1. The Causes & Consequences of the Partition of India
Gov 1255; Lecture 3
Prof Prerna Singh

2. Questions for this Lecture
Why was India partitioned? Was this inevitable?
What were the consequences of Indian partition?
Was the extent of violence at Partition inevitable?
What were the longer term implications of partition?

3. Why was India partitioned?
Demand for Pakistan by the Muslim League
All India Muslim League Working Committee,
Lahore session, March 1940

4. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan
Why was India partitioned?
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan

5. Why was India partitioned?
Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan driven by political, NOT religious reasons

6. Why was India partitioned?
Jinnah & Gandhi
Nehru & Gandhi

7. Why was India partitioned?
The Two-Nation Theory

8. Two Views on Muslim Separatism
Primordalist
Instrumentalist

9. Primordialist view
Ethnic conflict is the result of fundamental, ‘natural’ differences between groups
Main problems with primordialism:
1. Assumption of fixed, natural identities.
2. Failure to account for the significant variation in the incidence and intensity of ethnic mobilization and conflict.

10. Instrumentalist View of Ethnicity
Ethnicity as a weapon in the pursuit of collective advantage. Ethnic conflict as a result of conflicting socio-political, economic interests.

11. Map of India with Distribution of Muslims (1909)

12. Emergence of Muslim Separatism in UP
1800
1850
1875
1900
1920
1940
Political competition: Hindu-Hindi vs. Muslim-Urdu
Political changes:
Admin reforms
Economic changes:
Railways Trade
Wealthy Hindu merchant castes
Social changes:
- Beginnings of “Western education” through govt colleges
Rise of Hindu elite
Emergence of Elite Hindu and Muslim Nationalism
Dominance of Muslims
Hindu Mahasabha + Muslim League
Popular Religious Nationalism

13. Two Views on Muslim Separatism
Primordialist position
Partition flowed almost ‘naturally’ from differences between Hindus and Muslims
Instrumentalist position
Partition resulted from the instrumental actions of Hindus and Muslims who were competing for positions of political power and privilege.
* ROLE OF THE BRITISH *

14. Role of the British The British “welcomed and furthered the animosities between Hindus and Muslims” (Guha).
WHY?

15. Role of the British in India’s Partition
WHY?
Classification and division was the only way they knew to make sense of India’s overwhelming diversity

16. Role of the British in India’s Partition
WHY?
Classification and division was the only way they knew to make sense of India’s overwhelming diversity
Check anti-colonial sentiment by creating internal dissensions in the population
Favored Muslims
Closer to Monotheistic Islam
History of Muslim participation
in the 1857 Rebellion

17. Distribution of Different Religious Communities in India, 1909

18. Distribution of Muslims in India, 1909

20. Largest population movement in recorded history: 12.5 million people

23. A crowd of Muslims at the Old Fort (Purana Qila) in Delhi, which had been converted into a vast camp for Muslim refugees waiting to be transported to Pakistan. Manchester Guardian, 27 September 1947

24. Distribution of Different Religious Communities in India, 1909

25. Train to Pakistan, A Railway Station in Punjab

26. Estimates range up to 1 million killed in Partition Violence

27. India's Survivors of Partition Begin to Break Long Silence:
Projects Document Anguish of 1947 Split
The Washington Post
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; Page A01
NEW DELHI -- Every year in March, Bir Bahadur Singh goes to the local Sikh shrine and narrates the grim events of the long night six decades ago when 26 women in his family offered their necks to the sword for the sake of honor.
At the time, sectarian riots were raging over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and the men of Singh’s family decided it was better to kill the women than have them fall into the hands of Muslim mobs.
"None of the women protested, nobody wept," Singh, 78, recalled as he stroked his long, flowing white beard, his voice slipping into a whisper. "All I could hear was the sound of prayer and the swing of the sword going down on their necks. My story can fill a book.”

28. Was the extent of partition violence inevitable?
Guha – No
Role of the British

29. Lord Mountbatten against the backdrop of the count-down to Indian Independence

30. Lord Mountbatten, Last Viceroy of India

31. Was the extent of partition violence inevitable?
Guha – No
Role of the British
Role of Nationalist leaders
Gandhi, Nehru
vs.
Jinnah

32. Legacy of Partition
Refugee Rehabilitation

33. Young Refugee sits atop a wall in Purana Quila (Old Fort) in Delhi, transformed into a vast refugee camp

34. Legacy of Partition
Refugee Rehabilitation
India-Pakistan relations

35. Dividing Government Documents

36. Legacy of Partition Refugee Rehabilitation India-Pakistan relations
Challenge for Indian Secularism

37. Next week…
Nehru’s India