1947/8: Decolonization and Partition Flashcards
What began to develop in the cities of north India in 1946?
- Militia groups
- Extremist parties
What sort of people constituted the violent groups that developed and grew during 1946?
- Former soldiers
- Radical students
- Party activists
- Opportunist criminals
What activities did radical groups during 1946 get up to?
- Marching through the streets
- helping at political rallies
- patrolling cities and collecting weapons
- Played sports and socialised
Give an example of a Hindu militia group that grew during 1946?
Ram Sena
What sort of history lectures were given at meetings of the Ram Sena?
Histories of epic battles against Muslims as Hindus fought to protect the Motherland
Why does Yasmin Khan think violent groups were attractive?
“Militant groups provided easy answers to complex questions”
During the 1920s and 30s, and up to 1946, what was there a wide-spread belief in throughout all of India?
Non-violence, its effectiveness, and its moral superiority
Who is credited with spreading the efficacy of non-violence in India?
Gandhi
What does Yasmin Khan see as the feeling towards Gandhi’s non-violence tactics by 1946?
“a spent force”
What were the two main political parties in India at the time of partition?
- The Indian National Congress (or just the Congress Party)
- The Muslim League
What religion was the Congress Party predominantly?
Hindu
What religion was the Muslim League?
Islam
Which political party was largely identified with Gandhian non-violence prior to partition?
The Congress Party
What did the Congress Party do after 1946 with regard to the policy of non-violence?
They began to move away from it as a policy
Why does Yasin Khan think the Congress Party relinquished its commitment to non-violence?
“Fears of Muslim League assertiveness, uncertainty about the future and…the sheer size of the Congress Party”
Who were the three members of the Cabinet Mission?
- Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India
- Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade
- Mr A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty
What were the three members of the Cabinet Mission colloquially known as?
The three magi
What were the three magi there to do in India according to Yasmin Khan?
“create a constitutional package for one united India and to plan the British handover of power”
When did the Cabinet Mission arrive in India?
March 1946
What was the result of the three months of negotiations conducted by the Cabinet Mission as they tried to find a compromise between the political parties of India?
They left empty handed
What was attempted after the failure of the first round of negotiations between the Cabinet Mission and the leaders of the Congress Party and Muslim League?
A new attempt at negotiations in May 1946
What was the result of the second round of negotiations that sought to arrange a temporary government and a smooth transfer of power?
They too failed
How does Yasmin Khan describe what happened after the failure of the second round of negotiations?
“politics spilled on to the streets”
What did the Cabinet delegation decide to do after two failed rounds of negotiations?
Present the people of India with a fait accompli
What was the fait accompli designed to do for Muslims?
Deliver Pakistan in spirit by devolving power to Muslims within a united India
What would the result of the fait accompli been for Pakistan in Yasmin Khan’s words?
“Pakistan as we know it today would never have come into existence”
What did papers of the Muslim league proclaim after hearing the fait accompli?
‘Pakistan rejected’
While many Muslims felt the compromise presented to them by the Cabinet Mission did not deliver in the promise of a Pakistan, what was the reaction by many Congress Party members?
They were aggrieved by the suggestion that any concession to Pakistan had been given
What did the Congress see the fait accompli as?
“as good as granting Pakistan”
In short, how did the Congress view the Cabinet compromise?
As the British bowing to League pressure
How did the Sikhs feel about the Cabinet fait accompli?
That they were completely overlooked
What would the Cabinet plan have created?
A three-tiered federation with a central government and then provincial governments underneath - but still an united India, not partitioned
What does Yasmin Khan see as the main reason for the failure to reach an agreement over British withdrawal from India?
“The bottom line was a failure of trust”
What does the writer Nasim Ansari see as the failure of the attempts to find a compromise?
“no one had any clear idea of what should follow independence”
What increased in frequency once the Cabinet Mission failed?
Urban scraps, riots, and stabbings
Memberships of which groups increased after the failure of the Cabinet Mission plan?
Militias
What does Yasmin Khan argue had happened between the two main parties by the end of 1946?
“a collapse of faith between the parties”
Which group wanted to see the creation of pakistan?
