Modern South Asia: Politics, State, Diaspora: Notes - Part 2

Here's part 2 of the notes. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 focuses on conditions pre and post-Partition as well as Pakistan's post-independence struggle.

Enjoy reading and email me at modernglitch99@gmail.com for any comments/queries. Stay tuned for Part 3!

---

Modern South Asia: Politics, State, Diaspora

Chapter 7: Transnational Anticolonial Struggle

• india houses serving as meeting places for revolutionary students in london, new york and paris.

• ghadar movement in which mainly punjabi sikhs returned to start a revolution in their homeland

  • sikh jats who migrated to north america and experienced racism>> impelled them into an abortive attempt during the first world war to overthrow the raj.

• failed attempts by Rash Bose led him to flee to japan, where he orchestrated the creation of indian independence leagues among SEA diasporas. continued until Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Malaya, revived indian national army + indian independence leagues.

  • establishment of a provisional government of free India in singapore: sought japanese military support to free the homeland.

• pan islam:

  • the first world war intensified pan-islamic revolutionary activity. ottoman decline(emperor regarded as spiritual head (khalifa) of islamic world.

  • fears about threats to power created an environment that encouraged indian muslims to resist european imperialism.

  • khilafat movement and gandhi’s support: hindu-muslim unity

    • however liberals such as jinnah,who had been the architect of the Lucknow Pact ( in which Congress recognised separate electorates in return for Muslim League support), were alienated by the prominence the ulama acquired during the Khilafat

    • received its coup de grace when turkish national assembly abolished the office of caliph.

• Gandhi and Congress

  • Satyagraha: nonviolent civil disobedience

  • Salt March: led by 61 year old Gandhi//international coverage undermined government’s moral authority.

  • congress sent overseas missions to fiji, zanzibar, malaya, ceylon, south africa to safeguard indian disaporas against discrimination. : believed that subjugation overseas could only be ended by freedom at home

• subhas chandra bose

  • polarising view: architect of freedom but also flirted with facism and sought freedom not through non-violent struggle but through foreign invasion.

  • assumed leadership of India National Army (INA) and India Independence League (IIL). invasion of india launched from rangoon in 1944 but japanese and INA forces were driven back with heavy losses by the British in the battle of Imphal

    • 250k in malaya had written oaths of allegiance to provisional gov of azad hind

---

Chapter 8: Independence with Partition

• fall of Singapore to the Japanese: severe blow to British prestige in Asia.

• in 1942 the Quit India movement severely stretched resources.

  • workers went on strike in United Provinces and Bihar

• royal indian navy mutiny of 1946 revealed the danger of Britain clinging onto power.

  • began with a strike on the vessel Tarwar, more about local grievances than nationalist demands. accompanied strike in Bombay by textile workers and looting. enlisted men surrender arms after negotiation by Congress.

Path to independence

• 1919 Amritsar massacre + beating of peaceful protestors during Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha severely diminished British authority.

• while british had, since the 1917 Montagu Declaration, held out the eventual goal of self-government, the Second World War’s strains had brought this outcome much closer.

• the final decision to quit became interlinked with the fear of being caught in the middle of a civil war.

• Wavell inability to resolve Pakistan issue: Lord Mountbatten took over only if a deadline was announced for British transfer of power.

  • had a generally better relationship with nehru as compared to jinnah and thus partition was pro-india

• indian leaders’ acceptance of 3 june partition did not halt endemic violence in Punjab which spiralled out of control when British departed

  • Sikh involvement/ revenge following 1947 Rawalpindi Massacres (Sikh women were targeted by Muslim mobs.Numerous Hindu and Sikh villages were wiped out. Huge numbers of Hindus and Sikhs were killed, forcibly converted, children were kidnapped and women were abducted and raped publicly)

    • Sikh hopes for a separate state// resulted in a reduction of Pakistan, with division of Muslim majority Bengal and Punjab provinces.

Path to Partition

• some revisionist scholars maintain that Jinnah never abandoned his earlier stance in favour of hindu-muslim unity, raising the Pakistan demand as a bargaining counter for a greater Muslim voice in postcolonial India.

