, sent Sir Stafford Cripps, the leader of the House of Commons, with an offer of domination status to India at the end of the war in exchange for Congressional support for the war effort. Not wanting to lose the support of their allies - the Muslim League, Unionis Punjab, and the Prince - Cripps's offer includes a clause stating that no part of the British Indian Empire would be forced to join the postwar Dominion. The League rejected the Cripps offer, seeing this clause as insufficient in compliance with Pakistan's principles. As a result of the proviso, the proposal was also rejected by Congress, which since its establishment as a polite lawyer group in 1885, sees itself as the representative of all Indians of all religions. After the arrival of Gandhi in 1920, the leading strategist of Indian nationalism, the Congress has turned into a mass nationalist movement of millions of people. In August 1942, Congress launched India's Quit Resolution calling for drastic constitutional reforms, regarded by Britain as the most serious threat to their rule since the Indian uprising of 1857. With their resources and concerns spreading thin by the global war, the nervous English immediately imprisoned Congressional leaders and detained them in prison until August 1945, while the Muslim League is now free for the next three years to spread its message. As a result, the ranking of the Muslim League jumped during the war, with Jinnah himself admitting, "The war that no one greeted proved to be a blessing in disguise." Despite other important national Muslim politicians such as Congress leader Abul Kalam Azad, and influential regional Muslim politicians such as AK Fazlul Huq from the left-leaning Krishak Praja Party in Bengal, Sikander Hyat Khan from the landlord dominated Unionist Party and Abd al-Ghaffar Khan from the Khudai Khidmatgar (popular, "red shirts") pro-Congress in the North West Frontier Province, the British increasingly see the League as the main representative of Indian Muslims. Muslim League Requests for Pakistan pitted against Britain and Congress.
1946 Election, Cabinet Mission, Live Action Day, Partition Plan, Independence: 1946-1947
Labor Prime Minister Clement Attlee was very interested in Indian independence since the 1920s, and for many years has supported independence. He now takes over the position of government and gives priority to the highest problems. In January 1946, a number of rebellions broke out in military service, starting with the frustrated RAF troops with their slow repatriation to Britain. The uprising peaked with the Royal Indian Navy's rebellion in Bombay in February 1946, followed by others in Calcutta, Madras and Karachi. Although the insurgency was quickly suppressed, they had the effect of spurring the Attlee government to action. The Cabinet mission was sent to India led by the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick Lawrence, who also included Sir Stafford Cripps, who had visited India four years earlier. The purpose of the mission is to organize regular transfers to independence.
In early 1946, a new election was held in India. With the announcement of the election, the line has been drawn for Muslim voters to choose between a unified Indian state or Partition. Earlier, at the end of the 1945 war, the colonial government had announced a general hearing against three senior Indian National Army officers of Subhas Chandra Bose who were defeated accused of treason. Now when the trial begins, the congressional leadership, while never supporting INA, chose to defend the defendants. Subsequent beliefs from officers, public condemnation of convictions, and pardon ultimately created positive propaganda for Congress, enabling it to win the next party electoral victory in eight of eleven provinces. Negotiations between Congress and the Muslim League, however, tripped the partition problem.
The British power has lost legitimacy for most Hindus and this conclusive proof came in the form of the 1946 election with Congress winning 91 percent of the vote among the non-Muslim constituents, thereby gaining a majority in the Central Legislature and forming a government in eight countries. province, and became a legitimate successor to the British government for most Hindus. If Britain intends to live in India, India's politically active agreement to the British government will be in doubt after this election result, although the views of many rural Indians are uncertain even at that time. The Muslim League won the majority of Muslim voices and the most protected Muslim seat in the provincial assembly and also secured all Muslim seats in the Central Assembly. Having recovered from its performance in the 1937 election, the Muslim League was finally able to make a good claim that it and Jinnah himself represented Indian Muslims and Jinnah quickly interpreted this voice as a popular demand for a separate homeland; he proclaimed:
Muslims and Hindus have two different philosophies of religion, social custom, and literature. They do not intermarry or interdine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations.
However, tensions escalated while the Muslim League could not establish ministries outside the two Sind and Bengal provinces, with Congress forming a ministry in the NFWP and Punjab's main provinces under the Coalition of Congress, Sikh and Unionist coalitions.
