A good discussion on Partition between Fareed Zakaria, Husain Haqqani and Nisid Hajari at the Asia Society can be found here:
In general, I liked the discussion because it gave me extra perspective on the events of the Partition, and because it was, in general, a forward-looking discussion. My comments on some of the discussion's specifics are below.
On M.A. Jinnah:
The respected panelists give the impression that M.A. Jinnah was a helpless and frustrated spectator while speechifying Congress leaders didn't take concrete action and allowed mayhem and massacre of Muslims to happen.
Actually M.A.Jinnah was no helpless spectator and could have taken concrete action on many occasions, but never did. In many cases, it was his party Muslim League leading the mayhem against non-Muslims while he watched without speaking or taking action.
Some occasions were:
- the Manzilgah riots engineered by the Muslim League in Sindh in 1939
- the assassination of Sindhi Muslim leader opposing the League, Allah Baksh Sumroo by his Muslim League rival in 1943
- the Direct Action riots under Suhrawardy's Muslim League government in Calcutta, Bengal in August 1946
- the attack by Muslim Leaguers on a Muslim appointee to the Indian national cabinet in September 1946 in Simla [Advani, Jinnah and the secularism debate]
- Being more responsible in his maximalist endeavours
Jinnah and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan told the Nawab of Rampur (a Muslim) in August 1947 that his Rampur state (far away from Pakistan's borders) would face violence from Muslim League if he 'deserted Pakistan and joined India'. He did and violence did ensue till Sardar Patel took concrete action.
[Incidents recorded by Mountbattenhttps://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/mountbatten-and-jinnah-negotiations-on-pakistan-april-]
- Being more realistic in his maximalist endeavours.
Jinnah demanded a land corridor through Delhi, Lucknow and Patna running between the West and East wings of Pakistan. Did Jinnah imagine the non-Muslim residents of this 'corridor' would willingly and peacefully join Pakistan? There was never any security among Indians about what Jinnah would demand and what the British would grant him.
- Having less hatred for elected representatives of the Hindu majority
Jinnah had threatened the Viceroy with civil war throughout 1940-1947 if elected Congress governments returned from their boycott in Hindu majority provinces. The British had granted him that point and kept the Congress leaders in jail.
The Muslim League entered the national government in September 1946 and played an obstructionist uncooperative role until February 1947 when the British announced their plans to exit India. In October 1946, Jinnah urged the Viceroy to have a Muslim League national government excluding the Congress because 'Congress leaders were completely over-rated; had simply reached the position they had because they had been to jail and were therefore martyrs; that the personnel of the Muslim League was really completely superior in administrative capacity, etc'.
The Muslim League entered the national government in September 1946 and played an obstructionist uncooperative role until February 1947 when the British announced their plans to exit India. In October 1946, Jinnah urged the Viceroy to have a Muslim League national government excluding the Congress because 'Congress leaders were completely over-rated; had simply reached the position they had because they had been to jail and were therefore martyrs; that the personnel of the Muslim League was really completely superior in administrative capacity, etc'.
On M.K. Gandhi:
Gandhi can be indeed be held responsible for giving the impression that Hindus were eternally non-violent because he thereby gave Jinnah and the Muslim League a false impression that they could get their way by violence.
Sadly, when Hindus and Sikhs began retaliating to violent tactics by the Muslim League, the scale of destruction and death escalated badly.
On Gandhi speaking of non-Muslim women
Though Gandhi is dead and gone and the respected panelists today find fault with his speaking about the plight of non-Muslim women in those times, that particular issue is not yet history. Even today hundreds if not thousands of non-Muslim women are abducted, raped and forcibly converted in Pakistan.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/08/forced-conversions-torment-pakistan-hindus-201481795524630505.html
Gandhi had to speak on the subject of abductions of non-Muslim women because the 'secular' Jinnah and other Muslim leaders refused to speak on it even when they were urged to do so.
Whether in 1924 in Kohat, Punjab:
http://sadhanag.blogspot.com/2014/05/on-coercion-of-non-muslim-women.html
Whether in Noakhali, Bengal in 1946:
https://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/bengal-and-bihar-1946
Jinnah did not speak nor take concrete action in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in February-March 1947 when Sikhs were killed and Sikh women attacked in a prolonged Muslim League agitation. A Sikh newspaper editor who supported the Muslim League even wrote to Jinnah in February 1947 urging him to end the Muslim League campaign protesting the return of an abducted Sikh woman. The NWFP Premier was almost killed in that agitation lead by the Muslim League.
https://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/north-west-frontier-province-1946-47
Neither did Jinnah speak after the Punjab riots in March 1947 when at least 4000 Sikhs were killed and 100s of Sikh girls were abducted in West Punjab, principally Rawalpindi:
https://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/punjab-february---march-1947
The respected panelists also did not mention what happened when tribal raiders from Pakistan advanced on Kashmir during the Kashmir war in 1947. The Pakistani raiders got delayed in getting to Kashmir's capital and ultimately lost the war because they stopped to rape women on the way.
Will the safety of women, non-Muslim or Muslim, ever be a priority for Pakistani leaders and the Pakistani state? The success of Pakistani endeavours in Afghanistan could be decided by this reality, as much as it informed the consequences of Jinnah's endeavours. Blaming Gandhi will not do it.
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