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Topic: The Partition of India of 1947
Word count: 2978
Essay question: To what extent is the idea that Britain is to blame for the
Partition of India of 1947 and the violence that came with it, true?
Introduction
Since August 2nd 1858, India had been under the control of the British empire, after
Parliament passed the Government of India Act, which transferred the power over the sub-
continent from the East India Company to the empire1 . Throughout this time, Indian
nationalist sentiment began to rise. The First War of Independence took place in 1857, and
although it was unsuccessful it managed to spread the nationalist ideas of an independent
India and led to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. However, together
with this “national mainstream”2 there was another smaller one: the Muslim League founded
in 19063 . This division soon resulted in conflict between the two religious parties and
“intensified agitation demanding Indian independence”4
Both the First World War and the Second World War had a great impact on Britain’s
economy, and as the conflicts between the Hindus, the Muslims and the Sikhs went on it was
decided to put an end to the British Raj. The main powers decided to divide the sub-continent
into India, which had a Hindu majority and Pakistan which had a Muslim majority5, leaving
the Sikh population in the Muslim territory. The Indian Independence Act was passed on the
14th –15th of August 1947 and it caused nearly 1 million deaths. This became known as one of
the most tragic migrations in history.
Up to the present time, the effects of the partition are visible and the tension and hatred
between the different religious groups is causing conflicts. To this day, different religious
communities are blaming each other and what was at the time the British empire for the
tragedy that was the partition, with a war started nearly 200 years ago that is still going on to
this day and of which many people blame the British Empire.
Chapter 1: British Raj
1
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343745
2
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343755
3
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343755
4
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343768
5
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/30/section/1
Indian Independence Act, 1947, Section 1
1
, India has had a long history of imperialism and colonialism, which can be tracked back to
ancient times, when Alexander the Great invaded the region of Punjab, in 327–325 BCE6 . In
the 15th century the Portuguese, through Vasco de Gama, arrived in Kozhikode. The main
goal for Europeans was, as De Gama said “Christians and spices”7 .
From that point on, the power over the Indian territory changed from being under the
Portuguese, to the Dutch, to the French, but it was the British who had the biggest influence
on India’s history. The British Raj started only in 1858, nearly 200 years after the East India
Company first raised a permanent joint stock in the Indian territory.8
One of the main reasons for which the British Empire successfully conquered the Indian
territory was because of its division, which is really important when thinking about the
Partition that was to come. In fact, the subcontinent had a population of about 250 million
and this was divided in Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Parsis,
which were divided in castes and sub-castes.9 The British believed that the Indian population
had and could not have a sense of patriotism, but there was one thing which united the
Indians and that was exclusion, “practiced by a government which solemnly and repeatedly
professed that it made no distinction, in the matter of employment, on grounds of race,
colour, or creed.”10 . From 1853, when appointment to the Indian Civil Service was opened to
everyone, the conditions to participate and compete for a post were such as to directly
exclude Indians. Injustice “united men of different classes, creeds and provinces in India by
providing them with a genuine grievance and a righteous cause.”
This feeling of hatred had been going on ever since the British had introduced their
paramountcy in 182011 . Their control over the culture and the tradition of Indian society soon
began to cause problems, especially among sepoys (native people of India enlisted in the
British army). A mutiny broke out in the Bengal army in Meerut in March-April 1857, when
Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use rifle cartridges lubricated with grease containing
pigs' and cows' lard, and it soon spread to Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, and Lucknow. 12 After the
mutiny the East India Company was abolished and the British Raj was established. One of the
most significant effects of the mutiny was the breaking down of the structure of Indian
society and its Westernization, from which emersed a middle class with a strong sense of
nationalism.13
Chapter 2: The Indian National Congress and the partition and reunification of
Bengal
6
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Politics-and-the-economy#ref47002
7
“A History of India” by Michael Edwardes, 1961, p.132
https://archive.org/details/historyofindiafr0000edwa/page/n5/mode/2up
8
https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company
9
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100154/page/n9/mode/2up p.15
10
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100154/page/n9/mode/2up p.24
11
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny
12
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny
13
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny/Aftermath
2
Topic: The Partition of India of 1947
Word count: 2978
Essay question: To what extent is the idea that Britain is to blame for the
Partition of India of 1947 and the violence that came with it, true?
