146-611: After the Partition of India , during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir , many Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab . The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs , aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh . The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing
292-556: A mother goddess , who stood variously for Bengal, India, and the Hindu goddess Kali . The unrest spread from Calcutta to the surrounding regions of Bengal when Calcutta's English-educated students returned home to their villages and towns. The religious stirrings of the slogan and the political outrage over the partition were combined as young men, in such groups as Jugantar , took to bombing public buildings, staging armed robberies, and assassinating British officials. Since Calcutta
438-713: A Muslim India and a non-Muslim India". Lala believed in partition in response to the riots against Hindus in Kohat, North-West Frontier Province which diminished his faith in Hindu-Muslim unity. Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's Hindutva ideology had embryonic form of a two-nation theory since 1920s. Savarkar in 1937 during the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in Ahmedabad supported two-nation theory where he said "there are two nations in
584-540: A boycott of British goods. Sporadically, but flagrantly, the protesters also took to political violence , which involved attacks on civilians. The violence was ineffective, as most planned attacks were either prevented by the British or failed. The rallying cry for both types of protest was the slogan Bande Mataram ( Bengali , lit: 'Hail to the Mother'), the title of a song by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , which invoked
730-546: A de jure Pakistan, which may make the League more responsible. Freedom is coming. We have 75 to 80 percent of India, which we can make strong with our genius. The League can develop the rest of the country. Following Gandhi's denial and Congress' approval of the plan, Patel, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari represented Congress on the Partition Council, with Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar representing
876-611: A divided India or a destroyed India." On that morning, armed Muslim gangs gathered at the Ochterlony Monument in Calcutta to hear Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy , the League's Chief Minister of Bengal, who, in the words of historian Yasmin Khan, "if he did not explicitly incite violence certainly gave the crowd the impression that they could act with impunity, that neither the police nor the military would be called out and that
1022-611: A few tens of thousands. The table below compares the 1941 percentage of 'Hindu & Sikh' population (H/S population) with that in 1951 for the areas of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir (comprising 89 per cent of the Mirpur District, 60 per cent of the Poonch Jagir and 87 per cent of the Muzaffarabad District). "237,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated – unless they escaped to Pakistan along
1168-693: A further 2500 were abducted. In the district of Mirpur and nearby regions of Poonch , Hindu and Sikh women were also raped and abducted. November 25 is now commemorated as "Mirpur Day" in Indian-administered Kashmir. The table below compares the 1941 percentage of Muslim population with the present percentage for the Indian-administered part of the Jammu province and gives figures for estimated 'loss' of Muslims, due to deaths as well as migration. Scholar Ian Copland tries to estimate how many Muslims might have been killed in
1314-600: A group of "Young Party" Muslims from the United Provinces (UP), most prominently, the brothers Mohammad and Shaukat Ali , who had embraced the Pan-Islamic cause. It gained the support of a young lawyer from Bombay, Muhammad Ali Jinnah , who later rose to leadership roles in the League and the Indian independence movement. In later years, as the full ramifications of the pact unfolded, it was seen as benefiting
1460-402: A house where villagers had taken refuge was besieged and villagers were asked to surrender their arms and convert to Islam. One group of the villagers took up the offer and were subsequently converted, while the remaining were periodically attacked. The house was set on fire, following which the villagers shifted to a Gurdwara where they were attacked and massacred. One survivor claimed that out of
1606-608: A large share of political spoils for the Indian Muslims with the withdrawal of British rule, others believed the main political objective was the preservation of the cultural entity of Muslim India. The two-nation theory was a founding principle of the Pakistan Movement (i.e., the ideology of Pakistan as a Muslim nation-state in South Asia), and the partition of India in 1947. Theodore Beck , who played
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#17327810407821752-564: A major role in founding of the All-India Muslim League in 1906, was supportive of two-nation theory. Another British official supportive of the theory includes Theodore Morison . Both Beck and Morison believed that parliamentary system of majority rule would be disadvantageous for the Muslims. Arya Samaj leader Lala Lajpat Rai laid out his own version of two-nation theory in 1924 to form "a clear partition of India into
1898-612: A mass nationalist movement of millions. In August 1942, Congress launched the Quit India Resolution , asking for drastic constitutional changes which the British saw as the most serious threat to their rule since the Indian rebellion of 1857 . With their resources and attention already spread thin by a global war, the nervous British immediately jailed the Congress leaders and kept them in jail until August 1945, whereas
2044-615: A mass-migration of Sikhs and Hindus from the Rawalpindi Division to central and eastern Punjab, Sikh-ruled princely states , Jammu and Kashmir , Delhi and the United Provinces . The descriptions of atrocities faced by these refugees provoked feelings of revenge, especially among the Sikhs. The massacres had a deep impact on the Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab, who planned to avenge them later by unleashing similar violence on
2190-593: A new province with a Muslim majority would directly benefit Muslims aspiring to political power. World War I would prove to be a watershed in the imperial relationship between Britain and India. 1.4 million Indian and British soldiers of the British Indian Army would take part in the war, and their participation would have a wider cultural fallout: news of Indian soldiers fighting and dying with British soldiers, as well as soldiers from dominions like Canada and Australia, would travel to distant corners of
2336-586: A part of British-ruled India. The Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, but its sovereignty had been left undefined. In 1947, Sikkim became an independent kingdom under the suzerainty of India. The Maldives became a protectorate of the British crown in 1887 and gained its independence in 1965. In 1905, during his second term as viceroy of India , Lord Curzon divided
2482-558: A plan". He said that if the Muslims were not granted a separate Pakistan then they would launch "direct action". When asked to be specific, Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble." The next day, Jinnah announced 16 August 1946 would be " Direct Action Day " and warned Congress, "We do not want war. If you want war we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We will either have
2628-637: A pogrom against its Muslim subjects in Jammu partly out of revenge for the Poonch rebellion that started earlier. Some observers state that a main aim of Hari Singh and his administration was to alter the demographics of the region by eliminating the Muslim population, in order to ensure a Hindu majority in the region. Scholar Ilyas Chattha and Jammu journalist Ved Bhasin blame the mishandling of law and order by Maharaja Hari Singh and his armed forces in Jammu, for
2774-639: A public spectacle of his disapproval of the Pakistan demand outside the Punjab Assembly on 3 March. Communal clashes erupted in Lahore and Amritsar on 4 March after Hindus and Sikhs began demonstrations against the Pakistan demand. On 5 March, which marked the Hindu festival of Holi , armed Muslim mobs started attacking Hindus and Sikhs in several cities of West Punjab , including the cantonment town of Rawalpindi and Multan , killing close to 200 in
