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On Partition

Yasmin Khan’s stand that “there was nothing inherently wrong in Partition” (Aug. 6) is unacceptable and incorrect. The mainstream struggle for Indian independence was secular in character and could therefore not come to any compromise with the Muslim League, which consisted of power-mongers raising the bogey of Muslim representation.

There was just no way in which any scheme of partition along religious lines could have been systematically implemented. This is evident from the fact that even after Partition, India has the second largest Muslim population. Muslims in India and Hindus in Pakistan were cheated by Partition. Most of India and Pakistan’s woes can be directly attributed to Partition.

Vineet Kumar,
Bhopal According to Ms. Khan, Partition became inevitable because Muslims had a genuine fear that their political and economic rights might not be safe in a Hindu-majority India.

One cannot find fault with her perspective because even after 60 years of Independence, a majority of Indian Muslims continue to live in poor social and economic conditions — a fact reinforced by the findings of the Rajinder Sachar Committee.

M. Jeyaram,
Sholavandan

Ms. Khan offers an interesting insight into Partition when she says what Muslims wanted was political and economic autonomy and that Pakistan was a name given to the idea of Muslim autonomy and not to a specific territorial entity. Even Mohammad Iqbal who suggested that the Muslims of northwestern India demand a separate nation for themselves in his presidential address to the Muslim League in 1930, is said to have had serious reservations about the proposed Pakistan.

He told his friend Professor Edward Thompson that he thought the Pakistan plan would be disastrous for the British Government, Hindus, and Muslims. It is a sobering thought that blessed as they were with visionary leaders, the parties contending for power in independent India could not settle for a viable alternative to Partition.

Tirumalai Raman,
Chennai

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