Introduction
Since August 2nd 1858, India had been under the control of the British empire, after
Parliament passed the Government of India Act, which transferred the power over the sub-
continent from the East India Company to the empire1 . Throughout this time, Indian
nationalist sentiment began to rise. The First War of Independence took place in 1857, and
although it was unsuccessful it managed to spread the nationalist ideas of an independent
India and led to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. However, together
with this “national mainstream”2 there was another smaller one: the Muslim League founded
in 19063 . This division soon resulted in conflict between the two religious parties and
“intensified agitation demanding Indian independence”4
Both the First World War and the Second World War had a great impact on Britain’s
economy, and as the conflicts between the Hindus, the Muslims and the Sikhs went on it was
decided to put an end to the British Raj. The main powers decided to divide the sub-continent
into India, which had a Hindu majority and Pakistan which had a Muslim majority5, leaving
the Sikh population in the Muslim territory. The Indian Independence Act was passed on the
14th –15th of August 1947 and it caused nearly 1 million deaths. This became known as one of
the most tragic migrations in history.
Up to the present time, the effects of the partition are visible and the tension and hatred
between the different religious groups is causing conflicts. To this day, different religious
communities are blaming each other and what was at the time the British empire for the
tragedy that was the partition, with a war started nearly 200 years ago that is still going on to
this day and of which many people blame the British Empire.
Chapter 1: British Raj
1
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343745
2
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343755
3
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343755
4
https://www.britannica.com/event/British-raj#ref343768
5
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/30/section/1
Indian Independence Act, 1947, Section 1
1
, India has had a long history of imperialism and colonialism, which can be tracked back to
ancient times, when Alexander the Great invaded the region of Punjab, in 327–325 BCE6 . In
the 15th century the Portuguese, through Vasco de Gama, arrived in Kozhikode. The main
goal for Europeans was, as De Gama said “Christians and spices”7 .
From that point on, the power over the Indian territory changed from being under the
Portuguese, to the Dutch, to the French, but it was the British who had the biggest influence
on India’s history. The British Raj started only in 1858, nearly 200 years after the East India
Company first raised a permanent joint stock in the Indian territory.8
One of the main reasons for which the British Empire successfully conquered the Indian
territory was because of its division, which is really important when thinking about the
Partition that was to come. In fact, the subcontinent had a population of about 250 million
and this was divided in Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Parsis,
which were divided in castes and sub-castes.9 The British believed that the Indian population
had and could not have a sense of patriotism, but there was one thing which united the
Indians and that was exclusion, “practiced by a government which solemnly and repeatedly
professed that it made no distinction, in the matter of employment, on grounds of race,
colour, or creed.”10 . From 1853, when appointment to the Indian Civil Service was opened to
everyone, the conditions to participate and compete for a post were such as to directly
exclude Indians. Injustice “united men of different classes, creeds and provinces in India by
providing them with a genuine grievance and a righteous cause.”
This feeling of hatred had been going on ever since the British had introduced their
paramountcy in 182011 . Their control over the culture and the tradition of Indian society soon
began to cause problems, especially among sepoys (native people of India enlisted in the
British army). A mutiny broke out in the Bengal army in Meerut in March-April 1857, when
Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use rifle cartridges lubricated with grease containing
pigs' and cows' lard, and it soon spread to Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, and Lucknow. 12 After the
mutiny the East India Company was abolished and the British Raj was established. One of the
most significant effects of the mutiny was the breaking down of the structure of Indian
society and its Westernization, from which emersed a middle class with a strong sense of
nationalism.13
Chapter 2: The Indian National Congress and the partition and reunification of
Bengal
6
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Politics-and-the-economy#ref47002
7
“A History of India” by Michael Edwardes, 1961, p.132
https://archive.org/details/historyofindiafr0000edwa/page/n5/mode/2up
8
https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company
9
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100154/page/n9/mode/2up p.15
10
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.100154/page/n9/mode/2up p.24
11
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny
12
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny
13
https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Mutiny/Aftermath
2
