PECULIARITIES OF PARTITION

India's Partition was a unique event. After World War I, the empires vanished and a number of new nations came into being. But India's division and creation of a separate homeland for Muslims had some peculiar features. First, for the first time in world history, an existing country was divided on religious basis and a country with a new name emerged on the world map. Second, Muslims who had forced the division of India were not asked by Indian leaders to leave for their Darul Islam. Third, the Hindu majority which had been persecuted for hundreds of years under Muslim rule was again reduced to second class citizens in their own land by its leaders. Fourth, in order to hide their guilt, the Indian leaders have never cared to tell the Indian public about the facts of Partition.

Muslim intellectuals and leaders have written a large number of books on the subject of Partition. On the other hand, very few Hindu leaders have gone into this issue. The first one to write on the subject was Dr. Ambedkar. His book, Thoughts On Pakistan came out in 1940 almost immediately after the Lahore Session of the Indian Muslim League in March, 1940. It is at this session that the Muslims officially declared themselves as a Nation and demanded the Partition of India. The second was the Exchange of Letters between Gandhi and Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah which took place in Bombay in September, 1944. These were made public soon thereafter. The subject of discussions was the creation of Pakistan, as the separate homeland for Indian Muslims. The third and perhaps the last attempt was by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. His book India Divided came out in January, 1946 and was published by Hind Kitabs, Bombay. The actual partition of India took place a year and a half thereafter.

Based on the book India Divided, we give below the views of Quaid-e-Azam Jinnah, President of the Muslim League and comments of Dr. Rajendra Prasad on the subject of Partition.