India and Pakistan are now 60 years old, as is the bloody partition that created them. My father’s family was caught up in what became arguably the largest mass migration in history: 14.5 million people were moved, roughly the same number in each direction, and somewhere between 500,000 and one million of them died in the process. 
Because independence was declared prior to the actual Partition, it was up to the new governments of India and Pakistan to keep public order. No large population movements were contemplated; the plan called for safeguards for minorities on both sides of the new state line. It was an impossible task, at which both states failed. There was a complete breakdown of law and order [Link]
The management of partition was badly botched; if you think Brownie did a heck of a job, Mounty makes him look like a paragon of engagement and sensitivity. Mountbatten insisted that the partition line be drawn in only six weeks! Think of how slowly the US government moves today, and that will give you a sense of how ridiculous and uncaring that deadline was. The line was drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe; this is what his private secretary, Christopher Beaumont, had to say about the process:
“The viceroy, Mountbatten, must take the blame – though not the sole blame – for the massacres in the Punjab in which between 500,000 to a million men, women and children perished,” he writes. “The handover of power was done too quickly…”… it was “irresponsible” of Lord Mountbatten to insist that Beaumont complete the boundary within a six-week deadline – despite his protests. [Link]
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p>Mountbatten was a pretty boy from a royal family whose track record during WWII led him to be “known in the British Admiralty as the Master of Disaster.” [Link] His track record in India seems similar – he was charming and glib, but unconcerned about the feasibility of plans or the lives which would be lost.
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p>As Viceroy of India, he advanced the date of independence by nine months (no reason was ever given), making the problems associated with partition worse. Critics argue that he foresaw bloodshed and didn’t want it to happen on British watch; he was willing to make things worse as a form of CYA rather than take responsibility for the situation.
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p>So how did the Last Viceroy spend the evening of August 14th, having put calamity into motion? Was he apprehensive? Concerned about the lives he had condemned? Not at all:
… on the evening of August 14, 1947, a few hours before Britain’s Indian Empire was formally divided into the nation-states of India and Pakistan, Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife, Edwina, sat down in the viceregal mansion in New Delhi to watch the latest Bob Hope movie, “My Favorite Brunette…” [Link]
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p>In the end he was killed by the IRA rather than O’Dwyered by one of his victims from India. Mountbatten had a very difficult job to perform, but from what little I have read, he did not do it well.
Related links: Exit Wounds, the New Yorker book review of Indian Summer by Pankaj Mishra
I bet they did! But I don’t like the photo on eth cover of this book–it makes Pandit Nehru look obsequious, although he’s obviously laughing at a joke Edwina cracked.
in what became arguably the largest mass migration in history
I’m pretty sure the current migration from China’s rural areas to its coastal cities dwarfs this, but “one of the largest,” sure.
Pankaj Mishra is huge burden, with his circuitous and pandering proclamations. What kind of BS is this, published this week in the NYer? “Though blessed with many able administrators, the British found India just too large and diverse to handle.” Totally propping up the worst attitudes to South Asia disguised as polite reasoning. The sooner people like him of that generation stop talking and writing and making decisions, the better off all brown folk will be.
Who is Brownie?
Name is now linked.
Michael Brown. As in the Bush statement”you’ve done heckuva job, Brownie”
Perhaps we should call it a forced migration? π
Thanks for the clarifications, Ennis@#6 and Pravin@#7
I think Manan Ahmed got it right on his blog:
Pankaj Mishra leads the pack with a rather starchy and frustrating article in the NYer, Exit Wounds. I can overlook that preciously Marie-Antoinettesque opening. I can even ignore that he faithfully reproduces the post-imperial narrative which robs Indians – any of them – of all their agency (Independence happened because Britain was weakened and US put pressure. Killings happened because British fueled separatism). But I just cannot let go of his conclusion which as usual ignores history and reduces analysis to simply spotting every recursion of the word Γ’β¬ΕIslamΓ’β¬Β and then connecting the dots
i’ll never understand this adulation the British have for mountbatten (maybe it’s because he was murdered by the ira) and churchill (nevermind his views on india and indians, how could they ignore his culpability in the sinking of the lusitania just to bring the u.s. into the war?)
Are there are any alternative history novels where the partition didn’t happen? Something like this.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know of a photo/video and espeically audio archive of our elders’ memories of Partition? I didn’t have the knowledge or courage to ask my grandparents when they were alive, and my oldest uncle was only a few years old when it happened, so I have no access to first-hand accounts. Any ideas?
There’s no comparison…Partition was a forced, bloody migration that took place suddenly and only lasted a few weeks…what’s happening in China is just economic migration which is taking place all over the world to some degree or the other (not that it might not be a major migration in its own right). Apples and oranges.
As for the Viceroy, people say he had a soft spot for India and didn’t really like Jinnah or Pakistan. They say that it’s because of him that Gurdaspur district in Punjab went to India instead of Pakistan (despite a slight muslim majority) because of the strategic access to Kashmir that it would offer to India.
