The flames of violence in the partition of India

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The flames of violence in the partition of India

Introduction

India is a country that has more religious and ethnic groups than any other country in the world. History records that, there are 15 languages spoken in the different tribes and sects in India. Additionally, there are eight major religions in India. As a result of difference in religion, three ethnic conflicts arose which led to the partition of India. There has been a great problem between Assam and Punjab. The main problem on Punjab side was primarily based on regional and religious conflict (Mohanty 2013, pg. 93). On the other hand, Assam problem was based on religion. A conflict existed between the Hindu and Muslim based on religion. The essay looks into the three most important factors that stoke flames of violence in the partition of India.

Notably, India was partitioned into two independent states which are Pakistan and the Indian union that was in 1947 AD (Chitkara 2008, pg. 78). There are three major factors that contributed to the partition which include the relationship of Muslim League, the British rule of divide and rule in basis of caste, religion, and race, and Indian National Congress. The demand of the Muslim league for a separate country greatly led to the partition of India. The British rule of divide and rule was of great effect especially in the political arena. This is because the British greatly affected the Muslims politically. The colonial administrators did not favor the Muslim predominantly areas in the allocation of resources and development. The outcome of the disproportionate and inequitable resource allocation contributed to radicalization of the largely Muslim population, who later demanded secession.

Communalism

Communalism was a main factor that strokes the violence in the partition of India. As indicated above India was divided along religious and ethnic lines. The partition of India revolved around the Indian politics. Various ethnic groups had diverse views on political ideologies and how to manage the newly independent state. The main political issues included creation of different political parties based on different ideologies, concern of insecurity of the minority members, conflicts of the existing political parties, and the rise of Communalism. Just after the Second World War, British government was forced to externally, and internally grant India its independence. After independence, communalism came in which sowed seeds of partition in India (Das 2005, pg. 178). In communalism, they believed that people who have the same religion would have common secular interest. Thus, they saw it good to form different groups based on the religion. The interest of every religion was seen as incompatible, and hostile to each other. That is why they could not live together in harmony.

Consequently, they were forced to stay away from each other. Even before the partition was done officially each group segregated itself from all the other group and they could not live in harmony. This formed the basis of the newly formed parties. This is because the parties were based on different ideologies that the people had concerning different issues mostly based on religion. The British government which ruled India for almost 200 years gave full encouraged for the different groups to continue segregating and staying away from each other (Feeley, Rubin, 2008 pg. 103). All the activities that the British carried out in their reign affected the Indians at large. This is because they only encouraged them to continue segregating instead of uniting them. This facilitated the widening of the gap between the two groups in India. They encouraged the partition by offering the communal awards to every group. They clearly brought out the differences between the Muslim and Hindu hence causing a wide gap between the two groups (Murray, 2004 pg. 56).

With the roots on communalism, the two groups decided to form different political parties. A party referred to as All India Muslim League was formed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah was before a member of the Indian National congress. As a result of differences with Mahatma Gandhi, he decided to come up with his own party (Das 2005, pg. 104). Each of the different parties under different leadership tried to achieve its missions by all means. There were instances of violence, attacks and deaths as a result of the feud among the parties. That is why there was creation of rivalry and misunderstandings between the two parties. The Indian Muslim League forced some of the changes to occur in the Indian politics. In the 1940s, some of the political parties were strengthened and they could carry out their activities appropriately. That is why there was creation of new generation of politicians such as Hindu Mahasabha and Akalis who belonged to the Punjab group (Verma 2005, pg 116). Each community wanted to continue existing strongly, and they all highlighted what they required. No group wanted to exist as a minority group that is why they made sure that they modeled a new member to lead their political parties.

