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Home , Ayesha Jalal, Jhatka, Minoritarianism, Punjabi Hindus, Punjabi Muslims, Shaukat Hayat Khan

Nation, Reason and : 's Role in the Partition of Author(s): Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 32 (Aug. 8-14, 1998), pp. 2183-2190 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4407076 . Accessed: 29/06/2011 13:52

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http://www.jstor.org , Reason and Religion Punjab's Role in the

Ayesha Jalal

The pre-eminent view of Indian nationalism has been that of an inclusionary, accommodative, consensual and popular anti-colonial struggle. This has entailed denzigratinzgthe exclusive affinities of religion as communal' in an imagined hierarchy of collectivities crowned by the ideal of a 'nation' unsullied by narrowminded bigotry. By implying that religious affiliations are, if not necessarily bigoted, then certainly less worthy than identifications with the 'nation', Indian nationalism comes dangerously close to trampling over its owfn coat-tails. The cultural roots of Indian nationalism owed far nmore to religious ideals, reinterpreted and reconfigured in imaginative fashion, than has been acknowledged. Continued recourse to the colonial privileging of religious distinctions thwarted many well-meaning attemnpts at accommodating differences within a broad framework of Indian nationalism. So long as the dominant discourse among Indians was tainted by notions of religious and there could be no hard andfast separation between 'nationalism' and 'communualism'. Farfron being an irritating side-show, the inversiotn of the all-India majority and minority equation in Punjab was at the centre-stage of the struggle between nationalism aind imperialism.

"LET it not be forgotten', the Bengali the inherent materiality of both western informed in the face of radical M N Roy had written in 1926. "that modernity and British rule. While giving a modernity underwritten by the fact of Punjab is the centre of the Hindu-Moslem more respectability to religious sentiments British sovereignty. Continued recourse conflicts that radiatefrom there to all other and symbols than they have tended to to the colonial privileging of religious parts of India".1 The second half of the enjoy in the past, Chatterjee does so by distinctions thwarted many well-meaning 1920s saw social and political currents in invoking a dichotomy between an auto- attempts at accommodating differences Punjab receding from the ideal of an nomous inner spiritual and a dominated within a broad framework of Indian inclusionary nationalism towards an outer material domain.3 This is an inge- nationalism. So long as the dominant dis- apparentlyunbending kind of exclusionary nious way of skirting around the problem course among Indians was tainted by communitarianism. This had encouraged of dismantling the binary opposition notions of religious majoritarianism and at least one historian to depict the decade between 'secularnationalism'and religious minoritarianism there could be no hard as a "prelude to partition"2. Yet Punjab communalism on which so much of the and fast separation between 'nationalism' in this period can just as easily be seen ideological edifice of the post-colonial and 'communalism'. Far from being an as providing alternative visions of Indian nation-state has rested. irritating side-show, the inversion of the nationalisms which seriously challenged Engrossed with the construction of the all-India majorityand minorityequation in the notion of one nation and undivided nationalist hegemony, Chatterjee glosses Punjabwas at the centre-stage of the strug- sovereignty propagated by the Congress. over the unresolved tensions and continued gle between nationalism and imperialism. The pre-eminent view of Indian nationa- contestations that marked the terrain of REGIONAL,RELIGIOUS OR NATIONAL lism has been that of an inclusionary. both and region religion. Although RIGHTS? accommodative, consensual and popular conceding that "the real difficulty was anti-colonial struggle. This has entailed with in India" which gave "rise to The land of the five-rivers was the locus denigrating the exclusive affinities of alternative hegemonic efforts than the one of some of the more interesting ideas on religion as 'communal' in an imagined based on the evocation of a classical Hindu how the rights of religious communities hierarchyof collectivities crowned by the past", he stops short of considering the might be reconciled with the imperatives ideal of a 'nation' unsullied by narrow- substance of these alternatives.4 Such an of Indian unity. In 1924 the solution to minded bigotry. By implying thatreligious investigation of the cultural roots of the problem of contested sovereignty in affiliations are, if not necessarily bigoted. nationalismleaves unexamined the myriad Punjab proposed by , the then certainly less worthy than identi- subaltern contestations of an emerging pre-eminent Hindu nationalist of that fications with the 'nation'. Indian nationa- mainstream nationalism which like its region, was to partitionthe provincein order lism comes dangerously close to trampling adversary,colonialism, may well have only to make the principleof majorityrule effec- over its own coat tails. The cultural roots achieved dominance without hegemony. tive. This might in turn open the way to of Indian nationalism owed far more to To name this dominance hegemony is a possible federationof autonomousHindu religious ideals. reinterpreted and re- to confuse the claims of one strand of and Muslim states in Bengal. Rai's pro- configured in imaginative fashion, than nationalist discourse with its ability to posal for a division of the two mainMuslim- has been acknowledged. According to ensure cultural, not to mention, political dominated provinces was not a prelude to Partha Chatterjee, who takes the cultural acquiescence. It also underplays the a partition of India: it was a laboured fragment represented by certain Bengali exclusionary aspect of this nationalism attempt to forestall such an eventuality. Hindu middle class intellectuals to which only succeeded in eliciting a stronger A partitioned Punjab and Bengal were to illuminate the consciousness of the Indian reaction from its skeptics and critics. This remain part of an undivided India under nation as a whole, religion provided the was particularlytrue of the IndianMuslims Hindu majority rule. spiritualstores for resisting and negotiating engaged in redefining their religiously Championing the regional rights ol

