Opposition to the partition of India was widespread in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of
composite nationalism
Composite nationalism ( Hindustani: ''mushtareka wataniyat'' or ''muttahidah qaumiyat'') is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made of up people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationali ...
. The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the
partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...
(and its underlying
two-nation theory
The two-nation theory is an ideology of religious nationalism that influenced the decolonisation of the British Raj in South Asia. According to this ideology, Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, with their own customs, ...
), as were many Muslims (these were represented by the
All India Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Abdul Ghaffār Khān (; 6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan () or Badshah Khan (), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (), was a Pakistani Pashtun, independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar ...
of the
Khudai Khidmatgar
Khudai Khidmatgar ( ps, خداۍ خدمتګار; literally "servants of God") was a predominantly Pashtun nonviolent resistance movement known for its activism against the British Raj in colonial India; it was based in the country's North-West ...
viewed the proposal to partition India as un-Islamic and contradicting a common history in which Muslims considered India as their homeland for over a millennium.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
opined that "Hindus and Muslims were sons of the same soil of India; they were brothers who therefore must strive to keep India free and united."
Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...
s of the Deobandi school of thought "criticized the idea of Pakistan as being the conspiracy of the colonial government to prevent the emergence of a strong united India" and helped to organize the
Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...
to condemn the partition of India. They also argued that the economic development of Muslims would be hurt if India was partitioned, seeing the idea of partition as one that was designed to keep Muslims backward. They also expected "Muslim-majority provinces in united India to be more effective than the rulers of independent Pakistan in helping the Muslim minorities living in Hindu-majority areas." Deobandis pointed to the
Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah ( ar, صُلح ٱلْحُدَيْبِيَّة, Ṣulḥ Al-Ḥudaybiyyah) was an event that took place during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was a pivotal treaty between Muhammad, representing the state of ...
, which was made between the Muslims and Qureysh of Mecca, that "promoted mutual interaction between the two communities thus allowing more opportunities for Muslims to preach their religion to Qureysh through peaceful ''tabligh''." Deobandi Sunni scholar
Sayyid Husain Ahmad Madani
Hussain Ahmad Madani (6 October 1879 – 5 December 1957) was an Indian Islamic scholar, serving as the principal of Darul Uloom Deoband. He was among the first recipients of the civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 1954.
argued for a united India in his book ''
Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam
''Composite Nationalism and Islam'', titled ''Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam'' ( ur, ) is a book written in 1938 by Husain Ahmad Madani, the Dean of Darul Uloom Deoband, espousing composite nationalism—a united India for both Muslims and non- ...
'' (Composite Nationalism and Islam), promulgating the idea that different religions do not constitute different nationalities and that the proposition for a partition of India was not justifiable, religiously.
Khaksar Movement
The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire.
The Khaksars opposed the partiti ...
leader
Allama Mashriqi
Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi ( ur, ; August 1888 27 August 1963), also known by the honorary title Allama Mashriqi (), was a British Indian, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of th ...
opposed the partition of India because he felt that if Muslims and Hindus had largely lived peacefully together in India for centuries, they could also do so in a free and united India. Mashriqi saw the two-nation theory as a plot of the British to maintain control of the region more easily, if India was divided into two countries that were pitted against one another. He reasoned that a division of India along religious lines would breed fundamentalism and extremism on both sides of the border. Mashriqi thought that "Muslim majority areas were already under Muslim rule, so if any Muslims wanted to move to these areas, they were free to do so without having to divide the country." To him, separatist leaders "were power hungry and misleading Muslims in order to bolster their own power by serving the British agenda."
In the 1946 Indian provincial elections, only 16% of Indian Muslims, mainly those from upper class, were able to vote. Many lower class Indian Muslims opposed the partition of India, believing that "a Muslim state would benefit only upper-class Muslims."
The
All India Conference of Indian Christians
The All India Conference of Indian Christians (AICIC) is an ecumenical organisation founded in 1914 to represent the interests of Christians in India. It was founded to advocate for the moral, economic, and intellectual development of the Indian Ch ...
Chief Khalsa Diwan
The Chief Khalsa Diwan is a 117-year-old Sikh organisation, which is the central Organization of various Singh Sabhas spread across Punjab, India. Unlike the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, the Diwan is an apolitical body and only conc ...
and
Shiromani Akali Dal
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are man ...
led by
Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh (24 June 1885 – 22 November 1967) was an Indian Sikh political and religious figure in the first half of the 20th century. He was instrumental in organising the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and guiding the Sikh ...
condemned the call by separatists to create Pakistan, viewing it as a movement that would possibly persecute them.
Critics of the partition of India argue that an undivided India would have boasted one of the strongest armies in the world, had more competitive sports teams, fostered an increased protection of minorities with religious harmony, championed greater
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
soft power
In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (contrast hard power). In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defin ...
, and offered a "focus on education and health instead of the defence sector".
Pakistan was created through the partition of India on the basis of
religious segregation
Religious segregation is the separation of people according to their religion. The term has been applied to cases of religious-based segregation which occurs as a social phenomenon, as well as segregation which arises from laws, whether they are ex ...
; the very concept of dividing the country of India along religious lines has been criticized as being a backward idea for the modern era. After it occurred, critics of the partition of India point to the displacement of fifteen million people, the murder of more than one million people, and the rape of 75,000 women to demonstrate the view that it was a mistake.
Organisations and prominent individuals opposing the partition of India
Political parties
*
All India Anglo-Indian Association
The All India Anglo-Indian Association is an organisation representing the interests of Anglo-Indians. It was founded in 1926 in colonial India by Sir Henry Gidney. It has sixty-two branches in all of India.
The All India Anglo-Indian Associati ...
led by its president
Frank Anthony
Frank Anthony (25 September 1908 – 3 December 1993) was a leader of the Anglo-Indian community in India, and was until his death their nominated representative in the Parliament of India except 6th and 9th Lok Sabha. He served as the presi ...
