The great India Pakistan Divide
My curiosity about this matter was piqued when my friend
sent me the famous BS Kesavan photograph pertaining to the division of books
between India and Pakistan during the partition. Upon a detailed study of the
Caravan article connected to it, it was clear that no division of books had occurred.
On the other hand, the matter did extend itself in bizarre ways to many other
fields. Like in a messy divorce, the situation became acrimonious and resulted
in many stupid actions. It is worthwhile to take a look. This is not a study of
the horrors of that partition, or a recounting of the many harrowing tales of
violence, but the paths followed by the bureaucracies of the two new countries
in divvying up the assets at partition.
Like many in India, I too heard stories of those days from
my grandmother and grand aunts, both of whom had spent awhile in places like
Karachi and Lahore when their husbands used to work in the British Railways and
army. One of them had lost their life’s savings fleeing from riot torn Karachi.
Later I read lively stories written by Manto, Chughtai and Kushwant Singh. But many
of the stories related to the difficult decisions taken in dividing public
assets and drawing lines on the map are not known to people. Some of those
resulted in tragedy, some were comic and some outright hilarious. Let’s take a
look.
Personal assets were of course a large and worrying part as
the peoples on the border moved hurriedly to new camps, leaving behind their
savings and wealth accumulated over generations. On one side Punjab witnessed
violence the violence of Sikhs and Hindus being massacred. On the other side, as
displaced Hindu refuges came streaming in to Delhi, their anger and revulsion took
over and the Muslims in Delhi bore the brunt of their attacks there. But what
led to all this was the creation of the Radcliffe lines demarcating West and
East Pakistan. As you can imagine, it
was one of the most complex discussions and exercises ever undertaken and took
place between 3rd June and 17th August 1947.
The discussions started with the June 3rd
announcement by Mountbatten, just 3 months after he arrived to take his new
post and based on the conclusion by Wavell that a united India was
untenable. Three individuals were the
first on board, Nehru, Jinnah and Sardar Baldev Singh. While Nehru saw it as a
solution to obtain independence from the British at long last, Jinnah saw it as
a victory for his call for a separate Pakistan. Interestingly, Hindus too felt
it was a Patel victory in pushing the Muslims to two controllable corners of
India and out of the mainstream. Punjabis were not too jubilant, since they
owned much land in potential areas marked up for Pakistan, they had no choice
but to accept it for the sake of communal harmony.
Referenda proved that the public and their political
representatives were in favor of partition. A Bengal and Punjab boundary
commission was formed and Cyril Radcliffe was appointed as a neutral chairman. Though
murmurs arose that he would eventually do what Mountbatten dictated from Delhi,
his appointment was accepted. Radcliffe had to draw the lines, use the cleavers
to good effect and hive the two parts in the west and the east of India,
efficiently and painlessly. Keep in mind that he had no experience in this kind
of thing, he was just a lawyer of some merit. Radcliffe somehow completed the
task and submitted his partition map on 9 August 1947, which split Punjab and
Bengal almost in half. How did he get there?
The concept of Pakistan had been bandied about but most of
its proponents had only a vague idea of how to go about their grandiose
proclamations. Geographic areas had never been discussed, so also what should
constitute the state so demarcated for the Muslims of India. The original idea
was to have these islands or Muslim entities in India (I will cover it later
when I write about the concept of Moplistan as conceived by Rahmat Ali) with
provincial self-rule and attached to a weak center. Anyway as time went by and
arguments became vehement, partition of territory became the only acceptable
solution within the Mountbatten plan where the Muslim majority provinces of
Punjab, Sind, Bengal, NWFP and Baluchistan would be hived off. Mountbatten was
to stay away from the process. Radcliffe who casually mentioned that such a
project would mean years of arbitration to end a conclusive award was curtly
told he had exactly five weeks to draw the lines of delineation in India.
This
date was advanced to 12th so that the governor of Punjab could
arrange for security. So the final project schedule dropped to four weeks from
the original five. After those 28 days the world witnessed its effects on millions,
in ways even a catastrophe such as an earthquake or cyclone could not with half
a million dead and 12 million refugees on the move.
 |
| Nehru, Radcliffe, Mountbatten, Jinnah |
All the dividers had, was a rule of thumb – ascertain the
contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims, considering also ‘other
factors’ while demarcating boundaries. Well, as you can imagine, many meetings and
representations took place, memoranda were submitted, and cases were argued
before the commission. Both the Congress and the Muslim league brought in heavy
weights in support, with the former using the ‘other factors’ for arguments as
the latter stuck firmly to religious demarcation in their claims. The city of
Lahore as you can imagine was a sticky point. The Sikhs realized too late that
they were among the worst affected and they saw a number of their holy shrines
on the Pakistan side of the line. On the Bengal side the situation was that a
larger area would automatically get demarcated on the religious lines and be
lost to India. Here the Muslim league laid claim over half of Calcutta as well
for ‘other reasons’, citing economic issues. Vested interests tried to force
Mountbatten to Influence the decision and though it appears that some did
succeed, the general consensus is that Radcliffe had to make most decisions himself.
