Embedded Files
The British National Archives has a wealth of archived resources including maps, images, letters, articles and even recordings of the events leading up to the partition of India and Pakistan entitled The Road to Partition 1939-1947. For this unit I interweave sources from the British National Archives and Ramachandra Guha's India after Gandhi, with the moving documentary The Day India Burned. I find that the visuals in the film and some of the stories really help to bring to life the tragic events that resulted in the death of a million people and displaces 15 million others.
Activity 1:
Comparing National Demands
Students should read excerpts from the Indian National Congress's Independence Day Resolution from 1930 and respond to the question. Students should then read Muhammad Ali Jinnah's request for Pakistan from 1945
Indian National Congress
Extracts from the Independence Day Resolution passed by the Indian National Congress in 1930
1. Why does the Indian National Congress believe that the British should give them independence?
2.What strategies do the Indian National Congress Plan to use to get rid of the British?
Jinnah calls for Pakistan
Extract from a speech delivered by Muhammad Jinnah, 6th December 1945
What is Jinnah demanding from the British Crown?
Why does he think that what he is demanding is a good idea?
Activity 2:
Cripps Mission
There is a video recording that you can access through the link. I like to have students read along as they listen. Its important to establish who Sir Stafford Cripps is and who it is that he is talking to. The students find this piece particularly compelling becasue most of the materials they read take a very positive view of Gandhi, while Cripps tries to portray him as an irrational leader. For this reason it is also important to read Nehru's response to Cripps' claims.
Questions:
Cripps' Broadcast -
1. What are Gandhi’s demands? How does Cripps feel about his request?
2. What does Gandhi expect will happen in India when the British leave?
3. To whom does Sir Cripps feel obligated? Explain.
4. In your opinion, who has India’s best interest in mind? Explain.
5. Is Gandhi being “impractical and unrealistic” in your opinion? Support with evidence.
Response from Indian Leaders to Cripps -
1. How does Nehru respond to Cripps’s critique of Gandhi?
Activity 2: Calcutta Riots
This piece is a bit long but the students really egt into the details of the events and its a very telling piece. The Calcutta riots provide an excellent case study for students to evaluate British involvement and actions during the rise in violence that preceded partition. The recording on line is very fast, I tend to let students listen to the first part, ad then have them complete the rest of the reading on their own.
Extracts from a military report on the Calcutta riots, 24 August 1946
Audio transcript available at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/topics/calcutta-riots.htm
Questions:
1. What explanation is given to explain why the police report took a long time to come out?
2. Who was initially involved in the riots? Who then took over?
3. What did the police do to help?
4. Why didn’t the police do more?
5. Who was not targeted in the riots?
6. Why didn’t they call in the army troops?
7. How many people died during the riots?
8. Who suffered more according to the report?
9. What do you think? Do you think the police could have done more to quell the riots? Should they have called in the army troops?
Activity 3:
Gandhi’s Response to Violence between Hindus and Muslims
The following is an Excerpt from Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy. In this section Guha tells a story about how Gandhi responded to the violence that erupted in Calcutta and other cities in the Bengal region.
…Meanwhile, trouble flared up once more in Bengal. There were reports of fresh rioting in Noakhali. In Calcutta itself, the peace was broken in Gandhi's owned adopted locality Beliaghata. Here, on 31 August, a Hindu youth was attacked by Muslims. Retaliatory violence followed, and spread. By dusk on 1 September more than 50 people lay dead. That night, Gandhi decided he would go on a fast. "But how can you fast against the goondas [hooligans]?" Asked a friend.
Gandhi's answer, according to an eyewitness, was as follows: "I know I shall be able to tackle the Punjab too if I can control Calcutta. But if I falter[1] now, the conflagration[2] may spread and soon. I can see clearly two or three foreign powers will be upon us and thus will end our short-lived dream of independence."
"But if you die the conflagration will be worse," replied the friend. "At least I won't be there to witness it," said Gandhi; "I shall have done my bit."
Gandhi began his fast on 2 September. By the next day, Hindu and Muslim goondas were coming to him and laying down their arms. Mixed processions for communal harmony were taken out in different parts of the city. In the deputation[3] of prominent politicians, representing the Congress, the Muslim league, and the locally influential Hindu Mahasabha, assured Gandhi that there would be no further rioting. The Mahatma now broke his fast, which lasted three days. The peace held, prompting Lord Mountbatten to remark, famously, that one unarmed man had been more effective and 50,000 in Punjab. But the Mahatma and his admires might have treasured as much this tribute from The Statesman, a British owned paper in Calcutta that had long opposed Gandhi and his politics:
“On the ethics of fasting as a political instrument we have over many years failed to concur with India's most renowned practitioner of it…But never in a long career has Mahatma Gandhi, in our eyes, fasted in a simpler, worthier cause than this, nor one calculated for immediate effective appeal to the public conscience.”
Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy p.33
[1] Falter – loose strength or momentum
[2] Conflagration – extensive fire (metaphorical)
[3] Deputations – a group of people appointed to take on a mission
Questions:
1. Why did Gandhi fast?
2. How did Muslim and Hindus in the region respond?
3. How did the British perceive his fast?
Critical thinking:
The clip form the Documentary The Day India Burned portrayed Gandhi after the Calcutta riots as being sad and ineffective. Yet Ramachandra Guha offers a different interpretation. Why do you think this is? Explain the different portrayals and which seems more accurate? (5-8 sentences)
Activity 4:
Letter from Muhammad Jinnah to Sir Stafford Cripps
1. What does Jinnah want from Sir Cripps?
2. What does Jinnah believe will be the solution to the problems in India?
3. What has been promised to Jinnah and the Muslim League?
4. What was the only reason Jinnah was willing to wait for the British government to fulfill its promises?
Activity 5: Mountbatten radio broadcastThe Times reports on Lord Mountbatten's radio broadcast on partition, 4 June 1947Questions:1. Why does Mountbatten believe his initial hope for a united India will not work?2. What will happen with the Sikh communities? What feelings does Mountbatten express in this regard?3. What is the overall tone of Mountbatten’s broadcast? What evidence do you have to support this idea?4. Mountbatten claims, “I felt it was essential that the people of India themselves should decide this question of partition”. What evidence do you have that he did or did not leave partition up to the people themselves?5. Prime Minister Atlee said that, “It is, of course, easy to criticize them” referring to Mountbatten’s plans. What criticism might people have of Lord Mountbatten’s plan?
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