Partition 1947

The morning of 14^th August 1947 was no ordinary morning for young Mrs. Lily Soni. Her worst fears had come true, and the most dreaded announcement had been made. Her free and independent India had now become a divided nation.

(The left image represents the Hindu Majority Regions while the image on the right represents Muslim dominated areas. Darker Shades represent greater majority)

Roaming about the valleys of Kashmir, and enjoying the romantic moments of her newly married life, she was caught off guard when Lord Mountbatten declared India as a divided nation and East Punjab, her ancestral home, a part of another country. So while she was safely tucked away with her newly married husband in Bombay, her parents residing in the epicentre of riots – Punjab, lived the most excruciating moments of their life. Being a believer of Hindu religion, none of her family had to go through the precarious journey to Pakistan. However some of her relatives, namely her aunt late Mrs. Akshari Uppal had to take the treacherous path back to her home, India and as could be expected, the going was not easy.

With the declaration of the Partition, nearly 14.5 million people crossed the border to reach their new homeland based on their religion. According to a 1951 Census, nearly 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition. It is said to be one of the largest population movements ever in recorded history. It also became the first and possibly the largest massacre in the history of the two independent nations.

With so many people hurrying to cross the border in search of a safer home, people left behind not just a land full of memories but also all their belongings, properties and hard earned wealth, hoping for a new start in a new land. At least this was the case with the cousin of a distinguished Indian Prince, who left behind her all her riches and entered India in rags, devoid of all her jewellery save those which she had successfully stolen into the nation, hidden from the prying eyes of the many robbers and looters on the way. So tough was it to carry one’s own belongings with them that many preferred to throw them deep inside their well in the hope that they shall soon return to collect it. But precious metals weren’t the only thing that the raiders were after; the sight of a pretty woman was more desirable than any gold. Because of which women too had to be hidden at the bottom of their caravan, covered by quilt, beneath one’s foot to escape the lustful eyes of the strangers. Despite this many young Hindu women were forcefully dragged away to a life of slavery at the hands of Muslim men. Rape and sexual assault had become common practice. Death too didn’t come easy for many, the ruthless nature of a mob ensured that there religious enemies died a torturous death by pulling their body of in opposite the directions until the body split into two. The sight of train full of human carcass rolling into the station was not that infrequent. Slavery, forced marriages, riots, manslaughter; they all became a regular event. Official figures peg the loss of life in the ensuing days of partition at above 1 million. The Hindus claim it was the Muslims who started the killing, while the Muslims maintain that it was the Hindu Sikhs who took to the sword first. Violence truly reached its peak in the inaugural days of independence. Ironic for a nation, that achieved its independence through non-violence.

But on the upside, the native Hindu & Muslim on either side showed a lot of compassion and benevolence towards the newly migrated refugees. Refugee camps were set up all over the country to assist those who have just entered the nation as well as for those who wish to deport to the other side. Free food and living space was provided to the residents of these refugee camps, it also served as an important place to trade properties of that they had left behind with a living quarter in their new country. Special colonies were built to accommodate the refugees. A number of schemes such as the provision of education, employment opportunities and easy loans were provided at national level to help start businesses at all-India levels. Yet many who had sprawling businesses in their pre-partition times had to make a fresh beginning from the scratch. “Mr. S C Kohli, a reputed film distributor of Pakistan, was one of the many people who maintained that partition would never take place and thus had not made any arrangements for when it eventually did happen. He was thereby forced to leave his prosperous business of film distribution in Lahore and embark on a new life in India by starting from the scratch” said Mrs. Soni.

It was only after Nathuram Godse assassinated Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi that riots and infighting truly came to an end. It took the death of the most peace loving person ever to teach the nation the lesson and importance of non-violence.