"vociferously opposed Partition".
*
All India Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...
was an organisation headed by the Premier of Sind
Allah Bakhsh Soomro
Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro ( sd, اللهَ بخشُ سوُمَرو) (1900 – 14 May 1943), ( Khan Bahadur Sir Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro OBE till September 1942) or Allah Baksh Soomro, was a ''zamindar'', government contractor, Ind ...
, which represented the religiously observant Muslim working class; in one of the largest gatherings of Muslims in colonial India, it rallied in Delhi to oppose the partition of India.
*
All India Conference of Indian Christians
The All India Conference of Indian Christians (AICIC) is an ecumenical organisation founded in 1914 to represent the interests of Christians in India. It was founded to advocate for the moral, economic, and intellectual development of the Indian Ch ...
opposed the partition of India, as well as the creation of separate electorates based on religion; it supported
swaraj
Swarāj ( sa, स्वराज, translit=Svarāja '' sva-'' "self", '' raj'' "rule") can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". It was first used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to attain self rule from the Mughal Empire and the Adil ...
and helped to secure to rights of minorities in the
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
.
*
All-India Jamhur Muslim League
The All India Jamhur Muslim League ( ur, ) was formed in 1940, to counter the Lahore resolution, passed by the All-India Muslim League, for a separate Pakistan based on Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Two nation theory.
The first session of the party was h ...
was erected "in 1940, to oppose Jinnah's scheme of Pakistan".
* All India Momin Conference saw itself as articulating the interests of common, rather than upper-class Muslims and passed a resolution against the partition of India in 1940. It said: “the Partition scheme was not only impracticable and unpatriotic but altogether un-Islamic and unnatural, because the geographical position of the different provinces of India and the intermingled population of the Hindus and Muslims are against the proposal and because the two communities have been living together for centuries, and they have many things in common between them.”
* All India Muslim Majlis opposed the partition of India "as impracticable".
*
All India Shia Political Conference
The All India Shia Political Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Shia Political Conference was a political party in British India that was organized in Lucknow in 1929.
In October 1937, it urged its members to support the Indian National ...
protested the idea of creating a Pakistan, being against the partition of colonial India. It also supported common electorates.
*
Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan
The Anjuman-i-Watan, Baluchistan ( bal, ), commonly called Anjuman-i-Watan, was a political party in British India based in the province of Baluchistan. It was led by Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai.
It was a member of the All India Azad Muslim Confere ...
allied itself with the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
and opposed the partition of India.
*Central Khalsa Young Men Union declared its "unequivocal opposition" to the creation of a separate Muslim state in northwestern India, as with other Sikh organisations.
*
Chief Khalsa Diwan
The Chief Khalsa Diwan is a 117-year-old Sikh organisation, which is the central Organization of various Singh Sabhas spread across Punjab, India. Unlike the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, the Diwan is an apolitical body and only conc ...
declared its "unequivocal opposition" to the creation of a separate Muslim state in northwestern India, as with other Sikh organisations.
*
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
H ...
opposed the partition of India and did not participate in the Independence Day celebrations of 15 August 1947 in protest of the division of the country.
* Hindu Mahasabha opposed the partition of India, The stand taken by Hindu Mahasabha was defined by
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer.
Savarkar developed the Hindu nationali ...
, the President of the Sabha. Hindu Maha Sabha was against the creation of Pakistan and proposed to resist it by all means.
*
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
firmly opposed the partition of India, though it later reluctantly accepted it after the failure of the
Cabinet Mission Plan
A Cabinet Mission came to India in 1946 in order to discuss the transfer of power from the British government to the Indian political leadership, with the aim of preserving India's unity and granting its independence. Formed at the initiative of ...
. According to Congress it was unavoidable from India's side.
* Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadis was a member party of the
All India Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...
, which opposed the partition of India.
*
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind or Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind () is one of the leading organizations of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India. It was founded in November 1919 by a group of Muslim scholars including Abdul Bari F ...
was "uncompromisingly against the formation of Pakistan", rejecting the idea of the partition and instead advocating for
composite nationalism
Composite nationalism ( Hindustani: ''mushtareka wataniyat'' or ''muttahidah qaumiyat'') is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made of up people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationali ...
in a united India (cf. ''
Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam
''Composite Nationalism and Islam'', titled ''Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam'' ( ur, ) is a book written in 1938 by Husain Ahmad Madani, the Dean of Darul Uloom Deoband, espousing composite nationalism—a united India for both Muslims and non- ...
'').
*
Khaksar Movement
The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire.
The Khaksars opposed the partiti ...
opposed the partition of India and were "outspoken critics of the Pakistan scheme".
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
, p. 147
*
Khudai Khidmatgar
Khudai Khidmatgar ( ps, خداۍ خدمتګار; literally "servants of God") was a predominantly Pashtun nonviolent resistance movement known for its activism against the British Raj in colonial India; it was based in the country's North-West ...
stood out against the partition of India, using nonviolent principles to resist British rule in the country.
* Krishak Praja Party condemned idea of a partition plan as "absurd and meaningless".
*
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e Ahrar-e Islam ( ur, مجلس احرارلأسلام), also known in short as Ahrar, is a religious Muslim political party in the Indian subcontinent that was formed during the British Raj (prior to the Partition of India) on 29 Dece ...
passed a resolution in 1943 declaring itself to be against the partition and "introduced a sectarian element into its objections by portraying Jinnah as an infidel in an attempt to discredit his reputation."
