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Understanding Partition
Read the following excerpts and answer the questions that follow:
“No, no ! tou can never be ours.”
This is the third story the researcher related:
I still vividly remember a man I met in Lahore in 1992. He mistook me to be a Pakistani studying abroad. For some reason he liked me. He urged me to return home after completing my studies to serve the qaum (nation). I told him I shall do so but, at some stage in the conversation, I added that my citizenship happens to be Indian. All of a sudden his tone changed, and much as he was restraining himself, he blurted out,
“Oh Indian! I had thought you were Pakistani.” I tried my best to impress upon him that I always see myself as South Asian. “No, no! You never be ours. Your people wiped out my entire village in 1947, we are sworn enemies and shall always remain so.”(i) Through this incident, what does the researcher tell us about the environment that prevailed at the time of the partition?
(ii) Why did the Indians and Pakistanis consider each other as the sworn-enemies after the bitter experiences of partition?
(iii) What did the man, who the researcher met at Lahore, want and why? Why was there a sudden change in his attitude or tone?
(i) Through this incident, the researcher wants to tell us that the environment at the time of partition was full of doubt and suspicion. Whether Indian and Pakistan, the people had become very selfish.
(ii) During the period of partition, the Hindus had massacred the Muslims and the Muslims had massacred the Hindus. The people of both the communities had fled from the villages. Because of this, Indians and Pakistanis had become the sworn enemies of each other.
(iii) The man whom the researcher met at Lahore was a Pakistani. He thought that the researcher was a Pakistani studying abroad. He wanted that the researcher should complete his studies and return to Pakistan to serve his motherland. But the researcher told him that he was not a Pakistani but an Indian. As he heard this, his tone changed.
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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?
What were the negative consequences of partition of India in 1947?
When did and why the Cripps Mission arrive in India? Mention two reasons that led to the failure of the Cripps Mission of 1942.
Give a brief description of Hindu Mahasabha.
Discuss how Pakistan got its name “Pakistan” as a country.
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