Partition of India and

Pakistan

Pair Activities
Throughout this PowerPoint Lecture,
there are pair activities built in that
you will be completing with your
partner next to the slides on the lines.
This is to help review key concepts,
get you thinking critically, and give
opportunities for clarification of main
points.

Cause and Effect: Partition of India

Long-Term
Causes

Short-Term
Causes

Muslim conquest of
northern India in 1100s

World War II weakens

European colonial empires

British imperialism in India

Pressure from Indian

nationalists increases

Nationalists organize the

Indian National Congress
in 1885
Muslim nationalists form
separate Muslim League in
1906

Insistence by Muhammad Ali

Jinnah and the Muslim
League that Muslims have
their own state
Rioting between Hindus and
Muslims throughout northern
India

Effects
Violence erupts as millions
of Hindus and Muslims
cross the border between
India and Pakistan
Gandhi is assassinated by
Hindu extremists
India and Pakistan become
centers of Cold War rivalry
Establishment of the state
of Bangladesh

Connections to
Today
Continuing clash between
India and Pakistan over
Kashmir
Nuclear arms race as both
India and Pakistan refuse
to sign Non-Proliferation
Treaty

Review: Religious Conflict and Partition

Religious Groups
India had long had two main religious groups: Hindus, Muslims
1940, home to 255 million Hindus, 92 million Muslims
Smaller numbers of Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists

Muslim Fears
As hopes for Indian independence rose, so did religious tensions
Some Muslims feared large Hindu population would dominate independent
democratic India, wanted separate nation to protect their rights

Muslim League
Muhammad Ali Jinnah led Muslim League, worked for interests of Indias
Muslims
1940, Muslim League called for a partition, division of India, creation of separate
Muslim, Hindu countries

Pair Activity
Next to each map, write down
your observations on the
major locations of Hindus and
Muslims in South Asia in
1909.

Map of Indian Subcontinent

Directions: Click
back and forth
quickly between
this slide and the
previous one.
Notice where
each group is
located.

Map of Indian Subcontinent

Task Predict what will happen after

the British leave India (decolonization).
Do this next to this slide. Explain why.

British Views on
Independence

India and WWII

Over 2 million Indians fought in WWII for the
British
India raised food for soldiers at expense of its
own population, (Great Bengali Famine took over 1
million lives)
Britain owed $$ to India
Clement Attlee, new Prime Minister of Britain,
sympathetic to Indian independence

British Colonial Policy

Changes After World War
Two

Labour came to power more

sympathetic to Indian desire for self
government.
It had been against British
colonialism for a long time and
believed that other countries should
rule themselves.

Britain Now Wants to

Withdraw
Britain was weak and broke after the war and in
no state to rule an India that was more
determined than ever to have self rule.
The aim of the British government was now to
have a peaceful and quick withdrawal from India.
They did not want to be caught up in any
violence so any withdrawal and the future shape
of India would have to be negotiated with the
two Indian parties.
They needed to get agreement from both, no
solution could be imposed as the British were too
weak to enforce it.

Why Britain Agreed to

Independence?
Britain after some serious convincing by
Gandhi and the INC agreed to consider
independence for India
The cost of running overseas colonies after
World War Two was too much.
Britain agreed to grant India independence
by 1947 on one condition: India had to
have a plan for dealing with the ongoing
religious issues between Hindus and
Muslims

Pair Activity
Which of the reasons
Britain agree to
independence for South
Asia do you think was the
greatest motivator and
why?

Idea of Partition

Idea of Partition
The Muslim League had been the first to
come up with the idea of partitioning
India and in 1940 presented a plan to the
INC to partition after independence.
The INC rejected the plan because Gandhi
believed Hindus and Muslims could work
out their problems.
But after the ongoing violence and
assassination of Gandhi, partition was
agreed to.

Gandhi on Partition
My whole soul rebels against the
idea that Hinduism and Islam
represent two antagonistic cultures
and doctrines. To assent to such a
doctrine is for me a denial of God.
Pair Activity: What does Gandhi
mean by this quote? How does this
relate to the issue of partition?

