The Day India Burned

Name - Hameem Sultan

ID - 1521456
Course Title - Bangladesh Political History
Course ID – BPH 101
Section – 2
Semester – Autumn 2017
Submitted to - Sayed Abu Touab Shakir
Faculty, IUB
 Deterioration of Hindu-Muslim Relation & Communal Riot : Background of Partition of
1947
For Nearly 200 years, Britain ruled over India’s 380 million people. India was the center piece of
Britain’s empire. A source of money and power. For the British that were stationed there, life has
changed only little in decades. On the surface there was communal harmony between Hindus,
Muslims and Sheikhs in British India. In the same part of the village Hindus and Sheikhs were
living side by side. In British India, the 255 million Hindus were the majority. India’s 92 million
Muslims were concentrated on the Northwest and Northeast of the country. The 6 million
Sheikhs lived mostly in the Punjab, One of the richest and diverse provinces in India, Lahore was
its ancient capital. Lahore was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country, a center for
education and fashion. Lahore at that time was a very liberal, progressive and tolerant city.
However, there were still prejudices among the religions. The Hindus treated the Muslims as
more untouchable than their Untouchable caste. The Muslims were not getting enough jobs and
there was a lack of proper education for the Muslims in the system. So they envied the Hindus
who got the best of jobs.
For decades, Indians have fought to rid themselves from British rule. The Independent
movement had been kept in check by ruthless military force. But by 1946, everything had
changed. World War II had led Britain to bankruptcy. The already stationed British soldiers
knew that they were the last of British soldiers to be there. The cost of maintaining an army in
India after the war was just too much for the British Empire to bear.
India’s independent leaders were divided about what would happened once the British left the
region. The Indian National Congress under its leaders Pundit Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi
demanded a single state where the religion would live side by side. But many Muslims feared
living under a Hindu majority. Muslim fears that Hindus would dominate the independent India
drove the demand for a separate Muslim homeland. It was championed by one man, a British
educated barrister, Mohammad Ali Zinnah. Whose muslim league demanded the division of
India into two. One country for the Hindus and Sheiks and another for the Muslims.
In March 1946, a british government delegation, “the Cabinet Mission” arrived to negotiate
between the congress and the league. This was supposed to be a breakthrough conference where
a deal would be struck leading to an independent India. Pandit Nehru, who calls for an Indian
Republic, is accused by the league of working towards the domination upon the Muslim
minority. Zinnah compromised and accepted a united India if it has a weak central powers. But
Nehru, a socialist, and a believer of strong central state had refused to any such concessions to
the Muslim League. Thus the conference was ended in a failure.
In August 16th 1946, At Calcutta, the stronghold of Muslim League, with the collapse of
negotiations, Zinnah called for direct actions, thousands of the Muslims gathered in the center of
the city to demand a separate homeland. As the crowd dispersed, the more radical elements
headed for the Hindu parts of the city. As the city erupted in communal violence, Muslim
slaughter of Hindus turned to Hindus slaughter of Muslims. Not even the elderlies were forgiven
by the mob. Around 5000 people were killed in three days of rioting. The British ordered the
troops to stay in the barracks in those days. The Calcutta killings shattered the dream of a united
India. After the Calcutta killings, the violence started to spread over the India. Mahatma Gandhi
tried to maintain the dream of united India. Gandhi’s attempt to bring Hindus and Muslims
together by holding prayer meetings in villages turned futile as less Muslims were attending the
meetings each day. He failed to win the hearts of the Muslims. As they thought of him as the
representation of Hindu supremacy.
In March 1947 Mountbatten had arrived in India as viceroy. The former supreme commander of
Southeast Asia had a reputation of being a decisive leader. His informal approach to politics won
the heart of Nehru but failed for Zinnah.
As the political tensions were increasing, it started to spread to the general people. Punjab was
effected by it the most as it contained Hindu, Muslims and Sheikh and they all claimed it to be
their home. Most of the 6 million Sheikhs of India lived in Punjab and they were susceptible that
if the land is divided then Punjab would fall under Muslim control, an idea they did not liked as
historically, the Muslims and Sheikhs were enemies. In the villages of Punjab the Sheikhs were
preparing for an armed attack to prevent Muslim control over the region. As a counter measure
the Muslims strike the first blow in a Sheikh village.
As the threat of all out conflict became eminent, a deal became a matter of urgency. Nehru
decided to compromise on his vision of united India and accepted partition. On the night of June
3rd 1947 Mountbatten, Nehru and Zinnah all broadcasted the news of partition. The partition deal
involved in giving those provinces with Muslim majority to Pakistan and Hindu majority to
India. Mountbatten and Nehru insisted that Punjab and Bengal would be treated differently
despite their Muslim majority. Zinnah was forced to accept that both these provinces would be
cut in half and divided between India and Pakistan. In the next day, Mountbatten declared that
Britain would not be leaving in June 1948 but rather in August 15th 1947. Mountbatten did not
want to be responsible ultimately for law and order.
There had been no decision on the matter of where the line of border should lie. The man chosen
to draw the line was a British barrister, Sir Cyril Radcliffe. On July Radcliffe came to India, with
only 36 days before the partition. He considered not only religious majority but also railroad,
canals, irrigation channel and river transport as well as other factors as well. Although his
biggest challenge were the decisions about Punjab and Bengal, especially with Lahore. As the
day of partition grew nearer, the violence in Lahore started to rise as well. The residents of
Lahore were speculating about the fate of Lahore. During the peak of this tension, the British
government decided to bring 150,000 British soldiers to home. This caused violence in Lahore to
spread substantially. Looting, murdering and communal cleansing had become a regular thing for
the city from all the religious communities. During this time, the viceroy Mountbatten took a
controversial decision of keeping the new borders secret. The reveal of the map would arguably
have minimized the casualties in Lahore.
Few weeks before the partition, Mountbatten made deal with Nehru that the semi-autonomous
princely states would be given to India.
On 14th of August 1947, Zinnah’s dream of a Muslim homeland became a reality as Pakistan was
born. Zinnah became its first governor general. On 15th August 1947, India achieved its long
yearned independence under the leadership of Nehru. After the celebration, viceroy Moutbatten
announced the border of the new nations. It sliced through the previous provinces Bengal and
Punjab. Lahore was given to Pakistan. This led to one of the biggest refugee movement of
history. People are forced out of the villages they have lived in for generations. Almost 15
million scrambled to build on the right side of the new border. At least one million died in the
process.