India was undivided for centuries, but on 15 August 1947 it was divided into two parts. Who was responsible for this partition? Was Gandhi responsible for this or Lord Mountbatten or Congress? It is difficult to answer this question, but by looking at some facts we can get answer of this tough question.
We will analysis some facts and then trying to solve this question. But one thing we have to accept that, “You can call it the misfortune of our country that those people who sat with the British and divided our country, today there are roads, hospitals in our country named after them and their pictures are put up in government offices.”
“We can see in the upper picture how everything was divided in this country. Even tables, chairs and fans were divided. Because of this we can call it the misfortune of our country.”
If we discuss the division of India, then we should look at the thoughts of three influential persons. The first was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the second was Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the third person was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. We will discuss this in detail later.
1. Pakistan will be formed over my dead body-:
Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has been the most controversial personality in history. How can anybody forget his practice of celibacy and Muslim appeasement. Mr. Gandhi himself was a confused personality. Let us know how – On 23 March 1940, Muslim League in Lahore demanded Pakistan and Mr. Gandhi was alive till 30 January 1948. There is a gap of 7 years, 10 months and 7 days between the two methods, almost every day Gandhi spoke against the partition of India in his prayer meetings. But in between there came two days when Gandhi accepted the partition. The first day was 2 June 1947 when Congress and Muslim League agreed on partition and the second day was 14 June 1947, When it was time for decision in Congress meeting. These were the two days when Gandhi could have raised his voice against partition, but what happened was that, Gandhi agreed to partition. Did Gandhi bow down to the demands of Muslim League. For now, this is what history tells us for while. Why would Gandhi, who always used to say, “Pakistan will be made over my dead body”, back down? Pakistan was not made over Gandhi’s dead body, “But India was made, after the bodies of lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs were laid down.”
“Perhaps very few people know that Gandhi was a great well-wisher of Muslims.”
Gandhi once told Mountbatten that, “Jinnah is asking for Pakistan, why not give him the whole of India instead of Pakistan”. Gandhi knew that if the power of India comes in the hands of Muslim League, then they can again repeat the riots like Noakhali and Kolkata.
Just as the Muslim League had done on the day of “Direct Action 1946”. Despite this, Gandhi still wanted to hand over Hindustan to Jinnah. From this, we can understand his love for Muslims and his lack of vision towards India.
But when Congress opposed Gandhi’s statement, he got angry like a child. Gandhi writes a letter to Mountbatten, “I feel sorry to see that my plan (to give power to Jinnah) was correct in every way, but I could not explain my point to Congress. For the sake of future, please leave me alone.” You can understand Gandhi’s intentions from this, how he easily turned his back on a big issue like the partition of India. Gandhi had accepted defeat in front of the Muslim League.
We have seen, read and understood Gandhi’s thoughts. Sardar Patel had as much a hand in the partition as Gandhi did, but we should also take a look at Sardar Patel’s thoughts, on what basis he wanted the partition of India. As we understood from Gandhi’s statement, he only wanted Muslim appeasement and nothing else. If the country had followed the path shown by Gandhi, India would have become Pakistan when power would have come into Jinnah’s hands. But Sardar Patel’s thoughts were completely different from Gandhi’s. The gist of what Patel said in support of partition is like this, “We were not getting the support of Muslim League in the interim government. From most of the Muslim officers to Muslim peons, they were working for the Muslim League. The Muslim League was planning to capture the whole of India after 15 August. At least now we have a great opportunity to develop three-fourth of India (Source: India Partition, Dr. Prabha Chopra, pg.no.214).
Sardar Patel’s clear statement on partition was that Muslim League will take over the whole country and it will become difficult for Hindus to live in India. Sardar Patel was more secular than Gandhi, that is why his popularity in India was more than Gandhi and Nehru on the ground level. Perhaps this was also a reason why Sardar Patel could never become the Prime Minister of India.
After Sardar Patel and Gandhi, now it is the turn of the First accidental Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. What did Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru think about partition? We have many of his statements which throw light on his thoughts.
