Who is to blame? India’s divison as a question of perspective
With the ending of the first WW the desire of Indian Independence arouse. Indian nationalists thought it to be only a question of time, in total opposite to the Britons! They would have never thought one of their most important colonies to become an independent nation, as it happened in August 1947.
The so-called ‘Mountbattenplan’, or simply known as the ‘Indian Independence Act of 1947’, was Britain’s measure to release British-India into two new fully sovereign dominions of India and Pakistan. However, the division wasn’t just about seceding from the British Commonwealth, but rather a splintering by religious beliefs: based on the two-nation theory, Hindus and Muslims apparently aren’t able to live within the same state due to their different religions. As the partition was in process, cities were divided by half, families were torn apart and home wasn’t home anymore, because it lay on the wrong side of the country now. 2o Million people left everything behind, Hindus and Muslims fought each other, more than a million people forfeited their lives. And the only question I now ask myself is WHY? Did people really kill each other because their religion differed? Was it their strict faith that induced them to fight people who believed in something or someone else than them? And are the different groups of worshippers equally to blame or is there another aspect that shares the responsibility?
Actually, the British play a significant role within this whole dilemma. Their perception of the South Asian society had been reduced towards religious groups during the years: Everyone who was not a Christian, Jew, Buddhist or Muslim, was perceived as a Hindu. Huge mistake! As the Day of Direct Action (16.8.1946), announced by the Muslim League Council, shows, the riots and bloodshed between Muslims and Hindus began indeed just to prove each other their strength of their religious feelings. Certainly I can say that there are wars owed to religion, we all know that. But that doesn’t mean we understand it. Is India’s separation of the British Commonwealth a result of those two different denominations, who simply couldn’t bear to live peacefully side by side? Maybe. But in my point of view, Britain is the trigger of all tremendous impact that has followed the Indian and therefore Pakistani Independence! If the British would’nt have been so blind with cultural and religious diversity than there might have been a peaceful cohabitation of various religions. Because all the people in India wanted, was to be acknowledged as not the same and not as completely different.