*
Sind United Party
The Sind United Party or Sind Ittehad Party ( Sindhi: سنڌ اتحاد پارٽي) was a political party in Sind, British India. The party was founded in June 1936, the same year that the Sind province had been created. The party was modelled on t ...
held that "Whatever our faiths we must live together in our country in an atmosphere of perfect amity and our relations should be the relations of the several brothers of a joint family, various members of which are free to profess their faith as they like without any let or hindrance and of whom enjoy equal benefits of their joint property."
*
Shiromani Akali Dal
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are man ...
led by
Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh (24 June 1885 – 22 November 1967) was an Indian Sikh political and religious figure in the first half of the 20th century. He was instrumental in organising the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and guiding the Sikh ...
saw the idea of the creation of a Muslim state as inviting possible persecution of Sikhs, who thus "launched a virulent campaign against the Lahore Resolution".
*
Unionist Party (Punjab)
The National Unionist Party was a political party based in the Punjab Province during the period of British rule in India. The Unionist Party mainly represented the interests of the landed gentry and landlords of Punjab, which included Muslims ...
, which had a base of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, opposed the partition of India from the perspective of seeing the Punjabi identity as more important than one's religious identity.
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
, p. 486
Politicians
*
Abul Kalam Azad
Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Husseini, Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Indian independence movement, independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the ...
stated that the creation of a Pakistan would only benefit upper class Muslims who would come to monopolize the economy of the separate state; he warned that if it would be created, it would be controlled by international powers, "and with the passage of time this control will become tight".
*
Abdul Matlib Mazumdar
Abdul Matlib Mazumder ( bn, আব্দুল মতলিব মজুমদার; 1890–1980) was an Indian freedom fighter and political leader based in undivided Assam State. In 1946, when India was still under British rule, he became a ...
supported Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed the partition of India, being a prominent Muslim leader in eastern Hindustan.
*
Abdul Qayyum Khan
Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri ( ur, عبدالقیوم خان کشمیری) (16 July 1901 – 23 October 1981) was a major figure in British Indian and later Pakistan politics, in particular in the North-West Frontier Province, where served a ...
, a barrister from the
North-West Frontier Province
The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...
of colonial India, declared that he would resist the partition of India with his own blood; he reversed his position in 1945 and joined the All India Muslim League
*
Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai
Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai (7 July 1907 – 2 December 1973) ( ps, عبدالصمد خان اڅکزی), commonly known as Khan Shaheed () (This title or name was given by the great Baba-e-Afghan Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhail) was a Pashtun peop ...
argued against the two-nation theory, favouring a united India.
*
Allah Bakhsh Soomro
Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro ( sd, اللهَ بخشُ سوُمَرو) (1900 – 14 May 1943), ( Khan Bahadur Sir Allah Bux Muhammad Umar Soomro OBE till September 1942) or Allah Baksh Soomro, was a ''zamindar'', government contractor, Ind ...
, the Chief Minister of Sind, was vehemently opposed to partitioning India on the basis of religious lines; he chaired the
All India Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...
to advocate for a united and independent India. Allah Bakhsh Soomro proclaimed that the very concept of "The Muslims as a separate nation in India on the basis of their religion, is un-Islamic."
*
Ansar Harvani
Ansar Harvani is an Indian politician. Harwani opposed the partition of India. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh as a member of the Indian National Congress
The Indian N ...
, a nationalist Muslim, voted against the resolution to partition India.
* Altaf Hussain, a Pakistani politician and founder of the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Muttahida Qaumi Movement (abbreviated MQM) is a name currently claimed by two competing Pakistani political factions:
* Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, a political faction managed from the UK
* Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan
Muttah ...
political party, called the partition of India the "greatest blunder" that resulted in "the division of blood, culture, brotherhood, relationships".
*
Arshad Madani
Arshad Madani (born in 1941) is an Indian Muslim scholar and the current Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband. He succeeded Asad Madni as the eighth president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind.Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (13 May 1905 – 11 February 1977) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the fifth president of India from 1974 to 1977.
Born in Delhi, Ahmed studied in Delhi and Cambridge and was called to the bar from the ...
supported
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's vision of a united India.
*
Fazl-i-Hussain
Sir Mian Fazl-i-Husain, KCSI (14 June 1877 – 9 July 1936) was an influential politician during the British Raj and a founding member of the Unionist Party of the Punjab.
Biography Early life
Husain was born in Peshawar to a Muslim Rajput fami ...
was opposed to the separatist campaign to create a Muslim state through the division of India.
*
Frank Anthony
Frank Anthony (25 September 1908 – 3 December 1993) was a leader of the Anglo-Indian community in India, and was until his death their nominated representative in the Parliament of India except 6th and 9th Lok Sabha. He served as the presi ...
, president of the
All India Anglo-Indian Association
The All India Anglo-Indian Association is an organisation representing the interests of Anglo-Indians. It was founded in 1926 in colonial India by Sir Henry Gidney. It has sixty-two branches in all of India.
The All India Anglo-Indian Associati ...
, "vociferously opposed Partition".
*
Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah
Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah KCSI ( ur, غلام حسین هدايت الله , sd, غلام حسين هدايت الله; January 1879 – 4 October 1948) was a colonial Indian and Pakistani politician from Sindh. He held several offices in ...
, who was elected as the Chief Minister of Sind from 1937–1938 and also 1942–1947, rejected the idea to partition India.
*
Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi
Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi ( ur, ; August 1888 27 August 1963), also known by the honorary title Allama Mashriqi (), was a British Indian, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of th ...
advocated a joint Hindu-Muslim revolution and called everyone to "all rise against" the "conspiracy" of a partition plan.
*
Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (; 30 December 1887 – 8 February 1971), popularly known by his pen name Ghanshyam Vyas, was an Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat state. A lawyer by profession, ...
saw the idea of the partition of India as one that catered to the policies of
divide and rule
Divide and rule policy ( la, divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power divisively. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their terr ...
by the British government and he thus strongly opposed it, calling for an ''Akhand Hindustan'' (Hindi-Urdu for "united India").
