Independence
After the Labor Party won the elections in 1945 r., its leaders realized the need to quickly solve the Indian problem. However, the elections in India showed many national divisions. The dividing lines were marked by religious beliefs: The Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jin-nah, demanded the complete domination of the followers of Islam, while the Congress Party, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, it represented the Hindu people. Gandhi was the patron, but its influence continued to diminish, as evidenced by subsequent events. "India will be divided or destroyed", Jinnah argued, whose uncompromising attitude and willingness to impose his power on another nation, along with the efforts of Congress to enlarge the territory of independent India, have become major obstacles to independence. Each day increased the danger of the outbreak of national struggles. At the beginning 1945 r. The British failed to bring both sides to an agreement and the country faced the threat of a civil war. Muslim League calls for a "day of direct action" led to the massacre of the Indian population in Calcutta, which in retaliation resulted in repression of the followers of Islam. Subsequent attempts to reconcile the warring parties were unsuccessful. In January 1947 r. the British government made a fateful decision: the current viceroy of Wavell will be replaced by Louis Mountbatten, and in June of the following year, India will gain independence. Hangman, in the north of the country, similar to Bengal in the east, they were in chaos then. The new viceroy tried to convince the feuding parties, that a united state would be the most sensible solution. However, it was decided to partition the country. Gandhi opposed it for fear of the expected chaos. A simple division of the country into two parts proved impossible. Although some regions were inhabited only by Hindus or Muslims, after all, there were Muslim enclaves surrounded by Hindu people and also ethnically heterogeneous areas. The fact that this division is unworkable is best presented, that after its formal implementation, India remained the third largest Muslim country in the world (after Indonesia and Pakistan). Even today, India has more Muslims than Turkey, Iran or Arab countries. Unfortunately, the two largest areas inhabited by Muslims were on opposite sides of the country, so that Pakistan would be divided by territory belonging to Hindus. The temporal nature of such a solution was obvious; it took place 25 years before that, how East Pakistan became Bangladesh. The Sikhs also recognized, that their homeland was divided into two parts. After independence, other problems arose as well. Pakistan felt a shortage of government officials, most of which were located in India, because it was not a class, which Muslims undertook. Numerous works, such as money lending or servants, they performed untouchable, thus they were also the domain of the Hindus. Mountbatten decided to take a radical step and announce, that independence will be regained 14 of August 1947 r. Historians are wondering, whether it was this move that caused further bloodshed. Soon after the decision to partition the country was made, borders began to be drawn up. Given, that entrusting this task to local authorities would easily be opposed by one of the parties, a British negotiator was appointed to establish the boundary lines. It was known, that its provisions could also be disastrous for many thousands of people. The most difficult decisions were about Punjab and Bengal, to which Kolkata belonged. From East Bengal, famous for the cultivation of jute, Calcutta was separated, inhabited mainly by Hindus, in which there were port facilities and factories processing jute. The situation in Punjab was much worse, where national antagonisms reached their apogee. Inhabited by Muslims (55%), Hindus (30%) and Sikhs, it was one of the richest and most fertile areas of the country. Although the authorities were aware of the consequences of their decisions, it's bloodshed though, what happened after independence and during the demarcation of borders, exceeded all expectations. The situation did not normalize until Muslims moved to Pakistan, and the Sikhs to India. The boundary line separated the two main cities of Punjab – Lahore-i-Ami-itsar. Before independence, in La-Hawara on the whole 1,2 min residents, ok. 500 thousand. they were Hindus, a 100 thousand. Sikhs. After independence, it was only 1000 Hindus and Sikhs.
For many months, the greatest exodus in human history took place in the west and east of the Punjab. Trains carrying Muslims fleeing west often stopped and attacked groups of Hindus or Sikhs. A similar fate befell the Sikhs and Hindus fleeing to the East. Military troops, shipped to keep order, were not enough, and they often joined the attacking crowd themselves. Calculated, that as a result of these events over 10 min people changed their place of residence, a ok. 250 thousand. were murdered; however, the actual death toll could be over half a million. Over a million Hindus also migrated to Bengal, headed west due to the abandonment of these areas by Muslims, who in turn moved to eastern Pakistan. Massacres of the population did not take place only during the division of the Punjab. During British rule, many principalities and states survived in India; then joining them to Pakistan or India proved very difficult. The assurances of a certain independence convinced them of joining one of the newly established states. Three of these states retained their status during the emergence of independence.
One of them was Muslim Kashmir, ruled by the Hindu Maharaja, who could not make a choice. In October 1948 r. the borders of Kashmir were crossed by the Pakistani Pathan troops, with the intention of conquering Srinagar and annexing Kashmir, without causing the Indian-Pakistani conflict. However. unfortunately for Pakistan, The Pathans were tempted to invade by the promise of plunder, which took them quite a while, that the Hindu troops come in time to help Srinagar. The undecided Maharaja finally joined India, thus calling the first, albeit a short one, the Indo-Pakistani war. The UN troops managed to reconcile both sides, nevertheless, the Kashmir issue has long remained the main point of contention between the two countries. Due to the Muslim majority and neighborhood with Pakistan, many tended to support the Pakistani claims to the region. Kashmir was an important problem for the Congress Party, and India avoided holding the promised plebiscite there.
To date, India and Pakistan have been separated in this region by a demarcation line, known as the "line of actual control", which neither of the countries concerned considers an official border. The last act of the tragedy took place 30 January 1948 r "when Gandhi was killed by a Hindu fanatic.