Question

Economic, social and political issues at the time of partition

Answer 1

In the middle of World War II, with the U.S. pressuring Britain to loosen its colonial grip on India, Winston Churchill issued a bitter prophecy. "Take India if that was what you want! Take it, by all means!" the British prime minister raged to a U.S. diplomat in Washington. But, he argued, only British rule kept the subcontinent's Hindus and Muslims from each other's throats: "I warn you that if I open the door a crack, there will be the greatest bloodbath in all history; yes, bloodbath in all history."

Events would exceed Churchill's worst imaginings. Exactly 70 years ago, after nearly two centuries in power, the British divided their imperial "jewel" into two nations: India and Pakistan. Riots did indeed break out along the newly carved border, especially in the northwestern province of Punjab, the region's breadbasket. Muslims on one side, and Hindus and Sikhs on the other, laid into one another with rifles, swords, scythes and spears. Mobs roamed the Punjab's verdant fields on foot and horseback -- raping women and hacking off their breasts, smashing babies against tree trunks, mutilating men and setting villages alight. As many as a million people may have been slaughtered in a matter of weeks.
While India's communities had lived together for centuries, divisions lay just below the surface -- and sometimes above it. Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims rarely intermarried and often wouldn't share food. Where one community or the other dominated in wealth and resources, the other naturally seethed with resentment. Tales of the brutality of India's Mughal conquerors and the treacherousness of Hindu moneylenders were cliches. Riots broke out regularly. British efforts to divide et impera exacerbated tensions.

This mix -- more combustible at some times than others -- grew more dangerous under pressure from rising economic anxieties. A massive famine in 1943 killed millions. After Japan's World War II defeat, demobilization and the closure of factories geared toward war production threw millions more out of work. The prices of basic goods spiked; food was rationed. The Punjab had provided a disproportionate number of the army's recruits: Those young men returned home broadened by their experiences, but also deeply frustrated by their limited prospects.

Politicians supplied the match. The campaign to create a Muslim homeland had gathered steam during the war years. Once it became clear the British were serious about leaving the subcontinent, a power vacuum loomed. Suddenly, the question of who would inherit power from the British became more than theoretical.

Muslim leaders played upon fears that their faith and community were under threat, even while reminding Muslims that they'd once ruled the subcontinent. Hindu politicians dismissed their opponents as bigoted fascists, and warned of rape and mayhem if Pakistan were to be created. Both sides condemned the "atrocities" supposedly being visited upon their coreligionists by the other.

Fake news helped the flames to spread. As riots broke out ahead of independence, provocateurs crisscrossed the country with photos of dismembered bodies and charred Korans, looking to incite retaliation. Legitimate newspapers, funded by backers of one party or the other, gave space to the most bone-chilling claims. Even saintly "Mahatma" Gandhi repeated incendiary (and untrue) reports about mass rapes of Hindu women at the hands of Muslims. Others took up the cry; enraged Hindu mobs massacred 7,000 Muslims in the province of Bihar in revenge.