The Emergency

o The 21 month emergency beginning 25 June 1975 declared under the Article 352 of the Indian constitution effectively made Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, a Dictator.

o It is one of the most shameful periods in the history of independent India during which the press was censored, people were forced to undergo vasectomies, and power of the Government was rampantly abused by anyone who was favoured by the Gandhi family.

o As a result of the Emergency, many buildings were razed, laws were scrapped/ violated by the government, people were forcibly sterilised, innocents were killed, and the constitution was amended while the press was muzzled all throughout.

o The official reason cited for the Emergency was extremely unclear and unspecific. The inside reason for this is explained below -

The Trigger - Raj Narain, who had been defeated in the parliamentary election by Indira Gandhi, lodged cases of election fraud and use of state machinery for election purposes against Mrs. Gandhi in the Allahabad High Court.

The Wound - On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found the Prime Minister guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her election campaign. The court declared her election null & void and unseated her from her seat in the Lok Sabha. The court also banned her from contesting any election for an additional six years. She was held responsible for misusing the government machinery, and found guilty on charges such as using the state police to build a dais, availing the services of an IAS officer, Yashpal Kapoor during the elections, and use of electricity from the state electricity department.

The Real Enemy – All this while, an anti-Indira group had been gaining strength inside Congress for a long time, and many high positioned men were gathering support to take over the position of the Prime Minister namely – Jagjivan Ram, Swaran Singh & the various Young Turks. It is said that she feared not the judgment or the opposition as much as the rising discontent amongst her own party members. As a result, Mrs.Gandhi considered making Kamlapati Tripathi the temporary PM to tide away the opposing uproar from within her party, but refrained from doing so knowing well her party members intent; Jagjivan Ram, the No.2 of the Congress, and a long standing supporter of Indira Gandhi was known to have said that “We shall support Tripathi on the condition that he does not allow her (Indira) to come back”. Which is why Indira later decided against having a temporary PM, as once an investigation begun against her, her chances of political revival would be nulled due to the great damage it had do to her reputation.

The Second Bullet - As per the procedure, Indira Gandhi filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s judgment. The appeal was being petitioned before Jutice V R Iyer. While the judgment was still a few days away from announcement, the ruling had already been circulated and passed amongst the masses by word of mouth.
In a complete blow to Indira’s plans and wishes, Justice V R Iyer refused to give her unconditional stay, as demanded by her in the parliament and adjudged a conditional stay allowing her to remain a Member of the Parliament, but disallowing her to take part in the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.

The Shoulder and the Brains - Finding his mother reeling in such political turmoil, Sanjay Gandhi readied his own gang of political hooligans to oust any attempt to dislodge his mother from power. For this he sought help from his friend Bansi Lal, the then Chief Minister of Haryana Jagmohan Malhotra & Devkant Baruah.
He along with his friends thought over all possibilities to protect Indira’s stature, position and political career. It was in one such meeting that Sidhartha, a barrister by profession and the then Chief Minister of Bengal came up with the solution of imposing EMERGENCY in India as a possible solution to the situation.

The Resolution - Sanjay who was always in favor of dictatorship and absolute rule took great liking towards this idea. Indira too readily agreed to this idea as this way not even law could go against her as once emergency is imposed, there is no law left in the country.
The indignant prime minister apparently wanted to silence criticism or the possible upheaval of opposition and in her myopic wisdom proclaimed Emergency.

o It was decided that Emergency would be declared at midnight of the day Supreme Court was to formally give its judgement on Indira’s appeal.

o Only five people in the country knew that such a step was being planned, namely - Indira, Sanjay, Bansi lal, Dhavan, Om Mehta, Kishan Chand and Sidhartha. Later Baroah was added in on the scheme of things on 24^th June. Not even the president was aware that he would soon be signing the declaration of emergency in the country.

o Four hours before the emergency was to be declared, Sidhartha and Mrs Gandhi drove to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and explained to the president what the Emergency would entail.

o The President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed not once thought of denouncing or opposing the emergency mainly to show his gratitude towards Mrs Gandhi for having elevated him to the highest position in the country (as it was on Mrs.Gandhi’s behest that he had become the president).

o The proclamation of a state emergency was signed by the president, on 25 June at 11.45pm, fifteen minutes before when it was to begin.

o The proclamation stated that “A grave emergency exits whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbances”. It authorized the government to impose press censorship, suspend court proceedings and so on. It bore a strong resemblance to what the Germany underwent just a few years ago from then when Hitler prevailed upon the President to sign a decree “for the protection of the people and State, suspending sections of the constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties”.

o Ironically Indira Gandhi had not a few years ago stated that she would like to go down in history as a strong personality, much like Napoleon or Hitler because they would always be remembered.