Economic and Political Weekly August 8. 1998 2183 Punjabi , Rai drew comfort from beginning a-civil society, having received minorityas thecriteria for the distribution the fact of a Hindu majority at the all-India from the Quran a set of simple legal of nationalrights. It wasthis contradictory centre guaranteeing their national rights. principles which, like the 12 tables of the logic which gave religionthe handlethat Religion was the premise of both the Romans, carried...great potentialities of it came to enjoy in the politics of late regional and national rights of the Hindu expansion and development by inter- colonial India.As regioninteracted with community in Punjab.And yet LajpatRai, pretation". The principle of 'ijtihad' or an emerging conception of the nation, proclaimed himself to be an opponent of independent judgment allowed variouslyappropriated by the votariesof mixing religion with politics. His recipe to constantly adjust to the imperatives of themajoritarian community, those reduced for settling the problem of difference social change without abandoning the to minoritystatus by virtueof theirreligious through division was anathema to many Islamic path. Contrary to the view of the affiliation had reasonable grounds for . But they were equally religious scholars,Iqbal believed thatsince apprehension.Emphatic assertions of an averse to the ideas of Mohamed Ali, an the institution of the '' had ceased inclusionary nationalism based on the Islamic universalist venturing forth as an to exist the right of 'ijtihad' should be separationof thespiritual from the material, Indian nationalist, who held that the only vested in an elected Muslim assembly the religious from the political and the religious requirementof the Muslims was which was the "only possible form Ijma emotional from the rational seemed to to ensure that 'swaraj' or independence c[ould] take in modem times".7 In opting marginalisethe problem of culturaldiffer- did not undermine their religious rights. for the republicanform of goverment and ence ratherthan give it thecentrality it had If Mohamed Ali conceded the possibility collective 'ijtihad' by the Grand National cometo occupy in the discourse and politics of Muslim citizenship in a non-Muslim Assembly, the Turks alone among the of communitarianism.If fragmentsof the state, Iqbal transformed the Muslims had asserted the right of majority community could pose their very parametersof the debate by rejecting intellectual freedom conferred by Islam.8 demandfor regional rights in thelanguage the European born idea of the separation Yet on the separationof church and state of religiouslyinformed cultural differen- of the spiritual and material domains. they hadgone too far.Iqbal alerted Muslims ces, then the members of a 'national' According to Iqbal, the spiritual and the to the dangers of becoming overawed by minoritycould hardlybe expectedto do temporal domains were not distinct in the currents of western liberalism. As he otherwise.By clinging more obstinately Islam since "the natureof the act, however put it: to the politics of culturaldifference, a secular in its import, is determined by the Khtarana kar saka mujhejalwa danish- statutoryminority might at least extract attitudeof mind with which the agent does i-farang somesafeguards. After all, "the respect for it". Rejecting the post-enlightenment Soorma hai meri ankhoon ka khak-i- culturaldiversity and differentways of misperception of the binary opposition Madina wa Najf life finds it impossibleto articulateitself between the spiritualand temporal as "two The light of foreign wisdom does not in the unitaryrationalism of the language distinct and separate realities", Iqbal dazzle me of rights".I Butit hadto do so on a collec- affirmedboth the "unityof man"and Islam The kohl lining my eyelids is the dust of tive basis in orderto get a hearingfrom as "a single unanalysable reality"in which Mecca and Najf.9 the colonial statewhose tintedspectacles the religious and political aspects depended Iqbal's principal critique of western saw Indiain termsof essentialisedbut not on positionally specific observations. The enlightenment philosophy was that it had adequatelyexistentialised religious blocs. "workingidea" of'tauhid'. thebindingprin- taken the freedom of free thinking to such Playing notes borrowedfrom liberal ciple of a Muslim's submission to Allah, extreme limits as to deny that "all human democratictheory in the communitarian was "equality, solidarity and freedom". It life is spiritual". Islam on the other hand key, LajpatRai had issued an ultimatum was incumbent upon the state from an was "an emotional system of unification" to Muslim Punjab that separationmay Islamicpoint of view "to endeavourto trans- which "recognises the worth of the have to be the price for majorityrule form these ideal principles" into reality.5 individual"and "rejectsblood-relationship premisedon religion. He was perfectly "It was in this alone", the leading intel- as a basis of human unity" and "demands correctthat separate electorates for Mus- lectual light in Muslim India noted, "that loyalty to God, not to thrones".10It fol- lims andthe matching'communalisation' the State in Islam is a theocracy". This was lowed that 'ijtihad' was meaningless if of governmentthrough religiously defined not a form of government "headed by a denuded of religious spirit. What Iqbal's quotas were a devastatingblow to the representativeof God on earth...screening philosophical reconstructions of Islamic homogenisingclaims of an inclusionary his despotic will behind his supposed thought made plain was the gaping chasm nationalism. But it was his equally infallibility". An Islamic 'theocracy' between a view of Indiannationalism based impassioned defence of the rights of sought to "realise the spiritual in a human on keeping religion out of politics and the PunjabiHindus which betrayedto many organisation".6Giving a wholly different normative Muslim conception of treating Muslimsthe hollownessof the nationalist spin to what has come to be associated the spiritualand temporal domains in non- discourse.The baitof equalcitizenship in with the term 'secular'. Iqbal's philoso- oppositional terms. an independentIndia carried the pricetag phical vision aided by an understanding What then was the precise significance of singularityand homogeneity which was of Islam collapsed the meaning of sacred of religion in the politics of colonial India? rudelyat odds with narrativesdipped in and profane. The secular was "sacred in The separation of religion and politics the language of culturaldifference. To the roots of its being". There was "no such expounded by Congress nationalists and make mattersworse, they were expected thing as a profane world". rejected by those branded 'communalists' to rally to the call of a unified and un- The over-zealousness of Turkish took on very different connotations at contested sovereignty which conferred nationalists in embracing the European the regional and the all-India levels. uponthem minority status with no prospect idea of the separation of the church and Religiously informed cultural differences of reliefin the fact of theirregional majority. state borderedon profanity. "Such a thing were emphasised to claim regional rights Inequalityin the termsof representation could never happen in Islam", Iqbal but deemed illegitimateif insisted upon could hardlybe expectedto producethe asserted. "for Islam was from the very by a geographicallydisparate numerical conditionsfor equality of citizenship.

