Blunder-1: Partition and Negation of its Cardinal Principle

EPIC BLUNDERS OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

With this post I am beginning a new series on the above title.

A Curtain Raiser:

            The Indian National Congress or shortly ‘The Congress’ was founded in 1885 by Sir A. O. Hume, a retired ICS officer  and a group of 72 people, to form a platform for civic and political dialogue of educated Indians with the British Raj. After the first war of independence of 1857 and the transfer of power to rule India from the East India Company to the British Empire (the Raj), it was the goal of the Raj to support and justify its governance with the aid of English-educated Indians, who would be familiar and friendly to British culture and political thinking, so as to eliminate possibility of another such ‘rebellion’. The founder group, mostly the alumni on Calcutta University consisted of loyalist men decorated with western education. It had 54 Hindus, 2 Muslims 3 British civil servants and members of other communities. With the advent of Tilak in 1905, spirit of Indian nationalism started manifesting itself in the party, which gradually became a mass movement after 1915 when Mahatma Gandhi joined the Congress after returning from South Africa. All shades of opinions and people with sole aim of independence to India gathered under the flag of INC. However, the protagonists of violence were gradually diluted within the party, by the followers of non-violence and non-cooperation.

            The concerted efforts of all the freedom fighters, India attained its independence in 1947 and the Congress transformed itself into a Political party and decided to run for elections in a multiparty democracy, contrary to the advice of Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma was of the opinion that the party has achieved its goal and must be disbanded, because he feared that the party would misuse the popularity it had gained for achieving a different purpose. How correct he was!

            In the following pages I am counting the epic blunders committed by its leaders. These are not mere mistakes. I call them blunders because the nation has suffered irrevocable loss and will continue to do so, due to these mistakes. Some of these blunders could be called criminal blunders, because it was not difficult to figure out at that point of time that such omission or commission would be deleterious for the country in not-so-distant future.

1.         Partition and Negation of its Cardinal Principle

            Though, Mahatma Gandhi opposed partition as vehemently as he could, Congress, in general and Mr. Nehru in particular, failed to put up any effective resistance to the insidious British move. Some historians did not hesitate to say that some leaders of INC pandered to their selfish motives and gave in meekly to the demands of Muslim League. The result was that India was partitioned on the eve of independence and the dream of ‘Akhand Bharat’ got a mortal blow.

            
            It is interesting to note that when Bengal was partitioned in 1905 (popularly known as Banga Bhang), whole of Bengal rose in revolt and there was unprecedented violence. Consequently the British had to dissolve their decision. But not a leaf shuffled in protest against partition of India which, incidentally, included partition of Bengal as well. This smells of a deep conspiracy within the Congress, as at that time the party was capable of swaying opinion of the masses.

            
          However, though tempted, I will not call it a blunder! At best, it can be called a mistake in realizing the truth that muslims are incompatible with other religious groups and are always out to reclaim new geographical areas and turn them to Islamic states. But what followed immediately after the partition is what I call BLUNDER.

          Evidently the basic argument for partition was that the Muslim League wanted a separate nation for Muslims and the areas which had muslim majority would form the new nation, Pakistan. The logical corollary to this axiom would be that Muslims from  areas where they were in minority would shift to Pakistan and Hindus will do the same and shift to India. But this transfer of population could be achieved only as far as exodus into India was concerned, while transfer from India to Pakistan was inhibited in the name of non-violence, thanks to the Mahatma and the Congress. Mahatma Gandhi undertook fast unto death to stop this population transfer. Majority of Hindus shifted, or were made to flee to India, while the vice versa was not allowed to happen. Let us see the demographic data.

            In the exodus that followed partition, 54.17 lakh Hindus fled from Pakistan into India which was 88.8% of total Hindu population of Pakistan before partition. Similarly 44 lakh Hindus fled from East Pakistan which was about 31% of Hindu population there. About 119 lakh muslims fled to Pakistan and east Pakistan which was 25% of Muslim population in the area which at present is India. Thus 75% of Muslim population chose to stay back, thereby negating the two nation theory completely. With 10.43% of Muslim Population (1951census), Congress was obliged, though wrongly, to declare the country as a Secular Republic, which again undid the two nation theory, which was the root cause of partition. Therefore, inhibiting the population transfer and negation of the ‘Two Nation theory’ is the first blunder that the INC committed which will have far reaching consequences for India as a nation, where another partition cannot be ruled out. Not only that, the party has failed miserably to read the writing on the wall and allowed the demographic profile of the country to change drastically through its policy of appeasement for votes by allowing the percentage of Muslims to increase to about 14.23% in 2011 from 10.43% in 1951. In other words, percentage of Muslims in India at present is more than that it was in 1947 (i.e.13.38%) which brought about partition of the country. Any guaranty against history not repeating itself ??

Next blunder… next post..