"A year before our independence, the entire nation witnessed a riveting political game of thrones."
"Gandhi was so desperate to prevent the partition, that he told Mountbatten that they should make Jinnah the Prime Minister."
"Suddenly after 1946, Jinnah had accumulated a lot of political power."
"But this incident on the Direct Action Day, was just the beginning." "Before the partition,
there would be many more riots." "By the time the violence ended,Calcutta had become a city of corpses." "But Pandit Nehru's this statement to the media proved to be a big mistake." "Muhammad Ali Jinnah announced the Direct Action Day,stating that India would either be divided or destroyed."
Hello, friends. The year was 1946. The whole country was in a state of turmoil. It was clear that the British were going to leave India.The question was not whether India would be free or not. The question was when and how would India get her freedom.There were four major reasons behind this. The first was the Quit India Movement of 1942. Millions of Indians raised their voices against the British government under Gandhi's leadership. Second, in 1944-45,Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army's struggle and then the following Red Fort Trials, which gave a big shock to the British government.
Third, the Royal Navy mutiny after this where the Indian soldiers of the British Navy revolted.And fourth, the Second World War. Heavy unemployment, unending economic recession and the uncertain British industries and treasury. After the elections in 1945,Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister in the UK. And in its manifesto, his party had promised that they would return India's freedom. Everything was aligned in favour of India's freedom that even the majority of the British people were in favour of freeing India. The discussions revolved around how to execute this transfer of power.
Here, one year before our independence, our nation witnessed a cruel, political game of thrones.Events of this last year of British occupancy, is rarely mentioned in our history books.Based on thousands of original sources and documents, and letters written by Mountbatten,famous writers Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, wrote their book Freedom at Midnight.This book captures the events of the last year in great detail. And now Sony Liv has adaptated it into a beautifully executed web series directed by Nikhil Advani. This web series Freedom at Midnight.It has been released recently. I watched the entire series and I liked it a lot. That's why, in this blog,I too would like to tell you the story of this last year. Let's find out what happened between January 1946 to August 1947.
Friends, in January 1946, the map of the Indian subcontinent looked like this. The British India provinces are shown in yellow and the princely states are in pink. Provinces were basically like states under the British government,there were 17 provinces in total. Out of these, 11 already had elections. You heard it right.There were elections. Because in 1935, the British government, passed the Government of India Act 1935.Under this, these provinces were given a lot of autonomy and the concept of elected legislators and Indian ministers was introduced in India.It's a different matter that the power regarding many important subjects continued to be solely with the British. Like, the British Governor General had the powers of defence, foreign relations, and veto rights. But still, after 1935, Indians were given the freedom to elect our own politicians. And those politicians had power to some extent.
That is why in 1937, the first provincial elections were held. Different political parties of the time participated in these elections.Like Congress, Muslim League, Sikandar Hayat Khan's Unionist Party. As well as numerous independent candidates.In these elections, around 30 million Indians voted. Although not everyone had the right to vote.There were restrictions too. They had to own some property or land.Consequently, Congress won in 7 out of 11 provinces. Bombay, Madras, Central Provinces, United Provinces, North West Frontier Provinces, Bihar, and Odisha. And the other provinces, got a coalition government.
In Punjab, the Unionist Party came into power. In Assam, the Assam Valley Party. The Krishak Praja Party in Bengal supported by the Muslim League. But there was no single winner in Sindh, so many leaders came together to form a coalition. Muhammad Ali Jinnah's party, the Muslim League, faced losses. Many seats were actually reserved for Muslims.Only 22% of those reserved seats were won by the Muslim League. But the elections after this one was quite interesting.
9 years later, in 1946. The next provincial elections could be held only in 1946 because of World War II. As well as Congress' protests during the Quit India Movement.By this time, the communal divide between Hindus and Muslims was significant. There were many reasons for this I won't discuss them in this video I have already discussed those in these videos. There's a long history behind it.
