The Great Partition, by Yasmin Khan

I finished reading "The Great Partition" by Yasmeen Khan.

The book is written ten years back and is not the latest book on the events of 1947. It is however the only book I know which does not take Partition as the end or the beginning point. It tells the story of events in the participation period. ie 1945 to early 1950's  with some references to later years.

The book cannot be take as a history book of Independence. Here the emphasis is on the Partition, the division of land and the relocation of the masses. It seems that none of the leadership was visionary enough to realize that the partition will take such a toll on human life; and that the partition will be absolute and not porous, as some thought naively. Her bittermost criticism is reserved for the British Raj, for being in a hurry, cutting costs and not letting the British army intervene and help the process of Partition.

My elder son has developed an interest in the events of those days and I thought to give him a book on his birthday. I chose this book as the author is closer to his age than mine. I thought he may gain better understanding of the things through her.

Yasmeen Khan is a British history professor. I first heard of the her a few yeas back. The first page of her book was reproduced in a paper, where she states that in her home country Britain, people ask her all the times about ‘her’ Partition story. Born in 1977 she is, as she claims, two generations removed from those events, although both her grandfathers had some role to play in those events. She acknowledges the possibility that neither of them would agree with her on various points.

To people of my age, most of what is in the book is known. The beauty of the book is the power of narration. It tells the story in way how the events had affected the common man the on the street. 

And I still learnt a few new things, or got more emphasizes on certain points of history not known to me.
Here are some:

On June 3rd 1946, at 7 pm Indian Standard Time , on All India Radio in Delhi  there was a live linkup from Westminster where PM Attlee announced in the House of Commons that India will be independent by 1948. It was broadcasted all over India. It was followed by speeches of Mountbatten, Nehru, Jinnah and Baldev Singh. No one mentioned the word Pakistan except Jinnah.


Rewind back to WWII

During the WWII. most of Congress leadership was behind the bars. It left a vacuum and the leadership was cut form public. AIML got the most out of it and gained much ground during that time. So did Indian National Army. 

Churchill lost elections and the new government in UK decided to hold elections in India in 1945-46. Muslim League performed a lot better than earlier elections. It used the election as a referendum on Pakistan. The Muslim Nationalists ( those belonging to Congress) had a rough time. Congress did not support them that much, contrary to what they expected.

Still Congress was able to form government in NWFP and have a coalition government with Unionist Party in Punjab.

In Aligarh, there was a tense atmosphere between the 'town' and the 'gown'. Most vocal support of Pakistan in whole British India was there. Many did not realize that  Aligarh will never be a part of Pakistan.

British government decided to cut the losses and one of the ways to achieve that was to decrease the budget for intelligence. They did not anticipate the cost of Partition. They wanted to pack up and hand over. That was a fatal mistake as the information of when and what is most needed was not there through intelligence

in 1946, the Cabinet Mission failed. She does not give the details of why and how it failed.

Calcutta Massacre on August, 16th, 1946 on the day of Direct Action Day by Muslim League. A pivotal day in the Independence history.  She puts the blame mostly on Muslim League as its leaders, Jinnah and Suharwardy were vague in avoiding violence.  Four thousand dead and another fifteen thousand injured. Soon followed by Noakhali Hindu Muslim riots where another five thousand died. That led to Gandhi's famous train trip to Calcutta, He stayed there for a long time. He was there on the eve of Partition.

Punjab became quite religious in those days. As an example of changes in social interaction: Hindus use of tilak and avoidance of Khuda Hafiz, and Muslims had more insistence on Khuda Hafiz. 

Muslim League made a point of having a constant pressure and picketing (dharna) outside the assembly house in Lahore against Unionist government.

Mountbatten came in March 1947? ( What about the dalliance between Nehru and???) , He reached a decision by May 1947.
Many rules of princely states thought they will be independent, like Bhopal and Hyderabad.

Sikhs wanted the boundary of Punjab to be at river Chenab. Partition of Punjab and Bengal was left to the assemblies.
Radcliffe award was not announced till August 17th, 1947, three days after the actual partition.

Another blunder by British Raj. To keep the army in camps, till the departure of British officers by 1948. It did not allow the army to help save many during the partition. Later a smaller Punjab Boundary Force was created, It worked for 32 months only and had only 25000 men in it.

Around 83000 women disappeared!!!. Men on both sides of the line, had much in common. Half of raped were underage. A future Governor General of Pakistan Ghulam Muhammad ( gamma)'s daughter was abducted.

Gandhi said of Independence as no day of rejoicing.

The powers to be, British, Congress and Muslim League, did not anticipate the gross migration.
Later once the governments realize this is happening, they tried to expedite hit, and not discourage it. In doing this, they even forced people to relocate. thus becoming part of ethnic cleansing.

Twelve million relocated????

In Autumn 47 vast and unprecedented relief efforts were made without much international help. IRC was almost defunct.
British government had apathetic approach.
Indian government spared close to one trillion rupees (!!!) between 1947 and 1951 on refugees issues.

Strange groups stepped in to help the refugees, for various reasons., In Indian Punjab and UP. RSS was very active. It used relief efforts to make a strong base and build a case against Congress for going along with Partition. In Indian Bengal, CPI was the main player.

In West Punjab, Jamat e Islami worked a lot. Mowdudi had moved in July 1947 and was living in a canvas tent. Some of the grateful refugees became ardent supporters of the Jamaat.

Mian Iftikharuddin proposed land distribution ( like Congress did in India) to help accommodate refugees. His proposal was not accepted, he resigned from the post of Refugee Minister of West Punjab.

Khan of Mamdot who was the biggest landowner in prepartitioned Punjab and lost lot of land, used the Allotment Revising Committee to his advantage and helped his former tenets and employees get land in the West Punjab.

Jinnah had to declare emergency in less than one year to gain central control of the refugee crisis and thus helped weakened democratic politics

Gandhi was murdered on January 30th, 1948.  ( Many people don't realize, he died before Jinnah)

Bengal refugee crisis continued for a longer time. Bengalis got less help from India as compared to Punjabis. Many Hindus stayed longer in East Pakistan and moved to India later when realized that it was getting difficult.

Mandal, a Hindu minister and a strong supporter of Pakistan, later resigned and migrated to India after riots in 1950.
Bengal refugee crisis resurfaced at the time of creation of Bangla Desh.

There are (still) 123 border enclaves of India in Bangla Desh and 74 Bangla Deshi enclaves in India. It was due to the way some small princely states opted for either India or Pakistan.

Without outside help both India and Pakistan, overall took care of most of the refugee issues with marvelous speed. The human cost however remains uncounted and under acknowledged.