A weakness of source C is that, we don’t know the exact date of when Jinnah made the statement or who he was talking to. However, we can guess that the source was written before 1947 because of the language used. So if it was written between 1942 and 1947, Jinnah may have been restating the Lahore declaration where the Muslim League made its first public call for a separate Muslim State, called ‘Pakistan’. Another weakness of source C is that, it doesn’t provide a purpose for why Britain needed to leave and give India her independence, whereas both sources A and B do.
In conclusion, having reviewed the arguments, I think that source C combines what was said in sources A and B but also explains Jinnah’s desire for a separate state for Muslims in India.
3. Study sources D and E
How useful are Sources D and E in helping you to understand why the policy of the British Government towards independence for India change after the Second World War? (10)
D and E are very useful in helping us to understand why the policy of the British government, towards independence for India, changed after the Second World War. Both the sources explain the state India was in, during World War Two, though they give two different viewpoints.
Stafford Cripps, who was a member of the Labour Government from 1945 to 1950, went to India with the Cripps Mission. He also became the Secretary for India in the new Labour Government and was involved in solving the ‘Indian problem’ of the British. Source D is from the memoirs of Stafford Cripps, which was written to justify the reasons for why Britain had to leave India, which is because they had no real alternatives.
In the memoir, Cripps mentions the problems the British Government had faced during the time they were trying to stick to their responsibilities over India. He also says how there were some alternatives the government had come across to help solve the problems, for example, they could have strengthened British troops and British control on India on the basis of extended personnel. They could have also tried to persuade India to stop rebelling against each other. However, they lacked timing to go through with most of their agreements.
So, as the chaos between Hindus and Muslims got worse, the British armed forces were being demobilised ‘as rapidly as possible, and that meant that the number of British troops which could be left in India and the East was being rapidly diminished’. Cripps says how the government ‘was to decide to continue’ their ‘responsibility indefinitely’ even though he knew it was ‘quite obviously impossible’.
Source E is from a description of events in Calcutta on 16 August 1946, by a Briton who was in Calcutta at the time. The source suggests how bad the violence against the two communities (Hindus and Muslims) was. It describes a lot of death which took place at the time. The Briton explained how people of one religion were being tied by the other and then brought down to the river where he would later be beheaded into and where his body would also be thrown in afterwards.
The way the communal violence was described, could influence the reader in accepting the fact that Britain could not control it, especially since they could no longer afford to. Britain’s main priority had changed to fighting Communism.
Since the author is not Indian, we can be sure he was unbiased in a religious sense. Another strength of this source is that it includes the date and the place which the event was taken place in. however, the source does have a weakness. It isn’t specific on who the reporter is.
- Study Source F and G
Use Sources F and G, and your knowledge, to help you explain why India was partitioned in 1947. (12)
As much as Indians wanted to gain their independence, some people also wanted a partition to take place. There were many reasons for this, for instance, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of Muslim League, felt that it was impossible for two complete different religions to live together, especially in peace. He explains in an interview how Muslims and Hindus ‘have no inter-marriages’ or the ‘same calendar’, and also the fact that the ‘Muslims believe in a single God, and the Hindus worship animals’, for example, ‘they consider cows sacred…Muslims think it’s nonsense’. In the interview, Jinnah viewed the Hindu’s very negatively. Since he was the leader of the Muslim League, it was possible for Muslims to be influenced by what he says and would therefore agree with him with the fact that it is better if they had their own separate state.
At a conference, Jinnah also added that ‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither intermarry, nor dine together and indeed they belong to two different civilizations, which are based on conflict ideas.’ In the conference, Jinnah explains the very two differences Muslims and Hindus had. He explained how they couldn’t agree on the same thing let alone ‘dine’ together. This showed that Jinnah truly believed that it was impossible for two complete different communities to ‘join together’ under a single state. He believed that it would ‘lead to a growing discontent and the final destruction of such a state’.
On 16 August 1946, Jinnah declared a ‘Direct Action’ campaign because the League became more determined to form the separate state of ‘Pakistan’. Direct Action was declared against Indian National Congress, who rejected Jinnah. It was also declared against the British rule, which Jinnah wanted out of India as did other Indians. However, Gandhi was horrified by Direct Action as it was against his ideas of non-violence.
Direct action was as a series of nationwide peaceful demonstration by Muslims. However, as a result of Direct Action, violence had broken out in some areas such as in Calcutta. Source F is a photograph taken in Calcutta. In this source, it shows that police were using tear gas after a Hindu temple had been set on fire. The purpose of the photograph was to show the state India had got to. It suggests how the communal violence was so bad that it even reached a stage where people attempted to destroy a place of worship. Even the British were unable to stop the violence, and in result of this, they decided to demobilise the British armed forces as ‘rapidly as possible…until further notice’.
Source G is from a report written by Field Marshal Auchinleck, the Commander-in-chief of the Indian Army, on 14 August 1947. He was describing the situation in the Punjab. He says that groups of Sikhs had ‘formed armed bands of considerable strength’. This shows that although the riots had started between the Hindus and Muslim, even the Sikhs were getting involved. This also shows how the Punjab must’ve been the most volatile area of India as there were three armed forces.
Auchinleck also explained how there were three or four raids which were ‘occurring nightly. One band is reputed to have killed 200 Muslims in one village’. He also explained that ‘there were also Muslim bands, but these are fewer in number and less well organised’. This shows that the fights were against larger communities against minorities. In this case, Muslims were minority.