Britain, despite disagreeing with a separate Muslim homeland, appreciated the simplicity of one voice to speak on behalf of Indian Muslims. Britain wants India and its forces to remain united for the purpose of keeping India in the 'imperial defense' system. With two Indian political parties unable to reach an agreement, the British devised a Cabinet Mission Plan. Through this mission, Britain hopes to preserve the unified India that they and Congress want, while simultaneously securing the essence of Jinnah's demand for Pakistan through 'grouping'. The Cabinet's mission scheme encloses a federal arrangement consisting of three provincial groups. Two of these groupings will be composed of predominantly Muslim provinces, while the third grouping will consist of predominantly Hindu domains. Provinces will be autonomous but the center will retain control over defense, foreign affairs and communications. Although the proposal does not offer an independent Pakistan, the Muslim League accepted the proposal. Although the unity of India will be maintained, Congressional leaders, especially Nehru, believe it will make the Center weak. On July 10, 1946 Nehru gave a "provocative speech", rejected the idea of ​​grouping the provinces and "effectively torpedo" both the Cabinet mission plan and the prospect of United India.
After the Cabinet Mission broke up, Jinnah proclaimed August 16, 1946, the Day of Direct Action, with the stated goal of peacefully highlighting the demand for Muslim homeland in British India. However, on the morning of the 16th, armed Muslim bands gathered at the Ochterlony Monument in Calcutta to hear Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Head of the League of Bengali League, who, in the words of historian Yasmin Khan, "if he does not explicitly incite violence certainly gives the impression to that the police and military would not be summoned and that the ministries would turn a blind eye to whatever action they were releasing in the city. "That night, in Calcutta, Hindus were attacked by Muslim celebrities who again, carrying previously distributed flyers demonstrating a clear link between violence and demand for Pakistan, and directly involving the celebration of the Day of Direct Action with the outbreak of the violent cycle. which would later be called "The Great Calcutta Murder of August 1946". The next day, Hindus retaliated and violence continued for three days in which around 4,000 people were killed (according to official accounts), Hindus and Muslims in the same amount. Although India has experienced the outbreak of religious violence between Hindus and Muslims before, Calcutta's murder was the first to feature the element of "ethnic cleansing", in modern language. Violence is not limited to public space, but houses are entered and destroyed and women and children are attacked. Although the Government of India and Congress are both shaken by the course of events, in September, the temporary presidency led by Congress was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as Indian prime minister united.
Communal violence spread to Bihar (where Muslims were attacked by Hindus), to Noakhali in Bengal (where Hindus became Muslim targets), to Garhmukteshwar in the United States (where Muslims were attacked by Hindus), and continued to Rawalpindi on March 1947 where Hindus were attacked or expelled by Muslims.
British Prime Minister Attlee appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy, who was given the task of overseeing Indian independence in June 1948, with instructions to avoid partition and preserve a United India, but with adaptation authority to ensure UK withdrawal with minimal setbacks. Mountbatten hopes to revive the Cabinet Mission scheme for a federal arrangement for India. But despite his initial eagerness to preserve the center of the communal tense situation led him to conclude that partition becomes crucial for faster transfer of power.
Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the first congress leaders to accept India's separation as a solution to the Muslim separatist movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He has been angered by the Direct Action campaign of Jinnah, which has provoked communal violence throughout India and by the veto of the cleric from his home department's plan to stop violence on the basis of constitutionality. Patel strongly criticized the appointment of the English League kings into government, and the revalidation of the British grouping scheme without the approval of Congress. Although increasingly angry at the League's boycott of the worship service and the non-acceptance of the May 16 plan despite entering the government, he also realizes that Jinnah enjoys popular support among Muslims, and that open conflict between him and the nationalists can degenerate into a Hindu-Muslim civil war with consequences disaster. The continuation of a divided and weak central government will be in Patel's mind, resulting in wider fragmentation in India by encouraging more than 600 prince countries to independence. Between December 1946 and January 1947, Patel worked with state servant V. P. Menon on the final suggestion for a separate region of Pakistan formed from predominantly Muslim provinces. Communal violence in Bengal and Punjab in January and March 1947 convinced Patel about partition health. Patel, a fierce critic at Jinnah's request that the Hindu-majority areas of Punjab and Bengal were incorporated into a Muslim state, acquired a partition of the provinces, thus blocking their possible entry into Pakistan. Patel's firmness on the Punjab and Bengal partitions has earned him many supporters and admirers among the Indian community, who have been tired of League tactics, but he has been criticized by Gandhi, Nehru, secular and socialist Muslims for their strong desire to do so. When Lord Louis Mountbatten formally proposed the plan on June 3, 1947, Patel gave his consent and lobbied Nehru and other congressional leaders to accept the proposal. Knowing Gandhi's deep anxiety about the division proposal, Patel involved him in open discussions at private meetings about the perceived practical discomforts of any League-Congress coalition, increasing violence and the threat of civil war. At a meeting of the All India Congress Committee called to select a proposal, Patel said:
I fully appreciate the fear of our brothers from [Muslim-majority areas]. No one likes the division of India and my heart is heavy. But the choice is between one division and multiple divisions. We have to face facts. We can not give in to emotion and sentimentality. The Working Committee is not acting out of fear. But I am afraid of one thing, that all of our hard work and hard work over the years may have been useless or proven fruitless. My nine months in the office has really let me down on the benefits of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Except for some respectable exemptions, Muslim officials from top to bottom to chaprasis (warrior or servant) work for the League. The communal veto given to the League in the Mission Plan will hinder India's progress at every stage. Whether we like it or not, de facto Pakistan is already in Punjab and Bengal. In that situation I prefer de jure Pakistan, which can make the League more responsible. Freedom is coming. We have 75 to 80 percent of India, which we can make strong with our own genius. League can develop the rest of the country.
Following Gandhi's rejection but congressional approval of the plan, Patel represents India on the Partition Board, where he oversaw the distribution of public assets, and elects the Indian ministerial council with Nehru. However, neither he nor any other Indian leader expects intense violence and population movements to occur with partitions.
By the end of 1946, the British Labor government, whose treasurer had been exhausted by the end of World War II, decided to end British rule in India, and in early 1947 England announced its intention to transfer power by June 1948. However, unprepared for the potential for escalating violence, the new young king, 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, nationalist leaders, including Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of Congress, Jinnah represented the Muslim League, BR Ambedkar representing an untouchable community, and Teacher Tara Singh representing Sikhs, agreeing on the division of the country throughout religion. The lines are very much at odds with Gandhi's. Areas dominated by Hindus and Sikhs are assigned to the new Indian territory and the Muslim majority to the new state of Pakistan; his plans include partitions from predominantly Muslim provinces in Punjab and Bengal. The communal violence that accompanies the announcement Radcliffe Line, the partition line, even more terrible.
Describing the violence that accompanied the Indian Separation, historian Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh wrote:
There are many eyewitnesses on the disability and mutilation of victims. The catalog of horrors includes a pregnant woman's stomach, slamming the baby's head 'against a brick wall, cutting off the victim's legs and genitals and displaying heads and corpses. While previous communal riots had been deadly, the scale and extent of brutality during the Partition massacre was unprecedented. Although some scholars question the use of the term 'genocide' in connection with the slaughter of Partitions, much violence is manifested by genocide tendencies. It is designed to clean up existing generations and prevent future reproduction. "
On August 14, 1947, the newly formed Dominion of Pakistan, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah inaugurated as the first Governor-General in Karachi. The next day, August 15, 1947, India, now smaller Union of India, became an independent state with an official ceremony taking place in New Delhi, and with Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the prime minister's office, and viceroy, Louis Mountbatten , remains the first Governor-General; However, Gandhi remains in Bengal, preferring to work with new refugees from a divided continent.
Maps Partition of India
Geographic, 1947
Mountbatten Plan
The actual division of British India between the two new territories is done according to what came to be known as the June 3 Plan or Mountbatten Plan . This was announced at a press conference by Mountbatten on 3 June 1947, when the date of independence was also announced - August 15, 1947. The main points of the plan were:
- Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in the Punjab and Bengal legislative assemblies will meet and vote for the partition. If a simple majority of both groups want a partition, then these provinces will be divided.
- Sind and Baluchistan make their own decisions.
- The fate of North West Frontier Province and Sylhet Assam district will be decided by a referendum.
- India will be independent on August 15, 1947.
- Independent apart from Bengal is removed.
- The limit command must be set up if the partition.
