The Press THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1947. Toward Partition In India

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 6

The Press THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1947. Toward Partition In India

Of all the tasks faced by Lord Mountbatten in his efforts to smooth the way for the transfer of British power to an independent India one of the most difficult, probably, has been to convince the Indian leaders that Britain is sincerely determined to quit India by June of next year. Even at this stage Mr Gandhi is reported as saying that “if” the British mean what they say their decision is the noblest act in their histbry. Perhaps one of the reasons why the Indians have failed to resolve their differences and get down to realities is that they have not yet been able to see their approaching independence is real. Mr Gandhi, of course, is merely reiterating an old, terrible folly when he says that it would be better for the British to leave at once. “We may “ have to pass through the fire,” he said, “but the fire will purify us”. The “fire” would a hundred-fold intensify the recent communal

strife, which has already caused untold misery and cost more than 2500 lives; and it is easy to understand Britain’s anxiety that there should be a stable administration to take control in June next year. Britain'hoped to be able to leave India united but foresaw that it might be necessary to make separate regional transfers of power. While the Moslem League still refuses to take part in the framing, by the Constituent Assembly, of India’s first independent constitution, it is being increasingly widely accepted that partition is inevitable; and the drawing of the boundaries of the separate states will be fraught with tremendous difficulties. The Hindus and Moslems give every . indication of being* as irreconcilable on the questions involved in partition as they are on the question of unity. The Moslem League demands for Pakistan the provinces of Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, North-West Frontier, Bengal, and Assam. There will, in reality, be two isolated components, Bengal being separated from the Punjab by the predominantly Hindu-populated United Provinces and Bihar. The populations of the provinces involved in the Pakistan claims, with their Moslem proportions of population, are:

Only in the less densely populated provinces are the Moslem majorities substantial. In Bengal and the Punjab, where the great mass of the Moslems is concentrated, they number little more than half the population. It is certain that no division on the lines of present provincial boundaries will satisfy the Hindus; and anything less, involving the partition of the Punjab and Bengal into predominantly Moslem and non-Moslem areas, will, according to the Delhi correspondent of “The Times”, be regarded by Mr Jinnah as “ nothing better than a “ truncated or mutilated and itioth- " eaten Pakistan ”, which he emphatically rejects. Even if the eastern part of the Punjab, where Moslems are in a minority, were detached from the Pakistan state (making the Moslem majority in the truncated Punjab 62 per cent, instead of the 57 per cent, for the whole of the province) there would Still be grave difficulty in allocating the central areas, including the chief cities of the province, Lahore and Amritsar, where Moslems atld non-Moslems are fairly evenly balanced. Here is concentrated an important Sikh mihority of koine 3,757,000; Amritsar is their \oly city. The Sikhs, who fear Moslem domination just as much as the Mbslems fear Hindu domination, will demand the exclusion of Amritsar from Pakistan; the Moslem League will bitterly resist the exclusion of either Lahore or Amritsar. There will be similar difficulties with the eastern component of Pakistan. Assam, where Moslems are in a minority, has been included ill the Pakistan claims only because of its geographical position. It is isolated from all the provinces except Bengal. The slehder preponderance of Moslems in Bengal could be increased, for the purposes of a Pakistan state, by excluding the Burdwan division; but there is still the problem of Calcutta. This great city, port, and manufacturing centre, with its surrounding district, is overwhelmingly Hindu. It is essential to the economic life of Bengal and Assam. Pakistan could scarcely do without it; but it would be a constant source of trouble to a Moslem State. These are only some of the racial and geographical problems of partition, beside which the problems of Union or federation appear insignificant. But, as “The Times” said, “Brit- “ ain cannot choose for India. All “she can do is to emphasise the “urgency of a decision, to set be“fore the Indian leaders the possi- “ billties that lie before them, and “ to frame her programme for the “ devolution of power in accord- “ ance with their choice

Population Percentage in of millions. Moslems. Punjab .. 28 57 Sind .. 4 70 North «• West Frontier .. 3 91 Baluchistan J 87 Bengal .. i 60 54 i Assam .. 10 33