Chapter – 14

Understanding Partition

In this post, we have given the detailed notes of Class 12 History Chapter 14 (Understanding Partition) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

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Communalism

• Communalism is politics that creates conflicts and conflicts between religious communities.
• Communal politicians try to strengthen religious identity.

Partition of India and attainment of independence escalation of communal tension 

• According to scholars, the death toll in the riots during the partition was between 2 lakh and 5 lakh.
• Some scholars believe that the partition of the country was the end point of the communal politics that began in the early decades of the 20th century. 
• Logically, a separate electorate for Muslims created by the British in 1909 (which was expanded in 1919) had a profound impact on the nature of communal politics.
• Due to separate constituencies, Muslims could choose their representatives in particular constituencies.
• In this system, politicians were tempted to use community slogans and take illegitimate advantage of the people of their religious community.
• In the early decades of the 20th century, communal inequalities were further strengthened by several other factors.(1920–30)
  • The music in front of the mosque of Muslims, the cow protection movement and the Arya Samaj’s efforts to purify (i.e. to convert the new Muslims back to Hindu) enraged.
  • On the other hand, after 1923 there was a stir in the expansion of Tabligh (Propaganda) and Tanzeem (Organisation).
  • As middle-class propaganda and communal activists began to build more solidarity within their communities, mobilizing people against other communities.
  • With each communal riot the differences between the communities deepened and disturbing memories of the violence were created.
• However, it would not be correct to say that the partition was directly due to increasing communal tension.

understanding division

• The British policy of divide and rule played an important role in the spread of communal Islam.
• At first the attitude of the British towards Muslims was not favorable, they feel that they were responsible for the revolt of 1857.
• But soon he felt that his behavior had strengthened the Hindus, so he changed his policy.
• Now, they started taking the side of the Muslims and turned against the Hindus.
• Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal in 1905. He said that administrative problems led to the partition of Bengal.
• The real motive of the British behind the partition of Bengal was to sow the seeds of inequality between Hindus and Muslims.
• By the Act of 1909, the British Government gave the right to separate electorates to the Muslims.
• In 1916, the Lucknow Pact was signed between the Congress and the Muslim League. This was an important step towards Hindu-Muslim unity. But in reality it was an agreement for cooperation in the political field on the basis of a common programme.
• In February 1937, elections to the provincial assembly were held, in which very few people had the right to vote.
• Lord Atlee had sent a cabinet mission to India to solve the political crisis of India.
• On 6 June 1946 the Muslim League accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan as it contained the foundation of Pakistan, but the Congress opposed it.
• Lord Mount Batten arrived in India to clear the political confusion of India. He proposed his plan on 3 June 1947, in which he stated that the country would be divided into two dominions (India and Pakistan). This was accepted by both the Congress and the Muslim League.

Some incidents and facts about Partition

• Violence led to widespread division, killing thousands, rape and abduction of women.
• Millions of people were uprooted and became refugees. Overall, 1.5 had to overcome the newly created limits.
• The displaced people lost all their property and most of their property was also alienated from their relatives and friends.
• People were stripped of their local culture and forced to start afresh.
• When speaking of murders, partitions as well as rape and looting, observers and scholars sometimes use the expression with the meaning of mass destruction or slaughter.

Historical background of Partition 

• There are many incidents which directly or indirectly fueled the partition of India and Pakistan.
• The politicization of religion began in 1909 with separate electorates. It was further strengthened by the colonial government of India in 1919. 
• Community identities were no longer indicating a simple distinction between faith and belief, they became the cause of active opposition and hostility between communities. 
• Communal identity was carried forward in the 1920s and 1930s before the cow protection movement and the Arya Samaj’s Shuddhi movement.
• Hindus were angered by the rapid spread of propaganda and organisation. 
• Middle class campaigners and communal activists sought to create greater solidarity within their communities and to mobilize people against the other community. Every communal riot deepened the differences between the communities.

Reason for Division 

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory (Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations in colonial India, which can be traced back to medieval history).
• Divide and rule policy.
• Separate constituencies for Muslims created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919 significantly shaped the nature of communal politics.
• Hindu Muslim conflicts and communal riots broke out in different parts of the country
• The secular and radical rhetoric of the Congress, without conquering the Muslim masses, concerned only orthodox Muslims and the Muslim landlord elite.
• The Pakistan Resolution of 23 March 1940, called for autonomy measures for Muslim-majority areas of the subcontinent.

Provincial elections of 1937 and its Results

• Provincial elections were held for the first time in 1937. In this election, Congress won majority in 5 provinces and formed government in 7 out of 11 provinces.
• Congress fared poorly in reserved constituencies, even the Muslim League did poorly, capturing only a few seats in reserved categories.
• The Muslim League wanted to form a government with the Congress in the United Provinces, but the Congress rejected it because the Congress had an absolute majority.
• This rejection led the members of the League to believe that they would not gain political power because they were a minority. The League also recognized that only a Muslim party could represent Muslims and that the Congress was a Hindu party.
• The Congress and its ministries failed to counter the hatred and suspicion spread by the League. The Congress failed to win over the Muslim masses.
• The growth of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha also played an important role in widening the gap between Hindus and Muslims.