2184 Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998 Even if the issue of cultural difference nationalismholding out the promise of Whatever their own internal divisions could be settled through negotiations on equal citizenship rights, irrespectiveof various groupings in India were unwilling the quantum of state intervention in reli- community,caste or class. It is precisely to pay the price of fashioning a common gion, therewas no guaranteeingthat Hindu- because they had not given up thinking national moral consciousness if it meant majority rule would not try and efface the of themselvesas partof an Indianwhole the extinction of their cultural distinctive- marks of the Islamic impact on the thatthe ideaof majoritarianismseized the ness. It was imperative to "recognise facts" subcontinent.12Imbued with the wonder imaginationsof Hindusand Muslims alike. and "not assume the existence of a state of a union of the mother Goddess with the Punjab reveals in stark fashion the of things which does not exist".16 territorialhomeland, Hindu India's vision importanceof majoritiesclaiming regional, Yet Iqbal's call for a Muslim state in of 'Bharatvarsha'.was dramatically at odds religious and nationalrights. The con- north-western India did not envisage a with the individual and collective Muslim nectionsbetween region and nation which severance of all ties with Hindustan. In belief in the absolute sovereignty of a LajpatRai had mapped out in his arguments contesting their partin relationto the whole universal God. That it could give rise to on rightswere entirely in accordwith his of India, Muslims quite as much as other a rich variety of ideas on identity and religiously informed sense of cultural religious groupings were asserting rights sovereignty has been amply suggested in identity.Since Hinduswere fortuitously to territoriesbased on religiously informed the views of Mohamed Ali and Iqbal, two in a 'majority'in India,a PunjabiHindu cultural identities. But they were still men wedded to the universalist pledge in of LajpatRai's ambitionscould live with mainly challenging the Congress's right to Islam who chose initially at least to occupy theidea of separatingthe religious and the indivisible sovereignty, not rejecting any different niches in the politics of Indian temporalrealms. This was a formulation sort of identification with India. Muslim Muslims. flatly rejectedby Muslims who agreed schemes seeking to align notions of reli- It had the added advantage of being thattheir communitarian rights had to be giously informed cultural difference with more relevant to India's political and intel- safeguardedin any futureconstitutional political claims of territorial sovereignty lectual legacies thana discourse on nationa- agreement. The principal obstacle to were trying to keep alive the idea if not lism shaped by Europe's history of the for- Muslimsupport for a futureconstitution the reality of an India extending from the mation of nation-states. As Iqbal put it in was not separateelectorates but the issue Khyber Pass in the north-westernmarcher one of his 'zarifana' or humorous verses: of provincial majorities. Having pro- regions to the Bay of Bengal in the east, We easterninnocents have entangled our claimedthe 'secular'to be sacredto the and from the city of exquisite monuments hearts with a west core, upon entering the to keep alive the spirit and memory of the Where there are crystal chalices and here formalarena of politicsin Punjabdeclared Sultanate and the great Mughals to the only an old earthen pot that"agreement on only religiousmatters southern-most tip of Kanyakumari. All will perish in this era except the one wouldnot eliminate all thedifferences". 14 MUSLIMCOMMUNITY-TURNED-NATION: Who is established in way and firm in The 'mantra'of chanted rightsbeing by THEDEMAND FOR conviction the Hindus,and echoed variouslyby the Oh Sheikh and , do you hear , touched on temporalissues that Conceding territorial sovereignty to a what the scripturalsay impingedon theexercise of 'secular'state heterogeneous community turned homo- From what heavens have high authority.While focusing on the rightsof geneous 'nation' was a more vexed issue fallen Muslims,and those of than has been is Punjabespecially, generally acknowledged by Here it either conferences on mutual continued the com- those the course to love: the of love were established Iqbal emphasising charting separate ways betweenan Indian and an Islamic statehood India's Muslims. In Or over and , cow patibility by putting disputes identity.It was "completelywrong", he forward a claim to nationhood in 1940, sacrifice and 'jhatka'.3 asserted,to say that"the Muslim psyche Indian Muslims were decidedly revolting BETWEEN REGION AND NATION: THE wasdevoid of anyspirit oflove for the home- against minoritarianism, caricatured as MISSINGCENTRE land".Besides love of thehomeland, Mus- 'religious communalism'. As Mohammed lims felt passionatelyabout Islam. It was Ali Jinnah confessed, the idea of being a After the late 1920s, the legitimising this passionthat could bringtogether the minority had been around for so long that glory of Congress's inclusionary nationa- disparateindividuals of thecommunity. 15 "we have got used to it...these settled lism rested on precisely the "unitary Iqbal's 1930presidential address to the notions sometimes are very difficult to rationalism of the language of rights" All-India Muslim League is a key to remove". But the time had come to unsettle which, accordingto Chatterjee,is incapable understandingthe Muslim discourseon the notion since the "word 'Nationalist' of respecting cultural difference. Appro- identity, sovereigntyand citizenship in has now become the play of conjurers in priating the colonial state's disputable late colonial India. Was it possible "to politics". 