Mountbatten’s overriding advice to them was ‘compensate each party’s gain on
one border with losses on the other’! Everything depended on the understanding
‘other factors’ such as water ways, river deltas, canal systems etc.
Radcliffe completed his work on time even though he was sick
and weary with the heat and a bout of dysentery, and left India on the eve of
Independence. He wrote thus to his stepson, something oft quoted. ‘I station myself firmly on the Delhi
airport until an aeroplane from England comes along. Nobody in India will love
me for my award about the Punjab and Bengal and there will be roughly 80
million with a grievance who will begin looking for me. I do not want them to
find me. I have worked and travelled and sweated – oh I have sweated the whole
time’. Before he left, Radcliffe destroyed all the working papers, leaving
much to conjecture. Interestingly in this grand task undertaken by Radcliffe, he
was supported by one VD Iyer (supposedly Nehru’s plant within the team), but he
simply vanished from all records, never to be heard of again. Even though the
awards were made on 12th and Radcliffe left, the announcements were
made on the 17th August. It is said Mountbatten was suddenly appalled
and had cold feet for a couple of days, but perhaps he did it deliberately to
wash British hands off the matter (as he foresaw violence and horror) and did
not want to take the blame.
Now that we have a quick and rough understanding of the
hasty and arbitrary fashion with which
 |
| Radcliffe |
Almost all decisions in this regard were made by the
Partition council with a chairman and two representatives each from Congress
and the Muslim league. The two main officers were HM Patel and Mohammed Ali
working with ten expert committees. Mentions can be seen that finally even
these two sober men had to be locked up in Sardar Patel’s bedroom to hammer out
an agreement and were let out only after they had one.
HM Patel’s memoir dryly provides much of the detail, he
explains what the ten expert committees did (and how) with respect to assets
& liabilities, central revenues, miscellaneous revenues(other than taxes,
salt, opium, stamps), contracts, currency, budgets and accounts, economic
relations (controls), trade, domicile, foreign relations and armed forces.
Railways and the AIR were dealt with by two subcommittees. Sometimes vague
yardsticks were adopted for valuation, e.g. Rs 50/- for a clerk’s furniture, Rs
150/- for an officer. Pakistan’s share of uncovered debt was fixed at 17 ½%.
The details are quite boring for a lay reader, so I will desist from
summarizing that and instead pick up some highlights of the aftermath.
From a monetary perspective, it was understood that Pakistan
would take a while to create its own monetary system, reserve bank and mints.
So the plan was to continue with the RBI until Sept 1948. The debt management
and exchange control would be handled by RBI until March 1948. It appears that
this arrangement did not go well and was terminated three months prematurely,
with huge arguments about its own partitioning. Nevertheless existing currency
and coinage were retained with Pakistan overprinted on notes. Staff in RBI had
to choose their preferred future based on religion, as the Bank stated that
while Muslim employees having their places of domicile in Pakistan areas would,
of course, have to go over to those areas, the transfer of Muslim employees
having their domicile in India and of non-Muslim staff serving in the Pakistan areas
would be on a voluntary basis. Division of solid assets took place in 4:1 ratio,
which meant that out of every 5 gold bars, 4 would remain in India and 1 would
be sent to Pakistan. Stamps were also overprinted.
It was even more complicated with the armed forces. The
Armed Forces of the British Raj, which was built over the past three hundred
years, had to be reconstituted within a short period of less than two months
amidst all the communal violence. A joint defense council had the
responsibility to bring this about, with a basis that the partition was to take
place on a communal basis. However, a Muslim soldier domiciled in Pakistan and
a non-Muslim domiciled in the rest of India had no choice (so decided to avoid
mischievous intent) but to serve his respective dominion, or be discharged. As
it transpired, after the outbreak of communal disturbances a large number of
Armed Forces personnel wanted to change their final option and they were
allowed to do so.
The original agreement called for the armed forces and other
assets to be divided to the ratio of 64% for India and 36% for Pakistan, but
Pakistan was later forced to accept an 1/3 share of assets. Sea going navy
vessels were divided in a 33:18 ratio using a common sense line. The RAF
fighter and transport air squadrons were divided in a rough 8:3 ratio (aircraft
346:122). The aircraft division became acrimonious with Pakistan bitterly
complaining that they got some unserviceable or untraceable aircraft, some
planes with filters choked with sugar, while India regretted that most of the
top instructors had moved to Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan agreed that the
services of British officers were required during the period of reconstitution.