*
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Abdul Ghaffār Khān (; 6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan () or Badshah Khan (), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (), was a Pakistani Pashtun, independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar ...
opposed the partition of India and campaigned against British rule in the country through nonviolence.
*
Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan
Dr. Khan Sahib ( ps, ډاکټر خان صیب ) (born 1883, Utmanzai, Charsadda – 9 May 1958, Lahore), mistakenly named as Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (), was a pioneer in the Indian Independence Movement and a Pakistani politician. He was the eld ...
favoured a united India and was an ally of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
. He stood against communalism and battled the Muslim League after it became apparent that a Pakistan would be created out of the provinces of northwest colonial India.
*Khwaja Abdul Majid was a social reformer and lawyer "who supported Gandhi in his opposition to the partition of India."
*
Khwaja Atiqullah
Khwaja Atiqullah ( ur, ; 1876–1945) was a Bengali British Indian politician and member of the Dhaka Nawab Family.
Early life
He was born on 26 July 1876. He was taught by private British teachers. He learned English, Persian and Urdu. He w ...
, the brother of the
Nawab of Dhaka
The Nawab of Dhaka (Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of ''na ...
, "collected 25,000 signatures and submitted a memorandum opposing the partition".
*
Lal Khan
Lal Khan ( ur, لال خان; June 1956 – 21 February 2020) was a political activist and Marxist political theorist.
Born Tanveer Gondal, he was a physician by profession but ceased practicing medicine in order to devote his time to politic ...
, a Pakistani politician and founder of
The Struggle Pakistan
The Struggle ( ur, ) is a ''Trotskyist'', Leftist organization in Pakistan which was found in Netherlands by Lal Khan and other Pakistani activists. The group follows the ideology of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky ...
, criticized the partition of India and advocated for
Indian reunification
Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India (the Republic of India) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947.
Background
In 1947, British India was partitioned into the modern ...
, which he stated would heal continuing wounds and solve the Kashmir conflict. Advocating for a common revolution, Khan declared that "Five thousand years of common history, culture and society is too strong to be cleavaged by this partition."
*
Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi
Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi (3 March 1900 – 26 September 1966) was a political activist from Bihar, prominent in the Indian independence movement.
Early life
Ajazi was born on 3 March 1900 in village Dihuli, Block Sakra of District Muz ...
opposed the partition of India and founded the
All-India Jamhur Muslim League
The All India Jamhur Muslim League ( ur, ) was formed in 1940, to counter the Lahore resolution, passed by the All-India Muslim League, for a separate Pakistan based on Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Two nation theory.
The first session of the party was h ...
to advocate for a united India.
*
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
opposed the partition of India, seeing it as contradicting his vision of unity among Indians of all religions.
*
Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana KCSI, OBE ( pa, ; 7 August 1900 – 20 January 1975) was an Indian statesman, army officer, and landowner who served as the prime minister of the Punjab Province of British India between 1942 a ...
Punjabi people
The Punjabis ( Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Panjābīs), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The ...
. He felt that Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab all had a common culture and was against dividing India on the basis of religious segregation. Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana, himself a Muslim, remarked to the separatist leader
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...
: "There are Hindu and Sikh Tiwanas who are my relatives. I go to their weddings and other ceremonies. How can I possibly regard them as coming from another nation?" March 1 was proclaimed by Tiwana as Communal Harmony Day, with the Communal Harmony Committee being established by him in Lahore, with Raja Narendra Nath as its president and Maulvi Mahomed Ilyas as its secretary.
* Maulana Hifzur Rahman, a nationalist Muslim, voted against the resolution to partition India.
* Maulana Syed Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari was the creator of the
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e Ahrar-e Islam ( ur, مجلس احرارلأسلام), also known in short as Ahrar, is a religious Muslim political party in the Indian subcontinent that was formed during the British Raj (prior to the Partition of India) on 29 Dece ...
, which passed a resolution in 1943 declaring itself to be against the partition and "introduced a sectarian element into its objections by portraying Jinnah as an infidel in an attempt to discredit his reputation."
*
Markandey Katju
Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of Supreme Court of India who served as chairman for the Press Council of India. He is the son of politician Shiva Nath Katju and grandson of Kailash Nath Katju. He is the founder and patron ...
views the British as bearing responsibility for the partition of India; he regards Jinnah as a British agent who advocated for the creation of Pakistan in order "to satisfy his ambition to become the ‘Quaid-e-Azam’, regardless of the suffering his actions caused to both Hindus and Muslims." Katju claimed that after witnessing Hindus and Muslims joining hands in the First War of Indian Independence in 1857, the British government implemented a divide and rule policy to cause them to fight one another rather than rise up to fight against colonial rule. He also claims that the British government orchestrated the partition of India in order to prevent a united India from emerging as an industrial power that would rival the economy of any western state.
*
Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh (24 June 1885 – 22 November 1967) was an Indian Sikh political and religious figure in the first half of the 20th century. He was instrumental in organising the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and guiding the Sikh ...
declared that his party, the
Shiromani Akali Dal
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are man ...
would fight "tooth and nail" against the partition of India and creation of Pakistan.
* Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar referred to Jinnah as ''Kafir-e-Azam'' ("The Great Kafir"). He, as with other Ahrar leaders, opposed the partition of India.
* Maulana Sayyid Husain Ahmad Madani strongly opposed the campaign for a separate Muslim state, instead advocating for
composite nationalism
Composite nationalism ( Hindustani: ''mushtareka wataniyat'' or ''muttahidah qaumiyat'') is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made of up people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationali ...
in a united India (cf. ''
Muttahida Qaumiyat aur Islam
''Composite Nationalism and Islam'', titled ''Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam'' ( ur, ) is a book written in 1938 by Husain Ahmad Madani, the Dean of Darul Uloom Deoband, espousing composite nationalism—a united India for both Muslims and non- ...
