FREE ESSAY ON DIVIDED NATION IN TROUBLE

DIVIDED NATION IN TROUBLE

It was the cry of outraged womanhood that has peremptorily called me to Noakhal, ... My
present mission is the most difficult and complicated one of my life ... I am prepared
for any eventuality. 'Do or Die' has to be put to the test here. 'Do' here means Hindus
and Mussulmans should learn to live together in peace and amity. Otherwise I should die
in the attempt ... No one can escape death. Then why be afraid of it? In fact, death is a
friend who brings deliverance from suffering.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was a freedom fighter and leader of India who strongly opposed any
violence among Hindus and Muslims. As mentioned above, he preferred to teach the world
that Hindus and Muslims should learn to live together. Gandhi opposed the partition of
India from the beginning to the end.
In May 1947, he was called to Delhi where the new Viceroy Lord Mountbatten had succeeded
in persuading the congress leaders to accept Jinnah's insistent demand for the partition
of India as a condition precedent for British withdrawal. Gandhi was against partition at
any cost but he was unable to convince the congress leaders of the wisdom of his stand.
On August 15, 1947, India was partitioned and became free. Mahatma Gandhi declined to
attend the celebrations in the capital and went to Calcutta where communal riots were
still raging. When Gandhi returned to Delhi in September 1947, the city was in the grip
of communal hysteria. Ghostly tales of what had happened to Hindus and Sikhs in West
Pakistan had kindled passions which burst into a conflagration when the uprooted victims
of this tragedy poured into the city. In a frenzy of vengeance, Hindus and Sikhs had
taken the law into their hands and were looting Muslim houses, seizing Mosques, and
stabbing innocent passers-by. (Prasad, 1954 p.24)
Despite the numerous communal clashes which claimed a number of innocent lives, the
separation of India still went ahead.
Pakistan was founded because the Muslims of the subcontinent wanted to build up their
lives in accordance with the teachings and traditions of Islam, because they wanted to
demonstrate to the world that Islam provides a panacea to the many diseases which have
crept into the life of humanity today.
Liaquat Ali Khan
The birth of Pakistan on August 14-15, 1947 undermined, from the liberal and left
perspective, the values of religious tolerance and cultural pluralism. The ideological
foundations of secular nationalism, the main plank of Indian National Congress in its
mobilization campaigns, also weakened. For the Muslim communities that remained in India,
partition was a nightmare. (Hasan, 1997 p. 6)
Liaquat Ali Khan was trying to explain to the world the need for separation and the
reason for separation of India into two since the teachings and traditions of Islam would
not mix with Hinduism. Meanwhile, in his book, Hasan was emphasizes the horrors of
separation for the Muslim communities in India.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister shared the same view as Mahatma Gandhi on
the partitioning of India and the violence occurred as a result of it. In an impromptu
radio broadcast on September 9th 1947, he said, it is an extraordinary thing that I have
seen. I have seen horror enough and I have seen many people die. ... Death is bad and
painful, but one gets used to death. But there are some things much worse than death that
have taken place. I am ashamed of the acts that my people have done and I fear the
disgrace and the consequences of evil deeds will remain with us for a long time. ... This
morning, our leader, our master, Mahatma Gandhi, came to Delhi, and I went to see him,
and I sat by him for a while wondering how low we have fallen from the great ideals that
he had placed before us.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah was being encouraged by his followers on separating Hindus from
Muslims, and creating conflict between the two. 
A Muslim was overheard saying to Jinnah in 1946, a large factory for the mass
Hinduisation of Muslims has been established in Delhi under the very name of the
All-India Muslim leaders ... I am referring to the so-called Jamia Millia. Dr. Zakir
Husain was selected by Gandhi and Co. for carrying out their plan for Hinduising Muslims
in the spirit of the Wardha scheme which was prepared ... under the guidance and
supervision of Gandhi, the most astute and cunning hypocrite of all time. The object of
the Jamia Millia is to make Muslims as much Hindu in outlook and every other respect as
possible ... for example, (the young children) are taught the slogan The Muslim league is
dead, the Congress is good. With grown up Muslim boys, more subtle methods are used. The
aim is to make their inside Hindu and let their outside remain Muslim. ...
If this factory for Hinduising Muslims is allowed to continue its evil work, real Islam
will soon disappear from India. The great killings like to one in Bihar grieve upon us
most profoundly, but they do not kill Islam. They rather revive it to some extent. But
the slow and secret poison of the Jamia Millia Islamia will soon kill Islam, and will
make every Muslim a mere 'show-boy' of the Hindus. This is the cleverest plot so far
designed for the destruction of Islam in India. (Hasan, 1997 p. 240)
The communal violence between Hindus and Muslims has been an often occurrence in India
and Pakistan. When looking at the causes of these clashes, one may find various reasons
through books, or public opinion. We will concentrate on the separating of India into
India and Pakistan as the primary cause of the communal violence. This paper will be
expressed under the following topics:
1. Making of a separate nation.
2. The empowering of differences.
(a) Political actions
(b) Sectarian Violence
(c) Retreat of Secularism
3. Ayodhya and its Consequences.
The explanation and reasoning for the Hindu-Muslim clashes is a very large topic which
would need a lot of time and research to document it. This paper will concentrate on the
partitioning of India and will follow the topics mentioned above.