17No less a conjurer than Lajpat claims of non-interference in the religious retainIslam as anethical ideal and...reject Rai, Jinnah came away from the League's and cultural concerns-of its subjects was it as a polity"in orderto embracethe idea session with a mixed bag of tricks. convenient for those with an eye to power of "nationalpolities" in which religion While the insistence on national status at the all-India centre. But this entailed played no part?It was 'unthinkable'for for Indian Muslims was absolute, the losing sight of unfolding developments in Muslimsto subscribeto the "construction demand for a separate and sovereign state the regions and taking refuge in a of a polityon national lines" by abandoning and its relationship with a Hindustan conception that came dangerously close "the Islamic principle of solidarity". containing almost as many Muslims to abolishing the fact of difference. Referringto ErnestRenan's definition of remained open to negotiation until the late Concerned with advancing their interests a nationas the expressionof a collective summer of 1946. The claim that Muslims in a context where the state conferred "moral consciousness",Iqbal observed constituted a 'nation' was notincompatible favours to communities of religion, thatthe affinitiesof caste and religionin with a federal or confederal state structure regional peoples were expected to readily India had resisted "sink[ing]their res- covering the whole of India. But for the embrace an idea of inclusionary pectiveindividualities in a largerwhole". federal idea to be acceptable, the logic of

Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998 2185 majoritarianismand minoritarianism had of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike by Hindusand Sikhs. JawaharlalNehru, to be abandoned and the fact of contested confoundedspirit and matter, the religious who visited Punjabin the early fall of sovereignty acknowledged. In keeping andthe secular. Shades ofbigotry informed 1945,stated categorically that "federations with the better part of India's history, the most versions of the narratives of werebetter than partitions".21 Looking to overture to shared sovereignty enunciated communitarianidentity and rights. But galvaniseelectoral support, Nehru seized by Jinnah and the League seemed the best therewas also a greatdeal in themwhich upon the INA issue. Payingrich tributes way of tackling the dilemma posed by the sheds light on the problemof equitable to Subhas ChandraBose, he demanded absence of any neat equation between citizenshiprights in a historicalcontext "sympathetictreatment" for the "mis- Muslim identity and territory. With requiring accommodation of cultural guidedpatriots" of the AzadHind Fauj.22 'nations' straddling states, the boundaries differences.To dismiss both bigotryand The vast majorityof Bose's army were between them had to be permeable and culturaldifference in the same breathas from Punjab.There was muchsympathy flexible, not impenetrable and absolute. 'communalism'may serve the purposes with the INA in Punjabcutting across This is why Jinnah and the League were of historicalshort hand. It cannotgo very communitarian lines. This gave the to remainimplacably opposed to a partition far in explaining why an inclusionary Congressa temporaryreprieve in a pro- of Punjab and Bengal along religious lines nationalismfailed to excitethe imaginings vince that was vital to the constitutional even while furthering the cause of a of so many in Punjab. negotiationsat the centre. political division of India between The Muslim trickle to the League's Beyond the contradiction of an 'Pakistan' and 'Hindustan'. 'Pakistan'was partly a reaction to the irreligiousparty demanding a Muslimstate Nudged on by the provincial Hindu activities of the Hindu Mahasabhaand andmost of thereligious guardians rallying Mahasabha, the Sikh reaction to the its para-military wing, the RSS. The behinda nationalistparty committed to a 'Pakistan'demand is of crucial significance Mahasabha'scharge that Congress was 'secular' vision, little is known of what in tracing the historical backdrop to the "unrepresentativeof Hinduopinion" was the uses of religionconveyed to the voters partition of the province. Together with not a rejectionof the nationalistorgani- of Punjab.Religion was deployedby all the Congress, this combination held a key sation.18There was a constant overlap parties. Signing its own death warrant to the future of Punjab. Unless satisfied betweenthe Congress and the Mahasabha among Muslim voters,the Congressleft with their share of representation in a in Punjabwhere it was often the same the anti-imperialistcause on the sturdy Muslim dominated province, not to individualswho voicedthe Hindu-Hindi- shouldersof the Ahrarsand the Jamiat- mention a separate state, there could be Hindustanslogan most loudly. After the ul-Hindulema whose forkedtongues had no question of keeping non-Muslims announcement of Rajagopalachari's bitten into many raw nerves in Muslim within such an administrative unit against partitionformula of 1944, whatcollapsed Punjab.But "castigat[ing] Jinnah and other their will. Contestations over sovereignty all ends of the Hindupolitical spectrum League leadersfor their religiousshort- in Punjab rarely conceded and usually was the discoverythat, all said anddone, comings" no longer had a spellbinding claimed territory. Some 20 years after it even the apex decision-makingbody of effect.23The rout of Congress'sMuslim had