Gandhi’s views on partition: an evaluation

The Indian freedom struggle was perhaps the greatest mass movement in the world history. The idea was built around 1919 that the people had to and could play an active role in politics and in their own liberation. This idea succeeded in politicizing and drawing into political action a large part of the Indian people. As on 15th August, 1947, the British rule came to an end and the two dominions-India and Pakistan took shape. With this there was large scale migration of population with untold violence, murder, looting, rape etc. Gandhi considered division of India by the British a disaster. He warned the nation about ruin of the country would have to face if they allowed the British to divide India on communal lines before handing over the power. Gandhi accepted partition, but deeply deplored the communal violence that was taking place at that time. This paper is an attempt to explore Gandhi’s ideas on partition.