Muslims
Which group was at the forefront of pro-Pakistan thinking, and retrospectively claimed credit for its founding?
Students at Aligarh University
What increased the tension between Muslim and non-Muslim residents of the city of Aligarh?
- violent rhetoric
- rumours of trouble
- drilling of students in the streets
What did the president of the Aligarh Cuty Congress do that shows the depth of distrust towards Muslims?
He asked for arrangements to be made for people to register crimes at the local Congress office because the police station was in the Muslim part of town
Which group began gaining in members as a result of the activities of students in Aligarh?
Groups calling for the protection of Hindu rights
What was the leader of the Aligarh University Student Union claiming to have done by the end of 1946?
Killed Hindus with his bare hands
What does Yasmin Khan see the events in Aligarh as being?
“a window on to the wider breakdown of state power that was occuring that year all over North India”
What did the call for Pakistan become to members of the League?
An identification with a cause, not just a call for a state
Who was the leader of the Muslim League?
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
What does Yasmin Khan argue Jinnah used Pakistan as?
To rally supporters, “taslismanic”
How does Yasmin Khan characterise Pakistan?
“Pakistan was an imaginary, nationalistic dream as well as a cold territorial reality”
When did the violence break out between Hindus and Muslims?
August 1946
What does Yasmin Khan see as the spark of the violence between Hindus and Muslims?
Jinnah’s call for a day of direct action or hartal to demonstrate support for Pakistan
What is a hartal?
A workers’ strike to protest a political action
Who was the most prominent figure of the Indian National Congress and first prime minister of an independent India?
Jawaharlal Nehru
Who carried out and instigated the violence as much as the militias?
Political leaders
What did Hindus fear if Pakistan became a reality?
Torture and repression from Muslims, provoking them to fight
What did rioters believe they had?
The blessings of political leaders, giving their actions legitimacy
How does Yasmin Khan charaterise Muslim’s ideas of Pakistan at the time of partition?
“all manner of ambiguous hopes and dreams”
How does Yasmin Khan characterise the Hindu interpretation of Pakistan?
“a total and sweeping threat which risked shattering the whole of Mother India”
What was the creation of Pakistan likened to by Hindus?
“dismantling the promise of a free India altogether”
In short, what did Pakistan symbolise to Hindus and Muslims?
Anti-freedom for Hindus; utopia for Muslims
What happened in Noakhali in October 1946?
A programme of ethnic cleansing and forced conversion was implemented by Muslims
How many people died in the violence at Noakhali?
5000
How were forced conversions to Islam carried out against Hindus in Noakhali?
Hindus were forced to consumed beef and cows were sacrificed in public, as well as temples and idols desecrated
Who was responsible for organising the pogrom in Noakhali in October 1946?
Golam Sarwar, an elected politician with links to the Muslim league
What was the effect of the violence between Hindus and Muslims?
It led to members of each religion identifying and defending their shared kinship with Hindus and Muslims elsewhere
Why did people from all political and religious backgrounds start to call for partition by the end of 1946?
They saw it as the only solution to the violent and polarising atmosphere within India at the time
What did the Punjabi government do in January 1947?
Tried to ban militias
How long did the ban on militias in Punjab region?
Less than a week, show the government’s weakness
Why was the ban on militias in Punjab so short?
It sparked even more protests and larger crowds of demonstrators
How does Yasmin Khan summarise the Punjab at the beginning of 1947, seeing it as characteristic of the other violent areas of India?
- “weak and partial government machinery”
- “armed gangs and militias”
- “anxious population” with hightened
- “expectations of freedom and terror of domination by the ‘other’”
What does Yasmin Khan argue Britain’s aim was at the start of 1947?
“London’s aim was to cut British losses, by leaving a united India if possible, a divided India if not”
What did Atlee announce in February 1947?
That the British intended to withdraw from India by June 1948
How does Yasmin Khan describe the implementation of the partition?
“foisted on a population entirely uninformed about its details and implications”
When the decision to partition came, what did Muslims in provinces where they were a minority realise?
That their home areas would not be included in the new Pakistan
What proved to be a problem as soon as the creation of Pakistan was announced?
The ambiguities surrounding what exactly Pakistan would be in reality
When was the plan to partition announced?