first been proposed as a solution to the all-IndiaMahasabha did not really supportersin Punjabshould not distract Muslim-majority rule in Punjab, Muslims oppose Rajagopalachari'sconception of fromthe impactthey madeat the level of were no more preparedto countenance the a 'Pakistan'.This was thesecond instance politicaldiscourse. Putting the fear of God partition of the province, far less discuss within a span of 20 years that Punjabi into the heartsand minds of Leaguerswas the geographical frontiers of a divided Hindushad shown a willingnessto concede no mean achievement.Aided by a team India. All that changed after March 1940 Muslim-majorityrule at the priceof sepa- of mostlyBarelvi ulema, hurriedly brought was that 'Pakistan' had become a familiar ratingthe non-Muslim-majoritydistricts undera freshlycreated Jamiat-ul-Ulema- name for an intangible congeries of inthe eastern parts of theprovince. 19 There i-Islam,Runjabi Leaguers tried surpassing imaginings. Most Muslims deemed it was no roomhere for negotiatingwith the their temporalcalling by appropriating consistent with an all-India arrangement. League's demandfor 'Pakistan'. Islamicidioms. The inductionof hell fire With many Muslims coming to subscribe Thesignificance of the 1945-46elections by 'pirs'and maulvis for the greater cause in principleto 'Pakistan', however defined, was not lost on the key players or the of religionbore no resemblanceto Iqbal's most Hindus took their formal stand on bystandersin thepolitical arenas of British translationof 'tauhid'as "equality,justice an 'Akhand Bharat' or an undivided India. India.Only a privileged12.5 per cent of and freedom",the foundingprinciples of Sikhs underMasterTara Singh's direction thetotal and a mere11 percent any state in Islam. were angling for an 'Azad Punjab' or an of Muslimshad the actual right of political Althoughthe largestsingle partyin the independent province where they might choice.20This does not diminishthe role new provincial assembly, the Muslim have a controlling hand. Exclusively based of theinformal arenas of politicsin Punjab, Leaguefound itself locked out of Punjab on arguments about religious majorities especially the popular press and its ministryheaded by KhizarHayat Tiwana. and minorities, these narrativesof commu- networksof informationand propaganda. This made it more difficult to prevent nitarianidentity and notions of sovereignty There had been extensive debatesin the Punjabisfrom striking at their ownjugular. singularly lacked a careful spelling out of press on the merits and demeritsof an Blamingthe failureon religiouszeal, of the rights of equal citizenship. 'Akhand Hindustan', a 'Pakistan', an whatevercombination, can only satisfy Attributingthis to 'communalism' would 'AzadPunjab' and 'Khalistan', to mention thoseimpatient with Punjab and its history be to overly simplify the issue. The prospect only the largerconceptions of territorial of shortand intense warfarefollowed by of an independent India where numerical sovereigntyin the province.A possible protracted,if uneasy, compromises.The majorities would shape the apportionment divisionof Indiawith or without a partition elections of 1945-46, pitting Muslim of power and patronage gave added of Punjabhad entered the realmof public against Muslim, and the politically importance to communitarian rights. discussions.Jinnah and the Leaguewere significant aftermath of a Congress, Drawing upon cultural differences, the demanding the whole of Punjab for Unionistand Akali coalition ministry had expression of these rights in the politics 'Pakistan'- a prospectbitterly opposed advertisedthe impossibility of exclusively

2186 Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998 Muslim rule in an undivided Punjab - a pound. Jenkins' grand gesture to parlia- and Muslim against Sikh is accurate only potential turning point in the history of a mentarypropriety and a delicate communi- to a point. The vision of religiously defined province that held the key to an united tarianbalance - the formation of the coali- communities banding together in absolute India. If it could get over the shock of tion ministry - had done less for unity than unison explodes amidst harsh criticisms being stopped in its trails, Punjab League division. Despite a succession of oppor- of the provincial and all-India leadership, might conceivably change the balance of tunities, Punjabi Leaguers more obsessed as well as anger and horror at the power between region and nation. But it with ousting the ministry failed, to take bankruptcy and collapse of their political had somehow to satisfy non-Muslims that advintage of Sikh d6ubts aboutthevwisdom will. may have been especially they would be granted equal rights of of an outright alliance with the Congress, unwilling to make concessions to rival citizenship in 'Pakistan'. Class and Anyone with,an iota of Seni6 could see corrihunities, but the vast majority were ideological divisions among Muslims, and the "danger, ever present in Punjab, of a equally averse to a partitionof the province not simply their political and cultural competent riposte to League disorderfrom on purely religious lines. The imposition differences with non-Muslims, made this the turbulentSikh minority".28The passage of an all-India solution on Punjab and the a difficult objective to realise. of well over six months before the Sikhs response it generatedin a society pulverised Statingmaximum demands did not mean erupted to avenge their marginalisation is by colonial constructions is a tragic tale abandoning possibilities of of critical importance in an evaluation of of woe. No one put it more poignantly than