Many of the foreigners who came to India were as a result of trade in the 17th century; the traders began conquering territories in India over the years. After the fall of Bengal in the battle of Plassey, the British moved in and divided India through force of arms (Singh, 1984). During World War II, British and other European colonial empires experienced a strain leading to the other European colonial empires relieving the colonial grip on Asia and Africa. However, Britain was not part of the release of the colonial states.
The National Congress of India proposed to support the British in their war effort and in return, the Indian National Congress wanted to be assigned a share of power in India after the war. The British did not accept the proposal made by the Indian National Congress and tensions arose across India (Singh, 1984). Several mass campaigns were initiated to rebel against the British rule in India like the Quit India movement. The various uprisings that erupted in India created conflicts and disoriented the course of British occupation and rule.
Mohandas Gandhi came up with social efforts to help India regain self-rule from the colonization of the British as from 1915 (Buchanan, 2011). The social efforts of Gandhi began to be popular and spread among the Indians and India in general. Mohandas Gandhi had been previously in South Africa, where he lived for around twenty tears as the voice of thousands of Indians who were racially subjugated. Gandhi while in India, advocated for the Indians to form peaceful boycotts around British institutions, a movement referred to as “Swadeshi” (Buchanan, 2011). Gandhi and his efforts became very popular in India making the boycotts be done across all British institutions
Britain was facing many problems during the World War II such as human and economic resources which were greatly affected as a result of the war. The Japanese had also invaded the British colony of Burma and steadily expanding (Buchanan, 2011). These pressures fell heavily on Britain and the Swadeshi movement by Gandhi peaked at this time and created a strain on the British rule. These factors made it clear to the British that it could no longer be able to control India. In 1947, India attained her freedom which led to the emergence of the partition process which led to the creation of Pakistan and India states.
Partitioning of India
During the World War II, colonial British realized that it could no longer continue its rule in India as its colony therefore; it sets out a parliamentary delegation for the purpose of conducting negotiations on the terms of independence. The then Cabinet Mission was unable to come up with a solution that was acceptable to the Muslim League as well as the Congress. Louis Mountbatten was dispatched in March, 1947 by the British government for the purpose of orchestrating a scheme that was generally accepted for power transfer thus, before 1948 (Lahiri, 2013). Soon Mountbatten realized that India was in a state that could be termed as fragile state due to the Muslim and Hindu relations which were likely to spark violence and the overall breakdown of the colony’s law and order. In regard to this, the transfer of power timetable was accelerated and in June 1947 the partition announcement was made after an agreement was made between the Sikh Leaders, the Indian Congress as well as the Muslim League (Lahiri, 2013).
Partitioning of India began after the end of British rule which occurred in 1947. India’s division led to the establishment of two new states thus, Indian which was predominantly Hindu and Pakistan, which was further divided into the west and east wings comprised a Muslim majority (Lahiri, 2013). The existing states were given an opportunity, thus, to join up with Pakistan if they comprised large Muslim populations or rather join up with India if the majority of their population was Hindu. The Punjab and Bengal populations were also divided into what can be termed as Muslim and Hindu areas, however, they refused to accede to Pakistan and India ad remain disputed up-to date.
As result, of the partition, India recorded one of history’s largest migrations; an estimated number of 15 million individuals were on the move (Lahiri, 2013). Moreover, India’s partitioning process led to widespread riots that emerged in Punjab leading to widespread violence in other areas of the nation thus, between the Hindu and Muslim populations. An estimated number of 1 million individuals lost their lives in the partitioning process as a result of the conflict and in the migration process. It is estimated that more than 10 million people fled to border regions (Lahiri, 2013). During this period, the Muslims residing in India moved to Pakistan, Indians in Pakistan moved to India. The large transfer of human populations as well as the high level of violence in India during the partitioning process resulted from a diversity of interests thus, in the areas facing division, development of deep suspicion as well as suspicion between the league and congress politicians and exclusion of the sheikhs in the partitioning plan. As a result of the conflicts, the British government with the help of Cyril Radcliffe drew up a final boundary which was greatly based on the infrastructure surveys as well as population distribution (Lahiri, 2013). Partitioning tensions in India continued over the months, but came to a halt at the beginning of 1948.
References
Buchanan, A. N. (2011). The War Crisis and the Decolonization of India, December 1941–September 1942: A Political and Military Dilemma. Global War Studies.
Singh, A. I. (1984). Decolonization in India: The Statement of 20 February 1947. The International History Review.
Lahiri, N. (2013). Partitioning the Past: India’s Islamic Monuments after Independence. Protecting the Sacred, Creating Peace in Asia-Pacific.
