PARTITION OF INDIA By Hanan Qasqas Nafee Rashid

PARTITION OF INDIA By: Hanan Qasqas & Nafee Rashid

Table of Contents • • • When did the partition occur? Which countries became the successor states of India? Why did the Partition occur? How did the Partition occur? Calcutta Riots Punjab Riots Key People The British Rule in India Independence of Pakistan General views of the people Conclusion

When did the Partition occur? The Partition occurred on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947.

Which countries became the successor states? • From the chains of the British rule to the independent Indian nation another country wanted self determination. That wanting lead to a successor state, which is Pakistan. • Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan. The country received their Independence after nine months of bloodshed from Pakistan.

Why did the Partition occur? • Religion played a major role in the partition • Two major religions of India is Islam and Hinduism • Because of these major differences in the belief systems the partition occurred Islam Hinduism • Monotheism (belief in one God) • Equality of all Muslims • Burial after death • Polytheism( belief in several gods • Caste Systems (untouchables) • Corpse are burnt after death

Why did the Partition occur? Continued… • As the majority of India is Hindu, the Muslims believed that they would not receive equal treatment from the government. • The Hindus did not want to be governed by the Muslims. • The feeling of nationalism started to grow throughout the world. Countries wanted to separate into sovereign nations due to their cultural, language, and ethnic differences. Similarly, India being a country of many different languages and different religions, contained different nations who also wanted self governance. • The Muslims were one of the many Indian minorities, who got to separate as they were the largest minority of India. The Muslims held judicial powers in India therefore they had the resources and the politics to form an independent state.

How did the Partition occur? • In 1920, the Indian National Congress started a movement of non-cooperation, which boycotted everything that had to do with the British rule. Jinnah opposed this policy and resigned from the congress. The resignation of Jinnah created differences between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. • Relations between Hindus and Muslims began to worsen. In 1940, the first official demand was made for the partition of India and the creation of a Muslim state of Pakistan at a Muslim League session in Lahore.

How did the Partition Occur? • Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders started a riot in Calcutta in August 1946, by doing this they hoped to rise tension among the two communities, which would force the British (who ruled at that time) to divide India when the finally left. • The bloodshed and destruction during the Calcutta riot and other riots lead to the partition.

Calcutta Riot • • August 16 1946 the Calcutta riot was fuelled by the Muslim League which was called the Direct Action Day. All the Muslims shops were closed to support the strike for a separate Muslim state. It started when the league members asked the Hindu business men to close their stores and the Hindus retaliated. When the Hindu owners opened their stores they were beaten and they fought back in their defense. Hindu nationalists who were political leaders of Bengal opposed the idea of Pakistan and moved Hindu people to commit violence against Muslims who wanted Pakistan In Calcutta Hindus were the main victims. In Bihar the main victims were the Muslims. The riots continued to Punjab.

Punjab riot • • At first there was no rioting in Punjab Unionists Muslims, Hindu and Sikhs landlords held the peace. The Muslim League and the Sikh political party Akali Dal opposed the unionists. They wanted rioting. The unionist were forced out of the office The violence shifted from east India to north west India. 4014 people were killed in riots in India between 18 November 1946 till 18 May 1947. 3024 were killed in Punjab alone. Other crimes against humanity such as rape, was committed during the partition.

Key People • Syed Ahmed Khan was the first person to propose the two nation theory. • Vinayak Damodar Savarkar advocated the side of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State) and was amongst the first people who talked about the two nation theory. • Mohammad Ali Jinnah fuelled the riots and came up with the idea of Pakistan. He believed that Hindu Muslim union was possible but later he wanted partition in order to protect the rights of the Indian Muslims. • Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did not support the partition and he fasted many days in order to prevent the bloodshed during the separation. • Jawaharal Nehru also did not support the partition at first. He was the first Prime minister of India

Key People Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohammad Ali Jinnah Jawaharal Nehru

Independence of India • August 14 1947 India received its Independence from Britain (but they celebrate their independence day on 15 August) and became a Republic on 26 January, 1950 • India faced problems such as poverty, and reconstruction. • India had to deal with the refugees that came from West Punjab and East Bengal. • India lost 64 percent of Bengal’s land 65 percent of its population to East Pakistan, it lost its jute which was produced in East Bengal. • India received 38 percent of Punjab and 45 percent of the population. • India lost some of its important cities, canal networks, and rich farming land.

Independence of India • Many Muslim refugees came to Delhi and it was expected of them to receive violence. So the government had to tackle the situation. • India received support from the British, Germans and Russians for reconstruction. • A new Constitution was adopted that gave India a federal structure with a strong central government controlling foreign affairs, defense, railway, postal services, ports and currency. The President is the Head of state with limited power and there are two Houses of Indian Legislature, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. • President- Pratibha Patil • Prime minister- Manmohan Singh • The universal vote for the people and the population of India makes it the largest democracy in the world.

Independence of Pakistan • • • In August 14, 1947 Pakistan received its independence from the British and an Islamic Republic was formed in March 23, 1956. The republic of Pakistan was headed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the Governor General, and Liaquat Ali Khan as the Prime Minister. The new state of Pakistan faced many problems like poverty, economic instability, and a fast growing population. Pakistan had other problems; the vast differences between the two parts of the country, East and West Pakistan. The two parts were separated by northern India and had major cultural and linguistic differences (Bangla in East Pakistan and Urdu in West Pakistan) As the two parts were so different it was difficult to promote national unity. Therefore lead to the separation of Pakistan into Bangladesh.

Independence of Pakistan • There were trade problems; East Pakistan produced jute in vast scale but did not have mills to process it. • There were armed confrontation with India over Kashmir • All of these problems caused instability during the first two years of independence. • The President is advised by the Prime Minster. In the Pakistani government Prime Minster has a much higher authority than the President. The president is chosen by electoral collage which is composed of two chambers: (1) Federal Legislature and (2) four Provincial assemblies. Conditions of a candidate: Must be Muslim. The candidate will stay in power for five year period, and lastly he/she can be charged for violating the Constitution. • Asif Ali Zardari- President of Pakistan • Yousaf Raza Gillani – Prime Minister

Views of the people • They felt saddened that they must depart from the land that they called home. • They lost their friends and family during partition because some Hindus did not depart from Pakistan and some Muslims did not move from India. • They had conflicting nationalistic feelings they had to choose between religion and country. • Many people were satisfied that the partition occurred because they knew that now they are going to have Muslim rule in Pakistan and Hindu rule in India. They are not going to be discriminated against. • Whereas Hindus living in Pakistan and Muslims living in India feared that they were going to be targeted for ethnic cleansing • People lost their jobs due to movement. • As the countries were new they had to establish an economy which would take time to build and that meant unemployment and poverty.

“They are dividing India within India. If you go to every state they would say: I’m Gujarati I’m Muslim I’m Hindu , they will never say I’m Indian. ”