Indian political leaders accept the Plan on June 2. It did not deal with the questions of the princely nations, but on 3 June Mountbatten advised them to remain independent and urged them to join one of the two new territories.
The demands of the Muslim League for a separate state are recognized. Congressional positions on unity are also taken into account when making Pakistan as small as possible. The Mountbatten formula is to divide India and at the same time maintain the maximum possible unity.
Abul Kalam Azad expressed his concern over the possibility of a riot, in which Mountbatten replied:
At least on this question I will give you full confidence. I will make sure that there is no bloodshed and riots. I am a soldier and not a civilian. After the partition is accepted in principle, I will issue an order to see that there are no communal disturbances anywhere in the country. If there has to be the slightest agitation, I will adopt the harshest steps to solve the problem from the beginning.
Jagmohan has stated that this and what happened next shows the failure of "twisting" the government machine ".
On June 3, 1947, the distribution plan was received by the Congressional Working Committee. Boloji states that in Punjab there is no riot but there is communal tension, while Gandhi is reportedly isolated by Nehru and Patel and observes the maun vrat (quiet day). Mountbatten visited Gandhi and said he hoped he would not oppose the partition, which Gandhi wrote the answer: "Have I ever been against you?"
In British India, the border between India and Pakistan (Radcliffe Line) is determined by a report made by the British Government prepared under the leadership of a London lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe. Pakistan is formed with two adjacent regions, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, which is geographically separated by India. India is made up of a Hindu-majority region in British India, and Pakistan from the majority Muslim region.
On July 18, 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act completing the arrangements for the partition and abandoning British rule over the princely nations, of which there were several hundred, so they were free to vote on whether to approve any new territory. The Government of India Act of 1935 is adapted to provide a legal framework for new countries.
After its formation as a new state in August 1947, Pakistan applied for membership of the United Nations and was accepted by the General Assembly on 30 September 1947. The Dominion of India continues to have an existing seat because India has been a founding member of the United Nations since 1945.
Radcliffe Line
Punjab - the five rivers in the eastern Indus: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej - composed of interfilvial doabs , or tracts of land located between two interconnecting rivers. This is Sind-Sagar doab (between Indus and Jhelum), Jech doab (Jhelum/Chenab), doab Rechna (Chenab/Ravi), Bari doab (Ravi/Beas), and Bist doab (Beas/Sutlej) (see map on right). As early as 1947, in the months leading up to the Punjab Border Committee deliberations, the main disputed areas appeared in Bari and Bist, although some areas in Rechna were doab claimed by Congress and Sikhs. In Bari doab, the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, and Montgomery are all disputed. All districts (other than Amritsar, which is 46.5% Muslim) have a Muslim majority; though, in Gurdaspur, the majority of Muslims, at 51.1%, are slender. On a smaller, smaller scale, only three tehsils (district sub-units) are in Bari that have a non-Muslim majority. These are: Pathankot (in the extreme north of Gurdaspur, which is not in disagreement), and Amritsar and Tarn Taran in the Amritsar district. In addition, there are four Muslim-majority tabloids east of Beas-Sutlej (with two Muslim venues more than Hindus and Sikhs).
Before the Boundary Commission began formal hearings, the government was formed for the East and West Punjab. Their territory is temporarily divided by a "notional division" based on a simple majority district. Both in Punjab and Bengal, the Border Commission consists of two Muslim judges and two non-Muslims with Sir Cyril Radcliffe as chairman. The mission of the Punjab commission in general is as follows: "To limit the boundaries of the two parts of the Punjab, on the basis of ensuring the adjacent Muslim and non-Muslim majority areas, thus considering other factors." Every party (Muslim and Congress/Sikh ) submits his claim through a lawyer without the freedom to bargain. The judges also have no mandate to compromise and on all their big problems "divide two and two, leaving Sir Cyril Radcliffe a deviant task to make the actual decision."
Independence, population transfer, and violence
Massive population exchange occurred between two newly formed countries in the months immediately following Partition. "The indivisible population of India in 1947 was about 390 million.After the separation, there were 330 million people in India, 30 million in West Pakistan, and 30 million in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)." Once the line was established, some 14.5 million people crossed the border into what they expected to be the relative security of the majority of religions. The 1951 census Pakistan identified the number of displaced people in Pakistan at 7,226,600, possibly all Muslims who have entered Pakistan from India. Similarly, the 1951 Census in India mentions 7,295,870 displaced people, it seems that all Hindus and Sikhs have moved to India from Pakistan soon after Partition. Both numbers add up to 14.5 million. Since both censuses were held about 3.6 years after Partition, enumeration including the net population increased after mass migration.
