In this second edition of the series of posts, I believe it's apt to talk about the main reasons and events that resulted into a partition. Some say, it was Muslim League's and Jinnah's idea, some say Nehru was keen on it as well whereas some sections believe Gandhi should have prevented it or at least should have asked all the Muslims to leave India at that point.
Some people give a reasonable theory that the Two-Nation theory was not what Jinnah was looking for. Rather, the thought of creation of Pakistan struck him quite late. This does sound reasonable as Idea of Two Nation theory didn't became a national issue till 1940s and given that Jinnah had been there with Congress and then Muslim League for a considerable amount of time, he had ample opportunities to push for creation of "Muslim India" or "Pakistan" but he didn't.
This proves one thing that all this while, Jinnah had been exploring and scouting for some possible arrangements with Indian National Congress which he successfully negotiated in Lucknow Pact of 1916.
However, his idea was more of an utopia where there would be a parallel government to care of the issues and protect the interest of the Muslims. He didn't trust his Congress counterparts and doubted that even if he manage to win some grounds for his masses, his community's interest may not be congress's primary focus post independence.
Why did Jinnah, who once was projected as the bridge between Hindus and Muslims and was regarded as the symbol of their unity, started alienating his community from the majority? Jinnah noticed that the fact that most of the incumbents who will occupy the government posts after independence are going to be Hindus. He also noticed that Hindus have embraced & to an extent welcomed the British culture, if not the British rule. He also observed that Hindus have willingly learned English language and are more equipped to run the country. As per Jinnah, this Hindu ruled India would never look after its minority issues and thus he started to realize that if the dream of Hindu-Muslim unity cannot be fulfilled, he should at least work towards unifying Muslims & build a common platform to address their issues.
Let's turn the calendar a few hundred years back and try to visualize an era before the arrival of British in India. India was majorly ruled by Muslims rulers, their wealth & splendor was a topic of discussion in the west as well. However, the power of these Muslim empires lied within the hands of a select few and there were no efforts to uplift the society and educate the masses. However, when British started to dominate, Muslims abhorred not only their rule but also almost everything that they brought with them including their culture, their food and even their language. On the other hand, Hindus at least adopted their language with open arms.This very act prompted Muslims to consider English as the language of servants and they chose to live in their past glory.
The result of these events created a society where most of the government officials who were Indian nationals were Hindus and this proposition didn't seem favorable to Jinnah even if most of his demands were accepted by Congress and thus he was prompted to opt for a Two Nation Theory.
Though, the exact date of the resolution is still questionable but as per available documentation, on 23 March 1940, Lahore resolution was passed.It was the forum which Muslim League chose to issue a formal political agenda to create independent, sovereign Muslim states which later evolved into demand of Pakistan.
There are many extreme theories which are still being discussed, some argue that the entire idea of partition was at fault and resulted into biggest bloodshed of 20th century and one of the largest migration of population in centuries whereas other theories find partition was the best possible solution at that point and it did some amount of damage control.
Whatever, may be one's argument to try to prove one's point right. The truth is, this event has affected the fate of millions of people back then and will continue to affect the future as all the child issues such as "Terrorism", "Communalism", "Extremism" and hatred between two nations are outcome of one single event, that was partition.
In the next post, I will try to talk about the first steps which these babies (back in 1947) took and their own set of problem and methods to tackle those problem.
Some people give a reasonable theory that the Two-Nation theory was not what Jinnah was looking for. Rather, the thought of creation of Pakistan struck him quite late. This does sound reasonable as Idea of Two Nation theory didn't became a national issue till 1940s and given that Jinnah had been there with Congress and then Muslim League for a considerable amount of time, he had ample opportunities to push for creation of "Muslim India" or "Pakistan" but he didn't.
This proves one thing that all this while, Jinnah had been exploring and scouting for some possible arrangements with Indian National Congress which he successfully negotiated in Lucknow Pact of 1916.
However, his idea was more of an utopia where there would be a parallel government to care of the issues and protect the interest of the Muslims. He didn't trust his Congress counterparts and doubted that even if he manage to win some grounds for his masses, his community's interest may not be congress's primary focus post independence.
Why did Jinnah, who once was projected as the bridge between Hindus and Muslims and was regarded as the symbol of their unity, started alienating his community from the majority? Jinnah noticed that the fact that most of the incumbents who will occupy the government posts after independence are going to be Hindus. He also noticed that Hindus have embraced & to an extent welcomed the British culture, if not the British rule. He also observed that Hindus have willingly learned English language and are more equipped to run the country. As per Jinnah, this Hindu ruled India would never look after its minority issues and thus he started to realize that if the dream of Hindu-Muslim unity cannot be fulfilled, he should at least work towards unifying Muslims & build a common platform to address their issues.
Let's turn the calendar a few hundred years back and try to visualize an era before the arrival of British in India. India was majorly ruled by Muslims rulers, their wealth & splendor was a topic of discussion in the west as well. However, the power of these Muslim empires lied within the hands of a select few and there were no efforts to uplift the society and educate the masses. However, when British started to dominate, Muslims abhorred not only their rule but also almost everything that they brought with them including their culture, their food and even their language. On the other hand, Hindus at least adopted their language with open arms.This very act prompted Muslims to consider English as the language of servants and they chose to live in their past glory.
The result of these events created a society where most of the government officials who were Indian nationals were Hindus and this proposition didn't seem favorable to Jinnah even if most of his demands were accepted by Congress and thus he was prompted to opt for a Two Nation Theory.
Though, the exact date of the resolution is still questionable but as per available documentation, on 23 March 1940, Lahore resolution was passed.It was the forum which Muslim League chose to issue a formal political agenda to create independent, sovereign Muslim states which later evolved into demand of Pakistan.
There are many extreme theories which are still being discussed, some argue that the entire idea of partition was at fault and resulted into biggest bloodshed of 20th century and one of the largest migration of population in centuries whereas other theories find partition was the best possible solution at that point and it did some amount of damage control.
Whatever, may be one's argument to try to prove one's point right. The truth is, this event has affected the fate of millions of people back then and will continue to affect the future as all the child issues such as "Terrorism", "Communalism", "Extremism" and hatred between two nations are outcome of one single event, that was partition.
In the next post, I will try to talk about the first steps which these babies (back in 1947) took and their own set of problem and methods to tackle those problem.