accommodation.Muslim Leaguers had not the options open to Punjabis in the final TalukchandMahroom, Punjabi Hindu poet given up on the prospect of an agreement few months of colonial rule. During the of Urdu who in March 1947 bemoaned the with the Congress or the Akalis. Nor had second half of 1946 an uneasy armed truce destruction of a regional ethos of which the Sikhs made up their mind on whether prevailed in Punjab until the crumbling of he had once been proud: they wanted a separate state of 'Khalistan' the administrativeedifice turnedthe sword Tearingthe clothingoff humansuperiority or an accommodation with the Muslim arm of India into its biggest killing field. This frenzied dance in the joy of nudity League or the Congress. Hoping to replace Religion did play a part as a marker of is destructive the Union Jack over the with social distinction. But religion as identity You have shown such barbarityin your the Sikh flag, the erstwhile sovereigns of owed nothing to religion as faith. achievements Punjab could not be given short shrift by Confusing the two, as a historiography Reducing to dust the honourof humanity the departingraj. GovernorJenkins warned operating in a binary mode is wont to do, From the high heavens the call will come Wavell that ignoring the Sikhs would has ended up essentialising religion and, night and day "seriouslyobstruct any agreedarrangement worse still, blurring the myriad textures Alas Punjab, pity on you and your culture!31 in Punjab". This was "not a parochial of localised social violence underthe grand On the fault line of and rubricof 'communalism'. The point".24 region preparations SEPARATINGAT CLOSE nation, the Sikhs were central to the all- for civil war and actual outbreaks of QUARTERS: PUNJABPARTITIONED India arrangements.At an earlier stage of violence highlight the precarious balance his negotiations with the cabinet mission, between the individual and the community The redesigning of the spatial landscape "Jinnah had been very anxious to come quite as often as the supposed triumph of of India by the British, the Congress and to terms with the Sikhs".25 The chances the community over the individual. the Muslim League was accompanied by of serious negotiations with the Akalis The League's 'direct action' movement pitched battles for social space in the improved considerably after the all-India against the coalition ministrydrew popular localities that were fought mainly, but not League on June26, 1946 formally accepted Muslim support, but seriously offended exclusively, along the lines of religious the cabinet's mission's plan for a three- non-Muslims. Yet remarkableas it seems, community. Violence intensified commu- tiered all-India federation. Even as late as the decisive refusal of and nitarianfeelings, but was rarelyperpetrated mid-July the Akali camp had not swung Sikhs to accept a League ministry or by collectivities as a whole. Demobilised decisively in either the direction of the 'Pakistan' did not make the partition of soldiers were more often than not in the League or the Congress.26 Nehru's the province any more acceptable to the forefront of violence committed in the rejection of the grouping scheme in the vast majority of Punjabis. This was true name of communities. Individuals, even cabinet mission plan as well as a weak even afterMarch 3, 1947 when the premier when grouped in armed militias, could centre put paid to the League's hopes of buckled under League pressure and settle personal scores in the process of a united Punjab. Yet the new policy of resigned. In a statement on March 8, a promoting and protectingmembers of their supportingthe Congress had 'not met with number of Sikh and Hindu leaders, community. Keeping an eye on the balance universal Sikh approval'. There were including three former ministers, made it between the individual and the community "apprehensi[ons]" about a "Congress known they were "opposed to Pakistan in offers far more penetrating insights into game...to use the Sikhs as shock troops any shape or form".29 If this was the the human dimension of social violence against the Muslims".27 overture, the all-India Congress working than permitted by overarching categories Sadly for the protagonists of a united committee provided the finale on the same like Muslim, Hindu and Sikh. Barbarity Punjab, the logic of a Muslim-Sikh day by resolving to demand the partition attributedto entirecommunities has effaced agreementwas coming to prevaiIjust when of Punjab. Hindus and Sikhs hailed the the role of individuals and given far greater the chances of its attainment were getting decision. Muslims created history by legitimacy to the social violence that overwrought by a confluence of unanimously condemning the Congress's accompanied the partition of Punjab than developments at the centre, the region and move which did more to "widen...the is warranted by the evidence.32 other parts of India. Kept out of power in cleavage between the communities" than The localised and personalised nature the province, Punjabi Leaguers detected the violence itself.30 of the battles for social space in a province "a deep-laid plot between the British and The old and tired portrait of Punjab in facing an impending division on the basis the Congress" and were bitter, frightened the grips of an all pervasive fever, of religious enumeration shaped the and angry - an altogetherdeadly com- exclusively pitting Hindu against Muslim frequency, intensity and thrust of the

