Class 12 NCERT history Chapter 14

                       Understanding Partition 

     Politics , Memories , Experiences  

Some partition experiences 

• There are three incidents narrated by people who experienced those trying times to a researcher in 1993. 
• The informants were Pakistanis , the researcher Indian .

A Momentous Marker 

partition or holocaust ?

• The narratives just presented point to the pervasive violence that characterized Partition .
• Several hundred thousand people were killed and innumerable women raped and abducted .
• Millions were uprooted , transformed into refugees in alien lands .
• In all probability , some 15 million had to move across hastily constructed frontiers separating India and Pakistan .
• The boundaries between the  two days new state were not officially known until two days after formal independence - they were rendered homeless , having suddenly lost all their immovable property and most of their relatives and friends as well , torn asunder from their moorings , from their houses, field and fortunes, from their childhood memories .
• In 1947 -48 , the subcontinent did not witness any state - driven extermination as was the case with Nazi Germany where various modern techniques of control and organisation had been used .
• The "ethnic cleansing that characterized the partition of India was carried out by self - styled representatives of religious communities rather than by state agencies   .

The Power of stereotypes

• India - haters in Pakistan and Pakistan - haters in India are both products of Partition.
• The stereotype of extra - territorial, pan - Islamic loyalties comes fused with other highly objectionable ideas: Muslims are cruel , bigoted , unclean , descendants of invaders, while Hindus are kind , liberal , pure , children of the invaded .
• Partition generated memories , hatreds , stereotypes and identities that still continue to shape the history of people on the both sides of border.
• The relationship between Pakistan and India has been profoundly shaped by this legacy of Partition .
• Perceptions of communities on both sides have been structured by the conflicting memories of those momentous times.

Why and How did Partition Happen ?

Culminating point of a long history ?

• They emphasise that the events of 1947 were intimate connected to the long history of hindu muslim conflict throughout medieval and modern times.
• Some scholars see partition as a culmination of a communal politics that started developing in the opening decades of the twentieth century .
• They suggest that separate electorates for Muslims , created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919 , crucially shaped the nature of communal politics 
• Communal identities were consolidated by a host of other developments in the early twentieth century.
• During the 1920 and early 1930 tension grew around a number of issues . Muslims were angered by "music - before - mosque " , by the cow protection movement and by the efforts of the Arya Samaj to bring back to the Hindu fold those who had recently converted to Islam.

The Provincial elections of 1937 and the congress ministries 

• In 1937 , Election to the provincial legislatures were held for the first time .
• Only about 10 to 12 per cent of the population enjoyed the right to vote .
• The congress did well in the elections , winning an absolute majority in five out of eleven provinces and forming governments in seven of them .
• The  league failed to win a single seat in the North west frontier province and could capture only two out of 84 reserved constituencies in the Punjab and three out of 33 in sind .
• In the United provinces , the muslim league wanted to form a joint government with the congress.
• The league assumed , of course , that only a muslim party could represent muslim interests , and that the congress was essentially a hindu party 
• In the United Provinces , the party had rejected the Muslim league proposal for a coalition government partly because the league tended to support landlordism ,/which the congress wished to abolish , although the party had not yet taken any concrete steps in that direction .
• In the end ,the secular and radical rhetoric of the congress merely alarmed conservative Muslims and the Muslims landed elite , without winning over the muslim masses.
• In December did the congress working committee declare that congress members could not be members of the Mahasabha.
• The latter spread from its Nagpur base to the United provinces, the Punjab , and other parts of the country in the 1930

The " Pakistan " Resolution 

• The Pakistan demand was formalized gradually.On 23 march 1940 , the league moved a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for the muslim majority area of the sub-continent.
• the Urdu poet Muhammad Iqbal , the writer of" sare jahan se achha Hindustan hamara ". 

The suddenness of partition 

• there was a very short time just 7 years between the first formal articulation of the demand for a major of autonomy for the muslim majority area of the sub continent and partition .
• The pressure of second world war on the british delayed negotiations for Independence  
• The massive quit India movement  which started in 1942.

Post-War developments 

• When negotiations were begun again in 1945 .
• The commander- in -chief of the armed forces , as a preliminary step towards full independence .
• The League's first demand was quite extraordinary , for a large section of the nationalist Muslims supported the Congress and in West Punjab members of the Unionist Party were   largely Muslims 
• Provincial elections were again held in 1946 .
• The congress swept the general constituencies ,capturing 91.3 percent of the non-Muslim vote . 
• The League's success in the seats reserved for Muslims was equally spectacular. 
• It won 30 reserved constituencies in the center with 86.6 percent of the Muslims vote and 442 out of 509 seats in the provinces 

A possible  alternative to partition 

• In the March 1946 the British Cabinet sent a three member mission to Delhi to examine the League's demand and to suggest a suitable political framework for a free India. 
• The cabinet mission toured the country for three months and recommended a loose three- tier confederation . 
• Mahatma Gandhi and khan Abdul ghaffar khan of the NWFP  continued to firmly oppose the idea of partition 

Towards partition 

• The cabinet mission plan , the muslim League decided on direct action for winning its Pakistan demand . it announced 16 august 1946 as" direct action day ". 
• It was in march 1947 that the congress high command voted for dividing the Punjab into to half , one with muslim majority and the other with Hindu majority .

The Withdrawal of Law and order 

• The blood bath continued for about a year from march 1947 on words .one main reason of this was the collapse of the institutions of governance. 
• Amritsar district became the scene of bloodshed later in the year in the year when there was a complete breakdown of authority in the city.

The one-man army 

• The 77 year old Gandhi ji decided to stake his all in a bid to vindicate his lifelong principle of non - violence . 
• In October 1946 , Muslims in east bengal targeted Hindus. 

Gendering partition 

"Recovering women " 

• In the last decade and a half , historians have been examining the experiences ordinary people during the partition .
• Scholars have written about the harrowing experiences of women in those violent time . 
• Women were raped , abducted ,sold often many times over forced to settle down to a new life with strangers in unknown circumstances. 

Preserving "honour " 

• Scholars have also shown how ideas of preserving community honour came into play in this period of extreme physical and psychological danger.
• Urvashi Brutality in her book, The Other Side of Silence , narrates one such gruesome incident in the village of thoa khalsa , Rawalpindi district .
• On 13 march every year, when their "martyrdom" is celebrate , the incident is recounted to an audience of men , women and children .

Regional Variations 

• The experiences of ordinary people we have been discussing so fr relate to the north - western part of the subcontinent .
• The partition was most bloody and destructive in the Punjab and of almost all Punjabi - speaking Muslims to Pakistan happened in a relatively short period of two years between 1946 and 1948 .
• In Bengal the migration was even more protracted , with people moving across a porous border.
• Many Bengali Hindus remained in east Pakistan while many Bengali continued to live in west Bengal.
• Bangladesh are separated from Pakistan  in 1971-1972 .

Help, Humanity, Harmony 

• Buried under the debris of the violence and pain of partition is an enormous history of help , humanity and harmony.
• The work of Khushdeva Singh, a Sikh doctor specializing in the treatment of tuberculosis, posted at Dharampur in present day Himachal Pradesh

Oral Testimonies and history 

• Oral narratives memoirs , diaries , family histories , first - hand written accounts all these help us understand the trials and tribulations of ordinary people during the partition of the country .
• One of the strengths of personal reminiscence one type of oral source - is that it helps us grasp experiences and memories in detail .
• The latter deal with policy and party matters and various state - sponsored schemes.