1947 Partition of India and Pakistan
Before India gained it’s Independence way back in 1947 there was quite a lot of political and social tensions between the Hindus and Muslims who lived in India. The Muslim League's leader, Muhammed Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), began a public campaign in favor of a separate Muslim state, while Jawaharlal Nehru
(1889–1964) of the Indian National Congress (INC) called for a unified India. The INC leaders such as Nehru were in favor of a united India since Hindus would have formed the vast majority of the Indian population and would have been in control of any democratic form of government.
As Independence came nearer, the country started a sectarian civil war. Mahatma Gandhi implored the Indian people to unite in peaceful opposition to British rule, the Muslim League sponsored a "Direct Action Day" on August 16, 1946, which resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Hindus and Sikhs in Calcutta (Kolkata). This touched off the "Week of the Long Knives," an orgy of sectarian violence that resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides in various cities across the country.
In 1947 February, the British government announced that India would be granted independence by June 1948. Viceroy for India Louis Mountbatten (1900–1979) pleaded with the Hindu and Muslim leaders to agree to form a united country, but they could not. Only Gandhi supported Mountbatten's position. With the country descending further into chaos, Mountbatten reluctantly agreed to the formation of two separate states.
Mountbatten proposed that the new state of Pakistan would be created from the Muslim-majority provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh, and the two contested provinces of Punjab and Bengal would be halved, creating a Hindu Bengal and Punjab, and Muslim Bengal and Punjab. The plan gained agreement from the Muslim League and the INC, and it was announced on June 3, 1947. The date for independence was moved up to Aug. 15, 1947, and all that was left was determining the physical border separating the two new states.
The partition led to confusion as people, depending on their faith, moved to the south or north which further led to more violence in both the countries. The new border ruptured agricultural communities and divided towns, families were separated, markets were lost and had to be reintegrated or reinvented.
Ever since 1947, the year of Independence, India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and one minor war over territorial disputes. The boundary line in Jammu and Kashmir is particularly troubled. The ruler of Kashmir agreed to join India despite having a Muslim majority in his territory, resulting in tension and warfare to this day.
- Poornima M. - India
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