INTRODUCTION: Partition means separating which means dividing from a part from a group or place. In 1947Pakistan was divided from India. Before partition Pakistan was called as east Bengal. It involved the two provinces Bengal and Punjab. It was led due the fight between to the major religions Hindus and Muslims. British people were ruled india almost in divde and rule policy they divided many areas into parts and started ruled it.british ruled india by applying divide and rule policy.Bengal was dividied into Bangladesh in the year 1904 the decision of partition of Bengal was announced in 7 july 1905 by the viceroy of india,LORD CURZON. The partition took place on 16 october 1905seprating largerly musilim eastern areas from the largerly western area of west Bengal in this way the partition in india took place by diving Bengal into two parts by british rulers.
National Movement in India-partition& Independence :1939-1947
The British were desperate with the Indian people revolting against their rule. They looked for ways to punish the Congress and weaken its hold over the people. The British actively raised doubts about the right of the Congress to represent the people of the country. Now, they followed the ‘Divide and Rule Policy’ more vigorously. Towards this end, the British government supported and encouraged the plans of the Muslim League and downplayed the importance of the Congress. It is in these years that the Muslim League and its leaders like M.A Jinnah became more active in mass politics.
The Muslim League
This was a party formed in 1906. Till the 1930s it mainly represented the interests of Muslim landlords of UP and did not have much mass support. It had demanded that the British should create separate seats in all councils for which only Muslims would vote. It had argued that since the majority people in many areas were Hindus, more Hindus are likely to get elected to councils and Muslims will find it difficult to protect their interests in government. But, if a certain number of seats were reserved for Muslims for which only the Muslim population of an area would vote, the Muslim members reaching the councils will be able to raise the concerns of Muslims. The Congress had accepted this logic and separate electorates were implemented from 1909. When provincial governments were elected in 1937, the League won 102 of the 482 Muslim seats in the country.
However, the Congress had also fought elections on the Muslim seats because it believed it was a national party and not a party of only Hindus. The Congress won 26 out of the 58 Muslim seats it contested. In 1937 the Muslim League got only 4.4 percent of the total Muslim vote cast in the elections. The Muslim League was popular in the United Provinces, Bombay and Madras. However, it was quite weak in the three provinces from which Pakistan was to be carved out just ten years later. viz. Bengal, the NWFP and the Punjab. Even in Sind it failed to form a government. But the situation changed in the next 10 years. In 1946, when elections were held again for the provincial and central assemblies, the League succeeded in winning the Muslim seats decisively. What happened to Muslim consciousness in the years between 1937 and 1947? The League pointed out many issues and blamed Congress of insensitivity. For example, the Congress refused to form a coalition government with the League in the United Provinces where it too had won many seats. The Congress had banned its members from taking membership of the League. Congress members could be members of the Hindu Mahasabha before. But this was also banned from 1938, only after objections were raised by Muslim Congressmen like Maulana Azad. The League could thus create the impression that the Congress was basically a Hindu party and did not want to share power with the Muslims.
The Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS
This was the time when the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rastriya Swayam Sewak (RSS) Sangh were engaged in active mobilization. These organisations wished to unite all Hindus, overcome the divisions of caste and sect and reform their social
Discuss the importance of addressing the concerns of minorities. Why is it felt that majority based elections are not enough to help minorities? Separate electorate was one method to protect minority interests. Can you think of some other methods that can be helpful for this purpose? For example, would it help if there was a rule that a non-Muslim member of a council must consult the Muslim population of his/ her constituency before voting on an issue that concerned them? When would such a method work and under what conditions would it fail to be effective?
life. They also gave out the message that India was the land of the Hindus who were in a majority. Many Congressmen were also impressed with the activities of these organizations. Congress tried hard to build a secular understanding among its members. It also tried to contact the Muslim masses and make them feel secure and remove the wrong impression that was being created in their minds by the messages and activities of organizations like the Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS. Congress argued that Hindus and Muslims were not people of two different nations, but part and parcel of one Indian nation. However, the British were eagerly listening to the fears of the League about Hindu domination and suggesting ways to make the Muslims secure.
The “Pakistan” Resolution
The British announced that India would be participating in the world war-II On behalf of the allied powers without any consent of Indian Congress leaders. The British actively raised doubts about the right of the Congress to represent the people of the country. They followed ‘the Divide and Rule policy’ vigorously. The British supported and encouraged the plans of the Muslim league. Hindu Mahasabha, RSS gave out the message that India was the land of the Hindus who were in a majority. Congress argued that Hindus and Muslims were not people of two different nations, but part and parcel of one Indian nation. On 23rd March 1940, the Muslim League moved a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim majority areas of the subcontinent
The need to make special arrangements for governing regions where Muslims were in a majority was being felt by many people. For example, the Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal, the writer of “Sara Jahan Se Ache Hindustan Hamara” spoke of a need for a “North- West Indian Muslim state” in his presidential address to the Muslim League in 1930.
The name Pakistan or Pak-Stan (from Punjab, Afghan, Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan) was coined by a Punjabi Muslim student at Cambridge, Choudhry Rehmat Ali. In pamphlets written in 1933 and 1935, this young student desired a separate national status for this new entity. No one took Rehmat Ali seriously in the 1930s, least of all the League and other Muslim leaders who dismissed his idea merely as a student’s dream.
As noted before, the failure of Congress to address the fears of domination fanned by Muslim League and the policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ followed by the British changed the political climate.
On 23 March 1940, the League moved a resolution demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim majority areas of the subcontinent. This ambiguous resolution never mentioned partition or Pakistan. However, in later years it came to be called the Pakistan resolution. It must be noted that many alternatives were being considered by the people to solve the issues raised by the League and a new nation state of Pakistan was one among these alternatives. As discussions and negotiations started and stopped, the idea of opting for a separate nation state of Pakistan started gaining ground. The Congress also found it difficult to accommodate the demands of M A Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League.
From 1940 to 1946, the League was able to convince Muslim masses of the benefits and need for a separate nation. Peasants could think of a state where Hindu zamindars and moneylenders did not exploit them. Traders, businessmen and job seekers could think of a state where competition from Hindu traders, businessmen and job seekers would not be there. There would be greater religious freedom. There would be freedom for the Muslim elite to run the government the way they wanted. From 1942 to 1945, with most Congress leaders in jail, the League made use of the time to build its mass base