‘Pakistan’ Proposal 

• On March 23, 1940, the League passed a resolution calling for autonomy measures for the Muslim-majority regions of the subcontinent. The resolution did not mention partition or a separate state.

Earlier in 1930, the Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal spoke of the reunification of Muslim-majority regions in north-western India into autonomous units within a larger confederacy. He had not even imagined a separate country at the time of his speech.

Sudden Demand for Partition 

• None of the Muslim League leaders were clear about Pakistan. The demand for an autonomous region was made in 1940 and the partition was done within 7 years. Jinnah may have initially seen Pakistan as a tool of dialogue to prevent the Congress from making concessions and doing favors to the Muslims.

Important events, talks and discussions during Partition 

• Negotiations began in 1945 between the British, the Congress and the Muslim League, but discussions broke down due to unfounded demands and communal vetos from members of the Jinnah Council.
• Provincial elections were held again in 1946. In this election, the Congress entered the general constituencies, and the League managed to secure a majority of the Muslim vote. 
• The success of the League in the seats reserved for Muslims was spectacular. It won all 30 reserved seats at the Center and 442 out of 509 seats in the provinces. Therefore, in 1946 the League established itself as the dominant party among Muslims.

Cabinet Mission in India

• In March 1946, the Cabinet Mission came to India to create a suitable political framework for India. 
• The Cabinet Mission recommended the inclusion of India in a three-tier federation. It divided the provincial assemblies into 3 sections. A was for the Hindu-majority province, while B and C were for the Muslim-majority North-West and North-East regions.
• The Cabinet Mission proposed a weak center and the provinces would have the power to establish their own legislatures and mid-level officials.
• All sides agreed but the league later demanded, grouping should be made mandatory and the right to secede from the union. Whereas the Congress wanted the provinces to have the right to join the group. Therefore, due to differences, the talks broke down.
• Now after this failure the Congress realized that partition had become inevitable and considered it sad but inevitable. But Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of the North-West Frontier Province continued to oppose the idea of ​​partition.

Provincial elections again in 1946 

• Quickly withdrawing from the cabinet mission, the Muslim League decided to take direct action to win over its demand for Pakistan.
• It declared 16 August 1946 as ‘Direct Action Day’. Initially riots broke out in Calcutta and gradually spread to other parts of North India.
• In March 1947, the Congress accepted the partition of Punjab into two parts, one with a Muslim majority and the other with a Hindu/Sikh majority. Similarly, Bengal was a divided division.

Destruction of law and order 

• There was a great bloodshed in 1947.
• The governance structure of the country completely collapsed, there was a complete loss of power.
• The British officers were hesitant to take a decision and did not know how to handle the situation. The British were busy preparing to leave India. 
• Top leaders except Gandhiji were engaged in talks about independence. Indian civil servants in the affected areas were worried about their lives.
• The problem escalated when soldiers and policemen forgot their professional commitments and helped them co-secular and attacked members of other communities.

Status of women during partition 

• Women suffered the most during partition. Women were raped, abducted, sold and forced to settle down with strangers under unknown circumstances. Some began to develop a new family bond in their changed circumstances.
• Governments of both India and Pakistan showed a lack of understanding of sentiments
•  Sometimes women were sent away from their new relatives. He did not consult the women concerned and underestimated their right to make decisions. 
• The men were afraid that their women – wives, daughters, sisters would be violated by the enemy, so they killed their women. An incident took place in Rawalpindi village, where 90 Sikh women jumped into the well to save themselves from outsiders.
• These incidents were seen as ‘martyrdom’ and it is believed that the men of the time had to boldly accept the decision of the women and in some cases they were even persuaded to kill themselves.

Role of Mahatma Gandhi during Partition 

• Gandhi visited villages in East Bengal to restore peace,
• In East Bengal, he assured the safety of Hindus, 
• Whereas in Delhi he asked Hindus and Sikhs to protect Muslims and try to create a sense of mutual trust.
• Villages in Bihar staged riots in Calcutta and Delhi to prevent communal killings and to assure the safety of the minority community.

Regional Diversity in Division 

•  Partition led to genocide and thousands of lives were lost.
• In Punjab, there was a major displacement of Hindu and Sikh population from Pakistan side. There was displacement of Punjabi Muslims from the Indian side to Pakistan. 
• The displacement of people in Punjab was very painful. Property was looted, women were murdered, kidnapped and raped. There was a horrific massacre.
• Some Muslim families from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad also migrated to Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s.
• Jinnah’s two-state theory based on religion failed when East Bengal separated it from West Pakistan and became an independent country as Bangladesh in 1971.
• Punjab and Bengal of these two states have a lot in common. The main targets of harassment were women and girls. The attacker considered female bodies to be territory to be conquered.

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