PARTITION OF INDIA

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PARTITION OF INDIA

• By
• Hanan Qasqas Nafee Rashid

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Table of Contents

• When did the partition occur?
• Which countries became the successor states of
  India?
• Why did the Partition occur?
• How did the Partition occur?
• Calcutta Riots
• Punjab Riots
• Key People
• The British Rule in India
• Independence of India
• Independence of Pakistan
• General views of the people
• Conclusion

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When did the Partition occur?

• The Partition occurred on August 14, 1947 and
  August 15, 1947.

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Which countries became the successor states?

• From the chains of the British rule to the
  independent Indian nation another country wanted
  self determination. That wanting lead to a
  successor state, which is Pakistan.
• Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan. The
  country received their Independence after nine
  months of bloodshed from Pakistan.

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Why did the Partition occur?

• Religion played a major role in the partition
• Two major religions of India is Islam and
  Hinduism
• Because of these major differences in the belief
  systems the partition occurred

Islam Hinduism
Monotheism (belief in one God) Equality of all Muslims Burial after death Polytheism( belief in several gods Caste Systems (untouchables) Corpse are burnt after death
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Why did the Partition occur?Continued

• As the majority of India is Hindu, the Muslims
  believed that they would not receive equal
  treatment from the government.
• The Hindus did not want to be governed by the
  Muslims.
• The feeling of nationalism started to grow
  throughout the world. Countries wanted to
  separate into sovereign nations due to their
  cultural, language, and ethnic differences.
  Similarly, India being a country of many
  different languages and different
  religions, contained different nations who also
  wanted self governance.
• The Muslims were one of the many Indian
  minorities, who got to separate as they were the
  largest minority of India. The Muslims held
  judicial powers in India therefore they had the
  resources and the politics to form an independent
  state.

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How did the Partition occur?

• In 1920, the Indian National Congress started a
  movement of non-cooperation, which boycotted
  everything that had to do with the British rule.
  Jinnah opposed this policy and resigned from the
  congress. The resignation of Jinnah created
  differences between the Indian National Congress
  and the Muslim League.
• Relations between Hindus and Muslims began to
  worsen. In 1940, the first official demand was
  made for the partition of India and the creation
  of a Muslim state of Pakistan at a Muslim League
  session in Lahore.

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How did the Partition Occur?

• Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders started a
  riot in Calcutta in August 1946, by doing this
  they hoped to rise tension among the two
  communities, which would force the British (who
  ruled at that time) to divide India when the
  finally left.
• The bloodshed and destruction during the Calcutta
  riot and other riots lead to the partition.

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Calcutta Riot

• August 16 1946 the Calcutta riot was fuelled 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.

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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.

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Key People

• Syed Ahmed Khan was the first person to propose
  the two nation theory.
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar advocated the side of
  Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State) and was amongst the
  first people who talked about the two nation
  theory.
• Mohammad Ali Jinnah fuelled the riots and came up
  with the idea of Pakistan. He believed that Hindu
  Muslim union was possible but later he wanted
  partition in order to protect the rights of the
  Indian Muslims.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did not support the
  partition and he fasted many days in order to
  prevent the bloodshed during the separation.
• Jawaharal Nehru also did not support the
  partition at first. He was the first Prime
  minister of India

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Key People
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Jawaharal Nehru
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Independence of India

• August 14 1947 India received its Independence
  from Britain (but they celebrate their
  independence day on 15 August) and became a
  Republic on 26 January, 1950
• India faced problems such as poverty, and
  reconstruction.
• India had to deal with the refugees that came
  from West Punjab and East Bengal.
• India lost 64 percent of Bengals land and 65
  percent of its population to East Pakistan, it
  lost its jute which was produced in East Bengal.
• India received 38 percent of Punjab and 45
  percent of the population.
• India lost some of its important cities, canal
  networks, and rich farming land.

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Independence of India

• Many Muslim refugees came to Delhi and it was
  expected of them to receive violence. So the
  government had to tackle the situation.
• India received support from the British, Germans
  and Russians for reconstruction.
• A new Constitution was adopted that gave India a
  federal structure with a strong central
  government controlling foreign affairs, defense,
  railway, postal services, ports and currency. The
  President is the Head of state with limited
  power and there are two Houses of Indian
  Legislature, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.  
• President- Pratibha Patil
• Prime minister- Manmohan Singh
• The universal vote for the people and the
  population of India makes it the largest
  democracy in the world.

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Independence of Pakistan

• In August 14, 1947 Pakistan received its
  independence from the British and an Islamic
  Republic was formed in March 23, 1956.
• The republic of Pakistan was headed by Muhammad
  Ali Jinnah as the Governor General, and Liaquat
  Ali Khan as the Prime Minister.
• The new state of Pakistan faced many problems
  like poverty, economic instability, and a fast
  growing population.
• Pakistan had other problems the vast differences
  between the two parts of the country, East and
  West Pakistan. The two parts were separated by
  northern India and had major cultural and
  linguistic differences (Bangla in East Pakistan
  and Urdu in West Pakistan)
• As the two parts were so different it was
  difficult to promote national unity. Therefore
  lead to the separation of Pakistan into
  Bangladesh.

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Independence of Pakistan

• There were trade problems East Pakistan produced
  jute in vast scale but did not have mills to
  process it.
• There were armed confrontation with India over
  Kashmir
• All of these problems caused instability during
  the first two years of independence.
• The President is advised by the Prime Minster. 
  In the Pakistani government Prime Minster has a
  much higher authority than the President. The
  president is chosen by electoral collage which is
  composed of two chambers (1) Federal Legislature
  and (2) four Provincial assemblies. Conditions
  of a candidate Must be Muslim.  The candidate
  will stay in power for five year period,
  and lastly he/she can be charged for violating
  the Constitution.  
• Asif Ali Zardari- President of Pakistan
• Yousaf Raza Gillani Prime Minister

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Views of the people

• They felt saddened that they must depart from the
  land that they called home.
• They lost their friends and family during
  partition because some Hindus did not depart from
  Pakistan and some Muslims did not move from
  India.
• They had conflicting nationalistic feelings they
  had to choose between religion and country.
• Many people were satisfied that the partition
  occurred because they knew that now they are
  going to have Muslim rule in Pakistan and Hindu
  rule in India. They are not going to be
  discriminated against.
• Whereas Hindus living in Pakistan and Muslims
  living in India feared that they were going to be
  targeted for ethnic cleansing
• People lost their jobs due to movement.
• As the countries were new they had to establish
  an economy which would take time to build and
  that meant unemployment and poverty.

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• They are dividing India within India. If you go
  to every state they would say Im Gujarati Im
  Muslim Im Hindu , they will never say Im
  Indian.