Religious Conflicts and the Partition of India Essay (Essay Sample)

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Religious Conflicts and the Partition of India
The partition of India refers to a period in history when India and Pakistan that were formerly one country split to become two independent nations. This paper demonstrates how the partition of India caused religious conflicts in the country (Bharadwaj et al, np)
In 1947, the British colony eventually left India after 300 years of colonial rule. When this happened, the Muslims moved East and West Pakistan (the former known as Bangladesh) whilst millions of Sikhs and Hindus headed towards the opposite side. The sub-continent was then portioned into two: the Muslim majority that formed Pakistan, and the Hindu majority that remained in India. The partition of India was a result of a two-nation theory that was advanced by Syed Ahmed Khan with the spokesperson for the partition being Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The talks mainly focused on the religious differences of the populace of India then and another issue for the British is that they wanted to leave weaker colonies that they could control even after departure (Talbot, np).
According to the book, British South Asian theatres and the global South Asian Diaspora: Introduction, the British government bears the blame for the partitioning of India. This is because Jinnah is believed to be a British agent who bore self-interest while he advocated for the creation of Pakistan. Jinnah had the ambition to be the ‘Quaid-e.Azam’, irrespective of the harm his actions would cause to both the Muslims and Hindus (Dadswell, Sarah & Graham, pp 161-163).
The partition of India led to the biggest, unplanned, most abrupt, and tragic transfer of the human population. As a result of the partition, many people were killed and millions displaced as a result of the partition. To fuel the partition of India, religions and religious organizations were used to divide people along religious groups. Some of the religious organizations that were used to create divisions included: Hindu Maha Sabha that was established in 1922 and the RSS that was established in 1925.
In some states, violence was organized in conjunction with the rulers. For instance, in the Sikh state (except Kapurthala and Jind) the Maharajas took part in the ethnic cleansing of Muslims, whereas other Maharajas like the Bharatpur, Faridkot, and Patiala took part in the ordering and commanding the armies to act. It is believed that the ruler of Bhagalpur witnessed the ethnic cleansing of his populace, especially the ones that happened in Deeg (Dadswell, Sarah & Graham, pp 161-163).
Moving on, due to the partition, communities that had earlier co-existed for almost a millennium-long period attacked one another in spate of violent outbreaks that pitted Muslims on one side and Sikhs and Hindus on the other side of the war. In Bengal and Punjab provinces that lied on the borders of India with East and West Pakistan, respectively the violence was very intense with arson attacks, massacres, mass abductions, forced conversions, and sexual violence. During that time almost 75,000 women were raped and many were dismembered and disfigured. The effects of the partition of India resulted in a situation where members of two religious groups could not co-exist.
The Effect of the Partition of India on me Personally, in my Community, culture, and Family
Culturally, due to the partition of India that was marred with violence and by the destructions of Buddhists and Hindu sites, India discarded the Indo-Islamic civilizations that came with hybrid languages like Urdu and Deccani-that were derived from a mixture of Trish and Indian vernaculars, and Arabic and Persian words. Today, these languages are rarely spoken because the different ethnic groups that created them no longer interact as used to be during the 19th century. Also, the Muslims and Hindus used to share some cultural practices before the partition of India. But today, every religion adheres only to their traditions and sees the other’s cultural beliefs as useless.
At a communal level, the Islamic and Hindu religions have not learned to co-exist, and the terrorist elements within Islamic circles even worsen the relationship between the two religions. The Sufi mystics that are related to the spread of the Islamic religion today do not regard the Hindu scriptures to be divinely inspired. Before the partition of India, I have read stories that Muslims used to practice the Yoga practices of Hindu Sadhus that involve hanging upside down while praying and using ash to rub their bodies (Menon, 2013). But today the Muslims do not practice any practices of the Hindu people and vice versa. In the folk traditions of the villages, the Muslim and Hindu practices have clashed as opposed to the pre-partition period when they blended. Hindus no longer visit graves of Muslims a