If it had been so...

Dawn, May 1, 2005
If it had been so...
By Syed Sami Ahmed


There was a time when the freedom of India was not on the British agenda. They were determined to perpetuate their rule over the people of India and keep them under their bondage. However, the political conditions took a U-turn during the Second World War. The political awakening in India added fuel to the fire. When the war was over, the members of the British Parliament were unanimous that every Indian, man, woman and child, had a right to freedom not as a gift from the British but as their birthright. The British were forced to believe that they were no longer in a position to hold India and deprive its right to freedom.

Keeping that objective in mind, Mr Clement Attlee, the then British prime minister, sent the Cabinet Mission with a clear directive to use its best endeavours to help India to attain its freedom as speedily as possible.

The Cabinet Mission arrived in India on March 23, 1946. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, as president of the Congress, was the first to meet its members. He put before them his scheme which was, in fact, a complete solution to the Indian problem. Maulana Azad’s plan allocated only three subjects, that is, defence, foreign affairs and communications, to the centre. Minus those three subjects, it allocated all other subjects, including currency, to the provinces with full and complete provincial autonomy.

As soon as this scheme was unfolded by Maulana Azad, the members of the Cabinet Mission were extremely happy to appreciate the magnanimity shown by the Congress in the larger interest of India and expressed their opinion that, in view of the scheme presented to them, Mr Jinnah would not insist on the partition of India. That being so, the problem of India was solved. They congratulated Maulana Azad, saying that he had provided complete safeguards to the Muslims against domination by the Hindus.

After meeting all notable members of different political parties and particularly of the Muslim League, the Cabinet Mission announced a clear framework of the future constitution of India to be adopted by the Constituent Assembly. I would like to place on record that Maulana Azad’s scheme was adopted by the Cabinet Mission in letter and spirit. The Cabinet Mission, however, enlarged their scheme, by merging Bengal with Assam, showing 52 per cent of the Muslim population in Section C. In view of the grouping of the whole of India into Sections A, B, C, we were getting the whole of Bengal and Assam in the East and the whole of Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan in the west. Kashmir as a whole would have been obviously a part of our belt, as the Muslims constituted nearly 85 per cent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir. Calcutta, the biggest commercial city of India, was going to be a part of our zone. Calcutta was the heart of India. Bengal was the largest jute producing area in the world but the source of its consumption was in Calcutta. More than 200 jute mills were located in Calcutta on the bank of the Hooghly river.

Under the basic principles of the constitution of India, as drawn by the Cabinet Mission, the provincial legislatures were given the power to frame provincial constitutions in respect of all their provincial subjects for the governance of their provinces. In addition, the provinces were guaranteed complete and unfettered provincial autonomy under the proposed constitution. In view of such constitutional safeguards, the Muslims had been placed in an ideal situation.

There was another constitutional safeguard in the interest of the Muslims as a whole whereby any question raising any major communal issue could be decided only by a majority of the representatives present in the Union Constituent Assembly and voting from each of the two major communities.

As soon as the Cabinet Mission plan was announced, the Muslim League Council went into session and debated the historic document from all angles and finally came out with a unanimous verdict, accepting the plan. The verdict of the Muslim League Council was historic in nature. The remark by the Quaid-i-Azam while accepting the Cabinet Mission plan was equally historic when he said that it was the maximum that he was expecting to achieve.

There is no doubt that the Cabinet Mission plan not directly but indirectly acceded to the demand for Pakistan — but within the Indian Union. That was the best solution in the interest of the entire Muslim India. It is important to mention here that when the Muslim League high command appeared before the Cabinet Mission and insisted on the partition of India, they were told in clear terms that, in that event, Bengal and Punjab would also be divided, as the interests of 40 per cent of the Hindus living in those areas could not be ignored. At that time, there was a sharp reaction from the Quaid-i-Azam, stating before the members of the Cabinet Mission that, if it was done, Pakistan would be a mutilated one and not workable.

