WAS THE PARTITION OF INDIA INEVITABLE AND UNAVOIDABLE?

 The answer to this question differs widely with the nationality of the writer- Indian, Pakistani or British.

In India the partition of the country is considered a tragedy. It is projected as the logical culmination of the long-standing British policy of Divide and Rule and the Muslim League’s ideology of communalism and separateness. The two worked together and forced the Indian National Congress to agree to the partition of India. Indian writers largely place the blame at the door of the Congress leaders and agree that if they had shown adequate understanding, tact and boldness, the partition of the Motherland could be avoided.

In Pakistan however, the partition is considered as quite logical and inevitable, and the growth of Muslim nationalism is traced in the depth of Indian History.

Among the British scholars there is no unanimity of opinion about the rationale of the partition of India and there is difference of opinion among historians and those writers who served the ‘raj’ in India.

Whatever the verdict of history, credit must be given to Mr. M. A. Jinnah for his adroit handling of the situation. He was a very shrewd politician and often dodged his political rivals by clever somersaults. He rose form strength to strength and earned the epithet of Qaid-i-Azam (Great Organizer).

Jawaharlal Nehru attributes the growth of Muslim communalism to the delay in the growth of a strong Muslim middle calss; this enabled the League to work up the psychology of fear among the emotionally excitable Muslim masses. The cry of ‘Islam in danger’ brought the Muslim masses under the banner of the League and Mr. Jinnah stood forth as the political messiah. All said, the acts of omission and commission on the part of the Hindu Mahasabha further fanned the fanaticism of the Muslim League.

Mr. V. D. Savarkar, the President of Mahasabha, advocated ‘a uncompromising doctrine of Hindu ascendency’ and openly announced that ‘the only way to deal with the Hindu-Muslim schism was to insist that all India was Hindustan and that the Muslims must reconcile themselves to the status of a minority community in a democratic state which orders life by majority rule.