3 June 1947
Rather than 1948, what was the new partition deadline set down in the June 3 plan?
August 1947, so within 3 months
How did Hindus react to the June 3 plan?
They denounced it, seeing it as an assault to Indian nationalism
What did many politicians believe about the June 3 plan?
That it was temporary, and that India would be reunited again within a decade
What does Yasmin Khan argue british politicians in London did after the June 3 plan was announced?
“In London, politicians washed their hands of responsibility and showed vague, but uncommitted, concern”
When did Mountbatten take of the Viceroy of India?
March 1947
What did Mountbatten conclude within a month of arriving in India?
That partition was inevitable due to the political intransigence of the two sides in India
What did Mountbatten think about the course of events when he arrived in India?
That he was too late to change them, meaning partition was inevitable
Did Mountbatten arrive with a plan?
He claimed not to have
What did Nehru say about parition in 1960?
“we were tired men and we were getting on in years…The plan for partition offered a way out a we took it”
What had the violence of 1946 done to the cause of partition?
It prompted Indian politicians to push for partition
Why did Hindus favour partition?
It meant they would not have to accommodate Muslims
How did Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi describe partition?
As a ‘sin’
What did Modi consider the cause of partition?
Nehru’s secularism
What does David Gilmartin see as the cause of Indian partition?
The competition between ‘civilisations’ defined by their religions
How does David Gilmartin describe the impact of religious civilisations in India’s partition?
“the great actors in the partition drama”
How was religion and civilisation intertwined in India according to David Gilmartin?
Religion was seen as “the core of bounded ‘civilisations’, making Hinduism and Islam internally coherent but completely separate
What does David Gilmartin see as causing views of religiously defined and opposing civilisations?
‘modern’ knowledge, brought to India by nineteenth-century European thinkers
What lay behind the partition of India according to David Gilmartin?
The colonial structures of thinking - ‘modern’ knowledge and essentialising definitions of religion and civilisation
What does David Gilmartin’s argument imply?
That prior to British colonialism there was limited conflict between Hindus and Muslims, and that the conflict is a product of colonialism
How does David Gilmartin see Jinnah’s argument for Pakistan?
“rooted in a vision of Hinduism and Islam as embodying opposing ways of life”
In David Gilmartin’s view then, what was Indian and Pakistani nationalism a product of?
Colonialism
What does David Gilmartin see as a theme in all explanations of partition’s causes and the violence that often accompanied it?
“the emergence of fixed boundaries of identity associated with modernity, in both its colonial and national forms”
Which social group has been the main focus of partition’s causes in India?
Elites, and the conflict between different elite groups in the 1930s and 40s and their manipulation of religion to mobilise public support
What does David Gilmartin argue the Muslim League has been portrayed as in partition’s historiography?
“a vehicle of elite Muslims…seeking to protect their interests as colonial devolution went forward”
Where does David Gilmartin see partition and Pakistan’s origins?
“from elite political machinations, and only
took on the character of a popular movement in its final, climactic stages”
What does David Gilmartin see the central role of elites in India’s partition as doing?
Making Britain more open to partition as a solution to the conflicts that arose during decolonisation
Why have elites been criticised in the historiorgraphy of partition?
For manipulating easily mobilised religious passions
What is an assumption about religion that David Gilmartin sees in explanations of partition?
That divisions between Hinduism and Islam are deep-seated rather than products of colonialism and modern thinking
How does David Gilmartin describe the idea of Pakistan as a ‘nation’?
“If projected as a “nation,” Pakistan was an idea profoundly shaped by the structure of empire and the complex framings of identity within it”
What does David Gilmartin see as the basis of Indian partition?
Religion - cultural and civilisational differences between Hindus and Muslims
How does Shruti Kapila characterise violence?
“a capacious category that includes its visible and invisible forms, whether structural or embedded, symbolic or cultural, economic or epistemic”
What does Shruti Kapila see as the central norm of western politics?
The state
What does Shruti Kapila see as the driving force behind the desire for Pakistan and partition?
Political ideas that place individuals at the heart of politics
How does Shruti Kapil see the people of India becoming the dominant political category?
Through violence
What does Shruti Kapila see violence as doing?