Economic and Political Weekly August 8. 1998 2187 violence in Punjab. Without denying the differences. The Congress's call for a to Jinnah and the Congress leadership. communitariandimension of the killings, partitionof Punjabhad broughtout the Therewas "a completeabsence of enthu- one should not discount the possibility of difficulties of reconciling religiously siasm for the partitionplan" in Punjab, personalised violence passing off as, informed identities with imaginings of "nobodyseem[ed] pleased and nobody... 'communal', simply because of the territorial sovereignty. If Muslims in want[ed]to get on with thejob". Yet the presumed conveniences of the term in eastern, Punjab''were petrified. at the politicalparties for verydifferent reasons both colonial and nationalist discourse. prospectof their'homds being parcelled were,ready to 'acquiesce' to the plan. Sadaat Hasan Manto in 'Parhiya Kalima', out to the non-Muslimareas. Hindusin MusiiimLeaguers thought it was"a master- or recite the 'kalima', provides a chilling westernand centralPunjab were quite as strokeby Jinnah"in the vain hopethat he account of a Hindu woman killing off her averse to losing their properties to wouldultimately "get them all theywant". Hindu lover and acquiring a Muslim one 'Pakistan'.Sikhs with commercialand Congressmen,for their part,thought the on the condition that he help her dispense industrialinterests plumped in favourof plan was "a master-strokeby Patel,who, with the dead body. Taking advantage of a partition,leading to thecreation of a new havingpushed the Muslimsinto a comer the disturbed conditions and breaking the provinceconsisting of the Ambala and (or into two comers)" would "destroythem curfew, the new paramourplaced the corpse Jullundurdivisions as well as . But beforevery long".As for the Sikhs, they in a garbage dump outside a mosque. That Sikhlanded interests, represented by Giani wereon red alert in districts they considered night the mosque was burned down by KartarSingh' s group,wanted the territory vital. Until the boundaryline had been Hindus and the body was never found. between Chenaband Sutlej where they announced,they "refusedto go very far After surviving a murderousassault by the owned largeestates. Punjabi Hindus and with partition".39 woman, who moves on to a new lover, the Sikhs had conceded a partitionwith no Laterreactions to the partitionproposal Muslim ends up stabbing his replacement intentionof partingwith the choicest parts reflectedsub-regional and class consider- to death. This, as he explains in the story, of the province.34 ationseven more powerfully than commu- had nothing whatsoever to do with By the time the June 3 plan was nitarianones. Even after the AIML's formal 'Pakistan'. True, his victim was Hindu. announced,there was organised and semi- acceptanceof partition,Punjabis cutting But la illah illa Allah, he tells the Muslim organised incendiarism,stabbings and across communitariandivisions were policemen, this was at best a crime of bombblasts in bothLahore and Amritsar. jealously guardingtheir claims to social passion and at worst an act of self-defence. In an indicationof the speed with which spaces,embodying both the materialand What it could not possibly be described social space was falling vacant in the thespiritual aspects of theirindividual and as was 'communal violence'.33 province,an estimated70 to 80 thousand collective identities. The resistance to Creating amorphous configurations in had fled the two cities.35A rising graph displacementwas most pronounced among hotly contested space, groups of banded of violencedoomed such chances as existed Sikhsand Muslims, neither of whomwere individuals were fighting battles forcontrol tor an agreedsolution to the problemof "showingany sign of being willingeither in urban and rural localities that were as power-sharingin Punjab. Yet no less to give uptheir present abode, or to submit vital to them personally as they were to significant was the relative balance lightly to any kind of dominationby the the purportedinterests of their respective between centre and region in the final other".40Unreconciled to the loss of communities. With entire districts being negotiationswhich producedthe June 3 Lahore,Hindus were relying onRSS cadres apportionedon the basis of religious affili- partition plan. The Punjab governor in battles for social spaces in the wards ations recorded by census enumerators, thoughtit was 'ludicrous'for 'so-called and mohallasof Lahore.41The RSS was violence was directed by gangs repre- League leaders...to take orders from also strengthening its organisation in senting majorities against minorities with Bombayfrom a personentirely ignorant Jammuand Kashmirin anticipationof a a view to ejecting them through fear, terror of Punjabconditions'.36 He was equally Muslim bid for power. and murderous means. Religion, if it was opposedto theCongress high command's Althoughthe MLNG had not been nearly the primary issue, had mostly profane meddlingin Punjabiaffairs. By wielding as conspicuousas the RSS, it was "signi- manifestations.The banding of individuals the partitioner's axe to placate the ficant that 70 per cent of the new fires in localities to protect their home and Congress,the British would have "reduced in Lahore...occurred in non-Muslim hearth as well as their property owed whatmight be a powerfulcountry to two houses".42 Banded individuals were something to the discourse and politics of petty states". "Partition solve[d] no "creatinghavoc with the tacitapproval of communitarianism, Muslim, Hindu and problemand d[id] not really make sense".37 the local MuslimLeague leaders".After Sikh. But it was so variously interpreted The Punjab League leadershiphad, in legislatorsfrom the easterndistricts of the and deployed as to thoroughly implode conjunctionwith