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launched its first attack to liberate India across the India-Burma
border. INA units succeeded in besieging Imphal, in the north-east,
before the British began their counter-offensive and took a large
number of INA soldiers prisoner. Bose, called Netaji (leader) by his
followers, was reportedly killed in an air crash over Taipei, Taiwan, on
18 August 1945, though there is no irrefutable proof of his death.
At the end of World War II, the British had little interest left in India;
they were busy getting their own house back in order. The stage was set
for granting independence to India, but Viceroy Lord Wavell s challenge was
to achieve a smooth transition to independence that would be acceptable
to both the Congress and the Muslim League. The British proposed the
creation of a self-governing Pakistan within a federal India, which was
rejected by Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as Jinnah who wanted
a completely independent Pakistan. The stalemate instigated the Great
Calcutta Killing, in which Hindus and Muslims fought violent street battles
resulting in the death of 4,000 people. The communal violence spread to
Bihar and Punjab. The British, keen to broker a peaceful solution to the
communal crisis, replaced Wavell with Lord Mountbatten. The Congress
leaders finally capitulated and in April 1947 informed Mountbatten of their
decision to accept an independent Pakistan. Of the princely states, except
for Hyderabad and Kashmir, the rest acceded to India. Pakistan was formed
with part of Bengal and Punjab.
On 14 August 1947, Pakistan became an independent nation while
India was declared independent from British rule at midnight on 15 August.
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Jinnah was the first governor general of the new Republic of Islamic Pakistan.
Jawaharlal Nehru became the first prime minister of India with Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel as his deputy prime minister. The leaders of the two nations,
having finally won their arduous, long-drawn struggle for freedom, now set
about building their nations.
PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE
Communal Catastrophe
India and Pakistan gained freedom in August 1947 but not peace. The
newly independent nations had to pay a huge and bloody price for their
partition by the British. Millions of refugees emerged from the division,
fear driving them to leave their once secure homes and change countries
overnight. The crossover of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Muslims
from India was unprecedented in its scale and proportion. It resulted in
hate, violence, bitterness and horrifying bloodbaths as Indians and Pakistanis
attacked innocent men, women and children who had become refugees.
An estimated one million people lost their lives in the communal hate and
frenzy on both sides of the border.
The peace-loving Gandhi, then almost 78 years old, was shattered by
the human catastrophe induced by the partition. The shocked and saddened
Father of the Nation went on a fast unto death as a reaction against what
he believed was the destruction of the country and the severance of
Hindu-Muslim relations. His threat calmed the communal fever, but his drive
for Hindu-Muslim unity was looked upon with suspicion by many Hindus
who nicknamed him Mohammed Gandhi and accused him of supporting
Muslims. On 30 January 1948, less than six months after the partition, Gandhi
was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, who resented his
concern for Muslims.
Hindu Militancy
Gandhi s horrific killing during a prayer meeting brought to the fore the
threat posed by Hindu nationalism. A force to reckon with in Indian politics,
Hindu nationalism began to take shape in 1915 with the founding of the
HISTORY
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Hindu Mahasabha, a loose alliance of Hindus working for cow protection,
the promotion of Hindi and the rights of Hindus. Ten years later, in 1925, the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS emerged and brought with it greater
militancy in the drive for Hindu nationalism.
The RSS had a vision of India as a land of Hindus, for Hindus. The
disciplined, cadre-based party was made up of upper class Maharashtrians, but
as it grew, it drew support from people from all walks of life. Gandhi s killer,
Godse, was an RSS supporter who was strongly influenced by the preaching
of V D Savarkar, the most strident of the Hindu nationalists and a leader of
the Hindu Mahasabha. The RSS was outlawed after Gandhi s assassination.
Kashmir
Two months after Partition, a crisis caused by armed tribal infiltrators broke
out in Kashmir, which shared a border with both India and Pakistan and
had acceded to neither. Maharaja Hari Singh, the prince who ruled Kashmir,
turned to India for help. It was granted in return for Kashmir s accession, and
India and Pakistan fought their first war over Kashmir. Even though Kashmir
acceded to India, Pakistan took control of about a third of the territory.
Thousands of Hindu refugees fled Kashmir for India during the fighting
which stopped only after the United Nations negotiated a ceasefire. The
two countries agreed to let Kashmiris vote for their future, but they have
not been able to agree on how to proceed.
Kashmir, which became the state of Jammu and Kashmir when it acceded
to India, has remained a source of tension for India since those early days.
Both Indian and Pakistani leaders tried to reach a diplomatic agreement on
the issue in the early years, but when that failed, they went to war again in
1965. The five week-long war ended in a United Nations-mandated ceasefire.
At a peace conference organised by Russian Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin
after the war, both sides gave their word that they would use peaceful
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