It made the people of India the focus of politics and its driving force
What is Shruti Kapila’s idea of the Indian Age?
The period of development for new political ideas that centered on the question of violence
When was Shruti Kapila’s Indian Age?
At the beginning of the twentieth century
What three concepts define the political thinking of the Indian Age?
- Violence
- Fraternity
- Sovereignty
How does Mark Mazower see the years 1945-1948?
A period of change for Europe’s place in th world, whether it be reconstruction or decolonisation
What did Gilbert Murray write in an article in January 1946?
That Europe needed to be restored for civilisation to be restored
What did the Second World War signal accroding to Mark Mazower?
The end of European ascendancy
When did European ascendancy begin according to Mark Mazower?
From around 1800
During Europe’s ascendancy, what was the rest of the world for according to Mark Mazower?
“a place for exploration and scientific inquiry, as a resource base for commodities and labor, and as a proving ground for ruling virtues and the spread of civilization”
What does Mark Mazower argue about European empires afters WWII?
“European empires obviously did not simply roll over and die”
What does Mark Mazower believe Europeans emerged from WWII seeking to do?
“determined not only to hang on to empire but also to reconquer lost territories wherever possible”
What was seen as the central problem of Europe that had led to two world wars?
It was overcrowded
Why was solving the overcrowding of Europe so important after the end of WWII?
Because it was hoped it would prevent another world war and ensure world peace
What was the solution to Europe’s overcrowding problem?
Settling surplus Europeans in other parts of the world
Why did overcrowding cause international conflict?
The theory was that it provoked people into violence
What was the M Project?
A secret wartime Washington project that sought to find uninhabited places around the globe where surplus Europeans could be settled
What was the resettling plan replaced with?
Plans to transfer populations back to their ‘rightly’ nations
What does mark Mazower see western thought and anticolonisalism as fostering in India and indeed other colonised lands?
Nationalism and debates about the role of the state
What does Article 73 of the UN Charter say regarding uncivilised nations?
“Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government”
What did Article 73 of the UN Charter not do?
Grant freedoms or human rights to colonised peoples
What did international law and the League of Nations do following WWI in the view of Lydia Liu?
Cemented the European idea of what civilisation meant, and held it up as something to be aspired to if nations beyond Europe wanted to be considered civilised
How was the European version of civilisation damaged after the Second World War, according to Jack Donnelly?
“the ‘civilization’ that brought the world the Holocaust, the Gulag, the atom bomb, and two global wars of appalling destructiveness in barely 30 years found it increasingly difficult
to suggest that Asians and Africans were too ‘uncivilized’ to join their ranks”
What does Jack Donnelly see as an updated version of Western standards of civilisation following WWII?
International Human Rights
When was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations?
December 1948
What did Britain, France, Belgium, and the Nerthlands propose at a UN General Assembly in 1950?
To exclude colonial territories from human rights covenants
What was Britain, France, Belgium, and the Nerthlands’ justification for excluding colonial territories from human rights laws?
Cultural difference and the fact that they were not sufficiently civilised
What did the Etheopian delegates to the UN General Assembly argue about colonial states’ supposed backwardness?
“the reason for their backward condition was that their population had for so long been denied the opportunity to enjoy fundamental freedoms”
What did the delegates from China argue at the UN in 1950 regarding human suffering?
That Western standards of civilisation caused human suffering, keeping people ‘uncivilised’ rather than helping them
What did the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in 1950 say?
“all peoples shall have the right of self-determination”
Which nations and delegates supported the resolution on self-determination?
Arab, African, Asian, some Latin-American states, and all communist representatives
Which nations all voted against the resolution of self-determination?
Colonial powers
When was the proposal by colonial powers to exclude uncivilised peoples from human rights defeated?
2 November 1950
How long after the defeat of the proposal to exclude uncivilised people from human rights was the resolution of self-determination passed?
A week
How does Saul Dubow see Afrikaner nationalism as being utilised?
“the means by which Afrikaner ethnicity was mobilized in order to capture state power in the twentieth century”
When was the Second Boer War?
1899-1902
Who was the Second Boer War fought between?