2920-411: A quicker transfer of power. When Lord Mountbatten formally proposed the plan on 3 June 1947, Patel gave his approval and lobbied Nehru and other Congress leaders to accept the proposal. Knowing Gandhi's deep anguish regarding proposals of partition, Patel engaged him in private meetings discussions over the perceived practical unworkability of any Congress-League coalition , the rising violence, and
3066-571: A separate country were thus conceded. The Congress 's position on unity was also taken into account while making Pakistan as small as possible. Mountbatten's formula was to divide India and, at the same time, retain maximum possible unity. Abul Kalam Azad expressed concern over the likelihood of violent riots, to which Mountbatten replied: 1947 Rawalpindi massacres Muslim League National Guards The 1947 Rawalpindi massacres (also 1947 Rawalpindi riots ) refer to widespread violence, massacres, and rapes of Hindus and Sikhs by Muslim mobs in
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#17327810407823212-732: A separate homeland. Tensions heightened while the Muslim League was unable to form ministries outside the two provinces of Sind and Bengal, with the Congress forming a ministry in the NWFP and the key Punjab province coming under a coalition ministry of the Congress, Sikhs and Unionists. The British, while not approving of a separate Muslim homeland, appreciated the simplicity of a single voice to speak on behalf of India's Muslims. Britain had wanted India and its army to remain united to keep India in its system of 'imperial defense'. With India's two political parties unable to agree, Britain devised
3358-570: A special correspondent of The Times , published on 10 August 1948, stated that a total of 237,000 Muslims were either killed or migrated to Pakistan. The editor of The Statesman Ian Stephens claimed that 500,000 Muslims, "the entire Muslim element of the population", was eliminated and 200,000 "just disappeared". Scholar Ian Copland finds these figures dubious. The Pakistani newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt reported that more than 100,000 Jammu refugees had arrived in Sialkot by 20 November 1947. Snedden, on
3504-641: A total of 500 Hindu and Sikh villagers, only 76 had survived, of whom nearly half had been abducted. Similar attacks happened at the villages of Mughal and Bassali . Kallar , Dubheran , Jhika Gali and Kuri were also attacked. Some of the survivors had been left disfigured and mutilated, breasts of many women who had been raped were cut-off. Villages in the Gujar Khan and Cambellpur districts were decimated, dead bodies of children were found hanging from trees and girls as young as eleven had been gang-raped. The All India Congress Committee , in its report on
3650-580: A train was raided by a mob at Taxila , which killed 22 Hindu and Sikh passengers. Houses in the Sikh and Hindu quarters of the village of Kahuta were torched with their occupants present inside, while women were abducted to be raped. The village of Thoha Khalsa was the site of a much-publicised massacre. An armed Muslim mob laid siege to the village, asking the Sikh residents to convert to Islam. Sikh men killed female members of their families to prevent their abduction and rape, before being killed themselves by
3796-455: A transfer of populations (i.e., the total removal of Hindus from Muslim-majority areas and the total removal of Muslims from Hindu-majority areas) was a desirable step towards a complete separation of two incompatible nations that "cannot coexist in a harmonious relationship." Opposition to the theory has come from two sources. The first is the concept of a single Indian nation , of which Hindus and Muslims are two intertwined communities. This
3942-464: A two-hour speech in English, in which were laid out the arguments of the two-nation theory , stating, in the words of historians Talbot and Singh, that "Muslims and Hindus...were irreconcilably opposed monolithic religious communities and as such, no settlement could be imposed that did not satisfy the aspirations of the former." On the last day of its session, the League passed what came to be known as
4088-434: Is a founding principle of the modern, officially- secular Republic of India . Even after the formation of Pakistan, debates on whether Muslims and Hindus are distinct nationalities or not continued in that country as well. The second source of opposition is the concept that while Indians are not one nation, neither are the Muslims or Hindus of the subcontinent, and it is instead the relatively homogeneous provincial units of
4234-641: Is said that the Ramnagar reserve in Jammu was littered with the dead bodies of Gujjar men, women and children. In the Muslim localities of Jammu city , Talab Khatikan and Mohalla Ustad , Muslims were surrounded and were denied water supply and food. The Muslims in Talab Khatikan area had joined to defend themselves with the arms they could gather, who later received support from the Muslim Conference. They were eventually asked to surrender and
4380-437: Is thought that between 14 million and 18 million people moved, and perhaps more. Excess mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to be around one million. The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day. "Partition of India" does not cover the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, nor
4526-509: The 1857 Rebellion and the Second Anglo-Afghan War . In the three decades since the 1871 census, Muslim leaders across North India had intermittently experienced public animosity from some of the new Hindu political and social groups. The Arya Samaj , for example, had not only supported the cow protection movement in their agitation, but also—distraught at the census' Muslim numbers—organized "reconversion" events for
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4672-962: The Bengal Presidency , which was divided into Indian West Bengal and Pakistani East Bengal ; and the Punjab Province , which was divided into Indian East Punjab and Pakistani West Punjab . Other divided assets included the British Indian Army , the Royal Indian Navy , the Royal Indian Air Force , the Indian Civil Service , the Indian railways , and the central treasury. The independence and self-governance of Pakistan and India officially came into effect at midnight on 14 August and 15 August , respectively. The partition caused large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration between
4818-759: The Bengal Presidency —the largest administrative subdivision in British India—into the Muslim-majority province of Eastern Bengal and Assam and the Hindu-majority province of Bengal (present-day Indian states of West Bengal , Bihar , Jharkhand , and Odisha ). Curzon's act, the partition of Bengal —which had been contemplated by various colonial administrations since the time of Lord William Bentinck , though never acted upon—was to transform nationalist politics as nothing else before it. The Hindu elite of Bengal, many of whom owned land that
4964-477: The Cabinet Mission Plan . Through this mission, Britain hoped to preserve the united India which they and the Congress desired, while concurrently securing the essence of Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan through 'groupings.' The Cabinet mission scheme encapsulated a federal arrangement consisting of three groups of provinces. Two of these groupings would consist of predominantly Muslim provinces, while
5110-767: The Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan . The Dominion of India is now the Republic of India , while the Dominion of Pakistan—which comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh . Outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947 , the partition was the result of the Pakistan Movement , which, advocating
5256-546: The House of Commons , with an offer of dominion status to India at the end of the war in return for the Congress's support for the war effort. Not wishing to lose the support of the allies they had already secured—the Muslim League, Unionists of Punjab, and the princes—Cripps's offer included a clause stating that no part of the British Indian Empire would be forced to join the post-war dominion. The League rejected
