The brief video above is one of several media presentations I've encountered in recent months discussing the 1947 partition of India (and creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh). There was an excellent two-part podcast presented by the BBC in its series "The Documentary" (it might have been this one, but I can't access it right now). Partition was also portrayed dramatically in the closing parts of the 1982 movie Gandhi.
This single event, responsible for so much social unrest in the subcontinent today, is I think not well covered in the American educational system. I thought I had received a broad-based education, but I didn't know anything about the events of 1947 until I began working with colleagues and students from the subcontinent in the 1970s. The video above is pretty good summary for TL;DR people.
Read the book Freedom at Midnight for a very frightening look into this time.
ReplyDeletethis specific video is a generally ill-informed attempt. blaming radcliffe is so totally not on, it's ridiculous - starting with the fact that he worked in a group with two muslim and two hindu represetantives, not alone.
ReplyDeletethe partition line was NOT a british ploy, it was what could be achieved in the face of two groups wanting to basically kill each other.
moreover, the whole IDEA of partitioning wasn't on the british cards, nehru's speeches (and the congress party as a whole) more than anything caused this to become a reality.
the sikhhs played for high stakes, their own state. they lost, not because the BRITISH were against it, but because ali jinnah torpedoed the plan. the punjab partitions were prepared by two INDIAN ciivil servants, not the british, etc.
going to india or pakistan today, and expecting neutral statements on partition from anyone there can only result in a hard failure. one might have had a chance in india before the last decade of hindu nationalist brainwashing, but not now.
but then, what sort of deep thought can you expect from a quarter hour video done by vox, home of groundbreaking in-depth analysis.
i highly recommend a look at the excellent wikipedia articles on partition and the radcliffe line.
History as it was taught in US schools while I was growing up was a year of World History alternating with a year of American history, all the way through. American history was war and more war, and we skipped a lot to make sure we got WWII in before the year was over. World history started with the agriculture of Mesopotamia, a lot of the Roman Empire, and we tried to get to the Crusades before the year was over. So much lost opportunity!
ReplyDeleteAnother really good book on the topic: The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia.
ReplyDeleteThe last series of Doctor Who had an episode set during partition: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/doctor_who/s11/e06
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