Aftermath of Independence: Assorted Titbits

The Partition was supposed to have been a solution for the Hindu-Muslim animosity, writes Sam Dalrymple in Shattered Lands. Splitting into separate countries for each was supposed to avoid bloodshed.

 

But it didn’t help that the line was drawn by Radcliffe, a man who had never even been to India. Plus, Mountbatten insisted the boundary be made public a few days after the British left “in order to divert odium from the British”.

 

In Punjab, it led to widespread mutual killings (Gandhi’s presence and threats to commit suicide kept Bengal at relative peace), the very thing Partition was intended to avoid…

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Then Pakistan, now formed, declared that Muslims deep inside India, well, they were not Pakistan’s concern! So much for the nation for Muslims idea. Conversely, Muslims who moved to Pakistan found themselves not accepted, treated as outsiders, a problem that continues even today.

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The savage blood-letting of Partition would harden Patel, and make him view Muslims in India as untrustable, possibly Pakistan’s secret army within India. As a corollary, he began to develop a soft corner for the RSS. Plus, Patel understood that many in Nehru’s cabinet (and the Congress itself) were averse to going very hard against the RSS in the backdrop of a brutal Partition.

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Unlike India, which framed its constitution by 1950, Pakistan had none for a long time. Part of the reason, as we saw in earlier blogs on Ambedkar and the constitution, lay in the fact that the constituent assembly had been drawing it up for a united India. But when Partition looked inevitable, the constituent assembly removed all members from areas sure to go to Pakistan and updated its approach to address governance of a divided India with a significant number of minorities and the inevitable suspicion and fear towards/in them. Pakistan never even got started on that front. The quick deaths and/or short tenures of successive Pakistani heads of state didn’t help either - Between 1950-58, Pakistan had 6 PM’s and 1 commander-in-chief while India had 1 PM and 6 commanders-in-chief. In fact, it tilted Pakistan to military dominated form of governance.

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The East-West Pakistan creation several simmering problems from Day 1. The East had a much larger population, but political power lay in the West. The Bengalis (East) and Punjabis (West) were like chalk and cheese, very different with no particular knowledge for each other. In fact, the Punjabis had contempt for the “weak” Bengalis. The minority but powerful West constituted the Army in which the East had no share. When the East called for Bengali to be made a national language (in addition to Urdu), the West refused, adding to friction and animosity all of which would finally explode in 1971 (many other reasons too).

 

Nehru, on the other hand, responded to linguistic calls from different parts of India. Soon, Madras, Bombay and Mysore were replaced by states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh etc.

 

The contrasting approaches to languages had long term impact:

“It has proved quite feasible to be peacefully Kannadiga – or Tamil or Oriya – as well as contentedly Indian… Pakistan’s refusal to give in to linguistic demands would dangerously destabilize the young country.”

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