5402-836: The Indian National Army (INA) also participated in this violence along with the RSS and state forces. Bhasin says that the massacres took place in the presence of the then Jammu and Kashmir's Prime Minister Mehr Chand Mahajan and the governor of Jammu, Lala Chet Ram Chopra, and that some of those who led these riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference with some of them also serving as ministers. An early official calculation made in Pakistan, using headcount data, estimated 50,000 Muslims killed. A team of two Englishmen jointly commissioned by
5548-511: The Lahore Resolution , sometimes also "Pakistan Resolution," demanding that "the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in the majority as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign." Though it had been founded more than three decades earlier, the League would gather support among South Asian Muslims only during
5694-613: The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, indicated his preference to remain independent of the new dominions. All the major political groups of the state supported the Maharaja's decision, except for the Muslim Conference , which declared in favour of accession to Pakistan on 19 July 1947. The Muslim Conference was popular among Muslims in the Jammu province of the state. It was closely allied with the All-India Muslim League , which
5840-568: The Minto-Morley Reforms , and more recently of the Congress-Muslim League Lucknow Pact, was reaffirmed, with seats being reserved for Muslims , Sikhs , Indian Christians , Anglo-Indians , and domiciled Europeans, in both provincial and imperial legislative councils. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms offered Indians the most significant opportunity yet for exercising legislative power, especially at
5986-551: The Muslim League (ML) won 75 of the 86 Muslim seats in the province and emerged as the biggest party, but failed to win any non-Muslim ones and fell short of the magic figure in the 175 seat assembly. The Muslim zamindar -led secular Unionist Party , which had won 18 seats, of whom 10 were Muslim, formed a coalition government with the Indian National Congress , which was the second biggest winner after
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6132-576: The Muslim League National Guard , which prompted large "direct action" demonstrations by the Muslim League throughout the province that later turned violent. The Muslim League campaign worsened communal tensions in the province, which had already been raised after previous year's election campaign. On 20 February 1947, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that the British will leave India by June 1948. On 2 March 1947, Khizar Hayat Tiwana resigned as premier in light of
6278-598: The Punjab Unionists , Indian National Congress and Akali Dal , achieved through a six-week campaign by the Muslim League. The riots left between 2,000 and 7,000 Sikhs and Hindus dead, and set off their mass exodus from Rawalpindi Division. 80,000 Sikhs and Hindus were estimated to have left the Division by the end of April. The incidents were the first instance of partition-related violence in Punjab to show clear manifestations of ethnic cleansing , and marked
6424-463: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who were joined by the refugees from West Pakistan, and were supported strongly by Hari Singh and his administration with a main aim to change the demographic composition of Jammu region and ensure a non-Muslim majority. Bhasin states, the riots were "clearly" planned by the activists of RSS. Observers have noted that the Akali Sikhs and some former members of
6570-618: The Rawalpindi Division of the Punjab Province of British India in March 1947. The violence preceded the partition of India and was instigated and perpetrated by the Muslim League National Guards —the militant wing of the Muslim League —as well as local cadres and politicians of the League, demobilised Muslim soldiers, local officials and policemen. It followed the fall of a coalition government of
6716-574: The United Provinces (where Hindus attacked Muslims), and on to Rawalpindi in March 1947 in which Hindus and Sikhs were attacked or driven out by Muslims. In London, the president of the India League , V. K. Krishna Menon , nominated Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma as the only suitable viceregal candidate in clandestine meetings with Sir Stafford Cripps and Clement Attlee. Prime Minister Attlee subsequently appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy , giving him
6862-610: The two-nation theory , sought the establishment of an Islamic state in all of the regions of India where Muslims accounted for the majority of the population. Akin to the demand of the Lahore Resolution by the All-India Muslim League in 1940, the Radcliffe Line was demarcated to allocate the territory of India's presidencies and provinces , primarily on the basis of demographic data: Muslim-majority districts were granted to Pakistan and non-Muslim-majority districts were granted to independent India. This particularly affected
7008-457: The "Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946". The next day, Hindus struck back, and the violence continued for three days in which approximately 4,000 people died (according to official accounts), both Hindus and Muslims. Although India had outbreaks of religious violence between Hindus and Muslims before, the Calcutta killings were the first to display elements of " ethnic cleansing ". Violence
7154-589: The "official majority" in unfavourable votes. Although departments like defence, foreign affairs, criminal law, communications, and income-tax were retained by the viceroy and the central government in New Delhi, other departments like public health, education, land-revenue, local self-government were transferred to the provinces. The provinces themselves were now to be administered under a new dyarchical system, whereby some areas like education, agriculture, infrastructure development, and local self-government became
7300-494: The 1920s, being surrounded by Labour statesmen who were affiliated with Krishna Menon and the India League , and for years had supported it. He now took charge of the government position and gave the issue the highest priority. A Cabinet Mission was sent to India led by the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick Lawrence , which also included Sir Stafford Cripps , who had visited India four years before. The objective of
7446-552: The 1988 television film Tamas , directed by Govind Nihalani . The film was based on Bhisham Sahni 's Hindi novel of the same name . An incident similar to the Thoha Khalsa mass suicide is also depicted in the 2003 film Khamosh Pani . A Punjabi novel based on the events called Khoon de Sohille written by Nanak Singh was published in 1948. It was translated into English as Hymns in Blood (2022). Other works based on
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#17327810407827592-632: The 64 reserved Muslim seats. In the Muslim-majority regions of the Punjab and Bengal regional parties outperformed the League. In Punjab, the Unionist Party of Sikandar Hayat Khan , won the elections and formed a government, with the support of the Indian National Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal , which lasted five years. In Bengal, the League had to share power in a coalition headed by A. K. Fazlul Huq ,
7738-692: The Attock district. This established a precedent of impunity for officials and policemen acting in a biased manner. Such failures to prosecute the perpetrators are seen to have enabled the later violence in Punjab, closer to the partition. The events have produced some of the most unforgettable images of the partition violence. Those who died in the violence, especially those who killed themselves or were killed by their families to prevent anticipated conversion, rapes, abductions or forced marriages—which were seen as violative of community honour —were valorised for their sacrifice and continue to be seen as martyrs in
7884-416: The British and their allies were now in conflict with the Ottoman Empire, doubts began to increase among some Indian Muslims about the "religious neutrality" of the British, doubts that had already surfaced as a result of the reunification of Bengal in 1911, a decision that was seen as ill-disposed to Muslims. In the Lucknow Pact, the League joined the Congress in the proposal for greater self-government that
