To What Extent Can the Social Divisions Between Hindus and Muslims in India Be Blamed for Indias Partition in 1947?
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To what extent can the social divisions between Hindus and Muslims in India be blamed for Indias partition in 1947?
For many centuries, social, political, religious factors and the presence of the British Raj created a great divide between Muslims and Hindus in India. Which of these factors bears the most responsibility for Indias eventual partition in 1947 is subject to great debate. This essay will explore to what extent divisions between Muslims and Hindus were the main cause.
Before the British occupied India, India had been under the rule of the Mughal Empire an Islamic state that was the golden age for Indian Muslims. Memories of their once great power arguably made it exceptionally difficult for some Muslims to accept the imposition of colonial power and the new dominance of Hindu culture. Many Muslims refused to learn English and to associate with the British. This was a severe drawback for them as a result of this action Hindus gained better positions in government than Muslims. The differences in the social status of Hindus and Muslims in India created a divide between the two groups. Hindu revivalists who resented Muslims for the former Mughal rule further deepened the chasm between these two groups. These revivalists rallied for a ban on the slaughter of cows, a cheap source of meat for the Muslims. They also wanted to change the official script from the Persian to the Hindu Devanagri script, effectively making Hindi rather than Urdu the main candidate for the national language.
Socially, Muslims were regarded as of lower status than that of Hindus. The two religious groups mixed, and at one level things between the two were friendly and civil, but some customs and social expectations such as Muslims not being allowed to enter a Hindus kitchen or drink directly from the same water fountains as Hindus ensured that the Muslims were treated as second class citizens in everyday life. Although things like this may seem minor to some, it helped create a mind set that the Muslims were of lower status than Hindus and Sikhs in India and kept the groups apart with mistrust for each other. Some Muslims believe that “The Hindus considered us more untouchable that the Untouchables” . This combined with their 92 million to the 255 million Hindu majorities helps one understand the psychological feeling of many Muslims at a time. However such feelings may have contributed to, but did not directly lead to the feeling of a need for a separate state for Muslims, as one will continue to assess.
The Indian National Congress (INC), which had initially been founded in 1855 with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for Indians, was mainly dominated by Hindus. Many Muslims members of the INC believed that they did not have the same rights as Hindu members and felt that they were often sidelined. This eventually led to Muslims members forming the All India Muslim League in 1906. The very fact that Muslims decided to organize themselves politically away from Hindus is a great indication of the separatism some Muslims believed they needed because of Hindu domination. The INC made several mistakes in their policies that further convinced the Muslim League that it was impossible to live in an undivided India after freedom from colonial rule because their interests would be completely suppressed. One such policy was the institution of the “Vande Matram” a national anthem that expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. This was sung in schools in India with Muslim children being forced to comply. Indian Civil Servant Malcolm Darling traveled the Indian states to observe common grievances. He found that Muslim fear of Hindu supremacy was significant. One Muslim said, “If there were no League, the Hindus would get the government and take away our land.” This argument can be used in support of the claim that partition was mainly the result of social divisions between Hindus and Muslims.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 and the reactions that arose from it help illustrate the divisions between Muslims and Hindus that eventually led to partition. The Muslim majority of 31 million to 18 million Hindus in the newly created East Bengal. The Muslims in East Bengal believed that this separate region would give them more opportunity for education and employment, whilst the Hindu majority of West Bengal were outraged and began to riot. Eventually Bengal was joined back to one. The Muslims who had welcomed the new opportunities that had been created for them in East Bengal began to realize they would only have such opportunities if they had a separate state for themselves. Therefore one could use this to argue that the Partition of Bengal, which highlighted the communalism, supports the argument that partition was due to social divisions between the two groups
One may argue that the division and distrust between Muslims and Hindus was not the main cause of partition, but instead it was the leadership of the British through their decisions and divide and rule policy. One could argue that to some extent, the divisions between Muslims and Hindus in India were exacerbated by the British Raj in several ways, one being Indias forced involvement in the First World War. As a dominion in the Empire it was forced to fight for the allies. Many Hindus supported the war, however, it led to resentment by Muslims as the Ottoman Empire were among those they were to be fighting and was home to the Ottoman sultan, the