Ayhan Sayani
The People and Politics Behind Partition and Pakistan
Even today, events before and after India’s partition in 1947 are hotly contested. My module aims to explore the events leading up to and after the Partition, offering Muslim, Hindu, Pakistani, Indian, British, and Bengali perspectives on Pakistan’s creation. Beyond helping learners to understand the policies, strategies, and motivations involved, it aims to showcase the more human elements of this moment: struggle, survival, and loss. Additionally, it considers what most similar curricula ignore by treating East and West Pakistan as separately as possible.
By looking closely at the writing styles, the lens by which each narrative is looking at the partition, and the authors’ overall takeaways, by the end of the module, I hope to reveal differences brought about by personal biases and agendas as well as similarities at points where narratives converge. Essentially, I hope students will be able to analyze the events of the partition from a historical perspective, one that recognizes personal bias, and one that considers the contribution of and effect on the various stakeholders involved.
The target audience for this module is anyone interested in partition history, but primarily undergraduate college students. Since it tackles a seminal moment in history from various perspectives and hopes to equip students with tools to critically evaluate different authors’ perspectives, the only prerequisite is being open to change. I encourage you to approach this module with an open mind and be mindful that everyone does not share the same perspective, hence, learners must be respectful of each other.
Structure
This module is designed as a 7-week-long, seminar discussion-based course. It is divided into six parts. I recommend once-weekly meetings for no less than 70 minutes, with an in-person and Zoom option to discuss the assigned texts for the week. Group discussions are largely open-ended, but will be guided by a list of general questions.
Important questions to think about during the course are:
What are the underlying assumptions behind the decision to divide nations based on religion? Could they have coexisted as one? Would Muslims have been subjugated under Hindu rule?
What was the role of key leaders and parties like Jinnah, Iqbal, Gandhi, Nehru, the All-India Muslim League, and the Indian National Congress?
Did the British care about a peaceful partition or were they trying to save face after almost a century of colonial rule? Were they the main reason for the growing animosity between Hindus and Muslims?
With the millions of lives lost and displaced, should partition have been avoided? What else could have been done?
Ayhan Sayani is a third year at the University of Chicago, originally from Pakistan, studying Economics and History. This module is inspired by the radically different education on partition history he received in Pakistan and the U.S. and aims to combine elements of both.
Learning Resources
Note: all texts need to be purchased except for the Gilmartin text, which is available online
Part 1: Colonial India and Understanding British Rule
Week 1 Reading: Sections from The British Raj in India: A Social History of the Raj
Gilmour, David. The British in India: A Social History of the Raj. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018.
Some argue that it was the British that laid the foundations for the creation of Pakistan through their policy of divide and rule, whereby they implemented specific policies that drove a wedge between the various religious communities in India, especially the Muslims and Hindus, which rendered partition unavoidable. This book looks at the British integration within Indian society, their divisive policies, their exit, and the partition of India. This perspective will help us understand their role and hasty exit in the creation of Pakistan. The author uses anecdotal evidence and is generally said to maintain a view that lauds the benefits of British rule in India, whilst also criticizing their policies.
Part 2: Partition’s High Politics
Week 2 Reading: Sections from Ayesha Jalal’s The Sole Spokesman
Jalal, Ayesha. The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
This text views the partition from the lens of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder, and president. She argues that Jinnah never really wanted partition but used Pakistan as a bargaining chip to get more rights and better treatment of Muslims in India. In this book, the archival and literary evidence the author uses to substantiate her argument is certainly opposed to what most Pakistanis learn in high school.
Week 3 Reading: Sections from Venkat Dhulipala’s Creating a New Medina
Dhulipala, Venkat. Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
In this text, Venkat Dhulipala argues that Pakistan was not created by accident, nor was founding leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah forced to accept it as the best possible outcome given the way negotiations were going, but rather because Jinnah exclusively believed in a sovereign Islamic State. This book looks more extensively at the role of the Ulema (religious scholars) in propagating this idea, and their influence on politics, Jinnah, and the final decision to separate.
Part 3: Struggle, Survival, Loss
Week 4 Reading: Selections from Yasmin Khan’s The Great Partition
Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. New Haven Conn: Yale University Press, 2017.
This text looks at the events of 1947 from a broader lens than the other works, focusing on the political climate together with pre- and post-partition violence, viewing them not from the lens of the ruling elite, but rather the general population. Thus, we get a lot more insight into the human elements of partition. This perspective serves as a good reference point to view the other books against and views partition through its effect on the local populations.
Part 4: Combining Narratives
Week 5 Reading: Entire Text, David Gilmartin’s “Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian History: In Search of a Narrative”
Gilmartin, David. “Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian History: In Search of a Narrative.” The Journal of Asian Studies 57 (4), 1998: 1068–1095.
This article encourages historians to combine partition’s high politics, which Jalal explores, with stories from the everyday lives of Indians, which Khan devotes ink to, to truly understand how Pakistan came to be. His general aim in this piece is to propose that this disjunction between elite politics and the common person in partition history should lead to new questions about the relationship between politics and identity in pre-partitioned India.
Part 5: What Next for Pakistan (and Bangladesh)
Week 6 Reading: Selections from Joya Chatterji’s Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932–1947
Chatterji, Joya. Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932–1947. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
This book explores the often-ignored views of Bengal during the partition. It charts Hindu communalism’s rise and reveals how a section of Hindu society in Bengal wanted Partition and saw it as a means to regain influence.
Part 6: So, Who Was Right?
Week 7 Reading: N/A. Group Discussion.