Transcript PARTITION OF INDIA - partitionofindia / FrontPage

PARTITION
OF INDIA
By:
Hanan Qasqas & Nafee Rashid
Table of Contents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
When did the partition occur?
Which countries became the successor states of India?
Why did the Partition occur?
How did the Partition occur?
Calcutta Riots
Punjab Riots
Key People
The British Rule in India
Independence of India
Independence of Pakistan
General views of the people
Conclusion
When did the Partition occur?
The Partition occurred on August 14,
1947 and August 15, 1947.
Which countries became the
successor states?
• From the chains of the British rule to the independent Indian
nation another country wanted self determination. That
wanting lead to a successor state, which is Pakistan.
• Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan. The country
received their Independence after nine months of bloodshed
from Pakistan.
Why did the Partition occur?
• Religion played a major
role in the partition
• Two major religions of
India is Islam and
Hinduism
• Because of these major
differences in the belief
systems the partition
occurred
Islam
Hinduism
•Monotheism
(belief in one
God)
• Equality of
all Muslims
•Burial after
death
•Polytheism(
belief in
several gods
•Caste
Systems
(untouchables)
•Corpse are
burnt after
death
Why did the Partition occur?
Continued…
• As the majority of India is Hindu, the Muslims believed that they
would not receive equal treatment from the government.
• The Hindus did not want to be governed by the Muslims.
• The feeling of nationalism started to grow throughout the
world. Countries wanted to separate into sovereign nations due
to their cultural, language, and ethnic differences. Similarly,
India being a country of many different languages and different
religions, contained different nations who also wanted self
governance.
• The Muslims were one of the many Indian minorities, who got
to separate as they were the largest minority of India. The
Muslims held judicial powers in India therefore they had the
resources and the politics to form an independent state.
How did the Partition occur?
• In 1920, the Indian National Congress started a
movement of non-cooperation, which boycotted
everything that had to do with the British rule.
Jinnah opposed this policy and resigned from the
congress. The resignation of Jinnah created
differences between the Indian National Congress
and the Muslim League.
• Relations between Hindus and Muslims began to
worsen. In 1940, the first official demand was made
for the partition of India and the creation of a Muslim
state of Pakistan at a Muslim League session in
Lahore.
How did the Partition Occur?
• Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders
started a riot in Calcutta in August 1946, by
doing this they hoped to rise tension among
the two communities, which would force the
British (who ruled at that time) to divide India
when the finally left.
• The bloodshed and destruction during the
Calcutta riot and other riots lead to the
partition.
Calcutta Riot
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
August 16 1946 the Calcutta riot
was fuelled by the Muslim League
which was called the Direct Action
Day.
All the Muslims shops were closed
to support the strike for a separate
Muslim state.
It started when the league members
asked the Hindu business men to
close their stores and the Hindus
retaliated.
When the Hindu owners opened
their stores they were beaten and
they fought back in their defense.
Hindu nationalists who were
political leaders of Bengal opposed
the idea of Pakistan and moved
Hindu people to commit violence
against Muslims who wanted
Pakistan
In Calcutta Hindus were the main
victims.
In Bihar the main victims were the
Muslims.
The riots continued to Punjab.
Punjab riot
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
At first there was no rioting in
Punjab
Unionists Muslims, Hindu and
Sikhs landlords held the peace.
The Muslim League and the
Sikh political party Akali Dal
opposed the unionists. They
wanted rioting.
The unionist were forced out of
the office
The violence shifted from east
India to north west India.
4014 people were killed in riots
in India between 18 November
1946 till 18 May 1947.
3024 were killed in Punjab
alone.
Other crimes against humanity
such as rape, was committed
during the partition.
Key People
• Syed Ahmed Khan was the first person to propose
the two nation theory.
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar advocated the side of
Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State) and was amongst the
first people who talked about the two nation theory.
• Mohammad Ali Jinnah fuelled the riots and came up
with the idea of Pakistan. He believed that Hindu
Muslim union was possible but later he wanted
partition in order to protect the rights of the Indian
Muslims.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did not support the
partition and he fasted many days in order to prevent
the bloodshed during the separation.
• Jawaharal Nehru also did not support the partition
at first. He was the first Prime minister of India
Key People
Vinayak
Damodar
Savarkar
Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan
Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi
Mohammad Ali
Jinnah
Jawaharal Nehru
Independence of India
• August 14 1947 India received its Independence from
Britain (but they celebrate their independence day on 15
August) and became a Republic on 26 January, 1950
• India faced problems such as poverty, and
reconstruction.
• India had to deal with the refugees that came from West
Punjab and East Bengal.
• India lost 64 percent of Bengal’s land and 65 percent of
its population to East Pakistan, it lost its jute which was
produced in East Bengal.
• India received 38 percent of Punjab and 45 percent of the
population.
• India lost some of its important cities, canal networks,
and rich farming land.
Independence of India
• Many Muslim refugees came to Delhi and it was expected of
them to receive violence. So the government had to tackle the
situation.
• India received support from the British, Germans and Russians
for reconstruction.
• A new Constitution was adopted that gave India a
federal structure with a strong central government controlling
foreign affairs, defense, railway, postal services, ports and
currency. The President is the Head of state with limited
power and there are two Houses of Indian Legislature, the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• President- Pratibha Patil
• Prime minister- Manmohan Singh
• The universal vote for the people and the population of India
makes it the largest democracy in the world.
Independence of Pakistan
•
•
•
•
•
In August 14, 1947 Pakistan received its independence from the British
and an Islamic Republic was formed in March 23, 1956.
The republic of Pakistan was headed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the
Governor General, and Liaquat Ali Khan as the Prime Minister.
The new state of Pakistan faced many problems like poverty,
economic instability, and a fast growing population.
Pakistan had other problems; the vast differences between the two
parts of the country, East and West Pakistan. The two parts were
separated by northern India and had major cultural and linguistic
differences (Bangla in East Pakistan and Urdu in West Pakistan)
As the two parts were so different it was difficult to promote national
unity. Therefore lead to the separation of Pakistan into Bangladesh.
Independence of Pakistan
• There were trade problems; East Pakistan produced jute in vast
scale but did not have mills to process it.
• There were armed confrontation with India over Kashmir
• All of these problems caused instability during the first two
years of independence.
• The President is advised by the Prime Minster. In the Pakistani
government Prime Minster has a much higher authority than
the President. The president is chosen by electoral collage
which is composed of two chambers: (1) Federal Legislature
and (2) four Provincial assemblies. Conditions of a
candidate: Must be Muslim. The candidate will stay in power
for five year period, and lastly he/she can be charged for
violating the Constitution.
• Asif Ali Zardari- President of Pakistan
• Yousaf Raza Gillani – Prime Minister
Views of the people
• They felt saddened that they must depart from the land that they
called home.
• They lost their friends and family during partition because some
Hindus did not depart from Pakistan and some Muslims did not
move from India.
• They had conflicting nationalistic feelings they had to choose
between religion and country.
• Many people were satisfied that the partition occurred because
they knew that now they are going to have Muslim rule in
Pakistan and Hindu rule in India. They are not going to be
discriminated against.
• Whereas Hindus living in Pakistan and Muslims living in India
feared that they were going to be targeted for ethnic cleansing
• People lost their jobs due to movement.
• As the countries were new they had to establish an economy
which would take time to build and that meant unemployment
and poverty.
“They are dividing
India within India. If
you go to every state
they would say: I’m
Gujarati I’m Muslim
I’m Hindu , they will
never say I’m Indian.”