All chiefs of staff continued to be British for some more months.
In the commercial airlines sector, India which had eight
private carriers in 1947, lost one airline to Pakistan, Orient Airways of
Calcutta, which later merged in 1955 to become state-run Pakistan International
Airlines.
Railway rolling stock and government vehicles were divided
in proportion to the rail track and roadway mileage inherited by each country. The
railway division is explained with great emotion by Ken Staynor, for those who
are interested in the details. The NWR was terminated at the Radcliffe line
crossings and went to Pakistan. Quoting him, ‘when the borders were finally put in place, the NWR lines were
fragmented in several places. Lines which were through routes before partition
were now broken up with sections remaining in India only to run into Pakistan
and reappear back into India further down the line’. Many of the Anglo
Indians working for the railways retried, left for UK or Australia, as time
went by.
Whatever happened to the broadcasting services or the AIR?
Pakistan inherited three stations, the one in Peshawar, another in Lahore and
Dacca stations. The new capital of Pakistan was the commercial seaport at
Karachi, right but it did not have a radio broadcasting station, so a new radio
was installed temporarily in a tent on Queens Road in Karachi on August 14,
1948 until a new one was set up.
The iconic Life magazine photograph of Kesavan between two
piles of books deciding which ones to go to Pakistan, was just a setup (The
caravan article explains it all). Sadly one attempt was made in moving books at
Calcutta. One collection that was divided, according to Anwesha Sengupta, was
that of the Calcutta Madrasah Library, which boasted the world’s oldest Persian
manuscripts. “It is sad, because those manuscripts were taken to Dhaka in open
trucks, and the rain destroyed many of them. However Lapierre and Collins
mention this - Some of the bitterest arguments came over the books in India's
libraries, sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica were religiously divided up,
alternate volumes to each dominion, dictionaries were ripped in half with A to
K going to India, the rest to Pakistan. Where only one copy of a book was
available, the librarians were supposed to decide which dominion would have the
greater natural interest in it. Some of those supposedly intelligent men
actually came to blows arguing over which dominion had a greater natural
interest in ‘Alice in Wonderland or Wuthering Heights'.
The general approach was to make an 80:20 division of
governmental assets between India and Pakistan. How paper weights and waste
paper baskets in the health department were divided, I’m sure became a huge
bone of contention, but that is how it was. Some 25,000 employees and their
60,000 tons of baggage decided to move to Pakistani capital of Karachi which
had been Sindhi in character with these Urdu speaking muhajirs creating an initial
chaos.
The chapter ‘The Most complex divorce in History’ in
Lapierre and Collins book ‘Freedom at Midnight’ provides many a lurid detail which
make interesting reading though it is difficult to substantiate much of it.
Some of them are listed below.
He mentions that arguments, even fights, broke out over the
division of the goods. Remarking that departmental heads tried to hide their
best typewriters or to substitute their broken desks and chairs for new ones assigned
to their rival community he mentions how dignified men, in linen suits were
found furiously bargaining an inkpot against a water jar, and things like silverware
and the portraits in state residences. He wryly remarks how wine cellars remained
in India without argument while Pakistan received a credit for what they
contained.
There is the story of the 60 ducks which arrived in Calcutta
from London. Arguments took place on where the ducks should be sent post
partition, who should foot the bill for their feed and so on. Protracted enquiries
took place while the ducks were housed in a public warehouse. I do not know if
they were divided and how the matter was solved, but I am sure an interested
reader can find out with today’s search technology!
The story of the police department in Lahore is pathetic, as
Superintendent of Police Patrick Rich divided his equipment between his deputies.
Everything was split, be it leggings, turbans, rifles, or instruments in the
police band. He had to go in the middle, a flute for Pakistan, a drum for
India, a trumpet for Pakistan, a pair of cymbals for India until one
instrument, a trombone, was left. The authors remark how he witnessed his two
deputies, who'd been comrades for years, got into a fight over which dominion
would get that last trombone.
There were strange arguments too according to L&C, where
the Moslems wanted the Taj Mahal broken up and shipped to Pakistan because it
had been built by a Moghul while Hindu Sadhus argued that the Indus River,
flowing through the heart of Moslem India, should somehow be theirs because their
sacred Vedas had been written on its banks 25 centuries before. Even the trappings
of the Raj were not left undivided, the gold and white Viceregal train went to
India while the private cars of the Commander in-Chief of the Indian Army and
the Governor of the Punjab were assigned to Pakistan. It would not be fair to
rewrite that affair, so I will quote the L&C text verbatim.
