Leaving their homes behind, and carrying whatever they could carry along, floods of 'human population' desperately made their way to either side of the line of partition. It was not a smooth migration. There were clashes, swearing and name calling, gut-wrenching warcries, abductions, killing, and bloodbath. Homeless and starving, many were lodged in refugee camps with some frantically searching for missing members of their families and women lost to abductors. Partition of India was a man-made tragedy. The same leaders who fought for our Independence were either responsible for it or remained mute spectators, allowing it to happen.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees cites partition of British India as the largest mass migration history has ever seen, displacing over 14 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims across the ill-fated borders and killing as many as 200,000 to 2,000,000 people. A total of 2.23 million people were reported to be missing and as many as 83,000 women (belonging to Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim families) were abducted during partition time riots, according to the combined claim made by both Indian and Pakistani Governments to recover them.
Historians Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh write:
"There are numerous eyewitness accounts of the maiming and mutilation of victims. The catalogue of horrors includes the disembowelling of pregnant women, the slamming of babies' heads against brick walls, the cutting off of victims limbs and genitalia and the display of heads and corpses. While previous communal riots had been deadly, the scale and level of brutality was unprecedented. Although some scholars question the use of the term 'genocide' with respect to the Partition massacres, much of the violence manifested as having genocidal tendencies. It was designed to cleanse an existing generation as well as prevent its future reproduction."
Who benefited from this horror? Certainly not the victims, and partition was not solely a British imposed idea.
India was part of the electoral process of British rule even before it got independence. British Indian soldiers were even sent to the world wars with the consent of Indian leaders. So partition as an idea was gaining momentum right under their hoods. When they were fighting tooth and nail for Independence, why did they not fight to keep the country united?
The resolution on the partition of India was passed by the Congress Working Committee on 3rd June 1947.
"Gandhi observed 'maun vrat' (day of silence) on that occasion. He was reportedly isolated by Nehru and Patel and was unhappy. Mountbatten visited him and said he hoped that Gandhi would not oppose the Partition under the Mountbatten Plan. Mountbatten also noted that he was surprised that Gandhi should not have observed his day of silence on such a crucial occasion. Gandhi wrote on a scrap of paper his reply: 'Have I ever opposed you?' Mountbatten preserved that paper as historical evidence and it is still there in the Mountbatten papers."
Those who aspired to rule the divided British India, as India and Pakistan, post-British rule, were worried about the geographical size of the lands they could claim, but not the plight of ordinary people who were made to concede to the two-nation theory. The idea to root out people from their place of livelihood and plant them in lands alien to them was not only foolish but also brutal.
The two nation theory was concocted by people who were intoxicated with a deadly cocktail of religion and power. Sadly, those who were gullible and didn't want the partition to happen too became its victims. Even today, across the borders, people belonging to the same families, live far away from one other, with teary eyes and fond memories of good old times.
But the ruling class in Pakistan still thinks partition as an unfinished agenda, seeking religious accession of Kashmir to Pakistan. Extreme right wing people in India too, still speak of partition as an unfinished task: "Pakistan became a Muslim nation, but India never became a Hindu nation completely." And between these two extreme mindsets, there are also pseudo seculars trying to seize this as an opportunity to exploit.
All such people in India and Pakistan should see the blood stains on our flags communal partition of unified India has caused.
Religions exist in the minds of people. It is also a fact that ideas each religion propound are different. If we try to materialize and achieve all those differences, in reality, we will only end up causing unsaid misery to people. Rather than repeating blunders of history, why can't we learn to co-exist? Why can't we restrict religions to the four walls of our homes, or the four walls of temples, mosques, and churches? For religions, in their present form, it may be hard to unite, but not for people.
Numbers and quotes sourced from The Partition of India - Wikipedia