First let us watch his speech in the AICC meeting. After Sardar Patel, Nehru takes the mic and says – “There are riots in Rawalpindi, Multan, Amritsar, Kolkata, Noakhali, Bihar. People’s houses are being burnt. Children, women are being murdered. People in Punjab are saying that the Congress has disappointed us. Should we send the army? We will have to fill these wounds and for that we will have to make a plan based on division.”(Source: Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru, series 2, vol.-3, pg.no. 110).
We see another statement of Pt. Nehru in which he blames Gandhi for the partition. In 1960, Nehru said in an interview to the famous British journalist Leonard Mosle – “The truth is that we were tired and had become old. Only a few among us could tolerate going to jail again. If we had insisted on undivided Bharat, as we wanted, then it is clear that we would have to go to jail again. We saw that fire was raging in Punjab and heard that murders were taking place every day. In this way, the partition plan offered a way out and we accepted it. But if Gandhiji had refused us, we would have continued the fight and kept waiting”(Source:The Last Days of the British Raj in India, Leonard Mosley, pg.no. 246).
But Maulana Azad had some different views on this topic about Nehru. Azad writes – ” I feel that the lady mountbatten is responsible for the change that has come in Jawaharlal, whose personality has influenced Jawaharlal. She always praised her husband mountbatten and explained his views to those people who did not agree with her husband.” (Source: Azadi ki kahani, Maulana Azad, pg.no. 117).
All these facts prove that Jawaharlal Nehru himself believed that Gandhi was responsible for the partition. If Gandhi had said so, perhaps we would have seen another freedom struggle. But who would have stood up to Gandhi? Behind Gandhi’s decision, the voices of Hindutva leaders like Purushottam Tandon were suppressed.
How surprising it is that on one side Hindus and Sikhs were being massacred. On the other hand Gandhi blames the Hindus and Sikhs for the partition. It was because of the tolerance of Hindus and Sikhs that Gandhi’s “head was not separated from the body.” If Gandhi had said the same thing about Muslims, riots would have broken out in the whole country and fatwas would have been issued against Gandhi.
I am not saying this out of thin air. You can verify this fact from “(Sampurana Gandhi Vangmya, Khand 88, pg.no 63).” Gandhi’s statement was something like this-: “Now that the decision of partition has been taken, can we all rebel against Congress? Jawaharlal says that he did not want partition, he became weak in front of the circumstances. Congress did not ask for it. You should not keep any pain in your heart that the country has been divided into two parts. You have been given what you asked for. Congress did not ask for it. But Congress knows the minds of people. We have understood that Hindus and Sikhs also want the same.”
The meaning of Gandhi’s statement was clear that Mountbatten, Jinnah, Congress or he himself were not responsible for the partition. If anyone is responsible then it is the common people and especially Hindus and Sikhs.
As we all know what is the image of Gandhi in this country. Gandhi is considered great in this country because he is a priest of non-violence and Satyagraha. Gandhians even say that if Gandhi had started any movement, the British government would have knelt down.
Actually, there was no need of any kind of advice to start any movement. He used to do this in the name of ‘voice of conscience’ or ‘divine inspiration’. Gandhi had undertaken 15 fasts till independence and all were done in the name of this inspiration. Many times Gandhi did not even need a major issue to start a movement. Like Gandhi did in 1918 and 1919, he sat on fast without any major issue. But when it came to the division of the country, you pulled back your steps. The people of the country, especially Hindus and Sikhs, consider Gandhi as the father of the country. When the decision to divide the country was being taken, why did Gandhi not protest at that time?
During that period, Gandhi received a letter in which he was asked, “You were against partition, will you not go on a fast unto death?”
To this Gandhi replied -: “Hunger strike” cannot be played with. “Hunger strike” cannot be done out of anger or at someone’s behest. If there is a difference of opinion between the Congress and me, should I start a strike?”
Due to such absurd statements of Gandhi and many other reasons, his popularity was at its lowest during that period.
If we analyse the above statement, we will find that Gandhi, Mountbatten and Congress were responsible for the partition. But there is a difference in this too, on one hand Sardar Patel was talking about taking everyone along, while Gandhi’s attitude was somewhat different. Gandhi only wanted the Muslim League to take over the country so that there would be another noose and the Hindus and Sikhs would continue to suffer from that pain for many years to come. Nehru’s statement also points in this direction that, “Nobody else but Gandhi was responsible for the partition.”
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