The British Empire vs the South African Republic and the Orange Free State (two separate South African republics)
What was the result of the Second Boer War?
The British Empire won, and the two republics were subsumed into the British Empire
What does Saul Dubow see the Second Boer War as doing in South Africa?
“the vital stimulus for the development of Afrikaner nationalism as a mass movement”
What is an Afrikaner?
A person belonging to or related to white South Africans
What were the railway strikes in French West Africa not aiming for, despite attempts to make it so?
Ending colonialism
What were labour movements in French West Africa during 1946-48 aiming to do according to Frederick Cooper?
“the social as well as political entitlements of any French
citizen” - so not freedom from the French Empire
What did the former president of Senegal call for in 1948 with regards to his country’s place in the French Empire?
“the liberation of Africa in the framework of the French Union…we say autonomy, not independence”
Why did Senghor not want independence for Senegal from the French Empire?
“independence is an illusion in a world where the interdependence of peoples is manifest”
What did Senghor envisage for French Africa?
A federation of the French African territories within which all would be each, but still within the Empire
What does Frederick Cooper argue about the form of Senegalese independence took in 1960?
“In the end, the territorial nation-state was what they could get, not what they wanted”
What does Frederick Cooper argue were the least defended positions in French West Africa in 1948?
“the two that are often seen as what the politics of decolonization were all about: between a stubborn colonialism
and demands for total independence”
What does Frederick Cooper see as the temptation for historians to do when explaining the origins of territorial sovereignty?
“assume that territorial sovereignty was what people wanted all along”
How are colonial powers portrayed in histories that assume territorial sovereignty was inevitable?
As standing in the way of a system that they should have known was over
What does Frederick Cooper see as being the aims of political activists in French West Africa?
“They sought some combination of a common African polity and a reformed French one, a balance of autonomy and
equality within a restructured French empire”
What would reforming the French Empire allow to happen in Frederick Cooper’s view?
Preserve the empire
What did reforming the French Empire involve? (two quotes)
“eliminate the status of colonial subject and extend the rights of the citizen to all inhabitants of the colonies”
“there could not be an African standard of living
distinct from a French one”
How does Frederick Cooper characterise the citizenship rights that were extended to French African colonies in 1946?
They were not national citizenships but empire citizenships
When was the railway strike that affected all of French West Africa?
1947-48
What were the striking railway workers in French West Africa asking for?
The same benefits and pay for workers across European and African France
How does Frederick Cooper interpret the railway strike in French West Africa?
“it was actually a struggle within empire—for equality among the French citizens of Europe and Africa”
What did other African trade unions and political parties NOT do when the railway strikes broke out?
Join in solidarity with the strikes and make it into an anticolonial movement
When the opportuinity to make the railway strikes into an anticolonial movement arose, what does Frederick Cooper say happened?
“it was rejected”
How was segregation seen by some in SA according to Saul Dubow?
“as a moderate and just compromise between the equally unacceptable extremes of ‘assimilation’ and ‘repression’”
What was the justification for aparthied in SA?
“non-white volks-groups could each have the opportunity to develop in their own areas and ultimately to administer
themselves”
What did Christian whites in SA see as their duty?
“to act as guardians over the non-white races until such time as they reached the level necessary to decide their own concerns”
What sort of work were blacks believed to be best suited to?
Repetitive work
What other purpose would apartheid serve?
Preventing the mixing of the races and preserving white racial purity
How was apartheid often portrayed and why?
“as a ‘positive’ policy designed to minimize racial conflict by allowing Africans to develop themselves fully in their own areas without white interference”
What year marks “the shattering of Palestinian society” according to Rashid Khalidi?
1948
What year marks “the independence of their national state” for Israelis according to Rashid Khalidi?
1948
When was the mandate for Palestine issued to Britain by the LoN?
1922
When did the UN General Assembly vote to partition Palestine?
1947
How does Rashid Khalidi characterise the relationship between Israel and Palestine?
“a struggle of David and Goliath” - Israel would be Goliath perhaps, and will eventually be defeated by the Palistinian David?
What does Rashid Khalidi accuse the British of doing towards the nationalisms of Israel and Palestine?
