The partition of India in 1947
Chart Alain Houot
Three phasesGandhi indeed chooses to use two “weapons” of cultural type: while exploiting the traditional image of the saint, it gathers the masses which an occidentalized political debate could not mobilize and, while basing his action on non-violence, it places the British in a morally unacceptable position, which confers to him the dominant position of mahatma (“great heart”) within the Congress.
The movement of fight for independence consequently will proceed in three phases: civil disobedience, of 1919 to 1922 (general strike, movement of not-co-operation, destruction of the British cotton fabrics); negotiation, of 1930 to 1940 (the left wing of the Congress claims independence; the consequences of the crisis of 1929 and the success of “the walk of salt”, in 1930, place Gandhi in position of negotiator at the time of the conference of the Round table in 1930-1931); fast of Gandhi in 1932 (who succeeds in making give up the constitutional project envisaging to institute separate electoral modes for the Moslems, the untouchable ones and Sikh) and reforms of 1935 (which “creates” 30 million voters). In front of the success of the Congress, the other movements are radicalized.
Great Britain grants independence
The war places the Indian nationalists in strong position: Gandhi disallows the proposal for an independence by stages and, on on August 8th, 1942, the Congress launches the movement “Quit India” (it will last until 1945): the leaders of the Congress are imprisoned to have refused to support the effort of war.
The agricultural catastrophes (the famine of 1943, in Bengal, makes 2 to 3 million dead) answers from now on an uncontrolled political violence. In 1945, decided to leave India, the British must solve the Moslem question. If the Moslem League initially supported the Congress, the emergence of a concept of Muslim nation, the beginning of the year 1930, answered the “hindouisation” of the Congress.
In 1947, Great Britain grants independence. In spite of the action of Nehru and the fasts of Gandhi, Lord Mountbatten divides subcontinent it into two: Pakistan (Western and Eastern), which gathers the provinces with a majority Moslem woman, and India. The partition, carried out on bottom of massacres and civil war, will make 10 million refugees, without to settle the question: a third of the Moslems will remain on the Indian ground. Assassinated in 1948 by an integrist Hindu, Gandhi will pay the price symbolically of them.