8030-587: The British government decided to end British Raj in India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948. Attlee wrote later in a memoir that he moved quickly to restart the self-rule process because he expected colonial rule in Asia to meet renewed opposition after the war from both nationalist movements and the United States, while his exchequer feared that post-war Britain could no longer afford to garrison an expansive empire. Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee had been deeply interested in Indian independence since
8176-425: The Center weak. On 10 July 1946, Nehru gave a "provocative speech," rejected the idea of grouping the provinces and "effectively torpedoed" both the Cabinet mission plan and the prospect of a United India. After the Cabinet Mission broke down, in July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home in Bombay. He proclaimed that the Muslim League was "preparing to launch a struggle" and that they "have chalked out
8322-418: The Congress and Sikh leaders of the Punjab demanding its partition. On 8 March, the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution to partition the Punjab. Survivors identified attackers by their names, occupations and home villages in FIRs after the massacres. Despite identification by fact-finding committees, few of the perpetrators were ever brought to justice, partly because of communal polarisation of
8468-400: The Congress itself rallied around the symbolism of Kali. It was not lost on many Muslims, for example, that the bande mataram rallying cry had first appeared in the novel Anandmath in which Hindus had battled their Muslim oppressors. Lastly, the Muslim elite, including Nawab of Dacca , Khwaja Salimullah , who hosted the League's first meeting in his mansion in Shahbag , were aware that
8614-407: The Hindus and Sikhs in the divisional headquarters of Rawalpindi, Muslim mobs banded together and turned to the countryside. The mobs went on a rampage, engaging in arson, looting, massacres and rape, one village after the other in the districts of Rawalpindi , Jhelum and Cambellpur (present-day Attock). Sikhs were the primary targets, but Hindus were also attacked. In one incident, on 7 March,
8760-513: The Jammu police were still headed by Muslim officers (Brigadier Khuda Baksh, commanding the Jammu Brigade, and Mian Abdul Rashid, Senior Superintendent of Police). From June 1946 onwards, the Muslim Conference is reported to have tightened its connections with Pakistan's Muslim League, importing its leaders into the state and starting to train 'National Guards'. Its new leaders ( Agha Shaukat Ali for general secreatry and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas for president) were "working up anti-Hindu sentiments under
8906-430: The Jammu violence based on demographic data. If the headcount figure of 333,964 refugees from the Indian-administered parts of the state is used to calculate an estimate, one ends up with a surplus rather than a deficit. However, Justice Yusuf Saraf estimates that 100,000 Jammu refugees returned to their homes in 1949–1950. If we deduct this 100,000 from the original headcount figure, the estimate of Muslims killed would be
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#17327810407829052-463: The ML, winning 51 seats, and the Shiromani Akali Dal , which had won 20 seats, all from Sikh constituencies. The Unionist leader Khizar Hayat Tiwana was elected the premier . After withdrawing from the Cabinet Mission plan in July 1946, Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah called for " Direct Action " in August. The calls for direct action were followed by large-scale rioting and violence in Calcutta , which gradually spread elsewhere during
9198-479: The Maharaja was informed of 400 armed Muslims who had infiltrated from Kahuta for the purpose of terrorising Hindu and Sikh minorities. Pakistan was informed and urged to control the infiltration. On 12 September 1947, then prime minister and defence minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan approved two plans for an invasion of Kashmir prepared by Colonel Akbar Khan and Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan . Pashtun tribes were mobilised for an armed attack. Maharaja Hari Singh
9344-414: The Muslim League agitations and campaign against his ministry, and the official announcement of the imminent end of British rule. Although anticipated, a Muslim League-led coalition could not form due to the League's inability to assuage the fears of non-Muslim legislators, who had become increasingly hostile to the League and the demand for Pakistan . Akali Dal leader Master Tara Singh notoriously made
9490-424: The Muslim League was now free for the next three years to spread its message. Consequently, the Muslim League's ranks surged during the war, with Jinnah himself admitting, "The war which nobody welcomed proved to be a blessing in disguise." Although there were other important national Muslim politicians such as Congress leader Abul Kalam Azad , and influential regional Muslim politicians such as A. K. Fazlul Huq of
9636-428: The Muslim League, which functioned under state patronage, organized "Deliverance Day" celebrations (from Congress dominance) and supported Britain in the war effort. When Linlithgow met with nationalist leaders, he gave the same status to Jinnah as he did to Gandhi , and, a month later, described the Congress as a "Hindu organization." In March 1940, in the League's annual three-day session in Lahore , Jinnah gave
9782-450: The Muslim League. Late in 1946, the Labour government in Britain , its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, decided to end British rule of India, with power being transferred no later than June 1948. With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten , advanced the date, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. In June 1947,
9928-426: The Muslim masses of future Hindu domination. The view that Muslims would be unfairly treated in an independent India dominated by the Congress was now a part of the public discourse of Muslims. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Lord Linlithgow , Viceroy of India , declared war on India's behalf without consulting Indian leaders, leading the Congress provincial ministries to resign in protest. By contrast
10074-429: The Muslim minority elites of provinces like UP and Bihar more than the Muslim majorities of Punjab and Bengal. At the time, the "Lucknow Pact" was an important milestone in nationalistic agitation and was seen so by the British. Secretary of State for India Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford presented a report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter. After more discussion by
10220-421: The Muslims of the eastern portions of the province, to make way for the settlement of the refugees who had been driven out from the west. The Sikhs, in particular, felt especially humiliated as parts of the Muslim press taunted them after the massacres. The absence of condemnation of the massacres by leaders of the Muslim League widened the growing rift between the League and the Sikhs. The riots also lead to
10366-406: The Rawalpindi district alone stood at 2,263, however, this number was considered inaccurate due to "the widespread nature of disturbances" and a collapse of "normal administrative machinery". The number was based on registered police cases and did not include such cases "where whole families were wiped out and no claims were made". A contemporary Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee report put
10512-470: The Second World War. In August 1940, Lord Linlithgow proposed that India be granted dominion status after the war. Having not taken the Pakistan idea seriously, Linlithgow supposed that what Jinnah wanted was a non-federal arrangement without Hindu domination. To allay Muslim fears of Hindu domination, the "August Offer" was accompanied by the promise that a future constitution would consider
10658-467: The Sikh community. Images of the aftermath of the massacres were compiled by politician Prabodh Chandra and published in a booklet titled Rape of Rawalpindi in 1947, soon after the massacres. The circulation of this booklet was stopped by the government fearing retaliation against Muslims in East Punjab. The events, in particular the massacre and mass suicide at Thoha Khalsa, were depicted in
