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What were some of the effects of the partition of India?

Why did a large number of Muslim in India decide to stay in India after  Hindu-Muslim partition of India ,1947?

  • Then why was Pakistan(east&west) created in the first place? This question is asked in good faith and out of curiosity about the mindset of Muslims who settled in India despite Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his colleagues' accusation of discrimination against Mohammedans which led to the Indian-Muslim partition of India. Do not treat this as some kind of discriminatory comment. Any Mohammedan whose grandparents and parents have shared stories of that time are requested to comment. Thank You.

  • Answer:

    Anon OP, I shall assume that this is a question asked in good faith. Per se I am no great fan of community based biases otherwise. From that POV, at least two of the (thankfully) collapsed answers are sheer delight. Also please note that this is a rational view. For the record, I am neither Muslim nor Pakistani. I must also note that no matter how short I try to make this, it would never be a TL;DR answer. But I can still try a TL:DR graphic, based on set theory and independent intersections of different sets. Now, on to the long answer. Partition became inevitable because of personality clashes between three prominent figures in the drama of the Indian Independence struggle: and on one side and on the other. And while Jinnah's later stand as well as the ideology he switched to were both flawed, I can't blame him overmuch. In his place, even I would have had something to beef about. If such complex events as the politics of the movement can be abridged, I shall try. Jinnah was, to begin with, a staunch moderate and a strong proponent of . He was also a pillar of the Indian Independence movement for years by the time Gandhi came back to India from South Africa and entered the political scenario. And then Gandhi, , did something that I have never figured out: Very subtly he assumed notional leadership position while at the same time undermining that of Jinnah. , so he naturally got ahead in comparison to the highly rational but hardly engaging personality of Jinnah. At the same time, Gandhi was notably soft on Nehru, Jinnah's political arch rival and competitor. So while Gandhi himself had no ambitions of any formal position in the post independence Indian government, he did push Nehru's case against Jinnah's. And predictably, this did nothing to endear either of them to Jinnah. One also needs to look at the demographics and pre British colonial history of India. Muslims were not the numerical majority at any time in India, and at the time of the Independence movement they were about one third of the population. But despite that, India had been ruled by Muslim rulers for centuries before the British, and the upper class Muslims had got accustomed to seeing themselves as the nobility and the ruling class. All that had mostly been obliterated by the British colonial rule, but at least the British did extend their patronage to the Muslim princes and upper class. However, with the departure of the British imminent, the Indian Muslim elite were in a fix. Neither could they get colonial patronage, nor hope for anything akin to their old nobility status in an independent democratic India where Hindus outnumbered them two to one. Their solution? The Indian Muslim League and later, the . The TNT held that India had never been a single nation, but the two numerically significant communities could each be counted as one. As I have already observed, Jinnah would initially not hear of this absurdity, for an absurdity it was. Nation states are not formed on religious grounds, but by natural geographic and demographic boundaries. Religion is never the distinguishing feature, but population descent lines and culture certainly are. And this had (and still has) much in common between the Indian Hindus and Muslims. However, he got thoroughly embittered and disillusioned by the Gandhi-Nehru combo, both of whom also happened to be Hindu. Now . He would rarely change his basic stand. Unfortunately, in case of Hindu Muslim unity and phe did, though for all the wrong reasons, fed by the already existing Muslim aristocracy fears as indicated above. And once he did switch over to the idea of the Two Nation Theory and a separate homeland for the Indian Muslims, there would be no second U turns for him. , and in the end it took the form of the ghastly and lethal sequence of the partition horrors that history records in great detail. But the other notable Muslim leader of the Independence movement, , had no such illusions. Even after Jinnah had made his turnaround, Kalam still warned of the consequences of the Two Nations fallacy. He predicted even before Pakistan was a political reality that it would be riddled by faction fights between Muslims, a denial of basic identity, a professed hatred of everything Indian, the rise of military dictatorships and extreme right wing fanaticism. Subsequent history proves him right on all those counts, as everyone can see. Here one can see Maulana Azad in the foreground, with Gandhi and Vallabh Bhai Patel in the background. The earmarked Muslim homeland was the areas where the Muslims were a numeric majority - The north western part of India as well as the Eastern part, what are now Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively. But even after the Radcliffe line was drawn, the large majority of Muslims residing in other geographic areas chose to stay on. There was no reason or compulsion for them to leave, because India chose to remain steadfastly secular then and ever since, while Pakistan went on to become the Islamic Republic as it calls itself now. Just sayin' that personality fights of big time politicos ain't necessarily the common man's views. Make no mistake: the present day Indian Muslim is just as Indian as I am. Note: My thanks to for his suggestion to hyperlink the names of all the four prominent personalities mentioned here to the respective eponymous Quora topics. Some of it he has done himself.