The most remarkable division of all,
however, took place in the stable yards of Viceroy's House. At issue were
twelve horse-drawn carriages. With their ornate, hand-wrought gold and silver
designs, their glittering harnesses, their scarlet cushions, they embodied all
the pretentious pomp, all the majestic disdain that had both fascinated and
infuriated the Raj's Indian subjects. Every Viceroy, every visiting sovereign, every
royal dignitary passing through India in modern times had promenaded through
the Raj's capital in one of them. They were the formal, viceregal carriages,
six of them trimmed in gold, six semi-state carriages in silver. To break up
the sets had seemed a tragedy; one dominion, it was decided, would get the gold
carriages, the other would have to settle for the silver.
Mountbatten's ADC, Lt-Cmdr. Peter
Howes, proposed that the question of which dominion would get which set of
those regal vehicles should be settled by a profoundly plebeian gesture, the
flip of a coin. Beside him, Major Yacoub Khan, newly appointed commander of the
Pakistan bodyguard, and Major Govind Singh, the commander of the Viceroy's
bodyguard, watched as the silver piece went glittering up in the air.
'Heads!' shouted Govind Singh.
The coin clattered on to the stable
yard. The three men stooped to look at it. A whoop escaped from the Sikh major.
Luck had decided that the gold carriages of India's imperial rulers might
convey the leaders of a new, socialist India through the streets of their
capital. Howes then divided up the harnesses, the whips, the coachmen's boots,
wigs and uniforms that went with each set of carriages.
When he reached the end of that stack
of equipment a last item remained. It was the Viceroy's Post Horn, the flaring
horn used by the coachman to guide his horses. In all the viceregal establishment
there was only one such horn.The young naval officer pondered a minute.
Obviously, if the horn was broken in two, it would never emit another sound. He
could, of course, flip a coin again. Suddenly Howes had a better idea.
He held it up to his colleagues. 'You
know,' he said, 'you can't divide this. I think there's only one solution. I'll
have to keep it.'
With a smile, Howes tucked the horn
under his arm and sauntered out of the stable yard.
The viceroy’s post horn rests a
quarter of a century later on the mantelpiece of Howe’s living room.
Occasionally, Howe, the retired admiral will recount to his guests of an
evening, the story of the horn and give it a playful toot for old times’ sake!!
One of the biggest problems was the matter concerning abandoned
properties. Negotiations by both the countries began as early as 29th august
1947. India wanted the refugees to be given compensation for the property left
behind, while Pakistan was of the opinion that the matter should be solved on
case by case basis- the property should be either transferred or sold. Finally
in 1954, India decided to use the evacuee property for the benefit of refugees
by passing a displaced person's act in parliament. In 1956, both the
governments decided to transfer evacuee bank accounts, lockers and safe
deposits.
The effects on the Bombay film world can be read in Manto’s
writings, and he himself followed the cause, albeit reluctantly. Many of Bombay’s
leading artistes would have to leave for Pakistan as the film industry welcomed
the arrival of many Punjabis from the playhouses, radio stations and colleges
of Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Rawalpindi.
Many of popular Indian film stalwarts trace their origins to
territory which is now in Pakistan. Yash Chopra, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Sahir
Ludhianvi, the Kapoors, Nargis, Govinda, Dilip Kumar, Sharukh Khan, Amrish Puri,
Rajendra Kumar, the Roshnans, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Balraj Sahni, the Bachchans,
The Oberois, Ramesh Sippy, Gulzar, Shekar Kapoor, the list can stretch pages. Some
of the legends who left were Suraiya, Nur Jehan, Sadat Manto, and so on.
The great writer Manto should but naturally, have the last
word
Two or three years
after the 1947 Partition, it occurred to the governments of India and Pakistan
to exchange their lunatics in the same manner as they had exchanged their
criminals. The Muslim lunatics in India were to be sent over to Pakistan and
the Hindu and Sikh lunatics in Pakistani asylums were to be handed over to
India.
It was difficult to say whether the proposal made any sense or not. However, the decision had been taken at the topmost level on both sides.
On one side, behind barbed wire, stood together the lunatics of India and on the other side, behind more barbed wire, stood the lunatics of Pakistan.
In between, on a bit of earth which had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh.”
I would urge you to read his poignant short story ‘Toba Tek
Singh’ linked here …..
References
The long partition and the making of modern south Asia – Vazira
Fazila-Yacoobi Zamindar
The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia - Gyanesh Kudaisya,
Tan Tai Yong
The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan - by
Yasmin Khan
Rites of passage - HM Patel
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for
Saladin -By Akbar Ahmed
Freedom at Midnight – Lapierre and Collins
Breaking up: Dividing assets between India and Pakistan in
times of Partition - Anwesha Sengupta
Breakup of the North Western Railway and the Anglo-Indiancommunity - Kenneth Hugh Staynor
pics - from Google images, thanks to owners and uploaders
