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by: Syed Ali Mujtaba
Publisher: Mittal Publications, New Delhi, 2002
Reviewed by: Dhanalakshmi Ayyer Tracing the genesis of the partition of India, "The Demand For Partition of India", concentrates on the demand for partition and the British policy in the period , 1940 and 1945.While carefully steering away from ,stirring the proverbial hornets’ nest, though fifty-odd years later, this book seeks to objectively look at partition more as a fiat accompli of history than an accident of history. Partition happened not because it was waiting to happen but because made to happen. Though only mentioned in the passing, the seed of this catastrophe was sown in the collapse the Muslim hegemony, its subsequent marginalisation in society and consequent decline in wealth and dominance. In the run up to the independence of India, the metamorphosis of the social structure, the rise of the slowly rising "middle class" and the intellectual explosion that followed the educational exposition all contributed in great measure to the events that came after. Having recapitulated the history of the Muslim reign in India since 1192 AD and the impact of the Islamic ethos on contemporary society, the book makes it a point to clearly enunciate the marginalisation since 1857 AD and the subsequent delineation therefrom. The rise of Indian nationalism, the growth of the Hindu consciousness, the emergence of societal identities were all a product of the post 1857 trauma, the post Macaulian education system and the crisis of conscience that followed. The infusion of the concept of political awareness made caste and community assume a role greater than that of denomination alone.
Syed Ali Mujtaba’s exposition makes a painstaking effort in detailing the societal demands, the political compulsions, the ideological perceptions and the calibrated mobilisation of an ethos that is now termed "self-determination". It was not as much an argument for survival as it was a question of identity. It was as much a call for regionalism as it was for particularism. It was as much a chasm in vision, of a purpose as it was a gulf in the uneven economic development. It was as much an exploitation of self-serving imperial interests as it was the restraint in form of limitations of a nascent democracy. The call for Muslim separation was as much a demarcation on religious lines as it was a product of self-defence. Self-defence in terms of position, power and influence that had waned since 1857,unlike what it had enjoyed in the preceding 900 years of history, in India. Ali Mujtaba elaborates on this point, in a manner not seen before that gives the entire perspective of religious, communal and sectarian identities a new insight. It was matter of recognition and the single seat dispute in the Round Table Conferences proved the last proverbial straw. This book makes an objective study of the entire ethos of Partition of India as a corollary to its Independence movement, hair-splitting almost every single run up, meticulously. The set of five appendices make interesting reading and the detailed bibliography stands testimony to the elaborate study and conscientious research, this insight emerges from. What is perhaps the only flaw is the quality of editing and printing. A better presentation would have not just ensured greater visibility but also better reach. Despite this, The Demand for Partition of India, is a noteworthy addition to the growing list of 1947 related literature. Contemporary history is difficult to record and harder still to analyse. In this context, Ali Mujtaba’s effort demands more than a cursory read. |
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Religion became a pivot point in the entire fulcrum of the fast rising nationalist, political consciousness.
The detailing of the historiography also exposes the duality in the British approach of divide and rule, of fuelling communalistic dichotomies. Much of these were of their own doing exploiting the trusting vulnerabilities of a naïve society that had hitherto survived, lived and flourished in the spirit and guiding light of absorption. This was done to ensure a smooth run for themselves, doing the host country no good yet at its cost, all for itself alone –to secure its power base. A truncated policy, a twisted thinking yet no doubt a working proposition! This is a fact that is perceptible to any casual reader of history. Only its extent, its intensity and gravity is expounded in detail in this book, which makes no bones about the critical impact of such a self serving policy on the land and its people. What is unfortunate is that it cleaved the country and wrought a divide that, two and perhaps two and a half generations, have not succeeded in undoing.