Anyway, although Partition could have been handled much better, I’m not sure there was anyway to make the dividing line any fairer…the principle was that Muslim-majority areas went to Pakistan, non-Muslim majority to India. And Radcliffe followed this principle to its extreme…no subtleties or nuance, but fair I suppose. As for the violence, I’m not sure if that could have been avoided…probably reduced signigicantly with some foresight and planning. I think what happened is no one realised that people would have to leave their ancestral homes…when violence started, and Muslims started driving Sikhs/Hindus out (sorry Al Mujahid, I know you won’t like that comment), people fled without realising they would never come back. Of course they wreaked equal violence upon Muslims living in Indian Punjab. The whole thing happened spontaneously, and settled itself spontaneously. Jinnah had so much blood on his hands. And for what….the guy died a few months later. Jerk.
Or this? I haven’t seen any, but would love to read them if they exist …
But not in the same short time period!
A photography-related aside: the cover picture on the book is by Henri Cartier Bresson, who captured some of the smaller details of the conflict and not the epic sweep of history. But his work from that time is quite interesting. Here’s an old review of his book on India.
Anyway, Auden’s poem is apt:
Partition
Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission, Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition Between two peoples fanatically at odds, With their different diets and incompatible gods. “Time,” they had briefed him in London, “is short. It’s too late For mutual reconciliation or rational debate: The only solution now lies in separation. The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter, That the less you are seen in his company the better, So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation. We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu, To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.”
Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away, He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect, But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot, And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot, But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided, A continent for better or worse divided.
The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not, Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.
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Now that I got that out of the way, I think we should get away from the Indepdence = Partition meme. Enough already!
The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India by Urvashi Butalia is an excellent book or oral histories. There are a number of online archives, some more ambitious than others.
Why? They’re part of the same thing. At least for Punjabis and Bengalis, this is a bittersweet time.
But this is/was the reality for some families.
Ennis,
It undermines what independence was really about, throwing the yoke of colonial rule. There is a nefarious reason why the western media seems to be all interested in the subcon. 1947 was a live experiment for them – on what some are recommending as a solution for Iraq.
Btw, Mountbatten was admired by Indians. So much so that he was asked to stay after Independence for a while as Viceroy/Gov-Gen.
I think that even if partition hadn’t happened the relative similar amount of bloodshed would have occurred in the next 60 years through religious violence. Only it might not have been concentrated in border regions.
The Bancroft Library at UCB has begun to collect oral histories of Sikhs in California (which I know does not get at the whole story), but included in this are narratives of Partition.
Sorta tangent (on independence and not partition)
I just saw at a newsstand that today’s financial times has an entire 6 page supplement titled “India: 60 years after independence”. Lots of good stuff in there of the kind that’s discussed on SM. Recommended.
Btw, Outlook India has an I-day special.
I don’t think it undermines it; I think it’s inaccurate to think independence was a unique catharsis that existed in isolation from the brutal violence of Partition. My grandparents were in the Independence Movement, but they remember Partition and Independence as part of the same arc.
XariGirl, not that I know of, but I have been seriously toying with the idea of video interviewing my grandparents and other relatives who experienced the partition first-hand, next time I’m in India, and possibly making a short film out of it. It has always struck me odd that one can find hundreds of movies, books etc. on the Holocaust, but not that many about the partition. Some reasons could be that it is painful for people to talk about it, or maybe people are content to look forward rather than back, or maybe not enough attempts have been made to record personal stories, or maybe I haven’t looked hard enough. π If others have any ideas or insights, please share.
“Now that I got that out of the way, I think we should get away from the Indepdence = Partition meme. Enough already!”
i was thinking about that myself. not to downplay the importance of partition and its legacy/consequences, but it’s interesting to note that the bbc chose “what’s the legacy of partition” as their Have Your Say topic to celebrate the 60th independence anniversaries of india/pakistan. i remember that being – i think – the same topic they discussed in detail on the occasion of the 50th anniversaries of independence of both countries. i would have thought by now a different angle could have been taken: what has each country achieved, where have they succeeded, where have they failed etc. but maybe it’s still too early to not talk about partition. but on bangladesh’s independence day, i wonder if they have a topic “what’s the legacy of partition of pakistan into two countries?”
Ennis, thanks a ton for writing this. Indeed, this day will remain a bitter-sweet reality for many families on the two sides of the border…..for Punjabis, Sindhis, Bengalis and many many more communities this is as real as it gets.
One does not talk about partition to undermine the joy of freedom, but it is important to remember partition still, so that we know, PEACE is one thing we need the most!
Camille,
I didn’t mean that we should stop discussion of partition as it relates to I-day. It is just that many articles have been focusing almost solely to it. Also, Ennis made an error by limiting partition to Bengalis and Punjabis alone. Kashmir, Hyderabad, Gujarat, Rajasthan were also partitioned in 47. Riots took place all over India.
Incidentally, Goa was liberated in ’61 and Sikkim in 1975. So we have many I-days. π
I always hear about migration to and from West-Pakistan, but I am yet to hear about migration to and from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). I am curious because I think there was a huge movement of population (considering bengali was the largest spoken language before partition), but all the stories, movies, news I come across is always about the other side. Seriously, I am really curious about what happened on that side of India. Anyone has any stories ?
