Will Partition Remembrance Day Act Aid in Healing from Tragedy or Reopen Wounds?

The Partition Horrors Remembrance Day creates a sense of the collective that is aimed at identifying the ‘guilty’.

Historians examined multiple layers at which the tragedy of Partition derailed the lives of millions who either died or who were torn asunder from the places of their birth.

(Image: Vibhushita Singh/ The Quint)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political purpose was served within hours of his tweet on 14 August last year through which he announced the decision to add a day to the list of national observances – Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.

Within hours, Pakistan, which was celebrating 74 years of its independence, called Modi out and accused him of “distorting history.”

Islamabad, through its Foreign Office spokesperson, dubbed the Indian prime minister’s move "a political and publicity stunt," and said that "no modern state is so much in contradiction with itself as the Indian state - the so-called 'largest democracy'."

Modi’s objective was met with this because the attack by Pakistan made it easy for his publicists to mount a campaign on familiar lines – Modi must have done ‘something right’ for getting the goat of the establishment in Islamabad. If he was accused of ‘distorting’ history, then he must have got it ‘right,’ was the belief of hordes of his admirers.

Partition Remembrance Furthers Hindutva?

The Pak FO’s accusation that “distorting history and stoking communalism is the special forte of the RSS-BJP regime,” enabled Modi’s supporters to conclude that this remembrance furthers Hindutva.

In a way it does so, because Modi very smartly conjoined the tragedy of Partition on this side of the border with the joy of the citizens of Pakistan. It almost made it out that people in Pakistan have no regrets for having lived through the traumatic period.

Modi’s announcement, made personally like most politically critical decisions of this government are made, was followed by several ministers queuing up to issue statements exalting Modi for ‘sensitivity’ to think of this observance.

At the same time, the Congress party released the prime minister’s letter, earlier in 2021, to his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, greeting citizens of his country on the occasion of National Day of Pakistan.

23 March is celebrated with tremendous vigour, passion and commitment every year because it commemorates the Pakistan Resolution passed by the Muslim League in 1940 at Lahore.

This resolution, often popularly referred after the name of the city where it was passed, called for establishing an independent nation comprising provinces with Muslim majority in the northwestern and northeastern regions of British India. This resolution formally paved the way for the Partition.

Resurrecting the Memory of a Heart-Rending Chapter

There are many days from the packed history of those turbulent post-war years and several of them, Direct Action (16 August 1946) for instance, would have been more appropriate to mark the remembrance for Partition.

14 August 1947 was no ordinary day on India’s way to independence.

Before the night’s end, the Constituent Assembly of India “assumed power for the governance of India,” at the historic midnight session at which besides Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic “Tryst with Destiny” address, many key speeches were made by Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr S Radhakrishnan, and Chaudhari Khaliquzzaman, the Muslim League member from the United Province who seconded the ‘pledge’ every member took that night.

Was it appropriate to select a day that ended in such gaiety, for the remembrance of a tragedy of epic proportions? It must be recalled that the Radcliffe Commission report which drew the line physically between India and Pakistan was released on 17 August. The goriest incidents of inter-community violence began thereafter.

So, was the decision to mark 14 August as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day aimed at adding to the haul of several ‘firsts’ this government has claimed over the past eight years?

Furthermore, what purpose does this remembrance serve? Will it act as, what former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran wondered in an article, “a prelude to healing from a tragedy” or will it “reopen the wounds of yesteryear, to reignite ugly passions”?

Formal remembrance, year after year, of the horrors of Partition is predictably showcased as another instance of Modi and his Hindutva supporters resurrecting the memory of a heart-rending chapter that was relegated to the dustbins of history by Jawaharlal Nehru and his associates.

Immediately after Modi’s announcement and the controversy it triggered, a right wing website presented a blatantly false reading of Partition horrors.

“The foundation of Indian Secularism is built atop the corpses of Hindus who were raped, massacred and butchered during the Independence Era. Post-independence, we were fed a heady cocktail of Congress propaganda that valourised their struggles against the British, and totally negated the fact that they were utterly incompetent at preventing the atrocities committed against Hindus,” read an article from OpIndia.

Creative Explorations of the ‘Progressives’ Secured Public Support

In contrast to communalising history and disseminating questionable narratives of Hindu victimhood, the truth is that secular forces engaged with the trauma of Partition consistently for the past seven and a half decades viewing the episode as a human tragedy of epic proportions in which there were no winners, only losers.

These engagements are consistently overlooked by Hindutva supporters right from the highest levels. Take, for instance, Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand which made history recently by becoming the first Hindi novel to win the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Originally published in Hindi as Ret Samadhi, the novel movingly wove the story of an 80-year-old widow who decides to travel to Pakistan and deal with the trauma of Partition. Yet no leader of any standing from either the BJP or its affiliates congratulated the author for her commendable achievement.

The award-winning novel is now part of the wide array of women’s voices in Partition literature that chronicles the great migration and its human cost. Many other instances of poignant literature have been written in multiple languages by non-sectarian writers.

