Book review

Media’s role in chronicling India’s Partition

By

Randeep Wadehra

Reporting the Partition of Punjab 1947 by Raghuvendra Tanwar
Manohar. Pages: 622. Price: Rs. 1195/-

The saga of partition has not only become perennial but has also acquired all the makings of a distinct genre in itself. The human tragedy has spawned poetry, short stories, novels and dissertations rivaling those on another great tragedy of the early 20th century, viz., the Holocaust. Millions of people were uprooted from their hearth and home and hundreds of thousands killed mercilessly. Cold statistics do not even give us a proper idea of the scale of sufferings perpetrated thanks to the shortsighted decisions taken by Lord Mountbatten and his advisers as well as the unholy haste shown by various Indian politicians to take control of the levers of power in an independent country – be it India or Pakistan.

Tanwar points out that despite the apprehensions expressed by “the Muslim League’s middle and lower-rung cadres as well as the ‘actual’ Akalis” India’s partition was preponed under what came to be known as the “3 June Plan”. This was done under the influence or insistence of a few “select” politicians – clearly a reference to Jinnah and Nehru et al. A lot of other political as well as bureaucratic skullduggery took place behind the scenes that ignored the simmering discontent on the ground. This discontent was a direct result of the parochial politics being played by the Muslim League. Punjab, which was “not designed” for partition, was torn asunder. Tanwar provides graphic details of how, despite petty animosities, the average Punjabi was incapable of even conceiving a divided Punjab. The ethnic, cultural and caste based ties transcended the religion based stratifications. One of the reasons mentioned by Tanwar for, ultimately, Punjabis turning on each other was the relative illiteracy and poverty among the Muslims.

Another interesting narration, a subplot, pertains to the shifting stand of the Sikhs, who were not in majority in anywhere in Punjab. Wooed assiduously by the Muslim League and the Congress the Sikh leadership found that it had very little scope for leveraging and maneuvering. Although they finally decided to go with India there lingered traces of dissatisfaction among some sections of the community.

Could the tragedy have been averted? Tanwar appears to think so. He points out, how, several thinking people including the then editor of The Tribune, appealed to Nehru to go in for systematic exchange of populations spread over a period of about three years. Nehru not only dismissed the suggestion airily but also expressed confidence that Pakistan would melt back into India within a couple of years! As subsequent events showed, such attitudes only added to the tragedy’s intensity. Another factor was the manner in which the politicians misled the common folks. While they themselves sold off their properties and transferred their assets from Pakistan to India (and vice versa) they kept advising the gullible people to stick to their homes and no harm would come to them! This perfidy cost Punjabis heavy in terms of lives and wealth.

Tanwar has not just narrated a story, most of which is familiar to us, but has provided a distinct perspective by not only sourcing information from the press reports of the time but also analyzing their reportage on the basis of coverage and its slant. If there was, by and large, balanced reportage in such papers as the Civil & Military Gazette and The Tribune then publications like the Dawn and Pakistan Times articulated the Muslim opinion. The Hindustan Times remained steadfastly nationalist, identifying with the Congress party’s worldview.

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