Who was Responsible for the Partitioning of India?
Firstly one must have a view or study the background that prevailed in 1947 before and thereafter. The masses of India both Hindus and Muslim did not have the strength or guts to throw out the British and snatch freedom from them. The British if they wanted could rule India for another ten years yet they decided as a matter of political foresight to give pre-mature freedom to India. The British had complete authority and power to either give freedom to a united India or to partition it or leave a centralized government or to give autonomy to provinces as mentioned in the cabinet plan. No political party or individual leader could force them to accept their individual plans. Therefore the partition of India was done completely on the will or the whim of the British. Its purpose is clearly stated in the letter written by the British Prime Minister Atlee addressed to Mr. Wavel the Viceroy of India prior to Mountbatten.
The letter says that after ruling India for about 150 years the British have realized that the Hindu community is the most deceitful and conceited community in the whole world (The British Ruled about half the world at the time). The letter further reveals that if the British were to leave behind a united India there was a great possibility of its becoming a super power, and since deceit was in the genes of its people, they were likely to pose a great threat to the west and America. Therefore it was in their interest to partition India so as to have some balance of power in the region. A future map that was attached to Prime Minister Atlee's letter showed the whole of Bangal and whole of Punjab designated as Pakistan.
They planned to give choice to the estates of Rajas and Nawabs to opt for Bharat or Pakistan. In the attached map all the Muslims estates and a number of Hindus estates were shown to opt for Pakistan since it was feared that Bharat would usurp them while Pakistan would give them autonomy.
Presently America wants to create hegemony of India in the area of Pakistan and Afghanistan. America also wants to shore up the defenses of India against China without realizing that India is playing a double game of deceiving both the Russian and American bloc. America must keep in mind the untrust worthy nature of India versus a trustworthy Pakistan. Now the other side of the picture. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had earlier accepted the cabinet plan while Nehru rejected it. Gandhi even offered Prime ministership to Quaid-e-Azam in case of United India but the later rejected it. Quaid-e-Azam had won the leadership of the Muslims because of his forthright, and his sincere, consistent and unshakeable character. I had worked with Quaid-e-Azam who worked for the partition of India or the achievement of Pakistan with full conviction but still if the British wanted otherwise he or the Muslim League could not have forced their will. The meager numbers of Muslims troops in the Indian army were located in Japan or Burma at the time of partition and could reach India only by September 1947. The Muslims who migrated to Pakistan through trains or on foot were accompanied by Dogra soldiers or Hindu troops who did not stop the Sikh and Hindus from massacring lacs of Muslims. These are some hard facts that I experienced personally since I traveled in one of the trains which was massacred at Biyas. The British were ninety nine percent responsible for the partition of India. If anybody else Nehru is to be blamed for the partition of India.
Had he accepted the cabinet plan and accepted a just role of the Muslims in the rule of India it would not have been partitioned. Also a little pressure by the British made him accept Pakistan. However the element of deceit and avenge made Nehru bribe the most corrupt couple, Mountbatten and his wife to give a truncated Pakistan to Quaid-e-Azam. Even so the credit of creating or carving a country out of a country by Quaid-e-Azam has no precedence in history.
(This article is written by my grand father Major Retired Riffat-ullah Khawaja) partition india www.pakpositive.com