Chapter 01: Nation Building Process and its Challenges
A. Partition and its aftermath
The initial few years of independent India were full of daunting challenges and concerns regarding national unity and territorial integrity of India.
Freedom came with Partition, which resulted in large scale communal violence and displacement and unprecedented violence challenged the very idea of a secular India.
Independent India faced three kinds of challenges:
i. The first and immediate challenge was to shape a nation that was united, yet accommodative of the diversity in our society.
Due to the large landscape, different cultures with different regions and religions, variety of spoken languages, many people widely believed that a country with such amount of diversity could not remain together for long.
ii. The second challenge was to establish democracy. India adopted representative democracy based on the parliamentary form of government.
These features strived to ensure that the political competition would take place in a democratic framework. The challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the constitution.
iii. The third challenge was to ensure inclusive development and well-being of the entire society. Due to the widespread poverty, the real challenge now was to evolve effective polices for economic development and eradication of poverty.
Partition: Displacement and Rehabilitation-
On 14–15 August 1947, two nation states came into existence, because of 'partition' of the division of British India into India and Pakistan. According to the "two nation theory" advanced by the Muslim League, India consisted of two 'People' Hindus and Muslims.
Due to the forceful circumstances and several political developments in 1940's the political competition between the congress and the Muslim League and the British role led to the decision for the creation of Pakistan.
A very important task at hand was demarcation of boundaries. After 3rd June plan of Mountbatten a British jurist Radcliff was invited to fix the problem and to form two boundary commissions one for Bengal and one for Punjab.
Four other members were also there in commission but there was a deadlock between Congress and Muslim league. On 17th August, 1947 he announced his award.
Limitation of this award:
a) Justice Radcliff had no prior knowledge about India.
b) He had no specialized knowledge needed for the task also.
c) He had no advisors and experts.
d) 6 week deadline that Radcliff had was also a limitation of this award.
It was decided to follow the principle of religious majorities which means that areas where the Muslims were in majority would make up the territory of Pakistan. The remaining was to stay with India.
The principle of religious majorities had entailed with it so many difficult positions:
i. There were two areas of concentration with Muslim majority, In the West and East part of India. Hence, it was decided that the new country. Pakistan will comprise two territories, West and East Pakistan.
ii. All the Muslims were not in favour joining Pakistan. Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the undisputed leader of the North West Frontier Province, staunchly opposed the two nation theory. But as Khudai khidmatgar of Abdul Ghaffar Khan boycotted the Plebiscite due to provision of limited franchise rights in that, the lone contender in the fray, the Muslim League, won the vote by default and in the end NWFP was made to merge with Pakistan.
iii. Two Muslims majority concentrated provinces of British India, Punjab and Bengal had very large areas with non Muslims population in the majority.
Eventually it was decided that these two provinces would be bifurcated according to the religious majority at the district or even lower level.
The partition of these two provinces caused the prolonged trauma of Partition.
iv. The last difficult position was of "minorities" on both the sides of the border. Minorities then on either side lived in fear and fled from their homes to save their lives from brutal violence unleashed during partition.
A. Partition and its aftermath
The initial few years of independent India were full of daunting challenges and concerns regarding national unity and territorial integrity of India.
Freedom came with Partition, which resulted in large scale communal violence and displacement and unprecedented violence challenged the very idea of a secular India.
Independent India faced three kinds of challenges:
i. The first and immediate challenge was to shape a nation that was united, yet accommodative of the diversity in our society.
Due to the large landscape, different cultures with different regions and religions, variety of spoken languages, many people widely believed that a country with such amount of diversity could not remain together for long.
ii. The second challenge was to establish democracy. India adopted representative democracy based on the parliamentary form of government.
These features strived to ensure that the political competition would take place in a democratic framework. The challenge was to develop democratic practices in accordance with the constitution.
iii. The third challenge was to ensure inclusive development and well-being of the entire society. Due to the widespread poverty, the real challenge now was to evolve effective polices for economic development and eradication of poverty.
Partition: Displacement and Rehabilitation-
On 14–15 August 1947, two nation states came into existence, because of 'partition' of the division of British India into India and Pakistan. According to the "two nation theory" advanced by the Muslim League, India consisted of two 'People' Hindus and Muslims.
Due to the forceful circumstances and several political developments in 1940's the political competition between the congress and the Muslim League and the British role led to the decision for the creation of Pakistan.
A very important task at hand was demarcation of boundaries. After 3rd June plan of Mountbatten a British jurist Radcliff was invited to fix the problem and to form two boundary commissions one for Bengal and one for Punjab.
Four other members were also there in commission but there was a deadlock between Congress and Muslim league. On 17th August, 1947 he announced his award.
Limitation of this award:
a) Justice Radcliff had no prior knowledge about India.
b) He had no specialized knowledge needed for the task also.
c) He had no advisors and experts.
d) 6 week deadline that Radcliff had was also a limitation of this award.
It was decided to follow the principle of religious majorities which means that areas where the Muslims were in majority would make up the territory of Pakistan. The remaining was to stay with India.
The principle of religious majorities had entailed with it so many difficult positions:
i. There were two areas of concentration with Muslim majority, In the West and East part of India. Hence, it was decided that the new country. Pakistan will comprise two territories, West and East Pakistan.
ii. All the Muslims were not in favour joining Pakistan. Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the undisputed leader of the North West Frontier Province, staunchly opposed the two nation theory. But as Khudai khidmatgar of Abdul Ghaffar Khan boycotted the Plebiscite due to provision of limited franchise rights in that, the lone contender in the fray, the Muslim League, won the vote by default and in the end NWFP was made to merge with Pakistan.
iii. Two Muslims majority concentrated provinces of British India, Punjab and Bengal had very large areas with non Muslims population in the majority.
Eventually it was decided that these two provinces would be bifurcated according to the religious majority at the district or even lower level.
The partition of these two provinces caused the prolonged trauma of Partition.
iv. The last difficult position was of "minorities" on both the sides of the border. Minorities then on either side lived in fear and fled from their homes to save their lives from brutal violence unleashed during partition.
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