India- Its creation, Its division, Its integration…
As India enters its 70th year since Independence, one likes to look back on the history of India –its journey…. from Colonial India to Republic India i.e. the India that we know today.
The British first came into India through a joint stock company-The East India Company which was established primarily for trading especially in cotton, silk, spices, tea, dyes etc. However the Company shifted its interests from trade to territory due to the decline of the Mughal Empire and made its presence felt in the new nation. The Company ruled from 1757 to 1858. However the 1857 sepoy Mutiny saw the British Crown or the ‘British Raj’ take over from the Company to rule the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947.
Many political movements and events paved the way for the rise of Indian nationalism and its move towards India’s independence--: the formation of the Indian National Congress Party in 1885, the partition of the Bengal province (Bihar and Orissa -Hindu dominated areas , Eastern Bengal and Assam –Muslim dominated areas ) in 1905, its subsequent re-unification in 1911, the rise and leadership of Gandhiji from 1916 onwards , the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, the Non-Cooperation movement of 1920 , the Salt March of 1922, The Govt. of India Act of 1935 granting Indians larger political representation , the militant efforts of the Forward Bloc of Subhash Chandra Bose, the weakening of Britain during the Second World war and the final nail in the coffin-- the Quit India movement of 1942.
In 1947, the British finally quit India; their ‘Jewel in the Crown’ and partitioned the country into two states: Pakistan and India. The partition was brought about by the division of two main provinces of Bengal and Punjab on the lines of religion. The boundary demarcating India and Pakistan became known as the Radcliffe Line.
The 500 odd princely states that were left out had to choose between the two nations. Thus apart from talking about division, reference has also to be made about the annexations of the princely states (Hyderabad, Travancore, Mysore, Indore, Gwalior, Jaipur, Baroda, Kapurthala, Junagadh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Patiala…etc ) and annexations of the colonial enclaves ie areas ruled by the Portuguese and French. The political integration of India, a tough task indeed was brought about resorting to both diplomacy and pressure by leaders such Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel , V.P Menon and interestingly also by Lord Mountbatten himself.
The annexation of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was violent and the first Kashmir war was fought with Pakistan in 1947. India lost 1/3rd of Kashmir to Pakistan with the Line of Control (LOC), now the new restraint line. Later on in 1948 our neighbours Ceylon (SriLanka) and Burma (Myanmar) got their independence. Nepal and Bhutan were independent since the beginning and were never colonized. In 1950 China invaded Tibet , forcing the Dalai Lama to take asylum in India. Years later in 1962 China invaded India to take control of Aksai Chin. In 1965 a second war was fought with Pakistan, leading to diplomatic intervention by USA and Russia in the form of the Tashkent Declaration. In 1971 a third war with Pakistan was fought which led to the secession of eastern parts of Bengal from Pakistan, leading to the formation of the independent nation of Bangladesh.
Amongst all these events however, the ‘Partition’ was and till date still remains the most important event of the subcontinent. The entire sub continent was in the grip of a reign of bloodshed and terror nothing short of agenocide. Such was the magnitude of the devastation-- ten million refugees, two million of dead….However even these statistics fail to convey the tragedy that was the Partition and the trauma of families that were separated by the Radcliffe line, the bordering India and Pakistan.
What was so inhuman about the Partition is that the slaughter of the people was not ordered by politicians or soldiers but by their own neighbors of different faiths with whom they lived in co-existence over the years. The British on their part incited communalism and cleverly played the role of a spectator.
Historians still feel that the Partition could have been avoided. In fact the Indian National Congress had advocated for a united India. However, given that the Muslims were around 25 percent of the population, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League realized that a united India would mean domination by the Hindu majority and inadequate political representation of Muslims. After that the communal riots in Calcutta coupled with Britain’s hurry to transfer power quickly and move on, pressurized leaders to accept Viceroy Mountbatten’s proposal of Partition …as a solution.
But ‘Partition’ was never a solution….and although a new history has been written for the two nations, the scars still remain and the bitterness has not been forgotten till date.
