Bangladesh
In The Name Of The People
By NOVO Last Updated January 4th, 2002 The ancient, medieval, and colonial history of Bangladesh covers a period from antiquity to 1947, when India was partitioned. So the history of Bangladesh prior to 1947 is a history of India of which Bangladesh was a part. Today it is an independent nation within the Indian subcontinent, but is half the old Bengal or Bangla. For the first civilization of India and later empires go to Ancient India |
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION Partition Of India by NOVO July 8th 2000 Last updated February 3rd, 2001
Hindu Muslim Rift
Betrayal There was no reason to have partition since the unity of the Muslims and Hindus in the movements across the country among the workers, peasants and revolutionaries was exemplary. Yet the British and the Muslim League sought to divide the country. Even the legal Communist Party supported this British plot. The underground Communist Parties had done the bulk of work in organising the workers and the peasants. Now for mysterious reasons the legal Communist Party betrayed India and supported the British/Muslim League game. They endorsed the division of the nation by claiming that the Muslims constituted a separate nation. (I believe this was done because of ill advise from may be the USSR. They wanted to take India in a two stage revolution. First the non socialists would take over India and then the communists would revolt and bring forth a society that catered to the masses. If divided it would prove easier for their second phase.) This caused the split between them and Ghadarites and other communist parties that opposed the break up of India. This was the biggest blunder in communist history in India. (After the partition, the Communist Party told its muslim cadres to migrate to Pakistan and infiltrate. However, as history goes, their efforts were largely failures. More on this soon...) The Road To Partition The Partition of India was one of the worst decisions in history. It was the parting gift from the British. Since 1857, the British actively pertook in creating a rift between the Hindus and Muslims. A united India was too much of a threat. After 1857, they changed their policy towards the Muslims and tried to use the fear of rich Muslims to oppose the independence. This was not a difficult task especially since they even controlled the Madrasah (Islamic School). The Muslim rich landlords considered the possibility of Hindus ruling India and did not like the idea. The Muslims had ruled India and the majority Hindus. And now they did not want to be ruled by Hindus. Many of these landlords had become landlords and rich because of their acceptance of the British and feared that the end of British rule would change their status quo. An independent India ruled by Hindus would be their doom. They would no longer be allowed to be feudal lords. The Muslims began to fear that they would be treated as second class citizens in India and there would be discrimination on every step, just as it was for Hindus under harsh Muslim rule. That Hindus would rule Muslims was mere propaganda as the leadership of the independence movement was interreligious. Religion was not a factor of the movement until it was invented by the British and Muslim League. By the early part of the 20th century, Hindu-Muslim relations in Bangla, as in the rest of India, was souring by massive propaganda of the Muslim League. Especially the Hindu and Muslim uppercaste members did not like eachother. (NOTE: However, most educated Hindus and Muslims respected and accepted each other -- of course with exceptions.)
The Muslim League
Bengal was divided by Lord Curzon, an arrogant British viceroy, to control the rebellious province. (An important building in the University of Dhaka shamefully bears Curzon's name.) This division was an outrage for the people of Bangla but the landlords gave their support to the British. The British were eventually forced to undo the division in 1911 under popular pressure. The same year, one of the worst things of Indian history happened. This was the formation of the All-India Muslim League. The party was formed in Dhaka (presently capital of Bangladesh) in 1906. It was founded by the rich Muslim landlords. It was indeed a dark day in Bangla when the movement for independence was betrayed. The Muslim League declared allegiance to the British and sought to draw Muslims away from the independence movement. In their first resolution on December 30, 1906 in Dhaka, the very first thing they declared was, "To promote, among the Musalmans of India, feelings of loyalty to the British Government, and to remove any misconception that may arise as to the intention of Government with regard to any of its measures." This was moved by Nawab Salimullah, whose name is also borne by a student hall in the University of Dhaka. (SHAME). In 1913, on their 6th session, at Lucknow on March 22-23rd, 1913, there was an ammendment to their constitution. The first objective of Muslim League was then: "According to the revised Constitution, the first object of the League is `to maintain and promote among the people of this country feelings of loyalty towards the British Crown'. . . It is the British Crown alone which is the permanent and ever-abiding symbol of Empire. It is not to this Government or to that we acknowledge allegiance: it is to the British Crown itself that we owe unswerving and abiding loyalty... It is the paramount duty of every loyal subject of the King Emperor to abstain from doing anything calculated to impair the permanence and stability of British rule in India." -- Mian Mohammad Shafi (Leader of Punjab Muslim League and Chairman of session.). The betrayal continued. There were allegations that the Muslim League was a stooge for the British and were financed and supported by them. By their history the Muslim League validates and confirms the allegations.