During the Emergency

Political Imprisonment

o Leaders from all political parties except Congress & CPI were woken up at 3am in the morning and taken into custody at a police station close to the Parliament

o 676 prominent leaders were put behind bars that day even before the crack of dawn.

o Political Leaders were detained in Haryana on Bansi Lal’s request. “I have built a big modern jail in Rohtak”, he told Mrs. Gandhi

o Big names like JP, Morarji Desai, Ashok Mehta, Atal Behari Vajpayee, & Lal Krishan Advani were put behind bars under section 107 of IPC, a section regularly used to detain vagabonds.

o Signed blank warrants were prepared and kept in huge numbers to fill and use as the situation demanded.

Press Censorship

o No Delhi newspaper was published the day emergency was declared due to their power supplies being cut since midnight

o On June 26 censorship was imposed on all press writings regarding the emergency situation.

o Those that did not abide to the press censorship, and came out with uncensored newspapers either got their presses sealed or the power supply to their press cut indefinitely.

Constitutional Amendments

o The Constitution was amended to suit the prime minister's whims and fancies, laws were modified to overturn court orders

o Mrs Gandhi amended the Representation of Peoples Act and two other laws with retrospective effect to ensure that the Supreme Court is left with no option but to overturn the verdict of the Allahabad high court.

o The prime minister also took away from the apex court the authority to adjudicate election disputes relating to the president, the vice-president, the prime minister and the Lok Sabha speaker and transferred it to a body to be appointed by Parliament.

Forced Sterilization

o More than a million people were forcibly sterilised. People traveling in buses were forcibly taken out and sterilised.

o A very infamous incident in the same respect is when a chartered bus carrying professors for a seminar was diverted to a hospital and all the learned participants in the seminar were forced to undergo vasectomy despite their protest.

o Many women from villages fled to the hills for fear of the police carrying away people for sterilisation by force. There was a sense of terror throughout the country.

o It is said that the orders for forced vasectomy were given by Sanjay Gandhi.

Civil Disobedience

o The sikhs community came out strongly against the Indira government and launched a series of rallies & mass protests. The first mass protest in the country, known as the "Campaign to Save Democracy" was organized by the Akali Dal and launched in Amritsar, July 9.

o According to Amnesty International, 140,000 people had been arrested without trial during the twenty months of Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Of them, 40,000 had come from India's two percent Sikh minority

o RSS was banned soon after the declaration of the Emergency. But despite the ban it came out in large numbers to protest the Emergency rule. It was described by The Economist, London as the only non-left revolutionary force in the world.

Towards the end of tunnel

o On January 23, 1977, Indira Gandhi called fresh elections for March and released all political prisoners.

o Indira and Sanjay both lost their Lok Sabha seats, as did most of their loyal followers. Many Congress Party loyalists deserted Indira, who herself lost her constituency seat. The Congress was reduced to just 153 seats, 92 of which were from four of the southern states.

o The Janata Party's 295 seats (of a total 542) gave it only a slim majority, but opposition candidates together represented more than two-thirds of the Lok Sabha.

o Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.

o The emergency requiring renewal by the parliament every six months was renewed thrice before being finally called off

o Emergency officially ended on March 23, 1977

o In Indira’s own words, Emergency brought democracy “to a grinding halt”

Aggresive! Chinese Army or Indian Media ?

Chinese troops intrude in the Indian Territory. Chinese spy planes enter the Indian territory for more than 10 minutes. Rocket launched by Chinese military kills 2 & injures 3 soldiers. Another incident of incursion reported in the N-E region by Chinese aircraft. Chinese army spray paints boulders in Ladakh red, scripting it red in Mandarin.

Seriously its getting a little too dull hearing the same headlines repeat day after day. Not a week passes without some newspaper or news channel shouting EXCLUSIVE and then repeating what's been said a hundred times already. But no matter the repetition these stories do make sense and reason. There is a valid reason behind the continuous repetition and highlighting of such incidents by the Indian Media... Or is there?