• His Muslim League Party not only struggled to fend off local Muslim parties in Bengal and Punjab but was eclipsed by the Punjab unionists in all-india deliberations.

• following outbreak of WW2: Government of India Act 1935:

  • introduced local representative politics while British firmly maintained the levers of power at the national level.

  • congress won 716/1585 seats: formed government in 7/11 indian provinces

    • congress could not meet expectations of workers and peasants and in bombay and bihar: militant peasant movement led by Kisan Sabha

    • congress rule in muslim minority provinces: felt threatened.

    • failure to estabish muslim league coalition gov in UP heightened separatist anxieties.

  • UP congress leadership wanted the League to cooperate on terms that would have ended its autonomous existence

    • also insenstivie to muslim anxieties by encouraging ghandian inspired education reform, which muslims saw as hinduization.

• outbreak of ww2: increase in resistance// Raj vs Congress and Muslim league was accorded increased status

  • increase Jinnah's constitutional veto during the Cripps mission 1942

  • proposal that no part of india would be forced to join the postwar indian dominion.

  • gave Jinnah power + influence for post war transfer of power negotiations.

• leaders saw partition as a way to end violence that had spread from calcutta to punjab though gandhi was against it.

• muslim league had to defeat unionist rivals in punjab to achieve lines of partition.: compromise with local muslim elites which caused long term problems for pakistan’s political development + electioneering methods that prevented coalition government.

• muslim league wanted to prevent division of muslim majority regions in bengal and punjab

  • mountbatten generally favoured india: urdaspur district with a muslim majority was granted to india because of access to jammu and kashmir while hindu majoirty chittagong hill tracts to pakistan to balance the award.

• overall Partition was very rushed. the boundary report came out on 17 august, dominions of India and Pakistan came into existence without knowing the full extent of their territory. + minimalist dissident: Congress groups attempted to influence the framing of a future West Bengal state so as to increase their post-independence prospects.

• princely states post -partition

  • Some princes harboured hopes for independence but in the end all princely states went to either India or Pakistan. armed conflict in case of jammu and kashmir.

  • kalat: ruler’s younger brother military clashes with punjab forces until arrest. Baloch nationalists supported the state’s stance.

    • oct 1958: Khan responded to the centralizing impact of one unit plan by announcing secession from Pakistan.

    • tribal revolt was used as a justification by pakistani president iskander mirza to justify the coup that ended pakistan's first experiment with democracy.

---

Chapter 9: Nehru and the new India

• optimistic promises of a liberating modernism and the realities of entrenched interests, continuing poverty, and disparities of power haunted the Nehruvian era.

• dams’ development as a representation of the modernized postcolonial state.

• had a vision of a plural india with a composite culture which contrasted the increased voices of hindu majoritarianism during partition: banned RSS organisation after Gandhi’s assasination (30/6/48)

• key Nehruvian ideas of nation building through modernisation were largely unchallenged until the emergence in the 80s of hindu nationalism and globalisation.

  • “Nehru anchored secularism not in western notions of a separation of religion and politics but in the belief in the equality of religions that was the natural outcome of a composite culture developed through the ages.

• at the heart of Nehru’s secularism: equality of opportunity.

  • cultural + educational rights

  • freedom of religion

  • separate electorates and reserved seats for Muslims abolished as barriers to national integration(retained for Untouchables).

  • Shariat remained in Muslim personal law to reassure muslim minority.

    • muslim women were deprived of equal status provided by the constitution in matters of divorce, maintenance and inheritance

  • UP and Bihar: enforce bans on cow slaughter

  • long term: damaging effect of Muslim marginalisation in the bureaucracy, police, etc: proof that many did not share PM’s vision. + federal arrangements established in the 1950 constitution delivered considerable powers to conservative state-level politicians.

    • this thwarted Nehru’s agragrian reform, Muslim recruitment and the privileging of Hindu over Urdu.