10804-499: The adjoining princely states and tribal areas . The rebels took control of most of the countryside in these districts by the end of the month, driving non-Muslims to seek shelter in towns where the State troops were garrisoned. Beginning on 24 October, the towns themselves fell to the rebels: Bhimber (24 October), Rajauri (7 November), and Mirpur (25 November). Rajouri was held by the "Azad Kashmir forces", or rebels from Poonch, and
10950-558: The administration asked them to go to Pakistan for their safety. These Muslims and others who wanted to go to Sialkot, in thousands, were loaded in numerous trucks and were escorted by the troops in the first week of November. When they reached the outskirts of the city, they were pulled out and killed by armed Sikhs and RSS men, while abducting the women. There were also reports of large-scale massacres of Muslims in Udhampur district, particularly in proper Udhampur , Chenani , Ramnagar, Bhaderwah and Reasi areas. Killing of numerous Muslims
11096-422: The arrival of refugees caused considerable unease in Jammu, the city remained free of communal disturbances till the end of September 1947. During August–September 1947, roughly 100,000 Muslims from East Punjab and an equal number of non-Muslims from West Punjab were safely escorted through Jammu by Jammu and Kashmir State Forces . According to scholar Ian Copland, the Jammu and Kashmir administration carried out
11242-433: The attackers to distinguish them from houses of non-Muslims. The ancestral home of Tara Singh was also reduced to ashes. The mobs continued their campaign of loot and mass murder without hindrance. Muslim policemen aided and abetted the violence at many places throughout West Punjab, and at times responded inordinately late to appeals for help. There is evidence of involvement of Muslim League cadres and local politicians in
11388-404: The attackers. More than 90 Sikh women and children committed mass suicide after jumping into a well to avoid rape. The death toll at the village is estimated to be around 300. A similar massacre, mass suicide and looting also took place at the village of Choa Khalsa , where around 150 Sikhs—and a smaller number of Hindus—were killed, and in the Sikh village of Dhamali . In Bewal village,
11534-604: The attacks are recounted in first information reports (FIRs) given to the police by survivors. The attacks were premeditated, and rumours were spread through mosques to instigate Muslim villagers. The attackers are said to have received weapons and funds from outside, and were partly funded by the Muslim League. They were armed with guns, rifles, axes, swords, spears, sticks, and in two cases with hand grenades. Houses of those driven out were razed and subsequently flattened up to prevent them from returning and rebuilding. Muslim houses were sometimes marked by their occupants to allow
11680-554: The attacks, but little evidence directly implicating the top leadership of the Muslim League—including Jinnah. However, no leaders of the Muslim League, national or provincial, offered any condemnation of the massacres. The violence ceased by the middle of March. At many places, attacks ended after the army moved in to rescue survivors. Many villages had their entire population wiped out while others had few survivors. The official death toll for non-Muslims killed in
11826-456: The beginning of systematic violence against women that accompanied the partition, seeing rampant sexual violence , rape, and forced conversions , with many women committing mass suicides along with their children, and many killed by their male relatives, for fear of abduction and rape. The events are sometimes referred to as the Rape of Rawalpindi . In the 1946 Punjab provincial election ,
11972-640: The border – by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hindus and Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to India ." Partition of India The partition of India occurred on 14–15 August 1947 and marked the dissolution of British India , whose territory and assets were divided between
12118-530: The central and provincial legislatures. The Muslim League favoured this "communal award" as it had the potential to weaken the Hindu caste leadership. Mahatma Gandhi , who was seen as a leading advocate for Dalit rights, went on a fast to persuade the British to repeal these separate electorates. Ambedkar had to back down when it seemed Gandhi's life was threatened. Two years later, the Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy, increasing
12264-478: The disemboweling of pregnant women, the slamming of babies' heads against brick walls, the cutting off of the victim's limbs and genitalia, and the displaying of heads and corpses. While previous communal riots had been deadly, the scale and level of brutality during the Partition massacres were unprecedented. Although some scholars question the use of the term ' genocide ' concerning the partition massacres, much of
12410-480: The displacement of any of its inhabitants, whether they were Sikhs or Hindus. The theory is also a source of inspiration to several Hindu nationalist organizations, with causes as varied as the redefinition of Indian Muslims as non-Indian foreigners and second-class citizens in India, the expulsion of all Muslims from India , the establishment of a legally Hindu state in India, prohibition of conversions to Islam , and
12556-404: The dispute and division of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir between India, Pakistan, and later China; the incorporation of the enclaves of French India into India during the period 1947–1954; and the annexation of Goa and other districts of Portuguese India by India in 1961. Nepal and Bhutan , having signed treaties with the British designating them as independent states , were not
12702-477: The electoral rolls of Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 1970, the number that remained in Pakistan is estimated to be in the range 219,718 – 259,047. Muslims in the western districts of Poonch jagir began an agitation against taxes in mid-1947, which escalated into an armed rebellion against Hari Singh's government, and expanded to Mirpur district . In October 1947, a force of Pathan tribesman crossed into Kashmir from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and
12848-541: The following months. In December 1946, rioting was reported from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) after a Muslim League campaign to oust the Congress government in that province. The neighbouring Rawalpindi Division received thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees who had been driven out from the Hazara district of NWFP. In January 1947, Tiwana banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and
12994-628: The form of the 1946 elections with the Congress winning 91 percent of the vote among non-Muslim constituencies, thereby gaining a majority in the Central Legislature and forming governments in eight provinces, and becoming the legitimate successor to the British government for most Hindus. If the British intended to stay in India the acquiescence of politically active Indians to British rule would have been in doubt after these election results, although many rural Indians may still have acquiesced to British rule at this time. The Muslim League won
13140-773: The government and parliament in Britain, and another tour by the Franchise and Functions Committee to identify who among the Indian population could vote in future elections, the Government of India Act of 1919 (also known as the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms ) was passed in December 1919. The new Act enlarged both the provincial and Imperial legislative councils and repealed the Government of India's recourse to
13286-510: The governments of India and Pakistan investigated seven major incidents of violence between 20 October – 9 November 1947, estimating 70,000 deaths. Scholar Ian Copland estimated total deaths to be around 80,000, while Ved Bhasin estimated them to be around 100,000. Scholar Christopher Snedden says, the number of Muslims killed were between 20,000 and 100,000. Justice Yusuf Saraf estimates them to be between 20,000 and 30,000. Much higher figures were reported by newspapers at that time. A report by
13432-1039: The guise of uniting all Muslims", according to the British Resident in Kashmir. The Resident also reported that, in March 1947, Pir of Manki Sharif (from the North-West Frontier Province ) sent his agents to prepare the people for a 'holy crusade' to be carried out by frontier tribes soon after the departure of the British. Also in March 1947, following the massacres in Rawalpindi , large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs from Rawalpindi and Sialkot started arriving in Jammu, bringing "harrowing stories of Muslim atrocities in West Punjab". According to scholar Ilyas Chattha, this eventually provoked counter-violence on Jammu Muslims, which had "many parallels with that in Sialkot". Scholar Prem Shankar Jha states that, though