The only person who had seemed to put a stop to the violence in a few cities was Gandhi, who believed in peaceful methods to solve problems. He felt that in order to stop the Indians from fighting was by fasting. Unless the fights had stopped, he refused to eat anything, which did have an affect on the Indians.
Lord Louis Mountbatten persuaded Atlee (who appointed Mountbatten as viceroy) to fix a date for India’s independence no later than June 1948. But when he arrived to India, he found that there was a widespread violence between Muslims and Hindus. He soon became convinced that a partition was unavoidable and Jinnah’s idea of a separate country was set to action. However, when the partition was taking place, the movement of millions had led to more violence. Some trains which carried refugees were stopped and thousands were slaughtered.
In conclusion, I think that the partition had taken place because the violence was getting worse and the government had no alternatives other than the idea of two separate countries. I also think that the partition was a good idea, although, while it was taking place, it had lead to more violence. I think that it if the partition hadn’t taken, things would’ve got worse because not enough people were trying to stop it and many were following the rule of, “an eye for an eye”, i.e. there was retaliation. The idea of two separate countries encouraged the different religious groups to avoid each other.
5. Study all of the sources
‘The partition of India in 1946 could not have been avoided.’
Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view.
(14)
I agree with the statement, ‘the partition of India in 1947 could not have been avoided’ because the communal violence between the religious groups was increasing and not enough people were trying to stop it. The two groups, Muslims and Hindus, felt so much opposition from one another that it resulted with chaos.
Many of the sources refer to violence and to the desire of Muslims to have their own state. Source A and B suggests how Gandhi and Nehru supported the idea of India gaining her independence. Source C also supports this idea. However, it goes beyond simple statement as Jinnah explains that Muslims and Hindus have nothing in common but the desire to get rid of the British rule. This statement was made in the 1940s and through language used we can guess that it may have been written between 1942 and 1947 when Jinnah was restating the Lahore Declaration. The purpose of source C was to point out that the two groups had nothing in common.
Jinnah was the leader of Muslim League, which was set up to protect Muslim rights. Although there were other religious groups such as Sikhs, Jinnah mainly concentrated on Hindus. This may have been because Hinduism was a majority in India and because he probably felt that the majority might attack the minority in India, i.e. Muslims. This may have encouraged the idea of a separate country for Muslims.
In March 1940, the Muslim League made its ‘Lahore Declaration’, the first public call for a separate Muslim State called ‘Pakistan’ meaning ‘Land of the Pure’. Although it angered the Congress, it increased the Leagues support from Muslims. In 1946 Jinnah announced a ‘Direct Action’ campaign which later on had lead to violence, even though it was set to be a peaceful demonstration. The violence resulted with 15000 deaths in just three days.
Source E is a photograph taken in Calcutta which shows police using tear gas after a Hindu temple had been set on fire. Source E shows that the violence reached a stage where a tear gas had to be used to control the rioting. It also suggests how religious groups were destroying another’s place of worship which shows the hatred between the two communities.
Source G is a report written by Field Marshal Auchinleck. This source suggests how in Amritsar, even Sikhs had got involved with the fighting by creating armed bands and attacking Muslims. The source also explains that Muslim members of the forces were being disarmed. This shows the mistrust Indians had between each other.
Source H is written by Mohammed Ibrahim who was a Muslim policeman. In this source Mohammed describes a train journey and how hundred of armed Sikhs attacked the train which he was in. He describes how his wife and two of his children were slaughtered. A number of corpses fell onto his body after he was knocked down. This source suggests how extreme the violence had become.
One person who had attempted to stop the violence was Gandhi. He believed in peaceful methods to solve problems like this. Gandhi started to fast and refused to each anything unless the fighting stopped. This did have an affect as violence in come cities reduced. Even though Gandhi had managed to do this, the government still felt that it was impossible to completely stop the fighting.
When Mountbatten had been appointed viceroy, he was told to bring about independence for a united India if possible. However, when he had arrived in India, he realised that India was not ready to self-govern as She couldn’t control the violence happening between the Muslim, Hindus and even Sikhs. Mountbatten had soon became convinced that the partition of India was unavoidable even after Gandhi who had spent so much effort and time to keep India united. Mountbatten presented his plans for when the partition was to take place to both Jinnah and Nehru who accepted it. However, the Congress wasn’t ready for it but they had no alternatives and so they agreed to go ahead with the plan.
The new country was called ‘Pakistan’, which meant ‘Land of the pure’. Five million Muslims moved from India to Pakistan and 6 million Hindus moved from Pakistan to India. But the movement of so many at the same time, lead to widespread violence and many were killed. Thousands of refugees in trains were slaughtered. Six hundred thousand were killed in Punjab alone. Some people ended up being left behind in a State which they shouldn’t have been still living in, e.g. some Muslims were left in India, where the majority were Hindus, and some Hindus were left in Pakistan, where the majority were Muslims. This may have caused a lot of discrimination especially to those who were a minority in the State.
In conclusion, I think that Jinnah felt that if a person has nothing in common with another, they would feel it is best to avoid them because of the differences. This is probably why Jinnah wanted a separate state for Muslims in India, but Congress and the Government was against this idea. When violence had started between the two religions, Muslims and Hindus, it seemed by the government that the only other way to stop the violence was by a partition, especially later on when Sikhs had joined in, and the violence became worse. Therefore it was necessary for the partition to take place as there was no other alternative. However, Gandhi’s peaceful method of stopping the violence in some areas had worked. I think that because Gandhi alone was able to stop the violence in some cities, together, the government could’ve also tried to stop it. This way, the partition in India could’ve been avoided.