Muslim League and many Hindu upper caste members fueled the differences among Hindus and Muslims. Relations further worsened as Muslim League convinced many educated Muslims that there was a Hindu conspiracy against the Muslims. Since then many educated Muslims saw the Hindus encroaching on their rights and saw the Muslim League as championing the rights of Muslims. The Muslim League was in reality trying to create panic among Muslims. However, Muslim League initially was not very popular. Their leaders had hoped that the Muslims, seeing the name of their party would flock to them out of religious faith. However, initially that did not happen. Their pro-British stance did not help their popularity. But gradually, however, their propaganda paid off. The Muslims started abandoning the national movement to join the sectarian Muslim League. However, not all were swayed by the propaganda and many remained in the Congress. But they were considered to be “Hindu minded”.
Hindu Muslim Riots Some rich Hindus are also to blame for the Hindu-Muslim rift. They treated the Muslims as inferiors. Many Hindu money-lenders were extremely tyranical and also caused Muslims to distrust Hindus. Hindus also did not condone the killing of cows by Muslims, since it is sacred to them. The Muslims took that as an attack on their faith. Many realities and the myth of a conspiracy gradually drew a seizable portion of the Muslims away from the united independence movement. However, many Muslims stayed on in the fight. And among them of course, was Maulana A. K. Azad, one of the great Indian leaders. The Hindu Muslim division further grew with the Muslim League’s defeat in the 1937 elections. When Md Ali Jinnah took over the Muslim League in 1930s, hatred seeped in gradually leading to terrible violence. Muslim league resorted to violence against the Congress and the young Congress members fought back. This was used then by the Muslim League as evidence that the Hindus were attacking the Muslims and further agitated their supporters.
As India slowly slipped out of British control, the British concentrated their efforts to divide India along religious lines. In 1939, Mohammad Ali Jinnah proclaimed the doom of united India. He called for a separate Muslim land. Muslim League cadres adopted terror tactics all over India. Hindu Muslim riots marred the decade of 1940 through out India. This part is from an eyewitness: August 16, 1946 was an ominous day. It was declared as the Direct Action Day. Most had thought that it was going to be a day when Md. Ali Jinnah was going to give a national address at Gorer (Garh, Gaur, Gaud) Math, in Baliganj, Calcutta. However, many Hindus were fearful of anti-Hindu violence. At the very start of the day, there was much rumours of violence. Processions of Muslim League supporters chanting Arabic slogans were picketed by their opponents. This got out of hand as the sun climbed the sky. Non-Bengali Muslims (possibly Biharis) armed themselves and other Muslims with sticks (about 5 ft). Some were armed with hockey sticks and iron bars. Knives and other sharp objects were also wielded. Thus began the ‘46 riots in Bengal with heavy casualties on both sides. It was apparent that the Muslim League, pawns of the British had succeeded in dividing the Indian people in the name of Islam. Their violent tactics worked to drive a wedge between the people of India.
The Partition
After the second world war, the British were severely weakened. India on the other hand had also become too rebellious to control. Besides India was no longer a golden egg laying goose for the British. It had become more of a liability. They were weary and finally decided to give up India. However, they played one last nasty trick of "divide and rule" before leaving. They divided India on religious grounds.
