Jinnah: India- Partition Independence – Jaswant Singh
Jaswant Singh has written a most exciting book, on a subject that should have been a dry, scholarly, tome. I only bought this book because I was following the story on the BBC web site. Mr. Singh was thrown out of the BJP for writing it.
Mr. Singh makes clear that the British tried to keep India together, and opposed Partition, and believed that Pakistan was almost indefensible against the Russians and Hindustan, which were the most likely enemies. They decided that they would cut Hindustan loose, and keep Pakistan in the Commonwealth as a defensive move to other Commonwealth countries.
Until the late 1930’s, Jinnah was opposed to Partition, and fought against it. That was until Congress turned all its agreements with Muslims on their head, and made it impossible for them to stay in India under their rules. But rules can change, and Jinnah was open to change, and did not entirely give up. His main demand was for one third of the Parliament, though Muslims were one forth of the population. They would still be a minority party, two to one. He also asked that, when a law impinged on one group of people, that group had the right to veto it. When it came to staying in India, those were his minimum demands to begin with. When these were refused, Jinnah became more stiffened.
In the end, Congress Party decided to change the meaning of an agreement that they, the Muslim League (Jinnah) and the Raj had come to, that changed the relationship of Muslims within India, and made it absolutely impossible for Muslims to stay in India. It was Gandhi who delivered the final blow, not as a peace maker, but as a member of Congress. That is not the Gandhi we hear about in school, but that is the Gandhi who is real. It was the British who made the last attempt to get Gandhi and Congress to go back to the original agreement, but they failed in that attempt. Prime Minister Attley removed that Viceroy, Wavell, and there was no further attempt.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah died 13 months after Partition. Had he lived, Pakistan would be a different place. But there was nobody like him to give it the kind of direction it needed. That was the flaw in the plan. It is as if the “Founding Fathers” died after the revolution. Mr. Singh seems to see that as a flaw too.
While Jinnah is not blameless, Mr. Singh sees Congress as mostly to blame for Partition, even more than the British, who in the end, “scuttled”, as they did in Palestine. That was the fear that Viceroy Wavell had, and he was right. He believed that Partition could be done over a period of time, carefully, with little loss of life. But His Majesties’ Government was not very interested in that.
The British either did not understand, or did not believe that there would be the riotous bloodshed that there was before and during Partition. Congress thought that it would not happen, or that Pakistan would come back. Jinnah thought Pakistan and India would work as brothers. They were all wrong.
You cannot understand Pakistan without reading this book. You cannot understand the relationship between India and Pakistan without reading this book.
