Mother India: “By the pricking of
my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
Hi,
Everyone! In 1937, the Congress had prodded the beast in Jinnah by arrogantly
demanding dissolution of the Muslim League and by dangling the carrot of
political power—only available by joining the Congress, they implied—before the
Muslims.
Jinnah,
filled with hatred and suspicion of the Congress, Gandhi, and Nehru, retaliated
with a master-stroke reducing the Congress to a “Hindu” party in effect.
How
Gandhi and Nehru must have wished he would just go poof!
·
But since the “bogey” Jinnah could not
be made to go poof, they sought to be rid of him through partition.
Nehru’s words in his
diary illuminate this quite clearly. On December 28, 1943, he writes:
"Instinctively I
think it is better to have Pakistan or almost nothing if only to keep Jinnah
far away and not allow his muddled and arrogant head from (sic) interfering
continually in India's progress."
The axe ready to chop
India had even now, in 1938, made its grim appearance on the political scene!
Let
us see the how the first seed of Pakistan was planted.
The
Government of India Act of 1935 required that a Central Federation be formed.
Viceroy Linlithgow was avidly seeking to form this Federation.
But
the Congress had set itself against the Federation and did its very best to
hamper the Viceroy’s attempts to form this Federation in every possible way.
Surely,
forming a Central Federation—one that united all the Provinces and the Princely
States—was extremely desirable? Would it not have nipped any thought of
partition in the bud?
Instead
the Congress chose to oppose it. And not just oppose, Birla, one of Gandhi’s
mouthpieces to the Viceroy, put an unbelievable proposal before the Viceroy!
“Birla said that
the communal position in India was getting rapidly worse. Congress was aware of
it and its leaders were deeply anxious. He then suggested that the best course
might be to let the Muslims have their Federation of the North-West. This
astonished Linlithgow, who thought at first that Birla was teasing him. When he
saw that the suggestion was serious he asked Birla whether he envisaged the
perpetuation of British military power to keep peace between Muslim and Hindu
Federation . . .
This was a most
interesting conversation. It showed clearly Linlithgow’s dread of partition and
therefore his shock at encouragement for it coming from a Hindu.”[1]
This
conversation has taken place in 1938.
Let the truth not escape anyone:
·
“Muslim Federation of the North-West”: what is that but another name
for Pakistan?
·
A demand for a separate Hindu and Muslim Federation in private and
the public face . . . ? A vociferous demand for Hindu-Muslim
unity . . . !
Yes
indeed, the seed of Pakistan has now been planted, on the soil that was tilled
in 1937.
Anurupa
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