• Congress co-opted local elites + accommodated a range of conflicting interests to obtain electoral success in early 50s + 60s: this stood in the way of top-down initiated reform

  • coupled with Nehru’s unwavering commitment to democracy meant that he could not force through agrarian reforms as in China

  • democracy did not extend to those at the base of society: inequalities arising from gender, class and caste persisted.

• Nehru’s liberal democracy meant that despite socialist rhetoric, property relations remained basically unchanged: privileged social groups who supported Congress continued to feel comfortable with it: growing gap between rhetoric and reality.

• Linguistic reorganisation of state boundaries with the States Reorganisation Act of 1956: Nehruvian accommodationist politics that stands in stark contrast to the handling of linguistic demands in Pakistan.

Economic aspect

• 3 five-year plans(1951-1966): emphasised industry rather than agriculture as the key to development, although the latter continued to provide a livelihood for more than 70% of the population.

• Low agricultural productivity depressed economic growth rates and made India reliant on US food aid: EIsenhower Food for Peace Program: otherwise would have resulted in famine

• planning exercise achieved goal of self-reliance but at cost of highly subsidized and inefficient state enterprises

• rising literacy rates, life expectancy but literacy gains mitigated by rapid rise in population

Foreign and domestic relations

• China’s claim against Mc Mahon line

• Jammu + Kashmir + northeastern states: political accommodation gave way to electoral manipulation and direct administration from New Delhi.

• variety of administrative and constitutional provision adopted to placate tribal sentiments

  • fighting against separatist movements:

    • fight insurgency with military force

    • when rebels tire, offer negotiations

    • Convince them that secession was not possible but enable them to gain power in resulting elections however this resulted in renewed struggles in Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur

• Non -alignment: secured aid from both USSR and US

  • at the 1955 Bandung conference in Indonesia, non-alignment formally came into being and India had secured a standing in international relations far in excess of its material resources.

  • however Sino-Indian War 1962: India pressed for western military aid. compromise non-aligned stance due to expanded defense budget. following military humiliation, New Dehli also faced with washington’s efforts to mediate in Kashmiri dispute: led to Nehru facing no confidence motion in Lok Sabha: motion defeated

  • invasion of portuguese enclave of Goa.

  • resolution of Kashmir dispute remained distant: Pakistan had many security pacts with US with dramatic increase of Soviet economic aid post- Nehru's visit in1955: cold war into south asia.

Limits of Power

• Governance requires cooperation between states and the centre: not forthcoming during Nehruvian India, Indira Gandhi bypassed this via populism and the use of President’s Rule to unseat opponents: gave centre power to take over state government.

  • not without precedent as Nehru himself in July 1959 had removed the democratically elected Communist government of Kerala but generally displayed tolerance of regional impediments to his rule provided that they were untainted by communal or secessionist undertones.

• social equality policies not vigorously implemented: issue of Untouchables

  • 1955 Untouchability Offences Act made it illegal to discriminate against untouchables (temple entry, access to shops, restaurants and wells: penalities: very low fines

• legislation in favour of female rights in 1956 failed to transform everyday experiences in the face of entrenched conservatism regarding marriage maintenance and property rights

• laws to abolish Zamindari landholdings in Bihar were patchy in implementation.

Nehru’s Death

• increasing political vulnerability due to years of overwork

• reluctant to take the Viceroy's advice to groom a successor.

• hypertension +stroke: claimed nehru’s life (27/5/1964)

• legacy: pragmatic compromises (muslim civil code,reservation of government jobs) + socioeconomic change though limited due to entrenched power of local elites that he could not unseat due to unwavering commitment to democracy.

• biggest blow: failure to defend india's boundary with china.

---

Chapter 10: Pakistan’s failure in democratic consolidation

• division of water and assets in the aftermath of partition increased Pakistan’s post-partition anxiety

• a bulk of sterling assets were held back by Delhi due to the Kashmir conflict and only paid following Gandhi’s intervention and fasting.

• India inherited colonial state’s central apparatus and membership of the UN whereas Pakistan’s capital had a lack of accommodation and they had to apply for the UN’s membership

• emergence of Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic combine linked with perception of an Indian threat: scarce resources diverted from political economy of development to a political economy of defence.