Reasons for Partition

Muslim League under Jinnah

Leader: Mohammad
Ali Jinnah
Worked with Nehru
and Gandhi to gain
independence from
Great Britain
But eventually
feared for the Muslim
minority in India and
pushed for Pakistan,
a separate nation for
Muslims

Why was India

partitioned?
Jinnahs demand for Pakistan
driven by political, NOT religious
reasons

Jinnahs Goal
Concern was the in a united India the Hindus would
have the majority and dominate the government
Afraid the Hindus would severely interfere with the
Muslim ways of living as per the Quran---that the
Hindus would take away their social and religious
freedom
Was the consistent betterment of Muslims marked
by developments in all the spheres of life...our
spiritual, cultural, and economic consonance with
own ideals and according to the genius of our
people.

Indian Congress Party & Muslim

League cannot agree on 1 or 2 state
solution

Reason One: Ideological

Divide

Ideological Differences Lead

To Divisions
Different ethnic traits
and languages
Despite being
neighbors, they
refrained from eating
or studying together
There were separate
waters for when they
traveled on trains.

Intermarriage was
strictly prohibited.
Hindus strictly
forbid the eating of
cows, while beef
was the staple
meat for Muslims.
Hindus considered
Muslims to be in
the Shudras class.

Reasons Two: British

Treatment of Hindus and
Muslims Causes Conflict

Role of the British in Indias

Partition
WHY?

Classification and
division was the only
way they knew to make
sense of Indias
overwhelming diversity

Reasons for Partition: Origins of

Religious Conflict
The British had followed a divide-and-rule
policy in India.
Even in the census they categorized people
according to religion and viewed and
treated them as separate from each other.
They had based their knowledge of the
peoples of India on the basic religious texts
and the intrinsic differences they found in
them instead of on the way they coexisted
in the present.

Reason Three: British Fear

the Muslims

Reasons for Partition:

British Fears of Muslims
Some people felt that the very nature
of Islam called for a communal
Muslim society.
Added to this were the memories of
power over the Indian subcontinent
that the Muslims held on to,
especially those in the old centers of
Mughal rule.

Reasons for Partition: British Fear of

Muslims
The British were also still fearful of the
potential threat from the Muslims, who
were the former rulers of the
subcontinent, ruling India for over 300
years under the Mughal Empire.
In order to win them over to their side,
the British helped establish the Aligarh
Muslim University and supported the AllIndia Muslim Conference, both of which
were institutions from which leaders of
the Muslim League and the ideology of
Pakistan emerged.

Reason Four: Mistakes

Made by Indian National
Congress

Reasons for Partition: Mistakes of

Indian National Congress

Congress made several mistakes in

their policies which further convinced
the League that it was impossible to
live in a undivided India.
One such policy was the institution of
the "Bande Matram," a national
anthem which expressed anti-Muslim
sentiments, in the schools of India
where Muslim children were forced to
sing it.

Lyrics

Mother, I salute thee!

Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I salute.
Who hath said thou art weak in thy
lands
When the swords flash out in seventy
million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to
shore?
With many strengths who art mighty
and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,

Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Here there
are two
references
to Hindu
goddesses!

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,

With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

In thy soul, with bejeweled hair

And thy glorious smile divine,
Loveliest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I salute thee,
Mother great and free!

Reason Five: Riots and

Acts of Violence

Direct Action Day-Becomes

Calcutta Riots
Jinnah decided it was time to push
for a separate Muslim State by using
mass
(large groups of people)
protests.
The 16th of August was to be direct
action day. A strike by Muslim
workers and a meeting of 100,000
through the streets of Calcutta.

Violence Erupts
Jinnah had wanted a peaceful demonstration
but trouble flared up leading to three days
and nights of rioting and killing.
6,000 killed, 20,000 injured, 100,000
homeless.
The violence spread to other areas, Gandhi
was horrified and travelled to areas of
conflict to call for peace.
This made any chance of togetherness and
unity between Muslims and Hindus seem
impossible.