The Cabinet Mission plan had already been accepted by the Congress. The sole object of the Congress was to see United India and avert its partition. In view of the acceptance of the Cabinet Mission plan by both the Congress and the Muslim League, it was indeed a glorious event in the history of the freedom movement in India. According to Maulana Azad, one unfortunate incident changed the course of history. Jawaharlal Nehru, while addressing a press conference, stated by way of reply that he was going to enter the Constituent Assembly completely unfettered by any agreement arrived at and even the plan of the Cabinet Mission could be modified. Jawaharlal committed a big mistake. He was not competent to do so. The Quaid-i-Azam sharply reacted and pointed out that it was a clear breach on the part of the Congress. He immediately called a meeting of the Council of the Muslim League and the acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan was revoked. Later, the working committee of the Congress, passed a resolution, maintaining that the Congress had accepted the Cabinet Mission plan and its adherence in totality was assured. Jawaharlal met Quaid-i-Azam at his residence, held a discussion with him for about two hours and admitted his mistake but in vain. The meeting proved to be an exercise in futility.

Lord Wavell went to England to meet Mr Attlee. He explained that the political conditions in India were very complex and highly explosive — communalism was at its climax. He, therefore, suggested a delay in the transfer of power. Mr Attlee, however, did not agree. The result was that Lord Wavell resigned and he was immediately replaced by Lord Mountbatten.

As soon as Lord Mountbatten appeared on the Indian political scene as the viceroy and governor-general, the relations between the Congress and the Muslim League further deteriorated. He made a survey, on his own initiative, of the political conditions in India and decided to kill the Cabinet Mission plan. Instead of that, he manoeuvred the partition of India and eventually succeeded... He took a journey to England, met Mr Attlee and sought permission for the division of India into two sovereign states.

The most important aspect of his plan was to partition Bengal and Punjab. Lord Mountbatten’s plan as a whole was endorsed by the British cabinet.

When Mountbatten returned from England, he unfolded his own scheme of the division of India before the Muslim League. The Muslim League met on June 10, 1947, and accepted the principles laid down therein for a smaller Pakistan. The Quaid-i-Azam accepted the partition of Bengal and Punjab and thereby allowed Mountbatten to play the role of an axis of evil. In view of this new development, the Boundary Commission, headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, came into being.

There is unimpeachable evidence that as soon as Radcliffe arrived in India, he was hijacked by Mountbatten. Radcliffe and Mountbatten in collusion with each other altered, manipulated and modified the award. The betrayal of Radcliffe as chairman of the Boundary Commission caused an irreparable damage to the territorial integrity of Pakistan. Radcliffe, to utter surprise of the whole world, gave Gurdaspur and Batala, a predominantly Muslim majority area, to India.

The result was that when Pakistan appeared on the horizon of the subcontinent, there was a bloodbath in East Punjab. More than two million men, women and children were slaughtered and 12 million were uprooted from their ancestral homes, never to return again. There was another unfortunate aspect of the partition of India. More than one-third of the Muslims living in the Hindu majority areas were denied the promised land.

As soon as Pakistan came into being, it was confronted with a number of problems, threatening its very existence. The influx of refugees from India, particularly from the East Punjab, was a serious problem. The accession of Kashmir was another problem.

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The Quaid-i-Azam lived for only 13 months after the birth of Pakistan. After his death Liaquat Ali Khan emerged on the political scene as a formidable leader. He was quite capable and competent to serve the country to the best of his ability but the bureaucracy of Pakistan in collusion with the army did not allow him to work and serve his nation. He was assassinated on October 16, 1951. This had a great impact on the history of our country. As soon as Liaquat was assassinated Khwaja Nazimuddin took over the country as prime minister of Pakistan. Ghulam Muhammad, who had been removed by Liaquat Ali Khan only four days before his assassination, became the governor-general of Pakistan...

It was the era of Ghulam Muhammad that paved the way for despotism and nourished it. There is no doubt that he was the first dictator of our country. He remained in power from 1951 to 1955 and created a political mess by mutilating the political framework and causing an irreparable injury to the image of our judiciary...

A separate homeland for Muslim India, as conceived originally, could neither be achieved nor could the smaller Pakistan achieved on August 14, 1947 survive in its original shape. The history of Pakistan is a history of misfortunes. We must search our hearts and rise to the occasion to take practical steps in terms of peace, harmony and prosperity for the people of the country. It is in this that our salvation lies.