The Indian Partition: 70yrs On

"Our country has been broken; the great, sound pulsating heart of India has been broken.."  Asaf Khwaja Lahore Diaries 1949

When the British Government decided to dismantle its Imperial holdings in South Asia lying in the Indian Subcontinent and dubbed the Crown Jewel of the British Empire in 1947, that decision though noble in honoring the tenets of the Atlantic Charter which propounded the right for self determination of colonized peoples; led sharp religious delineations, inhumane and inhospitable fatal hostilities amongst once agelong convivial neighbours.

The Indian Partition plan propounded by Lord Mountbatten the last Viceroy of Colonial India sought the creation of two homelands based on religious delineations from British India; one distinctly Muslim and the other distinctly Hindu incorporating other religious minorities. 

Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru (l), Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten (c) and the president of the All-India Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah (r) discuss Partition in 1947
Source: bbcnews.com

As such, the provinces of Punjab and Bengal both of which had Muslim majorities were delineated as Pakistan (East and West Pakistan) while the rest were to form the Nation State of India. Simple as the partition plan seemed on paper, it aroused religious animosity amongst once convivial neighbours of different religious leanings. Thus, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities who felt insecure due to reprisal killings had to undergo the painful experience of forced migration in series of population uproots and exchanges between the newly formed nations of India and Pakistan in what was one of the greatest in history, some 10 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan into India and vice versa, while about 2 million persons were killed in reprisals interspersed between the two newly formed Nations. In all, it is estimated that over 12 million lives were affected by this partition plan.

The British Partition of India
Source: bbcnews.com

Once a domain ruled by the Ghaznavids and Mughal Empires who were of Turko-Mongol origins and advanced the propagation of Islam amongst their Subjects, the majority subjugated Hindu, and Buddhist population once had glorious domineering empires of note, some which were the Mauryan and Gupta Empires of which legendary Ashoka was famed for the former in the 3^rd Century BC. Upon the subtle and forceful maneuvering subjugation intrigues by Europeans, chiefly the British in the 18^th Century of an already waning Mughal Empire via the English East India Company, the whole Indian Subcontinent came under the rule of the expansionist British Empire who now controlled the region having the World’s largest population.

The British partition delineation along religious lines gained roots in the series of inconclusive Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19^th and 20^th Centuries in which the Afghanistan Kingdom which used to exert influence over Punjab Province was granted Independence; thus, partitioning the tribal heartland of the Pashtuns between British and Afghan control. Along with the Sepoy rebellion which was suppressed, there was growing discontent of the British Colonialists which birthed the Indian National Congress in the late 19^th Century. Further partitions of the Bengal province along religious lines fueled mistrust amongst the majority Hindu and minority Muslim Nationalists which led to series of events resulting in the birthing of the Muslim league. As such, the British played on the divergent emancipation ideologies of these two Nationalist parties to their advantage as it suited and so the India National Congress and Muslim League became irreconcilable in their emancipation demands. While the India National Congress demanded independence for all of British India to establish a secular state for all religious delineation, the Muslim League sought a separate partition state in which would be Muslim majority; fearing Hindu redomination after the Muslims have recently controlled political affairs in the subcontinent via the defunct Ghaznavid and Mughal empires.

The India Partition frustrated over 12million lives
Source: https://tackk.com/6g98k1

 When the partition finally came in Mid August of 1947, two Nations were born as Muslim dominated Pakistan and Hindu dominated India. Both nations after undergoing forced population exchanges upon religious delineations fell into unending internecine conflicts over the Princely States of Jammu and Kashmir both of which delayed decision of ascribing sovereignty to India or Pakistan.

Growing tensions between these two Nations led India to intervene in East Pakistan crises in 1971, thus guaranteeing the independence of marginalized and disgruntled Bengalis to form the new nation of Bangladesh.

Yet the issues bothering about conflict over the status of Jammu and Kashmir remained unresolved, though frozen along the cease fire Line of Control. With both sides now nuclear armed and relishing a military solution in the face Indian obstinacy over Kashmir, Pakistan has sought to support non-State military actors to harass Indian Occupation of Kashmir. These Non-State Military actors while pushing the Pakistani agenda over Kashmir have in turn fueled destabilization of the polity in Pakistan, Afghanistan and globally via the activities of Islamist guerrillas such as the Taliban, Al-Queda, Pakistani Taliban, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashka-e-Taiba and Kashmiri insurgents whilst India has seemingly advanced its status as a global player first during the constitution of the Non Aligned Movement in 1950’s and in series of Technological advancement in Medicine, Industrialization, and Information Technology which has seen it dethroning the USA’s Silicon Valley and stamping its status among the Second World Order nations via the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) association and forging trading partnerships with Africa, US, EU, China and UK.

"Much suffering has been caused and much bitterness engendered…but what is done cannot be undone. All we can do now is to make amends for our past mistakes and work wholeheartedly for the restoration of peace and goodwill among the divided sections of the people."-- Asaf Khwaja

It is saddening to note that a once harmonious commune under the ancient Hindu Mauryan and Muslim Ghaznavid and Mughal Empires has been thronged in to that of mistrust based on religious delineation and a hot bed of fanatic Islamic militantism with perennial cataclysmic effects on Afghanistan.

As a region hosting a distinct cradle of civilization and the World’s largest population side by side with China, like China, the Indian Subcontinent has lots of positives to offer the world if peace can be advanced across the religious delineations entrenched by the British Partition of 1947.