Fanning the flames of conflict as part of their divide-and-conqueur tactics
How does Rashid Khalidi describe the nationalisms of Palestine and Israel?
As constructed by the British in order to divide and rule the nations
How does Rashid Khalidi describe the British attitude towards Palestinians?
“systematically advantaged the Zionist movement and the minority Jewish population over the indigenous Arab majority and their national movement”
Why was there not much support for Zionism in America before WWII?
Antisemitism
How did WWII change American attitudes towards Jews according to Rashid Khalidi?
After the events of the holocaust had been revealed “there was no political cost and much benefit to calling for the surviving Jews to be sent elsewhere, specifically to Palestine, and to obtain a state of their own”
How does Rashid Khalidi see America’s role of the partition of palestine?
They ensured the partition plan passed throught the UN General Assembly in 1947
What does Rashid Khalidi see as being the defining factor of American support for Israel?
It has been electorally popular with Americans
What does Rashid Khalidi argue American presidents have not been concerned about regarding Israel/Palestine?
The fate of Palestinians, concerned only with the welfare of Israelis
As well as welfare, what else does Rashid Khalidi argue the US have supported over every other Arab nation?
Israeli military superiority
How does Rashid Khalidi view the Israeli rule?
As colonial rule over Palestinians
What does Rashid Khalidi see as developing after WWII?
The push for self-determination as Woodrow Wilson had argued for after WWI
Even though the UN charter included self-determination as a universal value, what does Rashid Khalidi see Palestine as demonstrating?
That it was not actually applied universally - only the Israelis achieved self-determination
What does Rashid Khalidi see as being the true intention of the partition resolution of Palestine?
Exactly what has happened - the establishment of a Jewish state at the expense of the palestinian one
Does Rashid Khalidi, then, see the partition of Palestine as creating two states?
On paper yes, but in practice the goal was “preventing a Palestinian state from coming into being and conniving to strangle it before it could be born”
How, according to Avi Shlaim, do Palestinians view Israelis?
As conquerors
How does Israelis refer to the 1948 Palestine War?
The War of Independence
What triggered the 1948 Palestine War?
The UN partition resolution in 1947, calling for two states - one Jewish and one Arab
What role does Avi Shlaim see Ernest Bevin playing in Palestine after Britain left?
He argues that Bevin conspired with Jordan’s prime minister to invade Palestine immediately after British forces left in order to prevent the creatine of a Palestinian state
What position did Ernest bevin hold in 1948?
He was Foreign Secretary of Atlee’s Labour government
What did Bevin hope to do by supporting Jordan’s attempt to caputure the Arab part of Palestine?
Prevent the state of Palestine from appearing
What does Avi Shlaim see as a myth surrounding Ernest Bevin’s role in 1948?
That he sought to prevent the creation of a Jewish state, when in fact the opposite is true
How are Israel and Palestine picture in the Palestine War?
Israel is seen as a little Jewish David against the giant Arab Goliath
What does Avi Shlaim say undermines the image of David and Goliath in the Palestine War?
Israel’s “forces were larger, better trained, and more technologically advanced”
How many Arab armies invaded Palestine the morning after the State of Israel was proclaimed?
7
When was the State of Israel declared?
14 May 1948
When was the Arab invasion of Palestine?
15 May 1948
What does Avi Shlaim see as being the aim of the Arab invasion of Palestine on 15 May 1948?
King Abdullah was trying to make himself ruler of the Arab part of Palestine, which meant preventing the creation of an independent Palestinian state
What does Israel argue King Abdullah of Jordan was trying to do by invading Palestine on 15 May 1948?
Prevent the creation of a Jewish state
Who does Faisal Devji say was the greatest critic of nationalism?
“the greatest critic of nationalism in India was also the man known as the spiritual father of Pakistan” - Muhammad Iqbal
Who is considered the father of Pakistan?
Muhammad Iqbal
Despite being against nationalism and and territoriality, preferring instead universal ideas, why did Iqbal call for the formation of a Muslim State?
“allow them to remake Islam itself, or rather address the challenge that modernity posed to it”
Did both Jinnah and Nehru support the 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan?
Jinnah did, but Nehru did not
Who said that “no one had any clear idea of what should follow independence”?
Nasim Ansari