One of the major reasons was that politicians like Jinnah used provocative speeches to incite fear among people. "One India is impossible, I realised.It will inevitably mean, that the Muslim would be transferred from the domination of the British to the caste Hindu rule."And as a result, in the 1946 elections, Muslim League won 2 out of the 11 provinces.Bengal and Sindh were completely under Muslim League's control. However, Congress won the remaining 9 provinces,and Congress formed the government there. But the point is that out of all the reserved Muslim seats in the provinces,87% of them were won by the Muslim League. On top of that, the single largest party in Punjab's province was the Muslim League.
Although they didn't form the government there. Congress, Akali Dal, and the Unionist Party came together to form the government.All this meant that after 1946, suddenly Jinnah had a lot of political power.The British were forced to negotiate with Jinnah as well. Freedom could not be at Congress' terms alone.Because from their perspective, this was a democracy, there were elections, and these were the leaders chosen by the people.Jinnah simply wanted to divide the nation. To make a separate country, Pakistan. On the other hand, the leaders of the Congress Party were against partition. They wanted to keep India united.
Interestingly, if you look at Jinnah's history,he was a member of the Congress Party 26 years ago and talked about Hindus and Muslims living together.In 1915, when Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, Jinnah welcomed him. He told people about Gandhi's achievements in South Africa and had praised him at Gurjar Sabha, Jinnah's grandfather, Premjibhai Meghji Thakkar was a Bhatia Rajput. He converted to Islam when the orthodox Hindus had excommunicated him because he was involved in a fishing business. That is, until a few generations ago, Jinnah's family was a Hindu family and the social consequences they had to bear made them decide to change their religion.So that they could run they business properly.
In 1920, disagreements started between Jinnah and Congress.Jinnah was disapproved Gandhi's civil disobedience style. At 1920's Nagpur session, a non-cooperation resolution was passed but he was against it. He believed that this wasn't how freedom would be achieved."I feel compelled to oppose this motion." "Mr Gandhi is steering our nation on the wrong path."After leaving the party Jinnah said that he had nothing to do with this pseudo-religious approach.That he didn't want to ally with Congress and Gandhi, he did not believe in inciting mob hysteria.Back then Jinnah was so secular that he opposed Gandhi's Khilafat movement. This movement began to unite Indian Muslims against the Britishers by raising Muslim issues. But with time, as he was feeling neglected by Congress it gave birth to his ambition. In the late 1920s, Jinnah gave up politics.He went to London to practise law. He returned only in the mid 1930sand when he did, he was like a completely different person. After returning, he declared himself the only spokesperson of Indian Muslims.
"I am the sole spokesperson of Muslims in India." He started campaigning to have a new country called Pakistan.Taking his requests to India's second-last Viceroy, Archibald Wavell. Now, let's get back to our timeline.The Royal Navy mutiny began in February 1946. And on 24th March 1946,the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee sent the Cabinet Mission to India. This was a three-member committee which began the negotiations for independence, with the leaders of Congress and Muslim League. They had three main objectives.
First, to re-establish the Executive Council of Viceroy. This was a Cabinet of the British India Government, and included all ministries.Viceroy Wavell proposed that apart from Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief, the other members of this council should be Indians.But Jinnah said that he won't agree until the right to appoint all Muslim members to the council be given only to the Muslim League. He did not want any Muslim member from any other party to be appointed to that council. He saw himself as the only leader of Muslims.
The second objective was to come to an agreement with the Indian leaders so that a new constitution could be drafted for India.For this, a committee was formed which was later known as the Constituent Assembly of India. It was later led by Dr BR Ambedkar.
But the third objective was the most important. To prepare a framework of how India would look, geographically and politically, after the British withdrew.
On 16th May, 1946 after some negotiations and discussions the Cabinet Mission presented its plan."We have decided on a United India." "It will look something like this." They proposed to divide India into three groups of provinces. First, Section A for the Hindu majority areas.