''). Five decades earlier, Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani Asadabadi advocated for the same; he held that Hindu-Muslim unity in India as opposed to unity between Indian Muslims and foreign Muslims, would effectively combat British colonial rule, leading to an independent India.
* Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, actively worked to prevent the partition of India, arguing that concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the
ummah
' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.
It is a synonym for ' ...
. Maulana Maududi saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another. He advocated for the whole of India to be reclaimed for Islam.
* M. C. Davar opposed the partition of India, creating the "United Party of India (UPI) with the aim of removing the chasm between the Congress and the Muslim League."
*
Mohan Bhagwat
Mohan Bhagwat (, Marathi pronunciation: oːɦən bʱaːɡʋət̪ born 11 September 1950) is an activist currently serving as the 6th and current Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India. He was chosen as the successor to ...
, the 6th
Sarsanghchalak
The Sarsanghchalak (IAST: Sarasanghacālaka) is the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist organisation that is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS is o ...
of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...
, declared in November 2021 that "The only solution to the pain of Partition lies in undoing it."
*Muhammad Tayyab Danapuri was a
Barelwi
The Barelvi movement ( ur, بَریلوِی, , ), also known as Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaah (People of the Prophet's Way and the Community) is a Sunni revivalist movement following the Hanafi and Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, with strong Suf ...
scholar who wrote against Jinnah in his books.
*
Mohammed Abdur Rahiman
Muhammad Abdu Rahiman, also Muhammad Abdu Rahiman Sahib; 1898 – 23 April 1945) was an Indian freedom fighter, Muslim leader, scholar, and politician from Kerala. He served as president of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee(Malabar) in 1939.
...
, a peace activist, "mobilised the Muslim masses against the two-nation theory of Muslim League."
*
Mufti Mahmud
Mufti Mehmood ( ur, ; 1919–1980) was a Pakistani politician and Islamic scholar who was one of the founding members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).Darul Uloom Deoband
The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...
, opposed the partition of India.
*
Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari
Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (25 December 1880 – 10 May 1936) was an Indian nationalist and political leader, and former president of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League during the Indian Independence Movement. One of the founders of t ...
argued against Jinnah's two-nation theory.
*
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan ( ur, نواب زاده نصر الله خان) (13 November 1916 – 27 September 2003) was a senior politician in British India and later Pakistan. He was also a prominent Urdu poet. He was the only West Pakistani to ...
, coming from the background with ties to the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
and
Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam
Majlis-e Ahrar-e Islam ( ur, مجلس احرارلأسلام), also known in short as Ahrar, is a religious Muslim political party in the Indian subcontinent that was formed during the British Raj (prior to the Partition of India) on 29 Dece ...
, opposed the Muslim League.
*
Purushottam Das Tandon
Purushottam Das Tandon (; 1 August 1882 – 1 July 1962) was a freedom fighter from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is widely remembered for his opposition to the partition of India, as well as efforts in achieving the ''Official Languag ...
opposed the partition of India, advocating unity, stating that "Acceptance of the resolution will be an abject surrender to the British and the Muslim League. The admission of the Working Committee was an admission of weakness and the result of a sense of despair. The Partition would not benefit either community – the Hindus in Pakistan and the Muslims in India would both live in fear."
*
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. He hailed from Barabanki District of Uttar Pradesh, in north India.
Early life
Rafi Ahmed was born in the village of M ...
supported
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's vision of a united India.
*
Saifuddin Kitchlew
Saifuddin Kitchlew (15 January 1888 – 9 October 1963) was an Indian independence activist, barrister, politician and later a leader of the peace movement. A member of Indian National Congress, he first became Punjab Provincial Congress Comm ...
, a Kashmiri Muslim leader and President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee, was strongly opposed to the partition of India, calling it "a surrender of nationalism in favour of communalism". Kitchlew was an Indian nationalist who opposed British colonial rule and held "that a divided India would only debilitate the Muslim cause, in terms of its political emancipation and economic prosperity."
*
Salman Khurshid
Salman Khurshid Alam Khan (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian politician, designated senior advocate, eminent author and a law teacher. He was the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of External Affairs. He belongs to the Indian National Congress. ...
criticized the partition of India, opining that a united India with a liberal democracy and proportional representation would have been better for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. Khurshid praised
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
for refusing to accept a partition of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
*
Shaukatullah Shah Ansari
Dr. Shaukatullah Shah Ansari (12 May 1908 – 29 December 1972) was an Indian politician, physician, diplomat, and physician who was elected to the Indian Parliament from the Bidar parliamentary constituency for the first Lok Sabha of India.
...
argued against Jinnah's two-nation theory.
*
Sheikh Abdullah
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah (5 December 1905 – 8 September 1982) was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir Abdullah was the founding leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (later rena ...
supported
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's vision of a united India.
*
Shibli Nomani
Shibli Nomani ( ur, – ; 3 June 1857 – 18 November 1914) was an Islamic scholar from the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. He was born at Bindwal in Azamgarh district of present-day Uttar Pradesh.
*
Sikandar Hayat Khan
'' Khan Bahadur'' Captain Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, (5 June 1892 – 26 December 1942), also written Sikandar Hyat-Khan or Sikandar Hyat Khan, was an Indian politician and statesman from the Punjab who served as the Premier of the Punjab, amon ...
, the Prime Minister of Punjab, was opposed to the partition of India as he saw the consequence of dividing the Punjab as painful.
* Syed Sultan Ahmed backed M. C. Davar in his opposition to the partition of India.
*
Syed Mohammad Sharfuddin Quadri
Syed Mohammad Sharfuddin Quadri (25 December 1901 – 30 December 2015) was an Indian independence activist, Gandhian and a physician of the Unani system of medicine. He accompanied Gandhiji in the Salt March of 1930 and was a prison mate of the ...
