Khushwantnama by Khushwant Singh

Author:Khushwant Singh
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184759228
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Thinking Aloud

On Partition

Indians have never had an integrated society. Besides caste and language divisions, the greatest barrier has been the Hindu–Muslim divide. Hindus and Muslims have got along reasonably well but have always kept their distance from each other. There has never been any real integration—by way of families mixing, visiting each other’s homes, and contemplating matrimonial relationships. The British fostered the feeling of separateness between the two. As the time neared for the British to leave, Muslims began to feel uneasy at the prospect of living in a Hindu-dominated India.

Years before Partition, Lala Lajpat Rai had made a rough map dividing India along communal lines. Later, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali coined the word ‘Pakistan’. Allama Iqbal, who at one time composed patriotic verses including Saarey jahaan se achchha, spoke of a Muslim state. Jinnah’s contribution to separateness was evolving the two-nation theory—that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations which could not live together in one state. But long before Jinnah had come up with the two-nation theory, it was people like Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and V.D. Savarkar who had come up with the Hindu-nation theory.

The belief that Hindus and Muslims should each have their separate nations found widespread support among middle-class Muslims across the subcontinent. After that no one, not Gandhiji, nor Nehru, Sardar Patel or Jinnah, could stop the process of religious cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs from Muslim-dominated areas. It may be recalled that as early as March 1947, Hindus and Sikhs were being driven out of towns and villages in northwest Punjab. There were communal riots in many cities in Punjab, including Lahore.

By 15 August 1947, the migration of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan had become a bloody exodus. Sikhs and Hindus of east Punjab made sure that this was not going to be a one-way traffic: they drove out Muslims from east Punjab with double the violence. It was the most catastrophic exchange of populations in the history of mankind, leaving a million dead and tens of millions homeless. The aftermath was more barbaric than anything beasts could have done to each other.

I don’t think either Pandit Nehru or Jinnah had imagined this level of violence. In any case both of them seemed to live in a dream world of their own—Jinnah had even hoped that he would go back to Bombay and live in his house there. The only person who did seem to comprehend the seriousness of Partition and all that followed was Mahatma Gandhi. He did not take part in any of the Independence celebrations in 1947. He remained quiet. When anti-Pakistan feelings were at fever pitch and the Indian government refused to honour its pledge to pay Pakistan Rs 55 crore, he went on a fast, forcing Patel and Nehru to keep their word.

Pointing accusing fingers at Nehru or Patel or Jinnah serves no purpose. They were helpless against the tidal waves of hatred generated by history, which were the real cause of the wars we have fought against Pakistan and the continuing conflict over the future of Kashmir.

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