Chapter 14.Understanding Partition Politics, Memories, Experiences | class 12th | quick revision notes history

Class 12 History Quick Revision notes Chapter 14 Understanding Partition

Key concepts in nutshell
Sources: Oral testimonies – narrations, memories, diaries, family history and handwritten accounts.
Partition or Holocaust

1. Almost 15 million people had to cross borders
2. They were rendered homeless, having suddenly lost all their immovable property and most of their movable assets, separated from many of their relatives and friends as well.
3. Thus stripped of their local or regional cultures, they were forced to begin picking up their life from scratch.
4. The Holocaust in Germany is remembered and referred to in our contemporary concerns so much. Yet, differences between the two events should not be overlooked.
5. In 1947-48, the subcontinent did not witness any state-driven extermination as was the case with Nazi Germany
6. The “ethnic cleansing” that characterized the partition of India was carried out by self-styled representatives of religious communities rather than by state agencies

The power of stereotypes –

• The stereotypes of the extraterritorial and Pan Islamic loyalty comes fused with other objectionable ideas about both the communities, the Hindus as well as the Muslims.
• Some of these stereotypes pre-date Partition, but they were immensely strengthened because of 1947.
• The relationship between Pakistan and India has been profoundly shaped by this legacy of Partition.

Why partition took place –

1. Mr. Jinnah’s two nation Theory ( the Hindus and Muslims in colonial India constituted two separate nations can be projected back into medieval history).
2. The British policy of divide and rule.
3. Separate electorates for Muslims, created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919, crucially shaped the nature of communal politics.
4. Hindu Muslim conflict and communal riots in different parts of the country.
5. The secular and radical rhetoric of the Congress merely alarmed conservative Muslims and the Muslim landed elite, without winning over the Muslim masses.
6. The Pakistan Resolution of 23rd March 1940 demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim-majority areas of the subcontinent.

Post-war development –

• Muslim league emerged as the sole representative of Indian Muslims in the provincial elections of 1946.
• Cabinet mission proposal of a loose three-tier confederation in 1946 which failed.
• Direct action day by Muslim league on 16th August 1946. On this day, violence spread to many parts of the country.
• In March 1947 the Congress high command voted for dividing the Punjab and Bengal.

Post Partition Developments

• The collapse of the institutions of governance.
• Gandhiji’s valiant effort to restore communal harmony and principle of Non-violence

· Gendering partition ——

• Women were raped, abducted and sold. Families were uprooted.
• Some began to develop new family bonds in their changed circumstances.
• But the Indian and Pakistani governments were insensitive to the complexities of human relationships and sent them back to their earlier families or locations.
• Preserving honor –
• Ideas of preserving community honor came into play in this period of extreme physical and psychological danger.
• The men feared that their females would be molested by the enemies, they killed their own women.
• For the community of survivors, the remembrance ritual helps keep the memory alive.

Important Events during Partition: Negotiation and Discussions Started Again

• Negotiations between British, Congress and Muslim league began in 1945 but the discussions broke down due to Jinnah’s unrelenting demands about members of council and communal veto.
• In 1946, again provincial elections were held. In this election, Congress swept general constituencies and league succeed in gaining large majority of Muslim vote.
• The League’s success to capture seats reserved for Muslims was spectacular. It won all 30 reserved constituencies in the centre and 442 out of 509 seats in the provinces. Therefore, in 1946 league established itself as dominant party among Muslims.

Cabinet Mission Came to India:

• In March 1946, Cabinet Mission came to India to make a suitable political framework for India.
• Mission recommended India to be united with three tier confederation. It grouped provincial assemblies into 3 sections. A for Hindu majority province, while B and C were for Muslim majority areas of North-West and North-East. Cabinet Mission proposed a weak centre and provinces will have power to set up intermediate level executives and legislature of their own.
• Initially, all parties agreed but later league demanded that grouping should be made compulsory and should have right to secede from the union. While Congress wanted that provinces should be given the right to join the group. So due to differences, talks broke down.
• Now Congress sensed after this failure that partition became inevitable and took it as tragic but unavoidable. But Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of North-West frontier province continued to oppose the idea of partition.

Re-Election in the Year 1946:

• After withdrawal from Cabinet Mission, Muslims league decided on direct action for winning its Pakistan demand. It announced 16th August, 1946 as ‘direct action day’. Initially riots broke out in Calcutta and gradually spread to other parts of Northern India.
• In March 1947, Congress accepted division of Punjab in 2 halves, one will be Muslim majority and other will be Hindu/Sikh majority. Similarly, Bengal was a ho divided.