Even on celluloid, immortal creations, be it Chinnamul in Bengali in 1950, the first Indian film on the theme of Partition, or much acclaimed later films like MS Sathyu’s Garam Hawa, Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition trilogy (Meghey Dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhar, and Subarnarekha), or the famous tele-serial Tamas based on Bhisham Sahni’s eponymous novel, it has been the creative explorations of the ‘progressives’ that secured public support and achieved artistic immortality.

A ‘New and Almost Obsessive, Interest’ on Partition Has Been Visible Recently

Historians too, essentially much attacked ‘leftists’, examined multiple layers at which the tragedy of Partition derailed the lives of millions who either died or who were torn asunder from the places of their birth.

Salil Misra, a historian who has researched modern Indian history for decades and teaches in Delhi's Ambedkar University is of the view that historians have been driven by the necessity and commitment to “find out the particular set of circumstances which produced the tragedy of Partition.”

However, he has noticed that in recent years, a “new and almost obsessive, interest” on Partition has been visible among politicians and political parties, “which is very different from the concerns of professional historians.”

While he does not directly refer to Modi’s initiative to mark the horrors of Partition, he is of the view that the concerns of politicians trying to work the memories of Partition to their political benefit, “is much less with the historical circumstances surrounding Partition, and more with the search for the 'culprits' of the partition.”

This is where affixing the observance on the independence day of Pakistan enables suggesting, without stating explicitly, that Muslims alone were responsible for Partition and the barbaric violence during Partition.

India’s Neighbourhood Policy Is Already a Major Deficit Area

Heaping blame on the doorsteps of Muslims for multiple woes is essential for the Hindutva votaries to enlist the electoral support of large sections of Hindus. Events related to Partition were distorted earlier too, in recent years most importantly by Union Home Minister Amit Shah who accused the Congress during the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill of “Partitioning the country on the basis of religion.”

Shah’s charge overlooked the fact that the founder president of BJP’s preceding party, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Syama Prasad, was cabinet minister in independent India’s first government under Nehru.

From the time that Partition started appearing inevitable in the 1940s, the RSS and others like VD Savarkar proclaimed in varying ways that only the idea of Akhand Bharat could prevent the division of British India. The then RSS chief, MS Golwalkar, was disdainful of India shaking off the British yoke and termed the historic event on 15 August as “so-called independence.”

Neither Golwalkar nor any of his ideological progenies understood the import of Nehru’s most famous speech, “Long time ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.”

Nehru accepted with pain and regret that Indians were making a fresh beginning, but not with all dreams intact. In contrast, the RSS-BJP and its supporters have done little but bemoan the loss and blame the adversaries. They have done this in the hope that the tactic will benefit in enlisting supporters for its majoritarian worldview.

Modi’s decision of intertwining the horrors of Partition with Pakistan’s Independence Day cannot but necessitate recalling Golwalkar’s viewpoint expressed in the aftermath of the tragic events that he did not accept the finality of Partition.

“If Partition is a settled fact,” the then RSS chief began and continued brazenly, “we are here to unsettle it. There is, in fact, no such thing as a ‘settled fact’ in this world. Things get settled or unsettled solely by the will of man.”

India’s neighbourhood policy anyway is a major deficit area and a call for this remembrance worsens the situation, especially vis-a-vis our western neighbour. While the spin has been given to Partition memories with an eye on the domestic challenges of the BJP, antagonising Pakistan further limits foreign policy options.

Islamabad has again condemned the grand marking of the remembrance saying that instead of politicising Partition, New Delhi must prioritise honouring the memories of those who fell by the wayside while striving for a better future for all.

Remembrance Is Aimed At Ensuring Permanence of Hostility

Like most of Modi's initiatives, the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day will be a grand ‘event’. Silent marches around 75 refugee colonies and exhibitions at more than 5,000 locations, including universities and colleges are certain to make it a highly-televised extravaganza.

Observance events in universities and colleges are the result of the University Grants Commission’s diktat and an instance of ‘history from above’. Educational institutions, like almost every establishment, business, organisation, company, and even residential colonies, traditionally celebrate Independence Day.

Participation in these creates a sense of the collective and leads to inner calm. The remembrance is aimed at identifying the ‘guilty’ and ensuring a permanence of the hostility.

The announcement last year was preceded by widespread anti-Muslim incidents and an overall surge in the same narrative across India.

Little has changed since then and active promotion of the remembrance by the State and its institutions will heighten prejudice against Indian Muslims, deepen inter-community cleavage and hold them responsible for Partition.

Anyone who voices criticism of the remembrance shall be clubbed alongside them, as has been done in the past on multiple occasions.

(The writer is a NCR-based author and journalist. His latest book is The Demolition and the Verdict: Ayodhya and the Project to Reconfigure India. He has also written The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right and Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times. He tweets at @NilanjanUdwin)