Som Bhatta at Quora Visit the source

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Why was Pakistan created in the first place? Well, am sorry if I offend anyone, am just trying to answer the question very honestly - as to what I think is unmistakably the root cause of partition.. The two-nation-theory - the theory that 'muslims' and 'non-muslims' are two completely different, un-mixable entities who simply cannot stay together. Now, I laugh when people talk about this like this was some new concept/idea created by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan or Iqbal or whoever. This is one of the most central ideas of Islam - the divide between muslims and kafirs. The Dar-al Islam (house of Islam, where muslims are in majority) and Dar-al Harb (house of war, where non-muslims are in majority, which must eventually be fought & brought under muslim rule). The two nation theory is nothing but a modern phrase for this concept that Islam already teaches. Experts say as much as 66% of the holy book, directly or indirectly talks about muslims & kafirs. This is why Islam has a problem integrating everywhere in the world. It is not just in India they demanded a separate state - they are doing it in China too (In Xinjiang, Ugyhur muslims are demanding a separate state). There have been similar demands in Canada. Boko haram trying to set up an islamic state in Nigeria. ISIS doin same in Syria & Iraq. Apart from that, major problems of integration practically EVERYWHERE in the world - be it India, Sri Lanka, China, Burma, UK, US, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, France, Switzerland, other parts of Europe, Russia, Germany, Israel, Nigeria, CAR, other African countries.. I read so many answers here giving political/social/socio-economic reasons for the partition. See the list of countries above where Islam is having an integration problem - what is common everywhere - the teachings of Islam. Political/social/socio-economic reasons do exist, but are always secondary. The primary reason is Islam, imo. (Just look at the speeches, discussions, conversations or propaganda material of separatists in Kashmir, and you will see clearly - how this is nothing but about Islam. Yet, if somebody wanted to, they could easily give political, social reasons for it. ) There are so many things I can include to support my point - the 1400 year old history of Islam, stats of terrorism, stats of persecution of minorities in muslim majority countries, etc etc - but it will get too long. I blame it on religion. Am not sure if Quora allows answers like these. If not, I will delete..

Anonymous

Indian muslims had deep connections, ties and attachments to this country. It is very difficult to renounce your house, land, job/business in India and move to a new nation and live there as a refugee. It is not practical. But, still many people migrated or had to migrate. As a result of the Independence movement, there was a feeling of patriotism in the muslim community as well. They were also part of the Independence movement and they were against the British rule. Allama Iqbal wrote 'Saare Jahan Se Achcha Hindostaan Hamara'. So, they considered India as their nation. Many people didn't feel strongly for Pakistan . India is a secular nation. So, people from all religions are welcome in India. There are a few cultural differences between Indian muslims and Pakistani people as well. India muslims are not one entity. There is a big variety in them according to their state. Muslims in Tamilnadu or Kerala are very different from Kashmiri muslims or Bengali muslims. So, it's a little complicated.

Chinmay Joshi

The briefest answer I have to this question is that the partition was purely political and the selfish agenda of a few, sold to the masses as the need of many. Muslims who chose to stay in India understood this. Indians, Muslim or not, who respect this also understand this. Being Indian is a national social identity, while being Muslim is a personal religious choice. These two things are not and should not be considered mutually exclusive. India is a nation for all who want to be Indian and every Indian has and should have the right to choose their religion without fear of persecution.

Kadambari Prasad

Because despite what right wing fanatics would have us believe, religion is not the most important thing in life. It is probably a support and help, but religion comes only after food water shelter education, and the prospect of a comfortable life. Pakistan was founded on the sole premise that Muslims and their religion would not be safe in united India. They never had a development agenda, and still do not. What they care about is only maintaining the Islamic nature of the state. In this context, it is clear why many Muslims decided that they would maintain their property and stay in their homelands, rather than go to a newly born country with no agenda beyond religion.

Hari Govind

India wasn't meant to be for Hindus only, first of all. And perhaps, Muslims were spread across the nation - Cashmere(Present day J&K), Hyderabad(AP, Telangana), Ahmednagar and Aurangabad(Maharashtra), Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh), coastal Kerala, parts of Bihar, North Bengal(this doesn't include any part of Bangladesh), parts of Gujarat, Delhi, and in many more places distant to each other. So it was not possible for all of them to shift to Pakistan/Bangladesh. Yes, it is definitely true that they are as much Indian as any non-Muslim.

Tyto Alba

Most of the partition was according to the population. The majority of Muslim population joined Pakistan and the Hindu population joined India. Although the state of Hyderabad and Kashmir choose to be independent. Kashmir had about 75% of Muslims but the maharaja was Hindu and he refused to join Pakistan.Hyderabad later came under India. When Pakistan started to take over Kashmir the maharaja asked India for help, but as it was not part of India, the Indian government refused to help. To maharaja the joined India and Kashmir was now under India. Maybe this is the reason that some population of Kashmir still wants to join Pakistan instead of India.

Ravi Prashant

On 14 August 1947, a new country was created for people who wanted a new country. Not for muslims, or north-western people, or anyone specific but only for people who wanted a new country.

Rishabh Sharma

In the past, all the provinces were given the right to chose whether they want to remain with India or have a separate state based on religion after Muslim League strongly advocated for it. But not even a single Muslim majority provinces decided to stay with India and instead voted for a separate state. So all the Muslim majority provinces were bound to have Islamic state after that voting and Hindus in those areas had to flee to avoid lifetime torture. In other provinces where they were minority, they didn't had enough votes to get a separate state so decided to stay with India because otherwise they had to leave their established business and property. But it was India's greatest stupidity to allow Muslims to stay because the same issue will be raised again when Muslims will increase their numbers and will demand a separate state just like Kashmir Valley.

Anonymous

First of all, a large number already decided to leave India, because Pakistan was their very own country.           It was the following months/years of independence that they saw their condition in both parts of Pakistan(East & West(now Bangladesh)) that they decided to stay in India. And even those who left for Pakistan are treated as a second category citizens of Pakistan (even today) and are called Mujahid.           Second reason was common for both sides, due to which some Hindus also decided to stay back in Pakistan. Since they were living there since ages and had good relations with their neighborhood, they decided to stay back. However their results differ.           Last and the most important reason was the intention to stay with the parent body. No doubt Pakistan was made for muslims only but the fact that India was the parent country obviously had benefits and the permission and assurance of safty  granted by then PM Jawahar lal Nehru played an important role in it.             And since then, Muslims are grateful and devoted vote bank of Congress. In the following duration, the party has tried various options like freebies and other benefits to keep them attracted towards them only.            And today after so many years, comparing to Muslims in Pakistan & Bangladesh, they must be happy that they made a right decision.

Dabbu Kapoor

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