13578-669: The hands of men in their family. These were the result of fears that they would be sexually abused by the raiders. The capture of Rajouri from the raiders is commemorated on 13 April, and a monument was erected to honour the incident in the town. After the Indian army repelled the Pashtun raiders from near Srinagar on 25 November, the raiders turned to Mirpur , in present-day Azad Kashmir . Political scientist Christopher Snedden writes of unverifiable allegations that 20,000 non-Muslims were killed on and shortly after 25 November in Mirpur, and
13724-522: The infamous trial of three senior officers − Shah Nawaz Khan , Prem Sahgal , and Gurubaksh Singh Dhillon − of Subhas Chandra Bose 's defeated Indian National Army (INA) who stood accused of treason . Now as the trials began, the Congress leadership, although having never supported the INA, chose to defend the accused officers and successfully rescued the INA members. British rule had lost its legitimacy for most Hindus, and conclusive proof of this came in
13870-514: The large scale communal violence in the region. On 14 October, the RSS activists and the Akalis attacked various villages of Jammu district—Amrey, Cheak, Atmapur and Kochpura—and after killing some Muslims, looted their possessions and set their houses on fire. There was mass killing of Muslims in and around Jammu city. The state troops led the attacks. The state officials provided arms and ammunition to
14016-476: The latter with the casualties being mostly Hindu. Several villages in the Multan District were attacked after dark, and many Hindus were killed and their properties looted or destroyed. With no government in sight, Governor Evan Jenkins imposed governor's rule in Punjab. The rioting soon spread from the towns to the rural areas of Rawalpindi Division in northern Punjab. Faced with resistance from
14162-481: The leader of the Krishak Praja Party . The Congress, on the other hand, with 716 wins in the total of 1585 provincial assemblies seats, was able to form governments in 7 out of the 11 provinces of British India . In its manifesto, Congress maintained that religious issues were of lesser importance to the masses than economic and social issues. The election revealed that it had contested just 58 out of
14308-583: The leaders of the Indian National Congress , it would lead to calls for greater self-government for Indians. The 1916 Lucknow Session of the Congress was also the venue of an unanticipated mutual effort by the Congress and the Muslim League, the occasion for which was provided by the wartime partnership between Germany and Turkey. Since the Ottoman Sultan, also held guardianship of the Islamic holy sites of Mecca , Medina , and Jerusalem , and, since
14454-604: The leftist Krishak Praja Party in Bengal, Sikander Hyat Khan of the landlord-dominated Punjab Unionist Party , and Abd al-Ghaffar Khan of the pro-Congress Khudai Khidmatgar (popularly, "red shirts") in the North West Frontier Province , the British were to increasingly see the League as the main representative of Muslim India. The Muslim League's demand for Pakistan pitted it against the British and Congress. The 1945 United Kingdom general election
14600-433: The legal system. The British administration threatened penalties for the worst cases of official negligence, however, these threats carried little weight owing to impending British withdrawal from the region. Statements by the Muslim League were seen to be of more consequence; one prominent politician of the League offered protection for perpetrators and threatened action against such officials who maintained law and order, in
14746-453: The main: the Hindus and the Muslims, in India". Muhammad Ali Jinnah undertook the ideology that religion is the determining factor in defining the nationality of Indian Muslims in 1940. He termed it as the awakening of Muslims for the creation of Pakistan. However, Jinnah opposed Partition of Punjab and Bengal, and advocated for the integration of all Punjab and Bengal into Pakistan without
14892-469: The majority of the Muslim vote as well as most reserved Muslim seats in the provincial assemblies, and it also secured all the Muslim seats in the Central Assembly. Recovering from its performance in the 1937 elections, the Muslim League was finally able to make good on the claim that it and Jinnah alone represented India's Muslims and Jinnah quickly interpreted this vote as a popular demand for
15038-415: The ministry would turn a blind eye to any action they unleashed in the city." That very evening, in Calcutta, Hindus were attacked by returning Muslim celebrants, who carried pamphlets distributed earlier which showed a clear connection between violence and the demand for Pakistan, and directly implicated the celebration of Direct Action Day with the outbreak of the cycle of violence that would later be called
15184-460: The mission was to arrange for an orderly transfer to independence. In February 1946, mutinies broke out in the armed services, starting with RAF servicemen frustrated with their slow repatriation to Britain. These mutinies failed to turn into revolutions as the mutineers surrendered after the Congress and the Muslim League convinced the mutineers that they won't get victimised. In early 1946, new elections were held in India. This coincided with
15330-592: The national level, they constituted only 10% of the total adult male population, many of whom were still illiterate. In the provincial legislatures, the British continued to exercise some control by setting aside seats for special interests they considered cooperative or useful. In particular, rural candidates, generally sympathetic to British rule and less confrontational, were assigned more seats than their urban counterparts. Seats were also reserved for non- Brahmins , landowners, businessmen, and college graduates. The principle of "communal representation," an integral part of
15476-486: The nationalist leaders, including Nehru , Valllabh Bhai Patel and J B Kripalini on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, and Abdul Rab Nishtar representing the Muslim League, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs , agreed to a partition of the country in stark opposition to Gandhi's opposition to partition. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to
15622-469: The new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The communal violence that accompanied the publication of the Radcliffe Line , the line of partition, was even more horrific. Describing the violence that accompanied the partition of India, historians Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh wrote: There are numerous eyewitness accounts of the maiming and mutilation of victims. The catalogue of horrors includes
15768-556: The number of dead at over 7,000. Later scholars have given estimates ranging between 4,000 and 8,000 dead in the rural areas of Rawalpindi. Many women were abducted during the violence. 70 were abducted from the Doberan village, 40 from Harial , 30 from Tainch, 95 from Rajar and 105 from Bamali. A further 500 were abducted from Kahuta and between 400 and 500 were abducted from Rawalpindi. Abducted women were often sold multiple times and raped by their captors. The massacres triggered
15914-492: The number of voters in India to 35 million. More significantly, law and order issues were for the first time devolved from British authority to provincial governments headed by Indians. This increased Muslim anxieties about eventual Hindu domination. In the 1937 Indian provincial elections , the Muslim League turned out its best performance in Muslim-minority provinces such as the United Provinces , where it won 29 of
16060-419: The offer, seeing this clause as insufficient in meeting the principle of Pakistan. As a result of that proviso, the proposals were also rejected by the Congress, which, since its founding as a polite group of lawyers in 1885, saw itself as the representative of all Indians of all faiths. After the arrival in 1920 of Gandhi, the pre-eminent strategist of Indian nationalism, the Congress had been transformed into
