FREEDOM MOVEMENT

Eminent Jurist Chimanlal Setalvad on Responsibility for Partition

The Times of India, 15 January, 1947

The die is cast, India is to be partitioned into Hindustan and Pakistan with all the grave dangers inherent in such partition. If the agreement to partition had been the result of mutual goodwill and understanding between the major parties, one might have hoped for harmonious working and the establishment of mutual confidence, leading ultimately to complete understanding and the emergence of a united India. But in this case the British Government had to put before the parties the best solution they could think of and the force of circumstances has compelled the Congress and the Muslim League to accept it. The force of circumstances, as I will show later, was of their own creation.

The solution has been reluctantly accepted by the Congress and the Muslim League and both dislike it; the League has failed to get all that it wanted and the Congress had to accept what had been most repugnant to them, the division of India. The question of minorities, instead of being solved by partition, will be intensified. On any supposed or real grievances of the minorities in Hindustan or Pakistan, conflict will arise.

It is legitimate to enquire who is responsible for this debacle. In my view, all the parties concerned, viz. the Congress, the British Government and the Muslim League, are all more or less responsible, although on the facts set forth, the Congress should get the first prize.

The Congress, on the other hand, instead of promptly accepting the whole scheme, raised various questions about its interpretation and raised objections to clauses grouping the provinces in different sections. They thus repudiated one of the fundamentals of the scheme. They further contended that the Constituent Assembly was a sovereign body and could put its own interpretation upon the provisions of the scheme. A prominent Congress leader said that they had agreed to nothing except entry into the Constituent Assembly. On June 26, the Congress accepted the long-term plan but rejected the interim government scheme. On June 29, the Muslim League Council withdrew its acceptance of both the interim and long-term schemes and directed its Working Committee to declare forthwith a programme of direction action.

From June 1946 onwards, the Congress carried on a campaign against grouping and sections, and on August 10, while purporting to accept the scheme "in its entirety", still repudiated the grouping system. It was not till December 22, after His Majesty's Government issued their statement of December 6, that the Congress accepted the Cabinet Mission's scheme in its entirety and with the interpretation put upon it by the Cabinet Mission itself. They closed the stable door long after the horse had run away. If the Congress had displayed statesmanship and obvious common sense by accepting the Cabinet Mission's scheme in its entirety and with the interpretation which they ultimately accepted immediately after the acceptable by the Muslim League on June 6, the Cabinet Mission Plan for a united India would have been set working. It was obvious that the Muslim League had with great difficulty persuaded itself to accept the Cabinet Mission scheme, both interim and long-term, and it would have been wisdom on the part of other parties to complete the deal and not give any opportunity or excuse to the League to go back on acceptance. Or the contrary. as pointed out above, the Congress leaders carried on January 19, 1947, Mr. Gandhi advised Assam to stay out propaganda in the country for months, and even on of the grouping.

Britain's Part

The British Government must also share the blame for what has happened. As soon as the Muslim League accepted the scheme, Lord Wavell should have hustled the other party and persuaded them to accept the whole scheme. The British Government should have from the beginning firmly announced their interpretation of the disputed clauses as soon as the controversy arouse, and not allowed wrangling about them for months. Further when the Muslim League expressed their willingness to clearly stipulated that their coming in the Interim join the Interim Government, Lord Wavell should have Government must be dependent on their agreeing to enter the Constituent Assembly.

It is futile to attempt to hide the naked truth by saying that force of circumstances has compelled the Congress to accept the partition of India and they had to submit to the inevitable. The circumstances were of their own creation. The cherished boon of a united India had fallen into their lap, but they by their own want of political wisdom threw it out and made it beyond their reach. Some Congress leaders have argued that they could not coerce unwilling parts of the country to join the Union. Between May 16 and June 29, 1946 there was no question of coercing anyone. The Muslim League had Cabinet Mission, but the Congress missed the opportunity accepted both parts of the united India scheme of the of closing the deal. Others say that the partition scheme is better than the Cabinet Mission scheme as in the latter there was a weak Centre. This attempt at face-saving is futile. A common Central Government was a great thing to achieve. Although the Centre had only a few subjects. by experience and mutual consent its field could have been enlarged as was done in the case of the United States, Canada and Australia.

The Future

As regards the Muslim League, what has happened will be regarded by them as a great triumph... What has happened is indeed a great personal triumph for Mr. Jinnah. Within seven years after the Lahore Pakistan resolution of 1940, he has succeeded in defeating a great political organization of sixty years' standing with the backing of the large majority of the Indian people. But has he succeeded in doing good to the Muslims themselves and to his country? When the whole world is trying to integrate, it is no service to India to disintegrate the country. India divided and speaking with two voices cannot pull her proper weight in the councils of the nations. But above all, the division of India has laid the foundations of interminable quarrels and chaos which will bring untold suffering to generations yet unborn. This is what the League has accomplished.

(Courtesy: The Mainstream, 10 February, 1996)