Muslim League

The Muslim League party under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah greatly led to the partition of India (Chitkara 2008, pg. 47). Formation of religiously inclined political parties enhanced the partition of India. The party was formed majorly in areas such As the northwestern frontier provinces, Kashmir valley, and East Bengal. This party covered the majority areas in India. As a result of the situation the Indian National Congress party was formed. They felt that they were being left behind, and they needed to be powerful and acquire more territorial area in India. They also wanted their impact to be felt in all parts of India. The Indian National congress mainly represented the Muslims living in India. They were worried because they were being left behind.

One of the factors that alarmed them is when the British government introduced Hindu as an official language in one of the largest cities in India. The Muslims took this situation negatively and they were ready to fight for their rights and what belonged to them. They had to come up with an ideology to solve this problem because they also required recognition and they were ready to fight for their rights. Feng (2011, pg. 227) depicts this situation as having been characterized by “burning dais, burning trains and cities, thereby connecting familiar features of everyday life with the violent destruction associated with 1947 Partition”. Each group wanted to be recognized and their rights met because they are all citizens of India regardless of the language and religion (Alter 2003, pg. 45).

The Muslim League was formed for various reasons. First, to protect the interest of the Muslim, they wanted their rights to be protected and recognition, especially from the part of the government. They wanted all the interests to be recognized by the government and fulfilled. This could only happen through the formation of the party that would represent its interest to the government. Second, they wanted to support the British administration system which was almost getting extinguished. They knew if they protect the administration they would be safe at all times. Third, they wanted to counter the influence of the Congress. They were sure if they did this their interest would be met at all levels (Chitkara 2004, pg. 23). As time went by the Muslim League divided into other different parties as a result of difference in ideologies this continued widening the gap and causing more partition.

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress was one of the major political parties in India, and among the factors, facilitated the partition of India. The Indian National Congress functioned in the post-independence and the pre-independence era. During the pre-colonial era the party was in the lead struggling for its independence while in the post-independence era they were prominent in Indian politics (Roy 2010, pg. 89). While the Muslim League advocated for British administration, the Indian National Congress was against British administration. As a result of the controversial issue on British administration, the gap continued widening between the two different political parties. The Indian National congress was not necessarily against the British administration but they were fighting for their independence. They wanted to take over the administration of their country and as a result of this fought for their independence continually (Mohanty 2013, pg. 61). When they attained the independence, they ruled the country for almost thirty years till when their leader was murdered. This created a great rift between their rivals who were the Muslim League party.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three factors that stroke flames of violence in the partition of India were communalism, Muslim League, and Indian National Congress. Each of the groups did not believe that they would live in harmony with the other group. This created the great drift between the two groups. The British divide and rule policy also contributed much in the partition of India. This is because the British advocated for the rift between the two groups based on religious and ethnic differences. They Muslims and Hindus were living together harmoniously but because of their differences in ideologies they started segregating and setting themselves apart. They failed to inculcate that feeling of unity and harmony even though they had different religious believes. The communalism factor was the main factor which contributed the partition of India. This is because each party was ready to bring out different ideas on government formation.

Bibliography

Alter, S. 2003. Amritsar to Lahore: a journey across the India-Pakistan border. Philadelphia, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.

Chitkara, M. G. 2004. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: national upsurge. New Delhi, A.P.H. Pub. Corp.

Chitkara, M. G. 2008. Converts do not make a nation. New Delhi, A.P.H. Pub. Corp.

Das, S. K. 2005. A history of Indian literature. New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi.

Feeley, M., & Rubin, E. L. 2008. Federalism: Political Identity and Tragic Compromise. Ann arbor, Mich, University of Michigan Press.

Feng, P. 2011.Birth of Nations: Representing the Partition of India in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India. Chang Gung Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4:2, 225-240.

Mohanty, N. 2013. America, Pakistan, and the India factor. New York, NY, Palgrave Macmillan.

Murray, D. J. 2004. The defense policies of nations: a comparative study. Baltimore u.a, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Roy, R. 2010. South Asian partition fiction in English from Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.

Verma, A. K. (2005). Reassessing Pakistan: role of two nation theory. New Delhi, Lancer.