16206-490: The office of prime minister . Mountbatten remained in New Delhi for 10 months, serving as the first governor-general of an independent India until June 1948. Gandhi remained in Bengal to work with the new refugees from the partitioned subcontinent. At a press conference on 3 June 1947, Lord Mountbatten announced the date of independence – 14 August 1947 – and also outlined the actual division of British India between
16352-623: The other hand, cites a "comprehensive report" in Dawn , which said that 200,000 Muslims went as refugees to Pakistan in October–November 1947. An unidentified organisation in Pakistan counted refugees from Jammu and Kashmir during May–July 1949, and found 333,964 refugees from the Indian-held parts of the state. Of these, an estimated 100,000 refugees returned to their homes in 1949–1950, leaving an estimated 233,964 refugees in Pakistan. Based on
16498-438: The preserve of Indian ministers and legislatures, and ultimately the Indian electorates, while others like irrigation, land-revenue, police, prisons, and control of media remained within the purview of the British governor and his executive council. The new Act also made it easier for Indians to be admitted into the civil service and the army officer corps. A greater number of Indians were now enfranchised, although, for voting at
16644-704: The promotion of conversions or reconversions of Indian Muslims to Hinduism. There are varying interpretations of the two-nation theory, based on whether the two postulated nationalities can coexist in one territory or not, with radically different implications. One interpretation argued for sovereign autonomy, including the right to secede, for Muslim-majority areas of the Indian subcontinent, but without any transfer of populations (i.e., Hindus and Muslims would continue to live together). A different interpretation contends that Hindus and Muslims constitute "two distinct and frequently antagonistic ways of life and that therefore they cannot coexist in one nation." In this version,
16790-640: The provincial level, though restricted by the still limited number of eligible voters, by the small budgets available to provincial legislatures, and by the presence of rural and special interest seats that were seen as instruments of British control. The two-nation theory is the assertion, based on the former Indian Muslim ruling class' sense of being culturally and historically distinct, that Indian Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations . It argued that religion resulted in cultural and social differences between Muslims and Hindus. While some professional Muslim Indian politicians used it to secure or safeguard
16936-460: The purpose of welcoming Muslims back to the Hindu fold. In the United Provinces , Muslims became anxious in the late-19th century as Hindu political representation increased, and Hindus were politically mobilized in the Hindi–Urdu controversy and the anti-cow-killing riots of 1893. In 1905, Muslim fears grew when Tilak and Lajpat Rai attempted to rise to leadership positions in the Congress, and
17082-503: The raiders, until April 1948, when the town was taken by the Indian armed forces. The town was surrounded by Muslim mobs who carried out extensive killings, loot and rapes of Hindu residents. The Hindus facing this persecution included the town's residents as well as those displaced from the surrounding countryside. Some Hindus were able to escape, while others were sheltered by sympathetic Muslims. Mass suicides and killings, including by beheading or poisoning, occurred among women, sometimes at
17228-450: The rioters. The administration had demobilised many Muslim soldiers in the state army and had discharged Muslim police officers. Most of the Muslims outside the Muslim dominated areas were killed by the communal rioters who moved in vehicles with arms and ammunition, though the city was officially put under curfew. Many Gujjar men and women who used to supply milk to the city from the surrounding villages were reportedly massacred en route. It
17374-578: The riots. An estimated 20,000–100,000 Muslims were massacred. Subsequently, many non-Muslims were massacred by Pakistani tribesmen, in the Mirpur region of today's Pakistani administered Kashmir , and also in the Rajouri area of Jammu division. At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the British abandoned their suzerainty over the princely states , which were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh ,
17520-466: The separation of Burma (Myanmar) from the British Raj in 1937, nor the much earlier separation of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from Company rule in 1796. Other political entities or transformations in the region that were not a part of the partition were: the political integration of princely states into the two new dominions; the annexation of the princely states of Hyderabad and Junagadh by India;
17666-490: The situation in Jammu on 25 December 1947 in his speech at a prayer meeting in New Delhi: "The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who had gone there from outside killed Muslims. The Maharaja of Kashmir is responsible for what is happening there…A large number of Muslims have been killed there and Muslim women have been dishonoured." According to Ved Bhasin and scholar Ilyas Chattha, the Jammu riots were executed by members of
17812-633: The subcontinent which are true nations and deserving of sovereignty ; the Baloch have presented this view, Sindhi , and Pashtun sub-nationalities of Pakistan and the Assamese and Punjabi sub-nationalities of India. In 1933, Choudhry Rahmat Ali had produced a pamphlet, entitled Now or Never , in which the term Pakistan , 'land of the pure,' comprising the Punjab , North West Frontier Province (Afghania) , Kashmir , Sindh , and Balochistan ,
17958-562: The supposed merits of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Except for a few honourable exceptions, Muslim officials from the top down to the chaprasis ( peons or servants) are working for the League. The communal veto given to the League in the Mission Plan would have blocked India's progress at every stage. Whether we like it or not, de facto Pakistan already exists in the Punjab and Bengal. Under the circumstances, I would prefer
18104-526: The task to oversee British India's independence by 30 June 1948, with the instruction to avoid partition and preserve a united India, but with adaptable authority to ensure a British withdrawal with minimal setbacks. Mountbatten hoped to revive the Cabinet Mission scheme for a federal arrangement for India. But despite his initial keenness for preserving the centre, the tense communal situation caused him to conclude that partition had become necessary for
18250-418: The third grouping would be made up of the predominantly Hindu regions. The provinces would be autonomous, but the centre would retain control over the defence, foreign affairs, and communications. Though the proposals did not offer independent Pakistan, the Muslim League accepted the proposals. Even though the unity of India would have been preserved, the Congress leaders, especially Nehru, believed it would leave
18396-706: The threat of civil war. At the All India Congress Committee meeting called to vote on the proposal, Patel said: I fully appreciate the fears of our brothers from [the Muslim-majority areas]. Nobody likes the division of India, and my heart is heavy. But the choice is between one division and many divisions. We must face facts. We cannot give way to emotionalism and sentimentality. The Working Committee has not acted out of fear. But I am afraid of one thing, that all our toil and hard work of these many years might go waste or prove unfruitful. My nine months in office have completely disillusioned me regarding
18542-407: The total 482 Muslim seats, and of these, it won in only 26. In UP, where the Congress won, it offered to share power with the League on condition that the League stops functioning as a representative only of Muslims, which the League refused. This proved to be a mistake as it alienated Congress further from the Muslim masses. Besides, the new UP provincial administration promulgated cow protection and
18688-479: The total population, reflecting both their status as former rulers and their record of cooperating with the British. This would result in the founding of the All-India Muslim League in Dacca in December 1906. Although Curzon by now had returned to England following his resignation over a dispute with his military chief, Lord Kitchener , the League was in favor of his partition plan. The Muslim elite's position, which
