India’s Freedom Story or truth of partition 1947 by Alok Mohan
“India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”
By Mark Twain, an american author
“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made”
By Albert Einstein, American scientist
According to historians, the origin of Hinduism dates back to 5,000 or more years. The word “Hindu” is derived from the name of River Indus, which flows through northern India. In ancient times the river was called the ‘Sindhu’, but the Persians who migrated to India called the river ‘Hindu’, the land ‘Hindustan’ and its inhabitants ‘Hindus’. Thus the religion followed by the Hindus came to be known as ‘Hinduism’. It was earlier believed that the basic tenets of Hinduism were brought to India by the Aryans who invaded the Indus Valley Civilization and settled along the banks of the Indus river about 2000 BC. However, this theory has now been proved to be a flawed one and is considered nothing more than a myth.
India is a Land of Legends and Brave soldiers. Indian History We find great kings from different communities,, Like Shivaji – Baji Rao Peshwa from Marathas,, Guru Govind Singh from Sikh, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Rana Pratap from Rajputs / Kshatriyas etc etc. During mid.18th century The British snatched power from several hindu & muslim kingdoms and became the ruler of the country. Before colonisation of India, there were several small & big kingdoms ruled by Hindu & muslim kings… The British was cunning enough to exploit the situation and adopted ‘divide and rule’ policy.
Indian National Congress was formed during1885. British always feared was e Hindu-Muslim unity, which was evident from 1857 uprising when almost equal numbers of Hindu’s and Muslims fought the British and were martyrs in the uprising. The British initiatives to create a divide commenced since early 19th Century. The first partition was division of Bengal in 1905 into Muslim – East Bengal and Hindu – West Bengal and surprisingly the first meeting of imperial legislative council with separate electoral seats for Hindu’s and Muslims also took place in 1911 in Calcutta. Since 1935 Congress and Muslim League tried to resolve the issue on the number of electoral seats for Muslim’s in Muslim majority areas in independent India the Congress felt that the Muslim League was asking for more and seeds of partition were sown. The appointment of Cyril Radcliffe during early 19th century was a conspiracy of the Muslim League, who put pressure on Nehru (via Mountbatten couple) to accept him. Radcliffe never visited India before and when he drew his line he did every sort of injustice possible to Hindus and Sikhs under pressure from Muslim League. All lawyers by trade, Radcliffe and the other commissioners had no specialized knowledge needed for the task of partitioning India. They had no advisers to inform them of the well-established procedures and information needed to draw a boundary. Nor was there time to gather the survey of Hindu & Muslim Majority lands & and regional information. The absence of some experts and advisers, such as the United Nations, was a deliberate action. During partition, there were instances where the border was drawn leaving some parts of a village in India and some in Pakistan. Border was drawn right through thickly populated areas. There were even instances where the dividing line passed through a single house with some rooms in one country and others in the other. Chittagong Hill Tracts had a majority non-Muslim population of 97% most of them Buddhists, but was given to Pakistan. The Chittagong Hill Tracts People’s Association (CHTPA) petitioned the Bengal Boundary Commission, that since the CHTs were inhabited largely by non-Muslims they should remain within India. This came as a shock to Patel and Nehru, who had assumed the areas would be awarded to India since they were 98% non-Muslims. Jinnah was never an orthodox Muslim and was also not particularly religious. He seldom visited mosque and did everything prohibited in Islam and was rather an aristocrat in his behavior. Fearless, ruthless to his opponents and domineering in manners. After suffering heavy losses in World War II the Britishers left abruptly in 1947 without defining clear boundaries in fact complete partition had not happened even as late as end of 1947.Bloodshed during 1947, could have been avoided, had British not left abruptly leaving a vacuum in administration. Millions of people lost there life, just because of the ego of few people.
During 1947, It was intentional on the part of British government, to deprive Punjabi hindu & sikh communities. But now, the govt. of India should set up a commission to look after the misdeeds of that time and give justice to those whose lands were snatched illegally.
There are two ways to look at partition 1947. One is to admit that Jinnah was right and his Two nation theory was right. The other way is to prove Jinnah and his theory wrong. In that case we have to establish true secularism in this country by implementing uniform civil code and do away any special treatment or standard to any special religious group. During partition, Area chopped off from India for Pakistan, was proportionately more than the total population of muslim. They constituted around 26% of total population of undivided India but they got 33% of the total land. I feel, true harmony and unity can only be achieved in Indian society when all communities get justice. Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs have suffered centuries of injustice. Efforts should be made by government to give justice to them .
The land transfer during partition was not done properly . Nor can it be called valid. As the future of the communities were decided arbitrarily without any referendum or consent from the communities. International community was also not taken into confidence. A few leaders, who had no understanding of the ground realities took decision on their own affecting the future of millions of people. These leaders in no way represented the Hindu or muslim communities. This was a unique situation in world history and could only be compared with forced mass migration of the jews in Germany. Such decisions if taken without taking the communities into confidence, is unethical according to international standard.
Now that things are settled and India is in a more favorable condition than Pakistan or Bangladesh, this issue should again be raised and any injustice done to Hindus evicted from Pakistan can be rectified. No country forgives such gross human rights violation as happened during Partition 1947.
. Armenia is still asking for apology from Turkey even though Turkey is more powerful. GOI should see to it that the loss occurred to the partition victims is compensated now. About 12 to13 million people were displaced as result of Partition. The higher estimates of those killed put the number at around 1 million.
No one can deny following facts.
1) Hindus & Sikhs did not ask for Partition. That should be enough reason for them to ask compensation. India was not divided in the name of Ram or Guru Gobind Singhji.
2) In Pakistan the Pakistani army carried out systematic genocide of Hindus & Sikhs because they wanted a Pak (pure) nation free from Kafirs.
3) What is the population of Punjabi Hindus & Sikhs in Pakistan now and the population of Muslims in India now?
CONCLUSION: Armenia has been asking for apology from Turkey over genocide.China is asking apology from Japan over war crimes. India should also ask for apology from Pakistan for the Hindu Holocaust. This issue needs to be raised at the UN & all the affected people irrespective of Religion Cast or Community should be given Justice
