Partition in the subcontinent was the product of an idea that was born in split second but fostered over a certain span of time. Changing the chronicle of events impetuously, partition remains a kicking ghost, destined to be exhumed and dissected over and again. The autopsy is yet incomplete. The cremation still unfinished. Gory scuffles and gashing sagas keep it up in the air.
Partition as a process led to many a makings. Widespreadloss and agony apart, it carved out a few immutable historical specifics:Gandhi as a bolshie saint is an astute politician; Nehru a larger-than-sizevibrant personification of Progressive India but a pampered young man; andJinnah as a suave gentleman who became a pushy leader out of sheer situations.
Lines drawn and boundries lugged, theater of division wasenacted, and rest followed. Bisham Sahni’s Tamas, Khushwant Singh’s Train toPakistan, Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man, Attia Hussein’s Sunlight on a BrokenColumn, Rushdie’s Midnight’s Chil¬dren or Jaswant Singh’s contentious Jinnah:India-Partition Independence— the trauma reached beyond famed treatises. Thecharacters weren’t confined to prose; prosaic realities smeared with bloodpercolated along the generations. Of course, people dwindled into symbols, andstories were fashioned out of continuing horrors, commu¬nal frenzy and therising obscurantism.
More than seven decades down the line, today the fate ofminority in India smacks of an abhorring nostalgia. The Gujarat and Kandhamalof yester-years, seems a minor hitch in the bandwagon of ‘diversity’ that Indiatypifies. It is perhaps all explain¬able with reference to changing mindset ofmajority population. The pattern of hatred seems changed ever since. Today, itis determined and planned, carrying no parallels.
No melting pot, India as a unique collage of unwanted anduntamed hate appears emerging cogently. The marked reluctance to proceed at lawand a cynically manipulated demonization of minority religions, is nurturingthe climate of spiraling violence and rampage. In the grip of unendingnightmare since Gujarat carnage, the crazed goon squads have been stalking thelandscape, leaving behind trails of blood, destruction and devastation. Thebigotry and ugly intolerance have high¬lighted the collapse of politicalauthority and the revanchist illogicalities budding in the name of some savagegod of perverted patriotism.
Using terror as a strategy to swize the high groundideo¬logically and ensure a constant setting and re-setting for a politicalgain, is fast turning the binding indicator of mainstream politics in India.The radical leaders or anyone of their ilk are only taking the dictates flatly.That did they ever had a brush with Mao Zedong’s idiolect of brute force (powerflows from the barrel of gun) is an edu¬cated guess since the logistics oftheir ruling exercises reek a close veneer. The only differ-ence lies incamouflaging the same, which perhaps outspoken Mao and his Gang of Four was notcognizant of. Even intrigues of Nazi’s and their anti-Semitic pogroms lacked amitigating approach. Goebbels’s mills couldn’t churn eternally convincingpropa¬ganda. Though the most vigorous its influence was, it could not hide aflagrant injustice or induce the masses to reconcile obvious inconsist¬encies.The reason was plain: skillfully manipulated, the credulity of the public onminor matters seemed almost inex¬exhaustible, but on major issues like war,subjugation and rights the limits of credulity were soon reached. No doubt,multitude of people died and the expansionist design of politics made deepinroads into history, but the dictators masquerading as visionaries were damnedto deprecation. Bottomline: Contemporary unstable politicalscenarios in the world and aftermath, is receding to barbaric etiology but witha small change: the disquieting injustice and criminal insol¬vency are gettinginstitutional¬ized. They are no longer debated, still less discussed. Thecalculated patronage is the unusual point. In this back¬drop, the saga ofPartition and its long drawn corollary in India stands as a blatantvindication.