The Withdrawal of Law and Order Situation:

• Large scale bloodshed took place in the year 1947. Governance structure of the country was totally collapsed, there was complete loss of authority. British officials were reluctant to take decisions and did not know how to handle the situation. British were busy preparing to quit India.
• Top leaders barring Gandhiji were engaged in negotiation regarding Independence. Indian Civil Servants in the affected areas were concerned for their own life. Problem became more complicated when soldiers and policemen forgot their professional commitment and helped their co-religionist and attacked members of other communities.

Condition of Women during the Partition:

• During the partition women suffered the most. Women were raped, abducted, sold and forced to settle down to a new life with stranger in unknown circumstances. Some began to develop a new family bond in their changed circumstances.
• Government of both India and Pakistan showed lack of understanding of emotions and sometimes forcefully sent women away from their new relatives. They did not consult the concerned women and undermine their rights to take decisions.
• Notion of honour drew on a conception of masculinity, defined as ownership of zan [women] and zamin [land]. Virility, it was believed that lay in ability to protect your possession i.e. zan and zamin from outsiders.
• So when men feared that their women-wives, daughters, sisters would be violated by enemy, they killed their women themselves. There was an incident in village of Rawalpindi, where 90 Sikh women voluntarily jumped into w’ell for protecting themselves from outsiders.
• These incidents were seen as ‘martyrdom and it is believed that men at that time had to courageously accept the decision of women and in some cases even persuade them to kill themselves.

Role of Mahatma Gandhi during Partition:

• Using Turmoil, Gandhiji took brave effort to restore peace, toured villages of Noakhali (East Bengal), villages in Bihar then riots torn Calcutta and Delhi to stop communal killing and reassure the safety of minority community.
• In East Bengal, he assured safety of Hindus, while in Delhi he told Hindus and Sikhs to protect Muslims and tried to build a spirit of mutual trust.
• Gandhiji begem a fast to bring about a change in the heart of people. Many Hindus, Sikh migrants fasten with him. The effect of the fast was ‘electric’ as people started to realise the misdeed what they have done with other communities. But only with martyrdom of Gandhiji, finally this massacre ended.

Regional Variations in Partition:

• The partition brought carnage and thousand of lives were lost.
• In Punjab, there was a mass displacement of Hindu and Sikh population from Pakistani side to Indian side and displacement of Punjabi Muslims to Pakistan from Indian side.
• Displacement of people in Punjab was very agonising. Property were looted, women were killed, abducted and raped. There was large scale massacre.
• In Bengal, people moved across porous border, suffering was less concentrated and agonising in Bengal in comparison to Punjab. There was also not total displacement of Hindu and Muslim population in Bengal.
• Some Muslims families of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad also migrated to Pakistan during 1950s and early 1960’s.
• Jinnah’s theory of two state based on religion failed when East Bengal separated it from West Pakistan and become independent country as Bangladesh in 1971.
• In Punjab and Bengal there is huge similarity in both these states. Women and girls were the prime target of persecution. Attacker treated women bodies as territory to be conquered.
• Discoursing women of community was seen as dishonouring community.

Help, Humanity and Harmony:

• There is history’ of help, and humanity beneath the debris of violence and pain of partition. Numerous stories are there when people took an extra effort to help the victims of partition.
• Many stories of caring, sharing, empathy are present, stories of opening of new opportunities and of triumph over trauma are also present.
• For e.g. the story of Khushdeva Singh, a Sikh doctor’s work, is one of the finest examples, who helped many migrants whether of Muslim, Hindu or Sikh communities with affection. He provided them shelter, food, security, etc in times of partition.

Oral Testimonies and History:

• Oral narratives, memoirs, diaries, family histories, first hand written accounts helped in understanding the suffering of people during the time of partition.
• Lives of the affected people changed drastically between 1946-50. They bore immense, psychological, emotional and social pain.
• Oral testimonies helps us to know about experience and memory in detail. It enabled historians to write rich and vivid account of suffering and anguish of people. Official record tells us about policy matters and high level decision of government and its machinery.
• Oral histories provided historian the experiences of poor and powerless. It gives information about significant help and empathy of people in easing out the life of affected person.
• The oral history of partition has succeeded in exploring experiences of those men and women who were earlier ignored and taken for granted or mentioned in passing history.
• Some historians casts doubt on oral history as they say oral history lacks concreteness and chronology. Oral histories are not able to provide overall bigger picture and are usually touching the tangential issues. Reliability of oral histories can be corroborated and examined by the evidences from other sources. Oral history should not be seen as tangential if one has to know about experience of people.
• Oral histories are not easily available and affected People might not like to share their sufferings to strangers. The oral historian faces the daunting task of having to shift, the actual experiences of partition from the web of constructed memories.