India independence was nothing new: there had long been independence movements (such as Gandhi's non-cooperation movement of 1930), and the British had even granted Indians control of everything except foreign policy in 1935. But there were also social problems in independence, particularly religion.
In British India, Hindus were the religious majority (almost 80% of the population), but Muslims made up a pretty sizable minority (around 20%). Muslims experienced political protection under British rule, such as having some percent of government seats reserved for Muslims. The prospect of independence led Muslims to fear losing those securities. Thus, as independence loomed closer, Muslims pushed for creating two separate independent states from colonial India: India and Pakistan.
The mixing of these two religious groups that had a history of conflict led to violence, with death toll estimates of up to 2 million. Seeing as this was only 70 years ago, there are still survivors to tell of the horrors that took place.
For example, my paternal grandfather was 6 years old and living in the Punjab region, which was split by the partition between West Pakistan and India. His family was Hindu, and, unfortunately, they were living on the Pakistani side of the region. He told me how his whole village was burned in one day. His family had little time to flee, so little, that they left my grandfather behind. He hid in the empty wood-burning stove until his sister came back for him, and they luckily survived.
Many refugees fled on trains packed full with passengers, making them easy targets for looters and pillagers. Some trains (called "blood trains") rolled into their destinations filled with only dead bodies. Train carriages were also marked to tell outsiders whether the passengers had any money, and therefore if they were worth stealing from.
The sheer scale of the atrocities was, and still is, hard to comprehend. While it didn't affect the US too much, the Indian partition just goes to show that the collapse of imperialism with the end of WWII had sharp consequences.
Sources:
http://theconversation.com/how-the-partition-of-india-happened-and-why-its-effects-are-still-felt-today-81766
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/70-years-later-survivors-recall-the-horrors-of-india-pakistan-partition/2017/08/14/3b8c58e4-7de9-11e7-9026-4a0a64977c92_story.html?utm_term=.cea1ccbacee5
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/uk_through_time/british_empire_through_time/revision/6/
Image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Partition_of_India.PNG
Anya, awesome article! I like how you discussed a topic not covered in great detail within our textbook. I had no idea that Pakistan was actually divided into East and West Pakistan, and eventually divided into Bangladesh and Pakistan. Although I had always known about the partitioning of India, I had no idea that there was so much violence involved; I was especially surprised about the "blood trains" and that this was only recently ago. Even although the partitioning has occurred, the current conflict going on in India is over the Jammu/Kashmir region in the north. Interestingly enough, three wars have been fought over that region. The most recent includes the Kargil War of 1999(!). However, the fighting over Jammu/Kashmir still continues, as "India claims the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir" (43% of the nation is administered by India), while Pakistan contests this- administering approximately 37% of Jammu and Kashmir. The fight over this piece of land has led to increased tension between Muslims and Hindus living in both nations; as the nuclear arms race also adds pressure on both countries. Just 2 days ago, 4 Pakistani soldiers were killed when they were "conducting maintenance" on a border village. Even today, the race relations between Muslims and Indians have been on the decline. Racism and hate crimes become more common, as this northern region threatens to obliterate any good relations between the countries. Jammu and Kashmir, once a prominent tourist location, is now a feared area- as the threat of being shot is now quite high. It is incredible how British decolonization of their "Crown Jewel" resulted in so much war and violence- and continues to do so today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/kashmir-pakistani-soldiers-killed-indian-fire-180115113803316.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_conflict
Anya, your article was eye-opening for me. I had some idea of why there was conflict between India and Pakistan, but I had no idea of its origins or of its severity. I'm shocked that the difference in religion could lead to such violence, and it is terrible that so many people lost their lives because of poorly drawn territorial lines. It seems like many of the issues in this conflict came into being as a result of British involvement in India. Could they have better organized the partition? Should they have partitioned in the first place? Are the British to blame for the sudden release of India without preparation? There aren't many imperialist regions like British India anymore, but can we learn from this experience?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml