Why was British India partitioned?

British India was partitioned due to several factors and causes:

1.    Divide and Rule Policy of the British Government : According to most historians the root came of partition of British India was the British policy of divide and rule. The English did not like unity and mutual cooperation, brotherhood among the two major communities i.e. the Hindus and Muslims.

The British historians, journalists and writers propagated through their writings, literary works and speeches that the Hindus were enslaved by the Muslim invaders and had been exploited for years together.

2.    Role of communal parties and organisations: According to several historians and scholars that Muslim League was founded Dec. 1906 in Dhaka only to work in the interest and favour of the Muslims. When the Muslim League was putting demanded for more and more political rights of Muslims some of the Hindus also awakened in 1915. They founded Hindu Mahasabha. They demanded more political rights and representation in different government organisations for the Hindus. Later on the Sikh League was founded and Akali Dal also raised voice for the people of their own community. Definitely these political parties or organisations created directly or indirectly the feeling of separatism and isolation among different communities, sex and interest groups.

3.    Encouragement by the British Government : The Muslim League was encouraged by the British Government to press its demand for a separate state. They played the game of imperialism for disrupting and weakening the movement for independence.

4.    Responsibility of Iqbal and Jinnah : Historians cannot excused Urdu poet Mohammad Iqbal who spoke about the need for a Muslim state in north west India as early as in 1930.

Similarly history cannot excuse Mohammad Ali Jinnah that he was mainly responsible for formation of Pakistan. Though he was a Gujarati lawyer like Mahatma Gandhi. Under his leadership Muslim league moved a resolution at Lahore demanding a measure of autonomy for the Muslim majority area and after that a new nation called Pakistan.