Week 51: Partition of British India, 75 years on
This week marks the 75th anniversary of Partition, the split of British India into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The event, which began in August 1947, triggered one of the biggest migrations in history, leading to around 2 million deaths and the displacement of 10 million to 20 million people.
Muslims left India for Pakistan, mostly heading west, while Hindus and Sikhs made the opposite journey. The violence and subsequent separation of families have left a long lasting stain on the two countries’ relationship.
When in the world?
In 1905, during his second term as viceroy of India, Lord Curzon divided the Bengal Presidency—the largest administrative subdivision in British India—into the Muslim-majority province of Eastern Bengal and Assam and the Hindu-majority province of Bengal (present-day Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha). Curzon's act, the partition of Bengal, angered the Hindu elite of Bengal, many of whom owned land that was leased out to Muslim peasants in East Bengal.
What in the world?
The two-nation theory is the ideology that the primary identity and unifying denominator of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent is their religion, rather than their language or ethnicity, and therefore Indian Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations regardless of commonalities. The two-nation theory was a founding principle of the Pakistan Movement and the partition of India in 1947.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, termed it as the awakening of Muslims for the creation of Pakistan.
It is also a source of inspiration to Hindu nationalist organizations, which supported causes such as the redefinition of Indian Muslims as foreigners and second-class citizens in India, the expulsion of all Muslims from India, the establishment of a legally Hindu state in India, and the prohibition of conversions to Islam.
Who in the world?
The British Prime Minister Attlee appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy, giving him the task to oversee British India's independence by 30 June 1948, with the instruction to avoid partition and preserve a united India, but also to ensure a British withdrawal with minimal setbacks.
However, the tense communal situation caused Mountbatten to conclude that partition had become necessary for a quicker transfer of power.
On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan (today Pakistan and Bangladesh) came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor-General in Karachi. The following day, 15 August 1947, India, now Dominion of India, became an independent country, with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the office of prime minister, and with Viceroy Mountbatten staying on as the country's first Governor General.
Further Reading:
NYT - “India’s Partition: A History in Photos”
The New Yorker- “The Great Divide”
If there’s a novel/author you would recommend that highlights this element in our world history, please let me know!