Calcutta Riot
August 16 1946 the Calcutta Riot was fueled by the
Muslim League which was called the Direct Action
Day.
All the Muslims shops were closed to support the
strike for a separate Muslim state.
It started when the league members asked the
Hindu business men to close their stores and the
Hindus retaliated.
When the Hindu owners opened their stores they
were beaten and they fought back in their defense.
Hindu nationalists who were political leaders of
Bengal opposed the idea of Pakistan and moved
Hindu people to commit violence against Muslims
who wanted Pakistan
In Calcutta Hindus were the main victims.
In Bihar the main victims were the Muslims.
The riots continued to Punjab.

Punjab Riot
At first there was no rioting in Punjab
Unionists Muslims, Hindu and Sikhs landlords held
the peace.
The Muslim League and the Sikh political party Akali
Dal opposed the unionists. They wanted rioting.
The unionist were forced out of the office
The violence shifted from east India to north west
India.
4014 people were killed in riots in India between 18
November 1946 till 18 May 1947.
3024 were killed in Punjab alone.
Other crimes against humanity such as rape, was
committed during the partition.

Pair Activity
Rank in order of importance from
number one being most important
to number five being least the
five reasons for why Britain
created two nations in South Asia.
Next to each ranking, explain
your thinking/why.

Work of Lord Mountbatten

Lord Mountbatten against the backdrop of

the

Lord Mountbatten Vice-Roy

February 1947
He was sent to get agreement on a one
state government within the British
commonwealth.
Atlee ( British Prime Minister) wanted
Britain to withdraw by June 1948.
It was hoped a deadline would push the
parties into agreement.
Churchill predicted violent civil war if
Britain withdrew.

Lord Mountbatten
Developed a good relationship with
Gandhi and Nehru
Did not have a good relationship with
Jinnah who felt that Mountbatten
favored the Indian National Congress
After some time, Mountbatten
became convinced that a united
India was impossible

Mountbatten Plan June 1947

He soon realised that

violence was spreading,
the sides were too
divided and partition of
India would have to
happen.

Mountbattens Reasons for Two

States
1. His first weeks in India
showed him the gulf between
2.
3.
4.

5.

Hindus and Muslims could not be bridged.---riots in

Punjab and the North-West Province
Gandhis fasts and pleas could not stop the religious
violence
He realized that the violence of 1946 had left bitter
scars on the population.
Realized the Indian National Congress and Muslim
League would not agree on how to handle one
state---result in chaos
Realized that independence should be as soon as
possible and suggested August 28, 1947

The Mountbatten Plan

June 1947
There were to be two separate states. ( India
and Pakistan)
Pakistan was to be made up of two parts in
the North West and North East separated by
1000 miles.
The Punjab and Bengal with their small
Muslim majorities were to be divided and parts
given to each State.
The Muslim majority parts were to be given
to Pakistan.

Mountbatten Plan
India would be made up of the old
Raj ( British controlled India).
The Princely States could decide
which country they joined.
Most decided to join India.
The big problem was KASHMIR A
Muslim majority state with a Hindu
Ruler.

Mountbatten Plan
Mountbatten had provided for the
separate state that the Muslim League
had been demanding but had not
given them all of the Punjab or Bengal.
The date for withdrawal was brought
forward to 15th August 1947. ( 2
months later rushed?)

Congress and Gandhi

Reactions
Congress, led by Nehru, accepted
Partition would have to happen because
of the violence unity might unleash.
Gandhi was very disappointed. His
dream of a free, united, secular India
had disappeared.
Gandhi spent his time leading up to
Independence trying to calm tensions
between Muslims and Hindus.

Pair Activity

What do you think

about the
Mountbatten Plan
and why?

How Was Partition

Handled?

Indian Independence Act

June 1947
Mountbattens plan was passed by
the British parliament.
It gave dominion status to both
states.
A boundary commission was set up
to decide where the border dividing
the Punjab and Bengal should go.

