NDTV: India Better-off With Partition? -4/5

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

[dadarocks]

Part3: No institute in India discriminates against anyone based on their religion yes there are postive discrimination called affirmative action.There are insitutes Unuiversities where minorities enjoy affirmative action. No such benefit have been given to majority anywhere.

for instance Aligadh Muslim University has more than 50% reservation for muslims. No such benfit for hindus exist in Benaras Hindu University.

[dadarocks]

All said and done I believe India/Pak would have been off without partition. See despite the campagin in pakistani state sanctioned text book against India and particularly hindus; usual refrain for hindus in Pakistani textbooks are "Bania hindus"; despite the campaign by religious nutjobs, despite everything in recent gallop survey 50+% pakistani do nto consider India to be the enemy. I am pretty sure without those nonsencial campaign whole of Pakistan would have assmilited in indian nation.

[tilopa07]

@IndranilFromIndia

Hey man i dont agree with you...with so many muslims(33%) we would have gone back to stone age or radicalism.

Even the 13% are creating trouble.

Secularism is not possible in a muslim state....it's next to impossible and don't forget they breed fast

[tilopa07]

@mjder

first off get over your great papa and donor usa

[MAHIGUPTA]

Anchor is biased towards congress..clearly

[IndranilFromIndia]

Please look at this objectively:

1. Had there been a united India that is peaceful we all would have been much better off and competing with China.

2. Realistically the chances of peace are very tiny. At that time there was communal electorates and the mad politics of Muslim league needed them to be alive. Even if everyone wants to be in one India this creates and vast communal divide - remember in 60s we had nothing but riots. Civil war for certain.

We are better off with partition

[JASHVEER22]

@mjder is it first save your porkistan

[TheEsotericDesi]

Without Partition, India would resemble something like Nigeria...

[shubh4sin]

@mjder I think you are at the wrong place... because your comment looks really stupid here

[PartyAllSeason]

Rarun Vijay is a loony...he is saying stupid things...completely irritating *face palm*

[PartyAllSeason]

I think many people in Pakistan think that we Indians mourn Partition, they say that they did a damage to us Indians by separating...lol....no we don't...except for few people(mostly muslims, Punjabis, Bengalis and Sindhis)...mostly feel good about partition...i don't wanna sound blunt...but we call it "good riddance" ...imagine sharing this country with you guys :)-

[ganeshanI1]

What's up with this Guha character? Why is he so excited and irritating?