The New Nation - Internet Edition

M.T.Hussain

It is still wrongly argued in a circle sadly for propaganda rhetoric that the British Indian subcontinent was divided in 1947 on the basis of religion alone putting all blames for the division on Pakistan. Was the blame factually right?

It is true that the three independent nation-states, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, now in existence following the departure of the colonial British rulers in 1947 had then two major religious beliefs, Islam and Hinduism, dominated the scenes of the partition. But apart from religions, economic, cultural and many social factors influenced the 'Great Divide' just as H.V. Hodson made some records in his memoirs of the same appellation.

If one would care to read events of historical forces during 190 years of the British colonial rule in this part of the world, particularly, in the then undivided Bengal one would unambiguously discover that the overwhelming large number of people of this area, the Muslims and other depressed classes even belonging to other religions, had been the conspicuous victims of shear exploitation perpetrated not only by the British rulers but also by those locals who formed minority but professing religion other than Islam. They had been, with rare exceptions, the landlords, money-lenders, traders etc engaged in the so-called elite jobs as against heavily exploited farmers and laborers the overwhelming majority Muslims constituted.

In the late 19th and beginning of the twentieth century some awakening among the poor Muslims took root not by its own but through some educational movements led by philanthropists like Nawab Abdul Latif of Faridpur, Syed Ameer Ali of Calcutta, Syed Ahmad Khan of Aligargh, Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka etc. They secured further concession from the British Government as to people's representation and say to the government by having separate representation for religious minorities and so for the Muslims in the provincial and other councils. In the meantime, the Muslim League formed in Dhaka in 1906 advanced its struggle throughout India for the Muslim minorities in political and State power sharing just as the relatively older Congress party did claiming to do for all Indians.

The 'parting of the ways' had its head high as soon as the provincial general elections under the Government of India Act 1935 held in early 1937 and provincial governments formed in seven provinces by the Congress out of 11. The seven governments started to behave all alike as if they had freedom in all matters thus hitting at their free will against the basic interests and cultural sensibilities of the minority Muslims in those provinces. The attacks on Muslim sensibilities were, for example, like making compulsory for all school students to sing the chorus of BANDE MATARAM during school class opening that Muslim students objected to for their own religious reason. In the same token, all students in schools were asked to bow down to the portrait of Gandhi in the classrooms that again was taken by the Muslim students and guardians against religious sensibilities. In economic opportunities, the Muslims found very difficult to get jobs and business in competition with the counterparts of other religious belief. The discrimination was so rampant that a great person and a life long secular politician like Shere Bangla A.K. Fazlul Haq reacted very sharply against those discriminations of the Muslim minorities. Thus when the nearly three year period of the Congress rule ended through the resignation of the seven ministries, the Muslim League observed on the 22nd December 1939 throughout India the exit of those ministries in midst of the World War Two as the GREAT DAY OF DELIVERANCE with huge razzmatazz. One may note that in just after 12 weeks the Muslim League in the Lahore session held on the 23-24 March adopted unanimously the historic resolution that was moved by the same Shere Bangla to chart the political future of India and of the minority Muslims mainly concentrated in the western (Pakistan} and eastern (Bangladesh) part of the subcontinent There is another historical fact that clearly showed that even after the adoption of the Lahore resolution, there was no clear cut commitment of religious divide based exclusively on Islam but instead it aimed at redressing the long standing grievances of backwardness of the Muslims along with other depressed classes in these two regions. In addition, the Muslim League, in order to keep the oneness of India as before, accepted the British Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 that the Congress leader and President Pandit Nehru, according to Abul Kalam Azad, exploded in these words, "* This was one of the greatest tragedies of Indian history and I have to say with the deepest of regret that a large part of the responsibility for this development (failure of the Cabinet Mission Plan) rests with Jawaharlal. His unfortunate statement (10th July 1946 that the Congress would be free to modify the Cabinet Mission Plan reopened the whole question of political and communal settlement. Mr. Jinnah took full advantage of his mistake and withdrew from the League's early acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan*" (see, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India Wins Freedom, the complete version, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1988/1992, P.170).

Shall we recall here that the Muslim League leader Jinnah who ultimately led the Pakistan movement and the division of India in 1947 to final fruition had not only been a serious Congressite in his early political career and tried best to keep India united but at the same time sought only in return minimum guarantee of citizenship rights of the minority Muslim in the huge sea of Hindu domination in India after the British had left in the vicious age old caste ridden divided society of few elite 'pure' men and overwhelmingly 'polluted' men and women.

I hope that who would still and continue to label the division of British India in 1947 as merely for religious reason giving all blames to the Muslim League, its leaders and Pakistan better sift fiction from facts that remained embedded in areas of political control, social conflicts, cultural aspirations and economic interests.