, a leader who joined the
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
at the time of the
Salt March
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...
, opposed the two-nation theory and was imprisoned in the same jail cell as Mahatma Gandhi
* Syed Habib-ul-Rahman of the Krishak Praja Party said that partitioning India was "absurd" and "chimerical". Criticising the partition of the province of Bengal and India as a whole, Syed Habib-ul-Rahman said that "the Indian, both Hindus and Muslims, live in a common motherland, use the offshoots of a common language and literature, and are proud of the noble heritage of a common Hindu and Muslim culture, developed through centuries of residence in a common land".
*
Tarun Vijay
Tarun Vijay (born 2 March 1956) is an Indian author, social worker and journalist. He was the editor of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) weekly in Hindi, ''Panchajanya'', from 1986 to February 2008. He also writes for the ''Daily Pioneer''. ...
, a member of the
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
aligned with the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...
, is critical of the partition of India, faulting the British for it, and advocates for
Indian reunification
Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India (the Republic of India) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947.
Background
In 1947, British India was partitioned into the modern ...
due to the “same cultural thread” that he states runs throughout the subcontinent. Vijay believes that nature has established one contiguous entity known as
Hindustan
''Hindūstān'' ( , from '' Hindū'' and ''-stān''), also sometimes spelt as Hindōstān ( ''Indo-land''), along with its shortened form ''Hind'' (), is the Persian-language name for the Indian subcontinent that later became commonly used by ...
or
Bharat
Bharat, or Bharath, may refer to:
* Bharat (term), the name for India in various Indian languages
** Bharata Khanda, the Sanskrit name for the Indian subcontinent (or South Asia)
* Bharata, the name of several legendary figures or groups:
** Bhara ...
has exited throughout history and that in his travels to Pakistan and Bangladesh, the people there expressed a “close affinity with Indians”. Vijay praised
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
for refusing to accept separatist tendencies in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during the time of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
*
Ted Grant
Edward Grant (born Isaac Blank; 9 July 1913 – 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal.
Early life
Grant's father had s ...
, founder of the
International Marxist Tendency
The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is an international Trotskyism, Trotskyist Political international, political tendency founded by Ted Grant and his supporters following their break with the Committee for a Workers' International (1974) ...
, heavily criticized the partition of India, calling it "a crime carried out by British Imperialism" that was done in order "to divide the subcontinent to make it easier to control from outside once they had been forced to abandon a military presence."
* Tikka Raja Shatrujit Singh of Kapurthala stated his opposition to the partition of India and advocates for
Indian reunification
Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India (the Republic of India) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947.
Background
In 1947, British India was partitioned into the modern ...
, citing the communal harmony that existed in the
Kapurthala State
Kapurthala State, with its capital at Kapurthala, was a former Princely state of Punjab. Ruled by Ahluwalia
Sikh rulers, spread across . According to the 1901 census the state had a population of 314,341 and contained two towns and 167 village ...
of colonial India, which contained Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus who lived peacefully. According to him, a secular and united India would have been a global superpower.
*
Ubaidullah Sindhi
Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (10 March 1872 – 21 August 1944) was a political activist of the Indian independence movement and one of its vigorous leaders. According to ''Dawn'', Karachi, Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi struggled for the independence ...
organised a conference in 1940 in
Kumbakonam
Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headq ...
to stand against the separatist campaign to create Pakistan, stating "if such schemes were considered realistically, it would be apparent at once how damaging they would be not only for Indian Muslims but for the whole Islamic world."
*
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer.
Savarkar developed the Hindu nationali ...
opposed the partition of India, although saw that there are two nations in India —one the Muslim nation and the other the Hindu nation.
* Zahid Ali Khan opposed the partition of India, believing that it would divide the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.
*
Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of:
* Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India
* Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor
* Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player
* ...
supported
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...
who opposed the partition of India, felt that the British decided to deliberately divide India in order to weaken it in hopes that Indians would ask the British to lengthen their rule in India. Singh said that the armed forces of undivided India were not affected by the "virus of communalism" and "were capable of holding the country together and thereby avoiding Partition." Singh was unable to forgive the politicians for failing to consult with the Indian Army before accepting the partition of India.
Historians and other academics
*
Alain Daniélou
Alain Daniélou (4 October 1907 – 27 January 1994) was a French historian, Indologist, intellectual, musicologist, translator, writer, and notable Western convert to and expert on the Shaivite sect of Hinduism.
In 1991 he was awarded the ...
, a French historian, saw the partition of India as a "great mistake" both "on the human level as well as on the political one". Daniélou stated that it "burdened India" and added to the region Pakistan, which he called an "unstable state". He said that as a result of the division of India, "India whose ancient borders stretched until Afghanistan, lost with the country of seven rivers (the Indus Valley), the historical centre of her civilisation."
*
Rajmohan Gandhi
Rajmohan Gandhi (born 7 August 1935) is an Indian biographer, historian, and research professor at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. His paternal grandfather is Mahatma Gandhi, ...
, at the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
, stated in 2018 that “To welcome Partition is to imply that people with different backgrounds and different blood-lines cannot live together in one nation. A regressive suggestion.” Gandhi opined that "The corollary that those possessing a common religion or common race enjoy blissful companionship in their homes, nations or regions is, well, hilarious." He holds that "tyranny was multiplied by partition".
* Maulvi Syed Tufail Ahmad Manglori, Indian educationalist and historian, opposed the partition of India and campaigned against the idea of separate electorates based on religion. He authored ''Rooh-e-Raushan Mustaqbil'' (روح روشن مستقبل), which argued against the
Pakistan separatist movement
The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the p ...
.
*
Arvind Sharma
Arvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. Sharma's works focus on Hinduism, philosophy of religion. In editing books his works include ''Our Religions'' and ''Women in World Religions,'' ''Feminism in W ...