THE SCOTTISH REFERENDUM AFTERMATH: A REFLECTION OF AN IMPERFECT BRITISH MODEL

The last is yet to be heard about the resultants of the Scottish Referendum on the question of independence from the United Kingdom. Whilst the United Kingdom survived the scare of a looming threat of an independent Scotland by a vote of 55% to 45%, the ripples generated by the simple act of balloting will continue to reverberate the island of Britain and indeed the wider World in years to come.

Head of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond savouring defeat of his separatist bid
Source: bbcnews.com

"If not us - then who?

If not now - then when?

Friends - we are Scotland's independence generation.

And our time is now"…. Alexander Salmond

For the first time since 1^st July 1997 when the Union Jack was lowered at its Far Eastern outpost in Hongkong, which was the United Kingdom’s last colonial outpost, the waning power and influence of the once global affluent ‘Great Britain’ was brought to bear as a ‘coup de grace’ was about to be dealt to  homeland Britain.

What started as a union of Anglo-Saxons and Normans in what is now called England, ended up enveloping the Welsh in the 13^th Century, and, in series of wars and finally in political agreements, the Gaels, Picts and Celts which make up what is now called Scotland were brought into the ‘Union’ first by the Union of Crowns in 1603 when King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England following the death of heirless Queen Elizabeth I of England. Thus, the seat of the Scottish Monarchy moved from Holyrood in Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace in London and finally in 1707 after a crippling bankrupting feat Scotland attained in trying to colonize the Isthmus of Panama in the Americas, the Scots looked South of their border to the English for economic salvation; and as such, after series of parliamentary debates, the ‘ACT OF UNION’ was born 1^st May 1707 when England and Scotland came under one political government—effectively uniting the entire Island of Britain under one political and Monarchical Government

ACT OF UNION, 1707

I. That the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland shall upon the First day of May which will be in the year One thousand seven hundred and seven, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain; and that the Ensigns Armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as Her Majesty shall appoint, and the Crosses of St. George and St. Andrew be conjoined in such manner as her Majesty shall think fit, and used in all Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns both at Sea and Land.

III.  ‘That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by One and the same Parliament, to be stiled, the Parliament of Great Britain.’

With such ‘Unity’ the United Kingdom of Great Britain wittingly sought to build an Empire thus colonizing about 1/4^th of the Earth's peoples. At the Zenith of this attainment, the British Empire was in the words of George Macartney referred as

"this vast empire on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascertained."

Map of the British Colonial expanse
Source: http://imgarcade.com/1/british-colonies-world-map/

Over three quarters of North America in what is now known as Canada and the United States of America to patches of land in South America, the West Indies (Caribbean Islands), the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Singapore), Australia and patches of Chinese territory; the ‘British were famed as Colonial Masters and Master of the Seas! And not even Africa was left out of the British Colonial zest, for they effectively subjugated the choicest of territorial lands and largest number of peoples under their control in territories now known as Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya (All economic and regional power houses) not to talk of the Sudans (North and South), Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Gambia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

‘the wind of change is blowing through this continent; and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact, we must all accept it as a fact’… Harold Macmillan (British Prime Minister from 1957-1963)

The 20^th Century brought a significant ‘wind of change’ to the British Empire. Actively fighting off two World Wars, the homeland British war economy faced near economic crippling terms and coupled with the signing of  ‘Atlantic Charter’ with the United States which guaranteed the right to self determination of subjugated peoples, the British Empire began to defoliate rapidly for the first time since 1776 when the United States sued for Independence off London.

Starting from the British Isles, the Catholic Irish got Ireland off Westminster’s control and then the flood gates of independence opened in British colonies in Asia and Africa culminating with the return of Hongkong to China —Britain’s last colonial outpost in the Far East in 1997.

Coincidentally, 1997 saw the British Labour Party consolidating power in Westminster and that came with the promise of devolution of powers to the constituent Non-English entities making up the United Kingdom. Ultimately, that set the tone for a series of intrigues that set the stage for this Scottish referendum question;

SHOULD SCOTLAND BECOME AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY?

Source: bbcnews.com

Whilst the ‘No’ votes helped to pass a volte-face to the ‘Yes’ separatist agitation, that simple act of ballot has posed several teasers for the British and indeed other countries of the free world in the following:

1.    In an era of ‘International Unionism’ as seen in the formation of strong Continental Organizations such as the EU, NATO, AU etc; where smaller individual countries seemingly do not have a voice; is there really a need for emergence of new Nations who will in turn have to vie to join these continental bodies who advocate loose economic and border controls?

2.    Though England has roughly 85% of the UK population and significantly projects the UK’s global influence, Scotland holds a significant portion UK’s defence capabilities in military industries and the UK’s Nuclear Weapon deterrents. What would have become of the Uk’s military capability in the wake of a Scottish independence?

3.    The Uk prides itself as a model of Parliamentary democracy and have exported this to several nation including India (the World’s largest democracy), Australia amongst others. The Scottish agitation has once again raised the once forgotten ‘West Lothian Question’. If Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (all making up 15% of the UK population) have separate parliaments and administrations independent of West Minster and yet have representatives there to vote on issues relating to England only, what about having a separate English parliament? Is the prided British governance model in any way effective? Isn’t it time for the UK to adopt the USA model of a ‘Federal system of Government’?

4.    With the ease at reaching a decision for the Scottish referendum, what will become of other separatist agitations in Spain (Catalonia), France (Basque, Corsica, Catalonia), Moldova (Transnistra), Turkey (Kurdistan) etc, and even other colonial aggregated Countries in Africa where separatist agitations are rife?

Source: bbcnews.com

Four over 400 years, the British have prided themselves in setting the pace in terms of industrial and political revolution and have given the world their language--- English Language. With the latest Scottish referendum and issues bordering on it, the British have once again aroused separatist agitation levels around the world. The British model is not perfect after all. Is it?