The past few weeks have been full of newspapers either reporting of some boundary violation or highlighting the strength of the Chinese army. In other words, creating a war like hysteria. Such stories being aggressive and highly suggestive in nature are sending panic waves across the country, putting the Sino-Indian relations in jeopardy.

To this effect the government is taking all possible measures to down play these stories and ridicule these incidents thereby shaking the validity and credibility of these happenings.

And because of the contrasting stands taken by the government, & the media, the public is left in a predicament so as to decide whom to lay their trust with. For while the media is reliable and trustworthy and is known to bring such eye-openers at the forefront without anyone asking it to; the acceptance and endorsement of the government is still sought for to add credence & evidence to such events. As despite the negative image surrounding the parliament & its word, in matters of defense at least, it is expected and more often than not, received the unadulterated scenario from the government.

Also, the media alone cannot be relied upon completely, due to its thirst for news stories and hunger to create a public hype that can translate in TRPs & higher readership. It was also noted by an acclaimed specialist of Chinese studies that these news stories conveniently appeared mostly in the weekends, with the weekends generally being the dry days for news events.

But while the media may be criticized for overplaying such incidents, one wonders why is the government downplaying them?

There is an old saying that there is no smoke without a fire, so if the whole of the media continuously raves on the issue, reporting yet more incidents week after week, could it be that there bi some truth in them? And if yes then why is the no action being taken about it? If there is even a slight possibility of Chinese aggression then why does the government remain silent & prefer to silence others?

It is well known that the Chinese have illegally acquired control of the north east region of Kashmir, also known as the Aksai Chin. It is also known that China has always staked ownership of Arunachal Pradesh & have refused point-blank to even consider otherwise. The government is well aware how the Chinese eyes gaze sleazily towards Sikkim hungrily waiting for an opportunity to capture it, derecognizing it as an Indian territory at the first possibility. The world is well aware how the Chinese have for years dictated the Tibetans, oppressed the Taiwan’s and thus shown their hunger to expand their land and spread their malice & dictatorship that they hide under the cloak of communism. Still the government has refused to take any concrete measures to protect the Indian Soil.

China is buildings roads, bunkers, and other military installations all around Arunachal Pradesh. Whereas at the Indian side, the soldiers do not even have fully functional weapons let alone modern ones.

The Chinese have twice the number of Indian tanks, FIVE times Indian Naval force, three times Indian War ships & subs, twice as many Air force personnel, and more than thrice the air force fighter jets, spending US$70-140 billion on defense expenditure for the year 2009, it is spending at least three times more than what India is spending at US$26.5 billion. Needless to say, that had a war take place between the two countries, the Indian Military would be outnumbered 2:1, and would suffer a crushing defeat, much like it did in 1962 (3,968 Indian soldiers were captured, 1,696 went missing, and over 1,383 were killed in this dreaded war, contradictory to 722 deaths reported by the PRA with no POWs).

And with the current diplomatic conditions favoring the Chinese, India would be surrounded literally from all sides, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and now, Nepal & Sri Lanka favoring China over India. It would only be a recap of the 1962 War with only a lot more losses being counted on the Indian side in terms of life, property & territory.

And the very thought of one such incident, shakes the jitters out of the Indian government. A recall of the 1962 War, the only war that India ever lost, which also happens to be the only war fought between India and China ever in our 6000 year old history stops the government from even considering the possibility of a War. The outcome of a possible war scares me too, as it must scare any nationalistic Indian. But is being frightened of the situation a solution? Is believing that there would never be a war between India and China a good enough reason not to prepare for it?

We chant Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai, send peace proposals across the border while China smiles on our face and stabs on our back. (examples. Blocking the loan by the Asian Development Bank; outbidding us in all oil block purchases in an attempt to make us energy deficient; silently opposing the Civil Nuclear deal; vetoing our acceptance in the UNSC)

I think it is time we woke up from our fantasy of friendship and bhaicharya and accept the fact that India-China are no more friends, and only competitors in terms of trade, world power and technology with each bidding for the same pie of a very small cake.