I have personally come across refugees from partition period in the Andaman islands where govt tried to rehabilitate them. They were really poor, and my heart went out to them when a lot of them lost much of their belongings again during the Tsunami.
errrm..I meant Hyderabad was directly affected by partition.
Conceded.
They wanted to commemorate the hand over with the celebration of WW II VJ day – Aug 15th 1945 (the day Japan surrendered). This has been documented as shared in the book my Manishanker Iyer (Secular Funamentalist)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15/newsid_3581000/3581971.stm
shh,
The migration from East Bengal was massive and has not yet ended. Almost a million East Bengalis migrated just before 1971. Additionally, Hindus have been migrating (forced out) from Bangladesh since the 1990s. A large number of muslim migrants from Bangladesh migrated to Assam, causing direct economic, social and political turbulence leading to the formation of the radical ULFA. T. N. Seshan, the election commissioner during the 1990s, had commented on the dangers of this migration to the electoral process.
Amit
Indeed, while the Grandparents talk about everything else, its tough for them to actually narrate the story of actual move to across the border…..those were harrowing times. My Grandma spoke to me about it only once, upon a lot of coaxing and kajoling…..and no, i didn’t feel good that i got her talking about it, not one bit! There are books that have partition as a backdrop, but only a few like Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas are entirely based on partition.
I actually think this is a really good idea (and I think the reason we see such great documentation of the Holocaust has more to do with the tenacity of the Jewish community in wanting to ensure that no one would forget what happened). My masiji has been talking for years about trying to fund a group to go collect video histories of Punjabis in places like France, where the last generations are about to pass away. It’s just been hard, until the most recent ABD generations, to find individuals who could be fluent in 2-3 languages to conduct these interviews. The lack of organized narrative histories are a serious oversight in terms of rounding out the record. I’m of course Punjabi-centric, but I do think it’s important all around and would be a great project to set up across states and language speakers…
Shh, I’ve also often wondered about the Partition on the Bengali side. How many people migrated? Was the violence similar? etc.
Thanks for clarifying, this makes more sense to me now. π Although, I guess for many communities, Partition has had a legacy that stretches forward through time, as well.
Thanks for showcasing this book! – I’m very interested in reading it.
The masterpiece Garam Hawa is about partition. Shyam Benegals ‘Trikal‘ is about Goa – pre and post Independence.
musical – agreed. I’ve rarely heard folks who were directly affected by partition refer to it. It is often their children who seem more vocal about it. Perhaps the trauma was too much for the first gen-ers. I had a friend whose dad lost 5 sisters (abducted), 3 brothers/uncles/dad (killed) in West Punjab. His dad was saved by a servant, who packed him off in a train to Delhi. At the refugee camp in Delhi, someone stole his belongings and the money the govt gave him for repatriation. The dad never spoke about those days, not even to his children. [The dad went on to become the Chairman of a PSU.]
Those guys were amazing! I’d like to celebrate their victories rather than dwell on man’s cruelties.
A couple of links for XariGirl: A personal story of the Partition audio slideshow from BBC Partition memories
the reason there is so much footage of the holocaust is because the nazis took an enormous amount of videos. You dont think it was the prisoners who too those videos, do you? That would have taken a lot of foresight. Those Jews are really tenacious.
There was a TV mini series in the 80s called Tamas which was about the partition.
From the original poster, if you think Brownie did a heck of a job, Mounty makes him look like a paragon of engagement and sensitivity. Mountbatten insisted that the partition line be drawn in only six weeks!
–> I would think Brownie is the wrong comparison. Bremer probably fits in much better, given the similarity in responsibilities. We might have to hunt for Edwina in green zone but the incompetence is all there(Rajeev Chandrasekaran’s Imperial life in the emerald city portrays bremer in all his glory).
Whatever be the causes(anglo superiority, manifest destiny, oil, cotton, spices), they are culpable in the killings that followed, in India in 1947 and in Iraq currently.
Yes, I’ve read (and seen the TV series) Tamas, an excellent book. Another one is Pinjar, a movie based on Amrita Pritam’s book. (I’ve seen the movie, but not read the book.)
Musical,
My apologies, I didn’t see your comment about Tamas, I felt it was excellent and captured the events sorrounding the partition extremely well, Om puri and Deepa Sahi were really good.
Preston, the cover picture is brilliantly rude to Indians, imo, and I hate seeing it on a book cover now.
Josh, if your above comment is directed at me, I was referring to the movies and books in popular US/Western culture that address the Holocaust, if that wasn’t clear from my comment, and not about any footage taken by Nazis.
Sindh wasn’t partitioned, but don’t forget the Sindhis ;).
While Tamas portrayed the effect of partition well, it was historically inaccurate. Bhism Sahni and his brother Balraj were famous communists (party members) and their sympathetic portrayal of the communist party’s actions during ’47 was nothing but fiction.
Tamas was on TV when I was but a kid. Scared the hell out of me. If it were now, I’d have the wisdom to avoid watching something so painful. Back then I couldn’t miss anything on TV>