18834-458: The two dominions. Among refugees that survived, it solidified the belief that safety lay among co-religionists. In the instance of Pakistan, it made palpable a hitherto only imagined refuge for the Muslims of British India. A poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan in 2011 revealed that an overwhelming majority (92%) of Pakistanis held the view that separation from India was justified in 1947. The migrations took place hastily and with little warning. It
18980-493: The two new dominions in what became known as the "Mountbatten Plan" or the "3 June Plan". The plan's main points were: The Indian political leaders had accepted the Plan on 2 June. It could not deal with the question of the princely states , which were not British possessions, but on 3 June Mountbatten advised them against remaining independent and urged them to join one of the two new Dominions. The Muslim League 's demands for
19126-509: The use of Hindi. The Muslim elite in UP was further alienated, when they saw chaotic scenes of the new Congress Raj, in which rural people who sometimes turned up in large numbers in government buildings, were indistinguishable from the administrators and the law enforcement personnel. The Muslim League conducted its investigation into the conditions of Muslims under Congress-governed provinces. The findings of such investigations increased fear among
19272-744: The views of minorities. Neither the Congress nor the Muslim League were satisfied with the offer, and both rejected it in September. The Congress once again started a program of civil disobedience . In March 1942, with the Japanese fast moving up the Malayan Peninsula after the Fall of Singapore , and with the Americans supporting independence for India, Winston Churchill , then Britain's prime minister, sent Sir Stafford Cripps , leader of
19418-677: The violence was manifested with genocidal tendencies. It was designed to cleanse an existing generation and prevent its future reproduction." Mountbatten administered the independence oath to Jinnah on the 14th, before leaving for India where the oath was scheduled on the midnight of the 15th. On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor-General in Karachi . The following day, 15 August 1947, India, now Dominion of India , became an independent country, with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi , Jawaharlal Nehru assuming
19564-432: The violence, described the strategy of the attacks as follows: First of all minorities were disarmed with the help of local police and by giving assurances by oaths on holy Quran of peaceful intentions. After this had been done, the helpless and unarmed minorities were attacked. On their resistance having collapsed, lock breakers and looters came into action with their transport corps of mules, donkeys and camels. Then came
19710-542: The world both in newsprint and by the new medium of the radio. India's international profile would thereby rise and would continue to rise during the 1920s. It was to lead, among other things, to India, under its name, becoming a founding member of the League of Nations in 1920 and participating, under the name, "Les Indes Anglaises" (British India), in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp . Back in India, especially among
19856-419: The ‘Mujahadins’ with tins of petrol and kerosene oil and set fire to the looted shops and houses. Then there were maulvis with barbers to convert people who somehow or other escaped slaughter and rape. The barbers shaved the hair and beards and circumcised the victims. Maulvis recited kalamas and performed forcible marriage ceremonies. After this came the looters, including women and children. Similar accounts of
20002-515: Was campaigned for by Tilak and his supporters; in return, the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims in the provincial legislatures as well as the Imperial Legislative Council. In 1916, the Muslim League had anywhere between 500 and 800 members and did not yet have its wider following among Indian Muslims of later years; in the League itself, the pact did not have unanimous backing, having largely been negotiated by
20148-486: Was coined for the first time. It did not attract political attention and, a little later, a Muslim delegation to the Parliamentary Committee on Indian Constitutional Reforms gave short shrift to the idea of Pakistan, calling it "chimerical and impracticable." In 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald accepted Ambedkar 's demand for the " Depressed Classes " to have separate representation in
20294-616: Was leased out to Muslim peasants in East Bengal, protested strongly. The large Bengali-Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok ), upset at the prospect of Bengalis being outnumbered in the new Bengal province by Biharis and Oriyas , felt that Curzon's act was punishment for their political assertiveness . The pervasive protests against Curzon's decision predominantly took the form of the Swadeshi ('buy Indian') campaign, involving
20440-483: Was not confined to the public sphere, but homes were entered and destroyed, and women and children were attacked. Although the Government of India and the Congress were both shaken by the course of events, in September, a Congress-led interim government was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as united India's prime minister. The communal violence spread to Bihar (where Hindus attacked Muslims), to Noakhali in Bengal (where Muslims targeted Hindus), to Garhmukteshwar in
20586-409: Was reflected in the League's position, had crystallized gradually over the previous three decades, beginning with the 1871 Census of British India , which had first estimated the populations in regions of Muslim majority. For his part, Curzon's desire to court the Muslims of East Bengal had arisen from British anxieties ever since the 1871 census, and in light of the history of Muslims fighting them in
20732-513: Was reported from Chhamb, Deva Batala, Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor with many people fleeing to Pakistan or moving to Jammu. In Kathua district and Billawar area, there was extensive killing of Muslims with women being raped and abducted. On 16 November 1947, Sheikh Abdullah arrived in Jammu and a refugee camp was set up in Mohalla Ustad . — Ved Bhasin , who witnessed the Jammu violence in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi commented on
20878-613: Was seen by informed observers as liberal and non-sectarian, even though, in the run-up to the Partition , he was believed to have come under the influence of the Arya Samaj . At least a third of the state army and over half of its police force was Muslim. Both the army and police were headed by British officers until 3 October (Major General Henry Lawrence Scott , Chief of Staff, and Richard Powell, Inspector General of Police). After they stepped down, they were replaced by 'Hindu officers', according to British reports. The Jammu Brigade and
21024-532: Was set to inherit Pakistan. With the support of Mian Iftikharuddin , Muslim Conference leader Sardar Ibrahim met Pakistani Colonel Akbar Khan regarding the 1947 Poonch Rebellion . Ibrahim requested and received arms for the rebels. Establishing a base in Murree in Pakistani Punjab, Ibrahim's rebels attempted to purchase arms and ammunition in NWFP and smuggled them into Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile,
21170-423: Was the imperial capital, both the outrage and the slogan soon became known nationally. The overwhelming, predominantly-Hindu protest against the partition of Bengal, along with the fear of reforms favouring the Hindu majority, led the Muslim elite of India in 1906 to the new viceroy Lord Minto , asking for separate electorates for Muslims. In conjunction, they demanded representation in proportion to their share of
21316-555: Was won by the Labour Party . A government headed by Clement Attlee , with Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence in the Cabinet, was sworn in. Many in the new government, including Attlee, had a long history of supporting the decolonization of India. The government's exchequer had been exhausted by the Second World War and the British public did not appear to be enthusiastic about costly distant involvements. Late in 1945,
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