About 11.2 million (77.4% of the displaced persons) are in the west, accounting for Punjab for the most part: 6.5 million Muslims moved from India to West Pakistan, and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from West Pakistan to India; thus the net migration in the west from India to West Pakistan (now Pakistan) is 1.8 million.
The remaining 3.3 million (22.6% of the displaced) are in the east: 2.6 million moved from East Pakistan to India and 0.7 million moved from India to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh); So the net migration in the east is 1.9 million to India.
There is no conception that population transfer will be required due to partitioning. Religious minorities are expected to remain in the countries where they live. However, exceptions were made for Punjab where population transfers were regulated due to communal violence affecting the province. This does not apply to other provinces.
Punjab
The separation of British India separates the former Punjab province of England between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. Most of the Muslim western region of the province is a province of Punjab Pakistan; the eastern part of which most of the Sikhs and Hindus became the eastern Indian state of Punjab (later divided into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh). Many Hindus and Sikhs live in the west, and many Muslims live in the east, and the fears of all these minorities are so great that Partition sees many displaced and many inter-communal violence. Some describe violence in Punjab as retributive genocide.
The newly formed government is completely unprepared to handle enormous migrations, and massive violence and massacres occur on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths vary, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 2,000,000. Almost no Muslims survive in East Punjab (except in Malerkotla) and almost no Hindu or Sikh survivors in West Punjab.
Lawrence James observes that 'Sir Francis Mudie, the governor of West Punjab, estimates that 500,000 Muslims died while trying to enter his province, while the British high commissioner in Karachi put the total at 800,000... This made the nonsense of claims by Mountbatten and his partisans only 200,000 killed : [James 1998: 636] ".
According to political scientist Ishtiaq Ahmed, "in March 1947, Muslims began to engage in large-scale violence, especially against Sikhs, but also against Hindus, in the Muslim-majority districts of northern Punjab, but by the end of that year more Muslims who was killed there, East Punjab from Hinduism and Sikhs together in West Punjab. "Nehru wrote to Gandhi on 22 August that up to that time, twice as many Muslims have been killed in East Punjab than Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab.
Bengal
The province of Bengal is divided into two separate entities from West Bengal, given to the Dominion of India, and East Bengal, given to the Dominion of Pakistan. East Bengal changed its name to East Pakistan in 1955, and later became an independent state of Bangladesh after the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh.
While the majority Muslim districts of Murshidabad and Malda were given to India, the majority Hindu district of Khulna and the majority of Buddhists, but rarely populated, Chittagong Hill Tracts was given to Pakistan by the Radcliffe awards.
Thousands of Hindus, located in the East Bengal district granted to Pakistan, found themselves assaulted and the persecution of this religion forced hundreds of thousands of Hindus from East Bengal to seek refuge in India. The entry of Hindu refugees to Calcutta influenced the demographics of the city. Many Muslims leave the city for East Pakistan and some of their homes and property are occupied by families of refugees.
Sindh
Most of the prosperous middle class Sindh at the time of Partition is Hindu. At the time of Partition there are 1.4 million Hindus of Sindhis, although most are concentrated in cities such as Hyderabad, Karachi, Shikarpur, and Sukkur. Hundreds of Hindus living in Sindh were forced to migrate. Some anti-Hindu violence in Sindh was precipitated by the arrival of Muslim refugees from India with minimal Muslim support for rioters. The Sindhi Hindus face a low-scale riot unlike the Punjabi and Sikh Hindus who have to migrate from the Western Punjab.
On December 6, 1947, communal violence broke out at Ajmer in India, precipitated by a dispute between Hindu Sindhi refugees and local Muslims at Dargah Bazaar. Violence at Ajmer again erupted in mid-December with stabbings, looting and arson that caused the majority of Muslim casualties. Many Muslims flee across the Thar Desert to Sindh in Pakistan. This sparked further anti-Hindu riots in Hyderabad, Sindh. On January 6, anti-Hindu riots broke out in Karachi, causing an estimated 1,100 casualties. 776,000 Sindhi Hindus fled to India. The arrival of Sindhi Hindu refugees in the town of Godhra in northern Gujarat sparked a riot in March 1948 there which caused the emigration of Muslims from Godhra to Pakistan.
