Tuesday 15 April 2014

Partition of India -1million died -Whose fault is that ?


             World war II left Britain Bankrupt and in Economic depression , which created the circumstances that the cost of maintaining an Army in India is not possible anymore .. So, British decided to leave India as early as possible .

             So,The Independent India was obvious and very near , But a fear developed in the minds of Muslims about what would happen if British leave .It Reflected in the Arguments of Muslim league Leaders.


        
            Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhiji representing Indian National Congress wanted a Single State,where all Religions would live side by side , But Muslim League wanted a separate state , Pakistan.
         In Feb 1947, British government declared irrespective of the situations they will leave India by June 1948 . And British Government appointed Lord Mountbatten  as the new viceroy to manage the chaos and handle the power to Indians in this period. Constant negotiations were held and Partition was decided. It was decided to give Muslim majority states as Pakistan and Hindu majority states  as India ,  Punjab and Bengal will be divided between India and Pakistan. After deciding this Mountbatten Announced that British will not be leaving on June,1948 but by 
Aug 1947 itself. He said ,"Why should we wait,If i stay then I will be responsible for law and order". It forced the phase of partition to be furious..On July 8,1947 Radcliffe came to India .He has to draw the new map of India and Pakistan - Radcliffe line in 36 days .



         Hindus Prayed that their District must come in India and Muslims wanted to be in Pakistan. Looting , killing began in Punjab even before partition was announced ..On Aug 14, 1947 a new country was born, the dream of the Muslim homeland came reality in Pakistan .

          When Mountbatten announced the partition , the line fly through Punjab and Bengal .. Millions started Migrating from the places where lived for decades and generations .Over 15 million people migrated and nearly 1 millions died on riots .




1 million died.. whose Fault is that ? . whom to be blamed ,
Lets look from Everyone's Side ..
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Radcliffe's side :-
              In no way Radcliffe could be Blamed for What had happened , Because he had just 36 days to draw line between two countries , In which he was very concerned about sharing the Rivers , Dams , Canals,Railways, Roadways and also he must keep the priority for religious majority . It is nearly impossible to do that on those days with less indexed census datum and lack of technologies . He did his best , He even said ,"There will be conflicts,controversy and violence in any drawing of line,here,there ,anywhere". So Radcliffe can't be blamed.
Jawaharlal Nehru's side:-
            Nehru Agreed for the partition because he was cornered to do that . He might have forced a united India , but Jinnah was not compromising for anything less than a separate country. Though his decision to agree was a cause for the riots . He can't be blamed for what had happened.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah's side:-

              Jinnah's call for Direct Action vanished the hope of a Single India ,Yet he can't be blamed solely for the riots because he only expressed the Fear of the Muslim community towards single India , But he could have agreed for some compromising deals with reservations for Muslims and such .But he can't be Blamed for Everything that had happened . 
Mahatma Gandhiji's side :-
                 Gandhiji ,of all his life he wanted a united India ,Even after kolkatta killings he still hoped for a united India ,Because he believed that ," If all community could live peacefully under British rule ,why not under an Indian Rule".He even proposed of Making Jinnah as Prime minister ahead of Nehruji ,But Jinnah refused that by saying , majority People might not accept him and that might cause the country unstable. So Gandhiji can never be blamed for these Riots .

Mountbatten's side :-
                Mountbatten was solely responsible for the 1 million lives and if someone has to be blamed for ,it is him . because he wanted to separate more than 5000 km of boundary line in a month time . though he had a year to do that , he forced the partition in 30 days . And also he announced the boundaries after announcing independance , Even if had waited for a week to allow people to migrate then it would have avoided a massive killing .




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Images has been taken from wikipedia ..

1 comment:

  1. //Gandhiji can never be blamed for these Riots .// - Horrible!

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