, Professor of Comparative Religion at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, along with
Harvey Cox
Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr. (born May 19, 1929) is an American theologian who served as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, until his retirement in October 2009. Cox's research and teaching focus on theological developments in ...
(Professor of Divinity at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
), Manzoor Ahmad (Professor at
Concordia University
Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...
) and Rajendra Singh (Professor of Linguistics at the
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...
), has stated that the malaise and sectarian violence within South Asia is a consequence of the partition of India, which took place without a referendum in pre-1947 colonial India; these professors have stated that "Inhabitants of the subcontinent of India are poignantly reminded at this moment of the grave injustice that was done to them in 1947, when British India was partitioned without taking the wishes of its inhabitants into account." Sharma, Cox, Ahmad and Singh further wrote that "We regret that the fate of a quarter of the population of the globe was decided arbitrarily by the representative of an imperial power and by those who were not even duly elected by adult franchise." As such, Sharma, Cox, Ahmad and Singh in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in 1992 demanded that "a plebiscite be held over the entire territory that comprised British India on the question of its partition into India and Pakistan."
Scientists
*
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy (Urdu: ;;born 11 July 1950) is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and activist who serves as a professor at the Forman Christian College and previously taught physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University. Hoodbhoy is also a promine ...
criticized the partition of India, calling it an "unspeakable tragedy" that "separated people who at one time could live together in peace".
Writers
*Ashis Ray, president of the Indian Journalists' Association, criticized the partition of India at a debate organized by the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
in 2018, holding that Hindus and Muslims could have lived together peacefully in a united India.
*
Hasrat Mohani
Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan (1 January 1875 – 13 May 1951), known by his pen-name Hasrat Mohani, was an Indian activist, freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement and a noted poet of the Urdu language.
He coined the notable slogan ''Inquil ...
Hindustani language
Hindustani (; Devanagari: ,
*
*
*
* ; Perso-Arabic: , , ) is the '' lingua franca'' of Northern and Central India and Pakistan. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, the lan ...
phrase ''
Inquilab Zindabad
Inquilab Zindabad ( ur, ; hi, इंक़लाब ज़िन्दाबाद) is a Hindustani phrase, which translates to "Long live the revolution". It is a slogan used by revolutionary Indians before independence.
History
This slogan ...
'' (translation: "Long live the revolution!") was against the two-nation theory and chose to remain in independent India after the partition occurred.
*
Jaun Elia
Syed Hussain Sibt-e-Asghar Naqvi, commonly known as Jaun Elia ( ur, , 14 December 1931 – 8 November 2002), was an Indo-Pakistani poet, philosopher, biographer, and scholar. One of the most prominent modern Urdu poets, popular for his unconve ...
opposed the partition of India due to his
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
ideology, remembering his birth city
Amroha
Amroha is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is located north-west of Moradabad, near the Ganga River. It is the administrative headquarters of the Amroha district.
Geography
Amroha is located north-west of Moradabad, near the ...
with nostalgia after he moved to
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
. Elia said that the formation of Pakistan was a prank played on the people by elites from Aligarh.
*M. Alexeyev, writing in the ''
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
'' less than one year after the partition of India occurred, stated:
*
Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan.
Writing ma ...
strongly opposed the partition of India, which he saw as an "overwhelming tragedy" and "maddeningly senseless". The literature he is remembered for is largely about the partition of India.
*
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
, a poet, saw the partition of India as a "monstrosity" and on 15 August 1947, stated that he hoped "the Nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled, or as anything more than a temporary expedient." He further said that "if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled; civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. The partition of the country must go...For without it the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and frustrated. That must not be." Aurobindo saw the two-nation theory as "new-fanged", "contrary to the facts" and being "invented by Jinnah for his purposes"; Aurobindo wrote that "More than 90% of the Indian Muslims are descendants of converted Hindus and belong as much to the Indian nation as the Hindu themselves. Jinnah is himself a descendant of a Hindu named Jinnahbhai" (cf.
Jinnah family
The Jinnah family ( ur, ; gu, ઝીણા કુટુંબ, جھينا کُٹومب) was a political family of Pakistan. Jinnahs have played an important role in the Pakistan Movement for creation of Pakistan, a separate country for Muslims ...
.
*
Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah ( Punjabi/Urdu: ; born 20 November 1949) is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author.Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
"was sliced in two by the departing British to create the new state of Pakistan." He states that the British government partitioned India so that they would be able to combat Soviet influence through the establishment of British military installations in what was then northwestern colonial India (now Pakistan).
Religious leaders and organizations
*
All India Conference of Indian Christians
The All India Conference of Indian Christians (AICIC) is an ecumenical organisation founded in 1914 to represent the interests of Christians in India. It was founded to advocate for the moral, economic, and intellectual development of the Indian Ch ...
opposed the partition of India, as well as the creation of separate electorates based on religion; it supported
swaraj
Swarāj ( sa, स्वराज, translit=Svarāja '' sva-'' "self", '' raj'' "rule") can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". It was first used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to attain self rule from the Mughal Empire and the Adil ...
and helped to secure to rights of minorities in the
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
.
*
Darul Uloom Deoband
The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...
continues to oppose the two-nation theory, instead advocating for
composite nationalism
Composite nationalism ( Hindustani: ''mushtareka wataniyat'' or ''muttahidah qaumiyat'') is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made of up people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationali ...
and a united India.
* Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to prevent the partition of India, with its leader Maulana Abul A'la Maududi arguing that concept violated the Islamic doctrine of the
ummah
' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.
It is a synonym for ' ...
. The Jamaat-e-Islami saw the partition as creating a temporal border that would divide Muslims from one another.