Second, Section B for the Muslim majority areas in the North-West, and third, Section C for the Muslim majority areas in the East.And the land under the Princely States, weren't discussed much in this proposal. According to this proposal, India was supposed to remain 'United,'and there would be only one central government, but the Central government wouldn't have much power. It would handle defence, external affairs, and communications only and the other powers were supposed to be distributed among these groups of provinces. To a large extent, the Muslim dominated areas had autonomy under this plan, so Jinnah accepted this plan.
"Jinnah agreed to the plan."
"If Jinnah has, we should too."
"Absolutely not!"
"Since when did we agree to have communal borders?"
"What'll be the difference between us and Jinnah?" But Congress did not accept this plan initially because Congress leaders were adamant about a proper United India.They did not want a skeleton government where they would've had to work with Jinnah. Pandit Nehru agreed on another objective and was willing to join the Constituent Assembly. His believed that once we form a government,we could later tweak the structure proposed by the Cabinet Mission. But when Pandit Nehru said so to the media,it proved to be a huge mistake. On 10th July, 1946, Nehru was already the Congress President.He held a press conference in Bombay. In an interview to the media he stated that even though Congress has agreed to the Constituent Assembly,Congress retains the right to change the Cabinet Mission Plan if needed. As soon as Nehru's statement was published in the newspapers,Jinnah felt that Nehru was planning to force his own ideology. Jinnah immediately rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan and refused to work with Congress.
On 29th July 1946,Jinnah held a press conference at his home and announced that the Muslim League was preparing to start a struggle.He said that if Muslims weren't given a separate nation, Pakistan, they will start Direct Action.The next day, on 30th July, Jinnah declared, 16th August 1946 to be the Direct Action Day.He warned Congress and stated that, they did not want a war. But if Congress wanted war, they would accept the offer without hesitation.India would either be divided or destroyed. "If Congress is asking for a war,""we won't back down." The epicentre of Direct Action Day was Bengal. Because the Muslim League had the most political power in Bengal.
In the 1946 elections, the Muslim League won 115 seats out of 250.And Congress was in opposition with only 62 seats. Back then the Chief Minister of Bengal was Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.He is now known as the Butcher of Bengal. In a statement, Viceroy Wavell talked about him.Calling him one of the most inefficient, conceited, and crooked politicians of India.In the guise of Direct Action Day, this Chief Minister gave free rein to the orthodox, unemployed, frustrated, brainwashed, and anti-social elements on the streets. The goons were left free to do whatever they wanted.The police were instructed to support the populist movement. Look at what this book has to say.
"By the time the massacre was over, Calcutta had become a city of corpses." The book claims that around 6,000 people were killed.Between 16th August to 19th August, around 15,000 people were injured in Bengal.But these Direct Action Day riots were only the beginning. Before the partition, our nation saw many more riots. The horrifying fallout of the Direct Action Day was the result of Jinnah's backing out from the cabinet mission. But perhaps the only good outcome was that Viceroy Wavell invited Nehru and Congress to form the interim government.
On 6th August 1946, Viceroy Wavell invited Nehru to form the government. Two days later, on 8th August,Wavell tried to bridge the gaps between Congress and the Muslim League. He advised Jinnah to cooperate with Congress.Try to understand the timeline. This was happening when the date of Direct Action Day was merely announced.Before the violence. Violence began on 16th August and just one day before that,on 15th August 1946, Jinnah and Nehru met. Nehru and Jinnah both agreed that communal problems can be solved only through mutual discussions. Nehru said that the controversial issues would be sent to the federal court and if provinces ask for it, then Congress was willing to accept the principle of grouping. To convince Jinnah, Nehru gave many concessions.
He also said that when Congress forms the new government, they would give five seats or five ministries to the Muslim League.But Jinnah's condition was that only the Muslim League would have the right to nominate all Muslim candidates.
This was something that Congress wasn't willing to accept. Congress was a secular party. Their leadership included Hindus as well as Muslims. Accepting Jinnah's demand would've meant that that Congress was admitting that only Jinnah had the authority over all Muslims.And that no one else could do anything for the Muslims. This is why these talks never reached a conclusion.
