Rise of Communal Majoritarianism in British India –Some Historical Insights - 4
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
The Road to Partition
Map of British India 1947
Armed with the mandate to speak for 70 percent of India, the Congress party under Gandhi’s leadership pressed its advantage. While the demands for independence by the Congress party were couched in nationalistic terms, it was implicit that what was to replace the British Raj was a Hindu Raj.
Muslim suspicions of Hindu domination increased when the Congress party won the elections in seven of the eleven provincial elections in 1935. Instead of using the victory to bring the two communities together, the Congress demanded capitulation and complete dissolution of the Muslim League. Jinnah assumed the leadership of a demoralized Muslim League and launched his drive for Pakistan as a separate homeland for Muslims (1940).
Events moved rapidly when World War II broke out in 1939. The second Sino-Japanese War had begun in 1937, but it was not officially declared until Japan entered World War II in December 1941. Japan proceeded to quickly overrun eastern China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Burma, and knocked at India’s doors. Over two million Indian soldiers fought in the British India army in the Pacific, North African and South European theaters. As British garrisons in Hong Kong and Singapore fell, a large number of Indian soldiers crossed over to the Japanese and formed the Indian National Army (INA) under the leadership of Subash Chandra Bose. Bose was a popular Indian national leader. He was elected president of the Congress party in 1939 but had been forced out by Gandhi for his strident views.
Meanwhile, Gandhi started his Quit India Movement (1942) to force the British into granting immediate independence to India. Britain was gasping for breath under Hitler’s onslaught and would have nothing of Gandhi’s distractions. Gandhi and the entire Congress leadership were arrested and spent the war years in prison. By contrast, Jinnah supported the allied war effort and used the interregnum to consolidate his support among the Muslim masses.
The INA which had a large Muslim-Sikh component fought bravely in the CBI (China-Burma-India) theater but made no headway in the face of intense bombings by British and American air forces. The war ended with Hiroshima (August 1945). Britain emerged from the war exhausted and had no stomach for holding onto recalcitrant colonies.
India, the lynchpin of the British empire, loomed large in British calculations. The INA had fired up Indian national zeal. In 1946 there was an uprising involving segments of the Indian navy which was called off after some losses. The British had lost faith in the Indian army as a loyal bulwark for the empire. It was this realization that was a key factor in convincing the British to give up India.
The British did make a last-ditch effort to bring together the Congress party and the Muslim League to keep India united. The Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 proposed a federation with broad autonomy for the regions in the east and the west that included what are today Bangladesh and Pakistan. Jinnah, who had hitherto vehemently championed partition, accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan. It was sabotaged by Pandit Nehru, then president of the Congress party. Gandhi was indecisive and the plan fell through.
At the All India Congress Committee meeting of 1946, Gandhi, along with Nehru and Patel, canvassed for partition. Even so, the vote was only 25 for partition and 19 against. The heart of the people was with united India. The leadership had failed.
The decision to partition the subcontinent into the independent states of India and Pakistan let loose an orgy of slaughter on both sides of the border. Lord Mountbatten, the man delegated by London to oversee the transfer of power was singularly incompetent to deal with the chaos.
Entire villages were burnt, two million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs killed, tens of thousands of women raped. Fifteen million refugees crossed the borders, and the two nations were christened in pools of blood. That enmity persists to this day.
(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)
