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The Causes & Consequences of the Partition of India

The Causes & Consequences of the Partition of India. Gov 1255; Lecture 3 Prof Prerna Singh. Questions for this Lecture. Why was India partitioned? Was this inevitable? What were the consequences of Indian partition? Was the extent of violence at Partition inevitable?

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The Causes & Consequences of the Partition of India

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  1. The Causes & Consequences of the Partition of India Gov 1255; Lecture 3 Prof Prerna Singh

  2. Questions for this Lecture • Why was India partitioned? Was this inevitable? • What were the consequences of Indian partition? • Was the extent of violence at Partition inevitable? • What were the longer term implications of partition?

  3. Why was India partitioned? Demand for Pakistan by the Muslim League All India Muslim League Working Committee, Lahore session, March 1940

  4. Why was India partitioned? Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan

  5. Why was India partitioned? • Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan driven by political, NOT religious reasons

  6. Why was India partitioned? Jinnah & Gandhi Nehru & Gandhi

  7. Why was India partitioned? The Two-Nation Theory

  8. Two Views on Muslim Separatism • Primordalist • Instrumentalist

  9. Primordialist view Ethnic conflict is the result of fundamental, ‘natural’ differences between groups Main problems with primordialism: 1. Assumption of fixed, natural identities. 2. Failure to account for the significant variation in the incidence and intensity of ethnic mobilization and conflict.

  10. Instrumentalist View of Ethnicity Ethnicity as a weapon in the pursuit of collective advantage. Ethnic conflict as a result of conflicting socio-political, economic interests.

  11. Map of India with Distribution of Muslims (1909)

  12. Emergence of Muslim Separatism in UP Hindu Mahasabha + Muslim League Popular Religious Nationalism Political changes: Admin reforms Political competition: Hindu-Hindi vs. Muslim-Urdu Emergence of Elite Hindu and Muslim Nationalism • Economic changes: • Railways Trade • Wealthy Hindu merchant castes • Social changes: • - Beginnings of “Western education” through govt colleges • Rise of Hindu elite Dominance of Muslims

  13. Two Views on Muslim Separatism * ROLE OF THE BRITISH *

  14. Role of the British The British “welcomed and furthered the animosities between Hindus and Muslims” (Guha). WHY?

  15. Role of the British in India’s Partition WHY? Classification and division was the only way they knew to make sense of India’s overwhelming diversity

  16. Role of the British in India’s Partition Classification and division was the only way they knew to make sense of India’s overwhelming diversity WHY? Check anti-colonial sentiment by creating internal dissensions in the population • Favored Muslims • Closer to Monotheistic Islam • History of Muslim participation • in the 1857 Rebellion

  17. Distribution of Different Religious Communities in India, 1909

  18. Distribution of Muslims in India, 1909

  19. Largest population movement in recorded history: 12.5 million people

  20. A crowd of Muslims at the Old Fort (Purana Qila) in Delhi, which had been converted into a vast camp for Muslim refugees waiting to be transported to Pakistan. Manchester Guardian, 27 September 1947

  21. Distribution of Different Religious Communities in India, 1909

  22. Train to Pakistan, A Railway Station in Punjab

  23. Estimates range up to 1 million killed in Partition Violence

  24. India's Survivors of Partition Begin to Break Long Silence: Projects Document Anguish of 1947 Split The Washington Post Wednesday, March 12, 2008; Page A01 NEW DELHI -- Every year in March, Bir Bahadur Singh goes to the local Sikh shrine and narrates the grim events of the long night six decades ago when 26 women in his family offered their necks to the sword for the sake of honor. At the time, sectarian riots were raging over the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and the men of Singh’s family decided it was better to kill the women than have them fall into the hands of Muslim mobs. "None of the women protested, nobody wept," Singh, 78, recalled as he stroked his long, flowing white beard, his voice slipping into a whisper. "All I could hear was the sound of prayer and the swing of the sword going down on their necks. My story can fill a book.”

  25. Was the extent of partition violence inevitable? Guha – No Role of the British

  26. Lord Mountbatten against the backdrop of the count-down to Indian Independence

  27. Lord Mountbatten, Last Viceroy of India

  28. Was the extent of partition violence inevitable? Guha – No Role of the British Role of Nationalist leaders Gandhi, Nehru vs. Jinnah

  29. Legacy of Partition • Refugee Rehabilitation

  30. Young Refugee sits atop a wall in Purana Quila (Old Fort) in Delhi, transformed into a vast refugee camp

  31. Legacy of Partition • Refugee Rehabilitation • India-Pakistan relations

  32. Dividing Government Documents

  33. Legacy of Partition • Refugee Rehabilitation • India-Pakistan relations • Challenge for Indian Secularism

  34. Next week… • Nehru’s India

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