Understanding Partition (Not for Exams) - Revision Notes
CBSE Class 12 History
Revision Notes
CHAPTER - 5
UNDERSTANDING PARTITION
POLITICS, MEMORIES, EXPERIENCES
Key concepts in nutshell
Sources: Oral testimonies - narrations, memories, diaries, family history and handwritten accounts.
Partition or Holocaust
- Almost 15 million people had to cross borders
- 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.
- Thus stripped of their local or regional cultures, they were forced to begin picking up their life from scratch.
- 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.
- In 1947-48, the subcontinent did not witness any state-driven extermination as was the case with Nazi Germany
- 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 –
- Mr. Jinnah’s two nation Theory ( the Hindus and Muslims in colonial India constituted two separate nations can be projected back into medieval history).
- The British policy of divide and rule.
- Separate electorates for Muslims, created by the colonial government in 1909 and expanded in 1919, crucially shaped the nature of communal politics.
- Hindu Muslim conflict and communal riots in different parts of the country.
- The secular and radical rhetoric of the Congress merely alarmed conservative Muslims and the Muslim landed elite, without winning over the Muslim masses.
- 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.