British Plan for Partition

The British left much of the groundwork
for India to figure out.
The British created the border between
India and Pakistan.
Government facilities were to be split
equally, which did not happen.
Individual communities could decide for
themselves which country they wanted to
live in.

Englishman Cyril Radcliffe

draws the boundaries

-Historian Lucy
Chester

The Boundary Commission

A boundary commission was set
up to draw up the borders in the
Punjab and Bengal.
Cyril Radcliffe, a British civil
servant, was the chairman and
had the final say after getting
advice from Muslim and Hindu
members.

Boundary Commission
Problems

Radcliffe had never been to India.

He knew no-one in India.
The British thought this would make
him unbiased.
He had to work with out of date maps
and census figures.
He had to produce a report in 37 days.

Mistakes
The new borders went through
villages, farms and even houses.
Millions of Hindus or Muslims were
left on the wrong side of the border.
They would not publish details of
the new borders until after
Independence, this increased
tensions.

Mistakes: Effects
Pakistan: Provinces of Sind, Baluchistan,
North-West Frontier, West Punjab, and East
Bengal
This means that East Pakistan was
separated by the rest of Pakistan by 1000
miles of Indian territory
Resulted in:
5 million Muslims in India
5 million Hindus in Pakistan
Sikhs being ignored

Mistakes: Effects
Uttar Pradesh: the heartland of Indian Muslims
was not included in Pakistan
90% of the subcontinents industry and taxable
income base remained in India including the
largest cities
The economy of Pakistan was chiefly agricultural.
Pakistan only received 17.5% of the former
governments financial assets.
Once the army was paid for, there was no money
left of economic development.

Pair Activity
What is the message of the
political cartoon?
How can you tell?
Identify three examples from
the history of the partition that
support the message of the
political cartoon.

When did the Partition

occur?
The Partition occurred on August
14, 1947 and August 15, 1947.

Basic Maps of the Partition

These two maps show how India was divided after gaining independence from the
British in 1947. The first shows India under British rule, before the partition. The
second shows how the region was divided after gaining independence and the
breakaway of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from West Pakistan (Pakistan today)
in 1971 through the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Effects

Effects
During the split from India, there was
a mass migration of over 15 Million.
The Muslims were going to Pakistan
as the Hindus were leaving for India.
The creation of Pakistan was
tumultuous, resulting in chaos, riots,
deaths & crimes against humanity.
This deepened the rift between
Muslims and Hindus.

Migrations
Based on the 1951 census of
displaced persons, 7,226,000
Muslims went to Pakistan from India.
And 7, 249, 000 Hindus and Sikhs
went to India from Pakistan.
All of this happened IMMEDIATELY
after the partition.

Migrations
About 11.2 million or 78% of the
population transfer took place in the
West, especially in the Punjab region.
5.3 million Muslims moved from India
to West Punjab in Pakistan.
3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved
from Pakistan to East Punjab in India.

Partition of India in 1947 left 2/3 of Sikh lands in Pakistan, forcing

migration of 2 million Sikhs.
2011 PRENTICE HALL | Pearson Education, Inc. | Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458

Refugee Trains in India 1947

Violence with Partition

The Indian army and police were
unable to control the violence and
many did not want to anyway.
Nehru and Jinnah appealed for peace
but no one listened.
There was terrible violence between
Sikhs and Muslims in Muslim
controlled Pakistan.

Violence

Partition left both India & Pakistan devastated

socially & economically.
Some of the atrocities committed between the
Muslims & Hindus were widespread rape,
pillaging & murder, bordering on genocide.
This included the bombing of trains of
immigrants by Hindus and even filling trains full
of the dismembered bodies & sending them
across the border into Pakistan.

Violence
Some left by choice others were
driven out by gangs who wanted to
push out members of the other
community.
Violent mobs started killing and
attacking people, some villages were
totally wiped out streets were lined
with dead bodies.

Violence
600, 000 people were killed in Punjab
alone
It is estimated that another one
million people were killed
12 million people were left homeless
Thousands were raped

died in the rioting were

cremated on a mass scale.
Villagers even used oil and
kerosene when wood was
scarce.