Despite the migration, significant Sindhi Hindus still live in Pakistan's Sindh province where they number around 2.28 million according to the 1998 Pakistani census; The Hindu Sindhi people of India make up to 2.57 million per year Indian Census 2001. Some districts bordering on Sindh have Hindu majority such as Tharparkar District, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Badin, but their population declines and they assume themselves as a minority in decline. In fact, only Umerkot still has a majority of Hindus in the district. The Sindhi community does not face large-scale violence, but feels homeland and cultural plunder.
Delhi
For centuries Delhi has been the capital of the Mughal Empire and previous Turkish ruler of Northern Turkey. The series of Islamic rulers who made Delhi their imperial fortress left many Islamic architecture in Delhi and a strong Islamic culture permeated the city. The 1941 census records Delhi's population as 33.22% Muslim.
But thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Punjab enter the city. This created an atmosphere of turmoil when anti-Muslim pogroms rocked the historical fortress of Indo-Islamic culture and politics. The Pakistani diplomat in Delhi, Hussain, alleges that the Indian government intends to eliminate the Muslim population of Delhi or not care about their destiny. He reported that Army troops openly shot dead innocent Muslims. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru estimates 1000 casualties in the city. Yet another source claims that the casualty rate is 20 times higher. The more recent Gyanendra Pandey account of Delhi violence puts the figure of Muslim victims in Delhi as between 20,000-25,000.
Tens of thousands of Muslims are being pushed into refugee camps regardless of their political affiliation and many historic sites in Delhi such as Purana Qila, Idgah and Nizamuddin are converted into refugee camps. At the height of tension in Delhi 330,000 Muslims were forced to flee the city to Pakistan. The 1951 census recorded a drop of the Muslim population in the city from 33.22% in 1941 to 5.33% in 1951.
Alwar and Bharatpur
Alwar and Bharatpur are the two Rajputana princes (modern-day Rajasthan) which is the site of a bloody confrontation between the dominant Hindu Jat community and the Muslim Meos Muslim cultivators and lands from May 1947 onwards. Well-organized Hindu Jats, Ahir and Gujar groups began attacking Muslim Meos in April 1947. In June more than fifty Muslim villages had been destroyed after the attacks by all parties. The Muslim League is angry and demands that the Young King provide Muslim forces. The allegations arose in June about the involvement of Indian State Forces from Alwar and Bharatpur in the destruction of Muslim villages both within their country and in British India.
After an unprecedented attack of violence struck them in 1947, 100,000 Meos Muslims from Alwar and Bharatpur were forced to flee from their homes and an estimated 30,000 Meos were said to have been massacred. On November 17, an 80,000 Meo refugee column went to Pakistan. However, 10,000 stopped traveling because of the risk of trying to reach and settle in Pakistan.
Jammu and Kashmir
In September-November 1947 in the Jammu area of ​​the Jammu and Kashmir kingdom states, a large number of Muslims were massacred and the others were taken away to West Punjab. This drive for violence is partly due to the influx of large numbers of Hindu and Sikh refugees since March 1947, bringing "horrible stories of Muslim cruelty" to Jammu from West Punjab. The killings were committed by Hindu and Sikh extremists, assisted and supported by the power of the Dogra State led by Maharaja Jammu and Kashmir Hari Singh. Analysts say that Hari Singh's aim is to change the demographics of the region by eliminating Muslim populations, to ensure the majority of Hindus in the region.
Refugee resettlement in India: 1947-1957
According to the 1951 Census in India, 2% of Indians are refugees (1.3% of West Pakistan and 0.7% of East Pakistan). Delhi receives the largest number of refugees for one city - Delhi's population grew rapidly in 1947 from less than 1 million (917,939) to less than 2 million (1,744,072) during the period 1941-1951. The refugees are deployed in various historical and military locations such as Purana Qila, Red Fort, and military barracks at Kingsway Camp (around Delhi University now). The latter houses one of the largest refugee camps in northern India with more than 35,000 refugees at any given time other than the Kurukshetra camp near Panipat. The camp site was then converted into a permanent housing through extensive development projects undertaken by the Government of India from 1948 onwards. A number of residential colonies in Delhi emerged around this period such as Lajpat Nagar, Rajinder Nagar, Nizamuddin East, Punjabi Bagh, Rehgar Pura, Jangpura and Kingsway Camp. A number of schemes such as the provision of education, employment opportunities, and easy-to-start business loans are provided to refugees at the whole Indian level.
