You all are aware that we got freedom from British rule in 1947, and at that time there was the partition of undivided India, and two countries named Pakistan and India came into existence. Further, Pakistan was also divided into two parts, namely West Pakistan and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh). Today in this blog, I am writing about some UNKNOWN FACTS OF PARTITION, which are listed below:
1 Friends, do you know who was the person who decided which area will go to India, and which will go to Pakistan? The person was Cyril Radcliff, who was a British Lawyer who never came to India. The British appointed a person who knew nothing about India, and this person divided India while sitting in London.
2 Radcliff’s task was to divide the country in such a way that most Muslim populated area goes to Pakistan, and Hindu, Sikh, Jain, etc populated area stays with India. But he did the partition of Punjab in such a way that more than 50 lakh Hindus and others were left in Pakistan’s West Punjab area, and about 50 lakh Muslims were left in the East Punjab area of India. He made one more mistake which was that he gave the report to the government only on 17th August 1947, and this report mentioned which is the area that will go to Pakistan and India. This was the root cause of the migration of people from Pakistan to India (Hindus, Sikhs, Sindhis, etc) and vice versa (Muslims).
3 Do you know what the fees of Radcliff decided by the British government, it was 2000 pounds. But with his work neither Indian leaders nor Pakistani leaders were happy. In the end, Radcliff was so angry and unhappy about what happened and how he was blamed for the incidents happening aftermath of partition, he refused to accept his fees.
4 One thing which remained in India was the liquor trade and manufacture, as liquor is prohibited for Muslims by their religion, hence there was no fight over this issue..
5 Do you know, how the thought of partitioning the country started? Its seed was sown in 1905 when the province of Bengal was divided into West and East Bengal. The eastern portion was, where Muslims were in most numbers, and West portion was where Hindus were more. The name West Bengal is still continuing. So British thought, the country can be divided into two countries.
6 Friends, do you know that earlier it was decided that the partition of the country will happen in 1948? But it was done in August 1947, because of the change in the British government. Winston Churchill lost the election after World war II, Atlee became PM and he was in favour of early partition.
7 At the time of partition, there were many unusual demands by Muslims, and one such demand was shifting the Taj Mahal to Pakistan, as it was made by a Muslim ruler. Similarly, some Hindu sadhus started demanding that the river Indus (Sindhu) should be diverted to India only, as it is a sign of Indian culture.
8 At the time of partition, Mahatma Gandhi was not in Delhi with other leaders, he was in a place called Navakhali in Calcutta to calm the rioters, who were engaged in communal riots.
9 At the time of partition, the newly created country did not have its own currency. They were using Indian currency only with putting the stamp of Pakistan. After a year in 1948, they started their own currency which had a photo of Mohd. Ali Jinnah.
10 Do you know how many people lost their lives at the time of partition in bloody mayhem? No one has an exact figure, but it has been estimated that up to 20 lakh people could have lost their lives at that time. And about 1.4 Cr people lost their homes in both countries.
11 At the time of partition, the city of Delhi had a one-third population of Muslims, and more than 70% of them decided to migrate to Pakistan.
12 As Pakistan was made up of two areas West Pakistan and East Pakistan, and they were 1700 km apart.
13 At the time of partition Pakistan received one-third of the army, and they demanded two metro cities, and for this reason, Lahore and Karachi remained with Pakistan although these cities had a majority Hindu population, Hindu Punjabis/Sikhs in Lahore and Hindu/Sindhis in Karachi, Pakistani also got 40% of the existing railway network.
So these were some unknown facts about the partition.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
16th March 2023