Brig Anil Gupta (Retd)
Why Partition was a Holocaust
The partition of India in 1947 was not just a political event leading to independence of Bharat and birth of a theological state named Pakistan but also a holocaust. Apart from the largest human displacement ever in the history it also led to killings of lakhs of people. A large number of women were either raped or abducted. Thousands killed herself by jumping into wells or flowing rivers. Children became orphan or went missing. Forcible conversions and mass murders were reported from either side. Families fled leaving behind their wealth and properties and millions became refugees in alien lands with a dark future staring at them. All this was happening while simultaneous festivities were being held to celebrate the newly acquired freedom from the tyrannic British Rule.
In August, 1947, when, after three hundred years in India, the British finally left, they played a major mischief by dividing Akhand Bharat into two. Hindu-majority Bharat and Muslim-majority Pakistan. This led to immediate exodus and forced migration, as millions trekked to in the opposite directions with uncertainty all around. Many hundreds of thousands never made it, yet their only hope at that time was to safely cross the border and reach across avoiding the blood thirsty murderers who were hounding them out. The communities that had coexisted for almost a millennium attacked each other in a terrifying outbreak of sectarian violence leading to unexpected and unprecedented genocide nothing less than a holocaust. Some seventy-five thousand women were raped, and many of them were then disfigured or dismembered.
The holocaust (partition) was shocking in its specifics, with individual families being torn apart and separated. But it is shocking in its sheer scale, too: more than 15 million people were displaced during the transition, making it easily one of the biggest movements of people in history. Up to two million people died during the move. Many of them simply went missing – including huge numbers of people who left but never knowingly arrived at their destinations. The governments were ill-equipped and underprepared to cope with this challenge. The leadership of the day should have anticipated and made plans to deal with contingencies that may arise.
Facts About the Partition
It would be prudent to narrate a few facts. The decision to partition was taken immediately after the second World War since the British were unsure of holding on to the Sub-Continent due to the growing pressure of the freedom movement. In keeping with its policy of Divide and Rule, the British had already sowed the seeds of dissension between the Hindus and the Muslims. Jinnah was adamant to have a separate nation for the Muslims of Hindustan. This suited the British larger design as for it an undivided Bharat due to its sheer size, population and geostrategic location could emerge as a power to reckon with.
In fact, the communal rights had broken out in undivided India much before the partition. Hence, the British rulers as well as the leaders of Indian National Congress and the Muslim League should have anticipated the sectarian violence but they were busy negotiating with the British. Surprisingly, the British government did not refer to the event as Independence but Transfer of Power. The British soldiers were stationed, but were told not to do anything. They had been instructed only to act to save British lives.
On the afternoon of February 20, 1947, the British Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, announced before Parliament that British rule would end on “a date not later than June, 1948.”
Within a month the British announced a new Governor General for India who was tasked to oversee the transfer of power. The British Government had made up its mind of dividing the sub-continent. In March, 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten flew into Delhi as Britain’s final Viceroy with his mission to hand over power and get out of India as quickly as possible.
The decision of partition was preordained. Alan Campbell-Johansson, press advisor of Lord Mountbatten- the man of the moment, authored a book ‘Mission with Mountbatten’. According to this book, he wrote a letter to his mother on 1 June 1947. “Here we stand at the threshold of important events, I am constantly engrossed in finalizing the publicity arrangements for the historic announcement. The atmosphere is very tense and if the verdict is in favor of partition – as it seems certain – there could be large scale communal riots.”
Mountbatten held a series of meetings with the leaders of both the Congress and the Muslim League. The communal frenzy that broke out in major cities in 1946 continued to flare. Mountbatten seized the opportunity to warn the leaders of an impending civil war and persuaded both the parties to agree to Partition as the only remaining option. While Jinnah was happy, there was a division in the Congress. Nehru and Gandhi were reconciled to the idea of partition. In the same book Campbell quotes Nehru as telling Lord Mountbatten, “By giving Pakistan to Jinnah, he would get rid of him. He says that by chopping off the head, we get rid of the headache.”
On June 3, 1947, the Partition Plan was announced which required the Punjab and Bengal assemblies to vote on whether they wanted to keep their provinces united or partitioned. Both the assemblies voted in favour of partitioning their provinces. In early June, Mountbatten stunned everyone by announcing August 15, 1947, as the date for the transfer of power-ten months before the due date. A month earlier Nehru accompanied Mountbatten & his wife Lady Edwina for a holiday in Shimla. Its believed that holiday was only an alibi, Lord Mountbatten and his wife used their charm to befriend Nehru and convince him of the necessity of partition.
Cyril Radcliffe, a British judge assigned to draw the borders of the two new states, was given barely forty days to remake the map of South Asia. The borders were finally announced two days after India’s Independence. Radcliffe had never before visited India and was unaware of its geography and topography. On the basis of maps, castes and religions, Radcliffe divided the two nations. The religion-based partition of India created the conditions of the biggest displacement in human history, the corollary of which was the large scale sectarian violence that was unprecedented.
When the Hindu refugees reached India, they were kept in hastily prepared refugee camps. Nehru passed a Bill to protect the properties of the Indian Muslims who had migrated to Pakistan. He did not allow the Indian refugees to take over these assets while in Pakistan, the Havelis and other landed properties including jewelry and cash were immediately occupied by the local Muslims as well as the Mohajirs (a term used for migrant Muslims).
A Few Questions
The subsequent holocaust has still many questions unanswered. Some of these are:
4 Was the partition of India preordained?
4 Why was the date of Partition preponed by 10 months by Lord Mountbatten? What was the hurry. This period could well have been used to plan safe migration without any bloodshed?
4 What was the difference between independence and transfer of power? Why were the British insisting on calling it transfer of power?
4 When it was known that partition will lead to large scale communal riots, why no plans were made to prevent or control them?
4 Why were the British troops not used for controlling the communal riots?
4 Was Nehru’s idea of sacrificing the head to eliminate the headache justified? In fact the headache has grown into a migraine and continues to trouble till date.
4 Was partition just a game for Jawahar Lal Nehru to get rid of Jinnah?
4 Why did Nehru accompany Lord Mountbatten and his wife for a personal holiday to Shimla in May 1947?
4 The Britishers were to leave Bharat after 15th August 1947. But why did Nehru agree to continue with Lord Mountbatten as Bharat’s Viceroy even after the independence. Why didn’t Congress press for total independence rather than accepting the Dominion status?
4 Why was the leadership of Indian military continued to be in hand of British officers? Both the Indian and Pakistan Armies’ Chief of Army Staff were British officers at the time of partition.
4 Why did India choose a British officer to be Chief of Army Staff even after Pakistan attacked? It’s alleged that General Bucher used to share the plans of Indian Army with his Pakistani counterpart Gen Macey. He is also alleged to be responsible for creation of POJK.
4 Why Nehru didn’t allow Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan to occupy properties left behind by the Muslims who migrated to Pakistan?
4 Were the communal riots pre-planned by the British to weaken independent Bharat? The subsequent attack by Pakistan in October 1947 had been planned by the British as “Operation Gulmarg” prior to August 1947.
The above questions remain unanswered till date because the post- independence historians of India continued to promote and praise the British legacy. Rather than raising questions they continued to promote the narratives set by them. In the Amrit Kaal of our independence, its our responsibility as a proud nation to get rid of the British legacy and let the people know the truth.
(The author is a Jammu based veteran, political commentator, security and strategic analyst)
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