NDTV: India Better-off With Partition? -5/5

This is a solid panel discussion with leading scholars, columnists, intellectuals, and politicians on whether India has been better off with Partition. It represents a wide variety of perspectives and deals with such factors as: (a) flaws of the failed Cabinet Mission Plan that could have led to Balkanization of India; (b) disenchantment of Muslim immigrants from UP and Bihar with Punjabi domination in Pakistan; (c) historical existence of India as a unified "cultural" if not a "political" entity; (d) potential spillover in united India of Cold War power play and Middle Eastern religious politics; (e) extreme difficulty of integrating a "continental-size" country with a diverse population; (f) role of British in introducing and aggravating communal feelings between Hindus and Muslims; (g) redundancy of "minority syndrome" among Muslims in a unified Subcontinent; (h) extremely communally charged atmosphere in the 1940s that made Partition inevitable; (i) forging of an Indian "nation" after Partition via introduction of a Constitution and a liberal democracy; and (j) RSS "Akhand Bharat" ideology for reuniting the Subcontinent. The panel also discusses potential reunification of the Subcontinent and whether Muslims would have been better off in a united India.

The panel discussion was hosted by Vikram Chandra, host of the weekly Indian TV program "The Big Fight", in Fall 2009 following publication of Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and Partition; the episode was titled "An Undivided India?" The panelists are: (1) Salman Khurshid, Indian minister of Minority Affairs; (2) Ahok Malik, Senior Journalist at Pioneer; (3) Sir Mark Tully, former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi; (4) Tarun Vijay, former editor of RSS weekly, Panchajanya, and a columnist of Times of India; (5) Ramachandra Guha, historian and columnist for the Telegraph and Hindustan Times; (6) Shatrujit Singh, Prince of Kapurthala; and (7) Yusuf Salahuddin, grandson of Allama Iqbal, one of the leading proponents of the "two-nation" theory.

PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• India
• Subcontinent
• Hindustan
• Pakistan
• Partition
• independence
• division
• breakup
• Quaid-e-Azam
• Mohammad
• Ali
• Jinnah
• Jawaharlal
• Nehru
• Mahatma
• Gandhi
• Patel
• Maulana
• Azad
• Mountbatten
• Indian
• National
• Congress
• Muslim
• League
• British
• responsibility
• responsible
• history
• factors
• forces
• causes
• reasons
• analysis
• perspectives
• historical
• overview
• consequences
• effects
• Two
• Nation
• Theory
• Hindus
• Sikh
• communal
• hate
• hatred
• divide
• communalism
• genocide
• SAARC
• reunification
• reunified
• reunited
• Akhand
• Bharat

[samurainair1]

i think we are better off like dis beacuse of the fact that education level in pakistan is quiet low and the yhave shifted more to islamic ethos from indain ethos..so to assimilate them now is a problem, and indian power balance get shifted ..now well balanced between south ,north and east.

[aayou]

Part 2:

Now to the 64 million dollar question? Are we better off with partition and should we try to reverse it?

I agree with Salman Khurshid. What happened should not have happened. But now that it has happened, we, as citizens of our respective countries, should focus our energies on making our respective countries better, and try to foster better, friendlier relations between us.

[tilopa07]

secularism is not possible until all religions are dissolved....till then it would be only hypocrisy

[tilopa07]

@pheeca

I would have accepted your proposal but only if pakistan with all these things would have been better off which it is not.

Sorry.

Islamism is the method to take the country to stone age.I would never want my beloved to be bashed just because she has a bf and i would not like my sister to be stoned because she is independent and free minded.

I am better of with smaller india then a radicalized,backward pakistan.

[akram4179]

@DesiRockMetal Its not actually because of negative propaganda... its just lack of awareness about the current situation of Bangladesh. Indians mostly focus on the current affairs of Pakistan and not Bangladesh, resulting in such misconceptions in the general public. Again, I dont think there is any deliberate effort by any significant group to badmouth Bangladesh, we just have outdated news on that front.

[pheeca]

Further more I can only tell these ignorant people blaming Quaid-e-Azam for partition to read history of Indian Politics read about what happened in 1911 to Bangal it was congress that nullified Lucknow Pact why didnt they accepted Fourteen Points.It was Gandhi's Pro-Hindu stance that made Jinnah left congress.Ever wonder what happened btw 1937-39 that made Muslim League turn from unpopular to popular party? Read then comment!

[pheeca]

im a Pakistani and am ready to re-unite India and Pakistan just have few conditions

1)The name of the United country would be Pakistan

2)Sharia will be the law of land

3)Pakistani flag will be the flag of the land!

For your information, Pakistani muslims are not in the situation which western media tells that is pure propoganda its like telling world Iraq have WMDs.

[DesiRockMetal]

Seems like a lot of Indians have a lot of misconceptions abobut Bangladesh due to over self-ritiousness. The minorities in Bangladesh are much better off than those in India and Pakistan. I'm aware the some Hindu nationalist groups spread propaganda against Bangladesh to get Hindu votes. Also, Bangladesh has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and it is expected to further accelerate. According to Goldman Sachs, it will be one of the next 11 biggest economies by next decade.

[fitcat77]

Partition caused too much suffering. The population exchange in Punjab driven by the lie of the two nation theory (TNT) was tragic. India evolved into a secular democracy with an expanding economy. Pakistan followed the path of Islamic fundamentalism, this is the logical consequence TNT . Ahmedis and Christians are persecuted and there is inter-ethnic conflict. Pakistanis are not inherently bad, given the right environment of a united India they would also be good citizens and prosper.

[TheEsotericDesi]

"India should treat its minorities better"? India treats them WAY BETTER even at times when they deserve some heavy hand to guide them... Look at Kashmir... India's spoiled that tiny minority that's made life miserable for rest of the country...

[rallen888]

@ourpak1

Nobody wants Bang. or Pak to rejoin. We all know the present state of Pak. and bang. So, live and let us live.

Koi dudh ka dhula nahi, it was cruelty of Jinnah. He was offered to become first PM of india, yet he chose to part.

But, i am happy with partition seeing Pakistan and the mentality of the strong extremist forces there.

[simon0802]

@samurainair1 What do you mean shifted to an Islamic ethos from an Indian ethos. Are u saying Islam is alien to Indian culture? Are you saying Hinduism is the be all and end all of India? There has been an Islamic ethos in undivided India for centuries. I think it is better to say that Pakistan has shifted from an Indo-Islamic ethos to a Saudi-Wahabi-Taliban ethos. Remember Allama Iqbal urged Indian Muslims remove un-Islamic Tribal Arabism from Islam itself.