History Flashcards
The national flag
Chosen at independence, a tricolour of saffron, white and green with Ashoka’s wheel of dharma at the centre.
Partition
During the uncertainty of WW2, large numbers of Muslims turned to Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He wanted to establish a homeland or place of safety for their community in the north of India where Muslims were in a majority.
The Indian National Congress failed to acknowledge the gravity of the demand.
As late as 1946, Jinnah’s Muslim League was willing to accept a federation in which defence, foreign policy and communications remained under common control rather than a fully independent Pakistan.
During the final negotiations, Jinnah was boxed in by a triumphalist Congress and British incompetence.
The result was the bloody and disastrous partition of the Indian empire into two and the largest mass migration in history. An estimated one million people were murdered.
Despite the creation of the two new wings, East and West Pakistan, the shape of free India remained unclear. In particular, the status of India’s princely rulers was left unresolved.
The independent states post-partition
Despite the creation of the two new wings, East and West Pakistan, the shape of free India remained unclear. In particular, the status of India’s princely rulers was left unresolved. The states covered more than a third of the empire and their rulers could in theory do as they liked
Jodhpur bordering Pakistan almost signed with them despite a Hindu majority, offered attractive terms.
In fact, the days of the maharajas, rajas, nawabs and nizams were over even if they were allowed to use regal red licence plates on their cars.
VP Menon had the task of bringing them (estimated to be 554) into the fold. The British did not want India to become a subcontinent of warring states. Mountbatten personally persuaded the princes to sign up.
The complication was Kashmir, which should logically have joined Pakistan as it had a Muslim majority. The Hindu ruler, under duress, ruled otherwise and India and Pakistan fought their first war within months of the end of the empire. This led to the rough partition of its territory in a form that pleased nobody.
The Portuguese colony of Goa was annexed at gunpoint.
Gandhi’s salt march
In 1930 after a Congress meeting in Lahore that attracted 300,000 delegates declaring complete freedom from British dominion and imperialism - the Purna Swaraj resolution, drafted by Nehru.
The salt march - satyagraha - started in March and was a protest against the government’s salt tax. Gandhi and 78 fellow marchers set out to walk 240 miles from his ashram at Sabarmati to Dandi on the coast.
Described as this “silly salt stunt” by the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, it was a strategic masterstroke that galvanised the whole country.
Part of a general resumption of civil disobedience, which included a massive involvement by Indian women.
From East Pakistan into Bangladesh - the background
Pakistan had ended with two halves separated by 1200 miles. Bengali East Pakistan had a larger population (c60%) but was geographically smaller. West Pakistan had dominated it politically and economically since 1947. Basically treated as a colony.
The West had built roads, schools, universities and hospitals but had developed little in the East. The army drew 90% from West, government jobs 80%.
Racial and cultural conflict too between the generally darker, smaller Bengali-speaking East Pakistanis and their Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi-speaking West Pakistanis. A major cause of dispute was when Urdu - rather than or in addition to Bengali - was declared the sole official language of the state.
And democracy had collapsed in Pakistan a little over a decade after independence, with the army taking over.
From East Pakistan to Bangladesh - the crisis
The movement for self- determination in East Pakistan in the late 1960s was pro-democratic and led by the charismatic Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with whom Indira Gandhi had a rare personal as well as political rapport.
In December 1970 there was the first general election in many years. Mujibur’s party, the Awami League, campaigning for regional autonomy, won all but two seats in East Pakistan, giving it a decisive majority in the National Assembly. But the army and leader of West Pakistan’s People’s Party, prevented ‘Mujib’ from taking power. In response, the Awami League launched a massive civil disobedience movement in East Pakistan.
On 25th March 1971 a brutal regime of repression was imposed to crush the political unrest. The Pakistani army looted, raped, murdered thousands, including anyone suspected of dissidence. Mujib arrested and flown to prison in West Pakistan.
The East Bengali Police, East Pakistan Rifles and only Bengali regiment in the Pakistan army all mutinied. East Pakistan - now renamed Bangladesh - declared independence. The Awami leaders who had escaped to Calcutta set up a government in exile.
The slaughter of Bengalis by West Pakistanis escalated into genocide. By the end of the year, an estimated three million people had been killed.
From East Pakistan to Bangladesh - the resolution
India received 10 million refugees over nine months. Housed in camps and India helped to train and arm Bangladesh’s liberation army, the Mukti Bahini.
Indira Gandhi and colleagues travelled to Europe and the US to try to galvanise world opinion.
On 3 December 1971 the Pakistan airforce bombed nine Indian air bases. The third Indo-Pak war was ignited, with Pakistan the aggressor. In fact, an assault by India on Dhaka had been planned for the next day. “Thank God, they have attacked us,” said Gandhi privately.
On 6 December in parliament, Gandhi announced India’s recognition of independent Bangladesh to wild acclaim. She also explained that combined Indian and Bangladeshi Mukti Bahini forces were fighting the war in East Pakistan.
The war lasted only 14 days. The Pakistani army was outnumbered and ill-equipped. Late on 16 December Indo-Bangladeshi forces liberated Dhaka and Pakistan surrendered unconditionally.
The war was over and Indira Gandhi was its heroine. She was praised in parliament as a new Durga, goddess of war, and likened to Shakti, representing female energy and power. The foreign press referred to her as the new “Empress of India” and in a 1971 American Gallup poll she was rated the most admired person in the world.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released from prison in West Pakistan in early January and travelled to Bangladesh with a stopover in Delhi. In March, IBeira Gandhi visited Bangladesh and drafted a treaty of friendship.
Bangladesh - the years post-independence
In August 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was toppled in a coup in Dhaka. He had systematically undermined democracy and had suspended civil liberties. Virtually a one-party state which gave him absolute power. Plus corruption and nepotism as he appointed members of his large extended family to powerful positions from which they derived enormous financial benefits.
Junior army officers arrived in tanks and surrounded his house. The leader, Major Huda, presented Mujibur with a resignation letter which he refused to sign. Mujibur, his sons, two daughters-in-law, wife, brother and two servants were murdered. His entire clan wiped out apart from his 28 year-old daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who was not at home and would survive to become prime minister of Bangladesh 21 years later.