They dealt with reformist moderate leaders like Gandhi and Nehru who were not wholy nationalist and had more faith in western systems and the British than on India and her glorious past. The British knew they would be easier to handle
As the riots accelerated out of control, Gandhi, and the other leaders of the nation called for an end to the violence. The Congress fought a half hearted battle to save the unity of the nation. The Muslim League armed its separatist cadres and the Congress watched reluctant to take action, as that would be against their pacifism. Md. Ali Jinnah under the tacit support of the British blackmailed the nation causing it to be divided in what I consider a heinous crime against the people. Jinnah was bent on becoming the Prime Minister. He said that he would give up the division of India, and end the violence if he were made the first Prime Minister. But that was not to be. After much ado, finally Gandhi gave in, much to the disbelief of many of the freedom leaders, and accepted the formation of two separate states, the creation of Pakistan and India. A great tragedy. (Gandhi really had no real authority to make this call in my opinion. One man with a few others did not have that authority to decide to mutilate a nation). Mass migration that followed was a nightmare, with tremendous suffering. Gandhi's passive ressistance led to a passive ethnic cleansing. 600, 000 died and 14 million were displaced in this unfortunate event. It cemented the hatred between Hindus and Muslims. Whatever unity was there was destroyed... may be permanently. People think of Gandhi brought great success to India. But in reality he was a failure, despite his great popularity. He caused the birth of a nation out of hatred. The division of India was a curse that caused great suffering to millions who were displaced by this ill decision of Gandhi and the treachery of Jinnah. The curse still haunts the people of the subcontinent, by causing many more wars and much more hatred. The only excuse Gandhi may have had was that he made an honest mistake and had no idea of the great tragedy of his decision. For Jinnah, the British puppet, there is perhaps no excuse. In 1947, India had a bittersweet celebration... India was independent but had lost 27% of her teritory which became Pakistan. (Many claim that the partition was by popular demand. There was an election but it was farcical and will be discussed here next.)
Fate of Bangla During the partition of India, Bangla was re-divided (was first divided in 1906) into two with the western half given to India and the eastern half to Pakistan. East Bengal became the eastern province of Pakistan, called East Pakistan after 1956. The new state of Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan (now Pakistan) on the Arab Sea and East Pakistan(now Bangladesh) on the Bay of Bengal, separated in the middle by 1100 miles of the vast expanse of India. This was an unnatural division since the Bengalees of East Pakistan and the different ethnic peoples of West Pakistanis spoke different languages and followed different customs and had different history and culture. It also divided many Bengali families. The only thing that was common between the two peoples was their religion. Both nations were predominantly Islamic. Of course, the degree of fanaticism varied. In Bangla, many Muslims did not even go to the mosque (now they do). Other States To further aggravate the situation, a number of states were left with their fate undecided. The British did not decide whether they should join India or Pakistan. This was a big problem. One of these states was KASHMIR, the beautiful mountain state. The British left the decision to the King of Kashmir. The big problem with Kashmir was that it was a muslim majority region under the rule of a Hindu king. Pakistan decided arbitrarily, since much of the division was done according to religious distribution, that Kashmir should belong to them. And no sooner had they decided, they sent in tribal wariors and soldiers into Kashmir. Unfortunately for them, the King of Kashmir decided to join India. He officially joined India and India rushed its fledgling troops to Kashmir but Pakistan had already taken much of Kashmir. That was the first war. It ended in the UN. India decided to hold a referendum to allow the people of Kashmir to decide their fate. The UN also said that Pakistan must withdraw its forces as a precondition for India to hold the referendum. Pakistan never withdrew and no referendum was held. That was just the begining of the Kashmir problem! Awami League Also important to note is the birth of Awami Muslim League (separate from Muslim League) in the 40s. This was led by Maulana Abul Hamid Bhashani and Hossain Shuhrwardi. Later after the partition they dropped the “Muslim” and made their party Awami League, a party that was to prove one of the important players in future replacing the Muslim League in Bengal. Later though, Maulana Bhasani and Shuhrwardi had differences (regarding a new leader and policy), in which Maulana Bhashani group formed the National Awami Party. There were other secular parties such as Krishak Proja Party led by Abdul Jolil and Abdul Malek. There were always socialist groups but were not very large. The reason might be that they were infiltrated in the bigger parties. Maulana Bhashani, himself is supposed to be a socialist who liked Chairman Mao Tse Tung. More will be here. (Its about 5 am now and I gotta get some sleep.)
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| Sources: A History of the Indian People by D. P. Singhal 1857 A Brief Political and Military Analysis by Maj (Retd) AGHA HUMAYUN AMIN Chronology of Events by Ashish DharmadhikariIndia's Contribution to World Culture by Sudheer Birodhkar NOVO July 7th 2000 |Majlish|Kashmir|NOVO1|NOVO2|NOVO3| |ReligionQuest|ArchiveLinks|Ancient| |HOME|
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