*
Mohammad Sajjad
Abul Muhasin Muhammad Sajjad (1880 – 23 November 1940) was an Indian Islamic scholar who was one of the most influential ulemas of the 20th century. Sajjad was a founder of Anjuman-Ulama-i-Bihar, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, and Imarat-i-Sharia. A lea ...
"played a stellar role in ideologically countering the Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan, besides campaigning vigorously on the plank of
composite nationalism
Composite nationalism ( Hindustani: ''mushtareka wataniyat'' or ''muttahidah qaumiyat'') is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made of up people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationali ...
."
*
Zakir Naik
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik (born 18 October 1965) is an Indian Islamic televangelist and public orator who focuses on comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) and the Peace TV Network.
In 2 ...
criticized the partition of India and creation of Pakistan, calling it a tragedy. Naik holds that those who advocated the creation of Pakistan out of the northwestern provinces of colonial India were "not even practising Muslims".
Indian Reunification proposals
The subject of undoing the partition and reunifying India has been discussed by both Indians and Pakistanis. In ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', Kashmiri Indian politician
Markandey Katju
Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of Supreme Court of India who served as chairman for the Press Council of India. He is the son of politician Shiva Nath Katju and grandson of Kailash Nath Katju. He is the founder and patron ...
has advocated the reunification of India with Pakistan under a secular government. He stated that the cause of the partition was the divide and rule policy of Britain, which was implemented to spread communal hatred after Britain saw that Hindus and Muslims worked together to agitate against their colonial rule in India. Katju serves as the chairman of the Indian Reunification Association (IRA), which seeks to campaign for this cause.
Pakistani historian Nasim Yousaf, the grandson of
Allama Mashriqi
Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi ( ur, ; August 1888 27 August 1963), also known by the honorary title Allama Mashriqi (), was a British Indian, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of th ...
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
; Yousaf stated that the partition of India itself was a result of the divide and rule policies of the British government that sought to create another
buffer state
A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...
between the Soviet Union and India to prevent the spread of Communism, as well the fact that a "division of the people and territory would prevent a united India from emerging as a world power and keep the two nations dependent on pivotal powers." Yousaf cited former Indian National Congress president
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following Ind ...
, who wrote in the same vein:
Yousaf holds that "Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the President of the All-India Muslim League and later founder of Pakistan, had been misleading the Muslim community in order to go down in history as the saviour of the Muslim cause and to become founder and first Governor General of Pakistan." Allama Mashriqi, a nationalist Muslim, thus saw Jinnah as "becoming a tool in British hands for his political career." Besides the pro-separatist Muslim League, Islamic leadership in British India rejected the notion of partitioning the country, exemplified by the fact that most Muslims in the heartland of the subcontinent remained where they were, rather than migrating to newly created state of Pakistan. India and Pakistan are currently allocating a significant amount of their budget into military spending—money that could be spent in economic and social development. Poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, terrorism and a lack of medical facilities, in Yousaf's eyes, would not be plaguing an undivided India as it would be more advantaged "economically, politically, and socially." Yousaf has stated that Indians and Pakistanis speak a common lingua franca, Hindustani, "wear the same dress, eat the same food, enjoy the same music and movies, and communicate in the same style and on a similar wavelength". He argues that uniting would be a challenge, though not impossible, citing the fall of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
and the consequent German Reunification as an example.
French journalist
François Gautier
François Gautier (born 1950) is a journalist based in India who served as the South Asian correspondent for multiple reputed French-language dailies. He advocates for an Indigenous Aryan narrative.
He is also the founder of a private museum ...
and Pakistani politician
Lal Khan
Lal Khan ( ur, لال خان; June 1956 – 21 February 2020) was a political activist and Marxist political theorist.
Born Tanveer Gondal, he was a physician by profession but ceased practicing medicine in order to devote his time to politic ...
have expressed the view that Indian reunification would solve the conflict in the region of Jammu & Kashmir.
See also
*
Madani–Iqbal debate
The Madani–Iqbal debate was a debate between Islamic scholars of 20th century British India, Hussain Ahmed Madani and Muhammad Iqbal, on the question of nationalism in the late 1930s. Madani’s position throughout the debate was to insist on th ...
Composite Nationalism and Islam
''Composite Nationalism and Islam'', titled ''Muttahida Qaumiyat Aur Islam'' ( ur, ) is a book written in 1938 by Husain Ahmad Madani, the Dean (education), Dean of Darul Uloom Deoband, espousing composite nationalism—a united India for both ...
''
*
Gandhism
Gandhism is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of M.K. Gandhi. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.
The term ...
*
Hindu–Muslim unity
Hindu–Muslim unity is a religiopolitical concept in the Indian subcontinent which stresses members of the two largest faith groups there, Hindus and Muslims, working together for
the common good. The concept was championed by various persons, s ...
*
Hindustan
''Hindūstān'' ( , from '' Hindū'' and ''-stān''), also sometimes spelt as Hindōstān ( ''Indo-land''), along with its shortened form ''Hind'' (), is the Persian-language name for the Indian subcontinent that later became commonly used by ...
*
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
*
Indian nationalism
Indian nationalism is an instance of territorial nationalism, which is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, b ...
*
Malerkotla
Malerkotla is a city and district headquarters of Malerkotla district in the Indian state of Punjab. It was the seat of the eponymous princely state during the British Raj. The state acceded to the union of India in 1947 and was merged with ...
*
Violence against women during the partition of India
During the Partition of India, violence against women was an extensive situation. It is estimated that during the partition between 75,000 and 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped. The rape of women by males during this period is well documented ...
References
Cited sources
*{{cite book , ref=Talbot, last1=Talbot , first1=Ian , title=Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India , date=2013 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=9781136790294
Deccan Herald
''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee ( SGPC; "Supreme Gurdwara Management Committee") is an organization in India responsible for the management of Gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and the union ...