Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam
145. Muslim Contributions to India’s Freedom Struggle - 2
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
The pent-up nationalist energy let loose by the INA manifested itself with full force in the mutiny of the Indian navy in February 1946. What started as a grievance against food served in the cafeterias quickly mushroomed into a full-scale boycott and then into a revolt.
The first to strike were the sailors on board the ship HMIS Hindustan in Karachi. It quickly spread to HMIS Talwar in Bombay and ships stationed in Cochin, Vizagpatnam, Madras and Calcutta. The strike caught the imagination of a population already fired by exploits of the INA and Subash Chandra Bose. The Tricolor was hoisted across most ships and naval installations. Army personnel in Pune and other barracks joined the revolt.
It must be noted that the mutiny was looked at with disfavor by the major political parties including the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. Were they concerned that an armed insurrection would lead to a chaotic breakdown of law and order and ultimately lead to international intervention? Was it that they were alarmed at their own loss of control over the fast-moving events of the Uprising? Historians may argue about these issues endlessly.
Bereft of political support, the mutiny died down in a few days but not before demonstrating to the British that their hold on the Indian armed forces was slipping. The British Empire was a mammoth enterprise held up by the Indian army and the Indian civil service. The British could no longer count on the Indian army as a reliable partner in keeping the Indian masses at bay.
Britain was exhausted after Hitler’s war. It had no money and had to borrow heavily from the Americans. An unreliable Indian army would mean that the British would have to keep a large army in India to keep India at Bay. Britain was demobilizing and it had no money. These were the reasons that led to their decision to quit India, and to do so in haste.
The British Empire without the Indian army was like a lion that had lost its claws. This was most obvious during the Suez crisis of 1956. The British (along with the French and the Israelis) occupied the Suez Canal in Egypt but were forced to withdraw under American pressure.
This is not to diminish the importance of Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement in India’s independence struggle. Indeed, the events of 1946 highlight Gandhi’s achievements. What Gandhi did was to make India aware of itself. An India that was self-aware responded to the exploits of the INA during the Second World War and the RIN uprising of 1946 with the energy and enthusiasm that forced the British to quit India. It effectively drew the curtain on the British Empire that had dominated the world for two hundred years.
Summarily, Gandhi made India self-aware. The INA, in which the Muslims of Punjab had a dominant position, convinced the British to give up their Indian empire and leave.
Some historians seek to compare Gandhi with Jinnah. The two were leaders of different ilk and a comparison between the two is like comparing apples and oranges. In historical hindsight, Gandhi was closer to Iqbal than Jinnah although their methods were entirely different. Iqbal was a philosopher-poet who made the Muslims of India self-aware. Gandhi had his own philosophy and was a highly effective passive-activist. His non-cooperation movement energized vast sections of India’s population. Jinnah, on the other hand, was a strict constitutionalist. Gandhi transformed India. Iqbal transformed the Muslims of India. Jinnah achieved Pakistan. All three had an impact far beyond the South Asian region. However, none of them can be said to have had a decisive impact on the British decision to quit India when they did. That credit must belong to the INA. This subject requires a deeper analysis.
The First War of India’s Independence (1857)
The uprising of 1857 has been the subject of numerous books, articles and analyses. What is astonishing about the uprising was not that it took place in 1857 but it took so long for it to happen. The British East India Company came to India to trade. Then, as the Mogul Empire disintegrated, they started to meddle in Indian affairs. After winning a protracted struggle with the French for supremacy in Southern India, the British had a clear field for their political aspirations. Their first win came with the historic Battle of Plassey in Bengal(1757). As a military event, it was only a skirmish. In its political impact, it was a pivotal event in world history, a hinge around which the destiny of Asia revolved, a milestone that changed the history of the world.
The East India Company had a taste of real wealth in Bengal. Soon, they turned from trade to loot. The victory at the battle of Buxor (1764) brought them total financial control of Bengal, Bihar and Eastern UP. This they exercised with a rapacity matched only by the greed for profits from the Company stakeholders in London. The well-known episode of how Governor General Warren Hastings starved the Begums of Oudh and compelled them to part with their jewelry is now ancient history. The peasants of Bengal went from prosperity to penury. Cheap cotton cloth was imported from England, and discriminatory taxes were imposed to drive the weavers of Bengal and eastern UP into poverty. Maladministration brought about successive famines and thousands perished in Bengal and Bihar.
There was resistance in Southern India from Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan but the British successfully navigated the balance of power in their favor, enticing the Nizam and the Marathas to side with them. Tipu fell in the Battle of Srirangapatam (1799) and the gold from Tipu’s treasury as well as the profitable spice trade from the Malabar coast fell into British hands.
The East India Company continued to consolidate its hold on India by force as with the Anglo-Maratha wars (1803-1818) in Central India and the Anglo-Sikh wars (1845-49) in the Punjab. The other method was the dispossession of Rajas, Nawabs and potentates under the so-called Doctrine of Lapse under which a kingdom would be taken over by the British if there was no male heir for the king. Examples of this were the kingdoms of Jhansi, Satara and Oudh.
As India and much of Asia continued its political retrenchment in the 19 th century, colonialism enjoyed its heyday. The technology gap between Asia and Europe continued to increase thanks to the industrial revolution and this increasing gap was used by the Europeans to consolidate their hold on Asia and Africa. The Dutch captured Indonesia and the French established themselves in Indo China. Even mighty China was forced to bow down when a combined expeditionary force consisting of British and French naval squadrons shot its way up to Beijing and forced the Chinese emperor to capitulate and permit the sale of opium in his vast realm as well as opening up Chinese hinterland to foreign influence (1839-60).
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
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