Many Sikhs and Punjabi Hindus came from the Western Punjab and settled in the Eastern Punjab (which later also included Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) and Delhi. The Hindus who fled East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) settled in East India and Northeast India, many of which ended in neighboring Indian countries such as West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura. Some migrants were sent to the Andaman islands where Bengali today formed the largest linguistic group.
The Sindhi Hindus settled in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. However, some of them settled further in Madhya Pradesh. A new township was established for Hindu Sindhi refugees in Maharashtra. The Governor-General of India, Sir Rajagopalachari, laid the foundations for this municipality and named it Ulhasnagar (ie 'city of joy').
Refugee resettlement in Pakistan: 1947-1957
The 1951 Census of Pakistan noted that the largest number of Muslim refugees come from East Punjab and nearby Rajputana countries (Alwar and Bharatpur). They numbered 5,783,100 and constituted 80.1% of the total population of Pakistani refugees. This is a retributive ethnic cleansing effect on both sides of Punjab where Muslim Punjab East Muslims are forcibly expelled like Hindu/Sikh in West Punjab.
Migrations from other regions of India are as follows: Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa, 700.300 or 9.8%; UP and Delhi 464,200 or 2.4%; Gujarat and Bombay, 160,400 or 2.2%; Bhopal and Hyderabad 95,200 or 1,2%; and Madras and Mysore 18,000 or 0.2%.
As far as their settlement in Pakistan is concerned, 97.4% of the refugees from East Punjab and the surrounding area go to West Punjab; 95.9% of Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa to East Pakistan first; 95.5% of UP and Delhi to West Pakistan, especially Karachi and Sind; 97.2% of Bhopal and Hyderabad to West Pakistan, especially Karachi; and 98.9% of Bombay and Gujarat to West Pakistan, mostly to Karachi; and 98.9% of Madras and Mysore went to West Pakistan, most notably Karachi.
West Punjab received the largest number of refugees (73.1%), mainly from East Punjab and surrounding areas. East Bengal received the second largest number of refugees, 699,100, representing 9.7% of the total Muslim refugee population in Pakistan. 66.69% of refugees in East Bengal came from West Bengal, 14.50% from Bihar and 11.84% from Assam.
Karachi received 8.5% of the total migrant population while Sind received 7.6%. NWFP and Baluchistan receive the lowest number of migrants. The NWFP receives 51,100 migrants (0.7% of the migrant population) while Baluchistan receives 28,000 (0.4% of the migrant population).
The government conducted a refugee census in West Punjab in 1948, indicating where they came from in India.
Data on the number of Muslim refugees in West Punjab from East Punjab and Neighboring Districts
Data on the number of Muslim refugees in West Punjab from the Princely states of East Punjab and Rajputana
Missing person
A study of the amount of population inflows and outflows in the Punjab districts, using data provided by the Census of 1931 and 1951 has led to an estimate of 1.26 million missing Muslims who left western India but did not reach Pakistan. The number of Hindus/Sikhs missing along the western border is estimated at about 0.84 million. This places the total number of people lost, due to Partition-related migration along the Punjab border, to about 2.23 million. Another study of the consequences of partition demography in the Punjab region using the 1931, 1941 and 1951 censuses concluded that between 2.3 and 3.2 million people were missing in Punjab.
Rehabilitation of women
The two sides promised each other that they would try to return the woman who was kidnapped and raped during the riots. The Indian government claims that 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women are abducted, and the Pakistani government claims that 50,000 Muslim women were abducted during the riots. In 1949, there was a government claim that 12,000 women had been found in India and 6,000 in Pakistan. In 1954, there were 20,728 Muslim women found in India and 9,032 Hindu and Sikh women restored from Pakistan. Most Hindu and Sikh women refuse to return to India, fearful that they will never be accepted by their families, fears reflected by Muslim women.
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