From Nationalisms to Partition: India and Pakistan (1917-1948) Inter War World: Independence of India
India: the turn to resistance Post Amritsar India: post war disillusionment articulated in Amritsar Massacre of 1919 [see Local Impact Post War World lecture] India stood on the verge of more violence and repression and, sooner or later, terrorism and guerrilla war. That India took a different path to national liberation was due largely to Mohandas K Gandhi (1869 1948), the most influential Indian leader of modern times [textbook p.899]
India: the turn to resistance Gandhi: British trained lawyer: gained fame for work in South Africa defending Indian rights to decent work, right to vote Developed philosophy that combined Hindu and Christian teachings, focused on social justice Returned to India in 1915, received as man of wisdom, humanity [listen to comment by colleague, Video Story of India ]
Mohandas Gandhi (1869 1948) In Britain #10 Downing St (1931)
India: the turn to resistance Non Violent Resistance: 1920: launched campaign of non violent resistance to British Rule boycott British jobs, titles, goods especially cloth, liquour Refuse to pay taxes Aimed beyond urban, western educated elite into countryside among illiterate peasants
India: the turn to resistance appealed to Hindus who did not believe in war, passive lower classes welcomed into Congress 1920 22: resistance campaign turned violent policemen killed, brutal riots erupted Gandhi took blame people not ready for civil disobedience : jailed for two years fomenting rebellion Resentment against British growing: Congress Party splintered radical nationalist faction emerged under Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 1964) In 1947
India: the turn to resistance Turn from non violence to violence: 1929 Nehru and Congress called for independence within a year exacerbated situation: British refusal to consider, threats of bloodshed by radicals Gandhi s famous march to the sea : British taxed salt excessively Gandhi s resistance lay in leading 50,000 people to make their own salt Protests, illegal salt making continued: Gandhi jailed again
India: India Act 1935 Government of India Act 1935: British compromise: strengthened parliamentary institutions, increased Indian voice in what remained British administration Act not enough to satisfy radicals but More than enough to fuel flames of the other major source of dispute, conflict in India: the Hindu Muslim divide
India: Hindu Muslim divide The All India Muslim League: founded 1906 Intent to protect Muslim civil rights, protect interests of upper classes Worked to limited extent with Congress in early years gradually concluded that interests could not be jointly met if democracy was political goal Congress seen more and more as Hindu Party : worrying Muslims
India: Hindu Muslim Divide Mohammad Ali Jinnah: Also British trained lawyer member of Congress, also Leader of Muslim League from1913 Helped broker 1916 Lucknow Agreement [Textbook 898,9] Resigned from Congress 1920 in disagreement over nonviolence campaign Strong reaction against 1935 India Act which included Central Federation
Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876 1948) As Governor-General new state of Pakistan (1947-8)
India: Hindu Muslim Divide 1935 1940: Jinnah worked to persuade British that Central Federation was not feasible Helped by British need for Muslim support as WWII approached By 1940: convinced of need for two nation solution 1935 Act must go once [and] for all [see Lahore Address #7, Add l. Rdgs.]
India: Hindu Muslim Divide Jinnah s 1940 Presidential Address to Muslim League: [[21]] A leading journal like the London Times, commenting on the Government of India Act of 1935, wrote that "Undoubtedly the difference between the Hindus and Muslims is not of religion in the strict sense of the word but also of law and culture, that they may be said indeed to represent two entirely distinct and separate civilisations. However, in the course of time the superstitions will die out and India will be moulded into a single nation."...these fundamental and deeprooted differences, spiritual, economic, cultural, social, and political have been euphemised as mere "superstitions." But surely it is a flagrant disregard of the past history of the sub continent of India, as well as the fundamental Islamic conception of society vis a vis that of Hinduism, to characterise them as mere "superstitions."
India: Hindu Muslim Divide Notwithstanding [a] thousand years of close contact, nationalities which are as divergent today as ever, cannot at any time be expected to transform themselves into one nation merely by means of subjecting them to a democratic constitution and holding them forcibly together by unnatural and artificial methods of British Parliamentary statutes. What the unitary government of India for one hundred fifty years had failed to achieve cannot be realised by the imposition of a central federal government... [22] The problem in India is not of an inter communal character, but manifestly of an international one, and it must be treated as such. So long as this basic and fundamental truth is not realised, any constitution that may be built will result in disaster and will prove destructive and harmful not only to the Mussalmans, but to the British and Hindus also.
India: Hindu Muslim Divide If the British Government are really in earnest and sincere to secure [the] peace and happiness of the people of this sub continent, the only course open to us all is to allow the major nations separate homelands by dividing India into "autonomous national states." [from Lahore Address, Add l Rdg]
India: Road to Partition Post War India: Britain agreed to Independence following end WWII 1946 bloody Hindu Muslim conflicts convinced British that Jinnah s position had to be accepted a partition allowing for predominantly Hindu and Muslim nations India and Pakistan, respectively negotiated August 14, 1947: Independence from Britain achieved but for two, not one nations
India: Creation of Pakistan
India: Creation of Pakistan Partition: Immediately mass expulsions, mass exoduses began as Hindus left/were forced to leave Pakistan and Muslims left/were forced to leave India Called greatest migration in human history : some 5 million people on the move, effectively refugees Among them, another minority, the Sikhs equally became targets of Muslim violence, joined Hindus in fleeing [Video Story of India ends with story of one Sikh family, village]
India: Creation of Pakistan Massacres: No one protected those who fled from attack: possibly 100,000 killed as trains were held up, passengers slaughtered; roads vulnerable to attack; villages targeted by vigilantly groups estimated: 75,000 women raped, disfigured Gandhi: what is there to celebrate? I see nothing but rivers of blood [see also Partition, Resources; full length feature film not sure about the acting issues are well explored through personal stories]
India: Creation of Pakistan Muslims Fleeing India 1947
India: Creation of Pakistan Partition: Can be argued that British handling of Indian Independence was one of its most disastrous colonial acts [worth noting that even as the bloodbath following Partition occurred, Britain was also abandoning Palestine to Partition and war] Some saw Jinnah as saviour of Muslims others as responsible for pushing a partition that destroyed India
India: Creation of Pakistan Some saw Nehru as responsible for accepting to let Pakistan leave (West and East latter became Bangladesh) And some blamed Gandhi for that betrayal : he was assassinated by a Hindu gunman (January 1948) as part of the violence that continued into 1948
India: Creation of Pakistan Ayesha Jalal [Pakistani Historian]: [Partition was] the central historical event in twentieth century South Asia.... A defining moment that is neither beginning nor end, partition continues to influence how the peoples and states of postcolonial South Asia envisage their past, present and future.