Understanding Partition
What were Mahatma Gandhi’s arguments against Partition?
Mahatma Gandhi believed in religious harmony. He was a supporter of unity among various communities of the country. So he was deadly against the partition of India. He did not want the separation of the Muslims from the Hindus who had been living together for centuries. He used to say that the country could be divided over his dead body. He gave the following arguments against partition of India:
(i) He stated that the demand for Pakistan mooted by the Muslim League was un-Islamic and sinful. Islam stands for the unity and brotherhood of mankind. So it cannot disrupt the unity of human family.
(ii) According to Gandhiji, the protagonists of partition of the country were the enemies of both Islam and India.
(iii) He considered partition as wrong. He was ready to be cut into pieces. But he was not ready to accept the partition of the country.
(iv) He appealed to the Muslim League not to regard any Indian as its enemy. The Hindus and the Muslims belong to the same land. They have the same blood. They eat the same food and drink the same water. They speak the same language. They do everything with mutual consultation. So they cannot be separated from each other.
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Why was British India partitioned?
How did women experience Partition?
How did the Congress come to change its views on Partition?
Examine the strengths and limitations of oral history. How have oral-history techniques furthered our understanding of Partition?
Find out about the ethnic violence that led to the partition of Yugoslavia. Compare your findings with what you have read about partition in this chapter.
Name the writer of ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara’. What did he speak to the Muslim League in 1930 in his presidential address?
What did the Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal meant by “North West Indian Muslim State”?
Why and when was the Cabinet Mission sent to India?
Why did the Muslim League reject the Cripps proposals?
What were the major features of the Indian Independence Act, 1947?
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