The next day was the Direct Action Day and for many days after that, Bengal remained engulfed in violence.About a week after these events, on 25th August 1946, came a declaration from the Viceroy House.
Directing the formation of an interim government.
"Thank you for accepting my invitation,"
"But there is a condition." "His Majesty the King has accepted the resignations of the present members of the Governor-General's Executive Council." "His Majesty has been pleased to appoint following:"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Mr M Asif Ali,Mr C Gopalacharya, Mr Sarat Chandra Bose, Dr John Matthai, Sardar Baldev Singh. These people are appointed by the British government as interim government. The interim government was supposed to take office on 2nd September.but there was one more thing. Two Muslim members were supposed to be appointed later.Interim government means a transitional government. Until the British completely left India,
this government was supposed to work through the transition. A constituent assembly was formed by this interim government,that's quite interesting too. The drafting committee was led by Dr BR Ambedkar. Interestingly, many people often forget that despite our demand for full sovereignty, the freedom we got in 1947 was actually a dominion status.
We got complete freedom to become an independent republic only in 1950,when our constitution was implemented. Now, upon seeing the interim government appointed based on the Congress' ideologies,Jinnah became relentless.
"Rejecting Nehru's offer proved to be a big mistake."
"We lost all rights to nominate Muslim members."
"The League's existence is being threatened."
"We'll play this game."
"We'll join the interim government."
On 15th October 1946, he finally agreed on behalf of the Muslim League to become a part of this interim government without any conditions. But there was a twist. Jinnah did not join this.Instead, he nominated Liaquat Ali Khan. This was the same Liaquat Ali Khan who became Pakistan's first Prime Minister from 1947 to 1951.Initially, the Muslim League was given only the Finance Ministry. But Nehru had promised Jinnah that the Muslim League would get at least 5 ministries. So later on, they were given Commerce, Railway and Communications, post and Air, Health, and Parliamentary Affairs mLaw Ministry. At this point in time, you may think that everything was going well, there was a balanced interim government, so India could remain united, and there'd be no need for a partition.But after a few months, things started to deteriorate. For Congress and Muslim League to work together became increasingly difficult.
The biggest reason behind this was that Hindu-Muslim riots showed no signs of stopping.Within a few weeks of the formation of this new interim government, in the far eastern part of the Bengal province,in Noakhali a large-scale riot broke out. Noakhali was a Muslim majority area where most of them weren't financially strong. They were dependent on Hindu moneylenders for their farming and basic needs.But during the Great Depression of 1930, these relations soured. After the Calcutta riots from two months ago,the hatred contained in this area had peaked. 10th October, 1946.
In the 200 square mile area of Noakhali town and armed mob started looting.They started fires and killed people. During this time, there were forced conversions too.These were acknowledged by Chief Minister Suhrawardy. But neither did he take any steps to stop these nor did he visit the affected areas.After the riots, the crowd of refugees came to Calcutta. More than 1,200 people reached Calcutta daily.The most compassionate leader after these riots was Mahatma Gandhi.He was very saddened by these events and wanted to see for himself how people could be so cruel to those they've known all their lives. On 6th November 1946, Gandhi went to Noakhali and stayed there till February 1947. Walking barefoot,he visited all 47 villages of Noakhali and walked about 180 km.
His efforts to stop Hindu-Muslim riots were such that since then, no other leader in my opinion, has ever done anything like this to promote communal unity. Gandhi walked to each and every village and looked for a Hindu and a Muslim leader among the villagers. Then he would talk to them and convince them to live in the same house, under the same roof, to become the guarantor of peace for the village. He repeated this at every village.Bringing together a Hindu leader and a Muslim leader and giving them leadership roles.
This gave the villagers a guarantee of complete peace. They showed the villagers an example of communal harmony.When someone asked Gandhi why he was in Noakhali instead of helping Congress negotiate with Jinnah in Delhi, do you know what he said? "A leader is only a reflection of the people he leads." "Their desire to live together in peaceful neighbourliness will be reflected by their leaders