  • poor economic base: on the eve of Partition just one of 57 leading industrial companies were owned by a Muslim.

• sense of isolation in eastern wing of Pakistan: East Bengal

• North West pakistan: territory dispute with afghanistan: Kabul supported the secessionist Pakhtunistan demand and voted against Pakistan’s admission to the UN

  • Pakistan inherited a democratic deficit in much of its future territory because of the needs of the local security state.: slow growth in electoral democracy

  • Punjab heartland: growing relationship between military and peasantry.

  • Creeping authoritarianism at the national level was presaged by the bureaucratic control exerted over the formerly Princely States which occupied a considerable proportion of West Pakistan’s landmass.

Creation of Pakistan and aftermath of Partition

• Muslim League was a latecomer in many of the future Pakistan regions and with the exception of Bengal, it did not establish a mass organisational base akin to that of Congress.

  • presented Pakistan as a panacea for wartime and long-standing grievances: discrimination in the distribution of rations, hindu and sikh domination of economic life.

  • had to accept elite opportunistic converts to gain an institutional base but this came at the cost of nationalism + strengthened Sindhi separatist movements.

  • had a base in Bengal but dismantled it after Partition: Muslim League’s postcolonial demise in Bengal owed much to its recapture by the conservative old guard, who opposed agrarian transformation and emphasized a national Urdu-based Pakistani identity rather than a regional Bengali one.

  • conflict between regional patriotism and understanding of Pakistan meant that unity only achieved around Jinnah’s personality>>> many postindependence leaders came from UP, which had only 7 million Muslims as opposed to Bengal’s 33 million: lacked a local base.

Kashmiri conflict

• Hari Singh acceded to india october 1947>> war between india and pakistan>> UN intervention and division of former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.

• beginning of the use of Pakhtun tribesmen as Islamic proxies to achieve goals.

• Pakistan looked for external assistance to counterbalance India: entered SEATO and CENTO: brought in US financial aid.

First Coup

• dismissal of elected provincial gov in NWFP and Sindh: 1947 and 1948.

• intervention of army in East Pakistan language riots in 1952

  • use of Urdu as national language and death of student protestors in Dhaka.

• anti-Ahmadi riots in Lahore:1953

  • Ahrar and Barelvi ulema sought dismissal of Ahmadi Pakistan foreign minister and declaration that Ahmadis were non muslims.

• desertion of West Punjab landlords from Muslim League to Republican party

• underlying theme: competition visions of the state: homeland for indian muslims or an islamic state? centralisation or pluralism?

  • debates in Constituent Assembly delayed ratification of Constitution, reduced parliamentary legitimacy and opened the way for creeping authoritarianism.

• OCT 1954: governor general ghulam mohammad dismissed constituent assembly: actions prompted by constitution proposed which would strip his power to dismiss the cabinet. Supreme Court gave legal cover to his actions under the doctrine of necessity. iskander mirza and ayub khan as interior minister and defense posts.

• oct 1955: one unit scheme>> consolidate west pakistan provinces, deny majority bengali population from implementing its interest in national politics.

• elevation of civil servant Chaudhri Muhammad Ali to the post of PM in OCT 1955: departure from established parliamentary norms.

  • had to oversee Constitution Bill and in 1955: Pakistan had its own constitution. Iskander mirza took the post of president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

  • promised elections never held due to delays over the issue of joint/separate electorates.

• veteran politician Firoz Khan headed the final ministry before the 1958 coup.

  • rivalry in west pakistan and east pakistan assembly that led to death of deputy speaker: pretext for military intervention.

  • early hours of 8 october: experiment with democracy terminated and mirza survived 19 days in ayub khan’s coup. Mirza terminated: reason: attempt to instigate countercoup.

now: Ayub Khan as leader: military rule exacerbated tensions between eastern and western wings of the country, which culminated in the emergence of Bangladesh.

---

That's it for today. Stay tuned for part 3, where we will discover India under Indira Gandhi, the emergence of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bangladesh post-1972 and modern South Asian relations.