the largerimperatives of provincial assembly formally voted on the category of 'communal violence' Jinnahand the Congresshigh command, June23 to dissolvethe administrative unity within which each local incident has tended "alreadyfooled away a kingdom".Any of Punjab, the League seemed more to be cast. There was nothing to prevent conceptionof India's futurerequiring the "earnestin its apparentendeavour to re- members of religious communities from picture at the centre to emerge before createa senseof lawand order" in Pakistan's taking advantageof an impending division etching one for Punjabwas completely territories.Assurances of fairtreatment to of the spatio-temporal domain to advance "topsy-turvy".The "rightcourse", surely, minoritiesin westernPunjab were looked their personal claims on public space. was to "determinethe futureof the units upon with suspicionby Hindus,most of Outlandish territorial demands by com- in a way acceptableto their inhabitants whomwere planning to migrate.Yet those munity leaders were accompanied by andthen to sketchthe all-Indiapicture".38 who migratedwere also the first ones to strategies to appropriate the property of It was arrangementsat the centre,not reaffirmthe bondof familiarsocial space neighbours - the price of separating at the problem of individuals and com- by returninghome. In one of thosedelicious close quarterscould not have been crueller. munitiesinhabiting contested space in the ironies,Muslims in westernPunjab who Communitarianidentities were through- regions, which allowed Mountbattento had "sufferedinconvenience on account out strained by sub-regional and class dictatethe terms of theall-India settlement of theabsence of their'banias'" were seen

2188 Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998 to be capable of "cherish[ing] them more appointment".47 Muslim suspicions of of personalgain" which prompted Muslim if they... [came] back".43 British bad faith and the influx of refugees outrages against Hindus and Sikhs in If it was to be administratively viable, from eastern Punjab spelt the end for non- Jhelum.51By lateAugust a mere60 mem- not "a nightmare tapestry of futurist Muslims in the western districts. The final bersof the RSS remainedin thedistrict.52 design", Pakistanhad to have a "workable" phase of the violence saw clashing When it came to the crunch,volunteer and "practicable"boundary, "not...a crazy identities and contested sovereignties corps did more to shed innocentblood line running backwards and forwards" in ripping apart the moral and the spatial thanprotect the lives and propertyof co- and out of villages in several districts.44 landscape of Punjab. Refugees from religionists.Escaping to areaswhere nume- It was impossible for the boundary Amritsar incited some Muslims in West rical strengthwas on theirside, the RSS commission to satisfy wildly clashing Punjab to commit arson, looting and quiteas muchas the MLNGpreferred the claims to territories in Punjab. Attacks on stabbing against non-Muslims. Signi- offensive ratherthan the defensivepath. Muslims in Amritsar by early August ficantly, while the people of Lahorewanted The materialbenefits of the battlesfor alarmed Sikhs and Hindus in western "a quick return to normal conditions, the socialspace in both parts of Punjabaccrued Punjabwho feared reprisals. Exhortations malevolent element from the to individuals,not local communities. And by Hindu and Sikh leaders to non-Muslim [we]re exploiting the discontent and there can certainlybe no vindicationof minorities to remain in the districts to advocat[ing] retaliation".48 criminalactions in pursuitof 'zar?and which they belonged and promises by One way to minimise social dislocations 'zamin', or wealth and propertywhich, Muslim League leaders of "protection and was to offer allegiance to the new state. togetherwith zan or womenwere the three equal treatment"did nothing to "dispel the In ,Hindu refugees participated constitutiveelements of materialculture panic". Gandhi, paying a courtesy visit to in the hoisting of the Pakistan flag. In in the north-westernareas constituting the Punjab on his way back from , Chakwal and Jhelum, Sikh commissioned territoriesof Pakistan.Banded individuals was greeted with posters "asking him to officers presented arms to the national wereamassing wealth and property at other retire from politics".45 flag. Non-Muslims in Jhelum made peoples'expense. In Campbellpur, Pathans The disregard of the human dimension donations to Muslim refugees' funds and from Mianwaliand the NWFP, "out for in the political bargaining at the all-India appealed to their co-religionists in eastern loot, more on criminalthan communal level was coming to haunt the national Punjab to put a stop to the lawlessness. lines", did not spare local Muslim leadership with a vengeance. "Sober-minded Muslims" were "en- residents.53If the quest for 'zar' and Shaukat Hayat has recalled his shock and deavouring to persuade non-Muslims to 'zamin'had led to unpardonableoffenses horroratthe painful discovery thatMuslim stay on in ". But the general againstmembers of all threecommunities, men in Amritsar had abandoned their clearing of social spaces had begun in the the debasement of 'zan' assumed women and children for the safety of localities and districts of Punjab. Armed nightmarishproportions. Maulvi Maula Lahore. Callousness was matched by thugs, frequently assisted by the local Bakhsh.the 'khatib'of the Jumamasjid cowardice in one village where Muslim MLNG, and even elements in the police in Rawalpinditold a congregationof 3,000 men hid in the sugarcane fields while a and the army, carried out a systematic Muslims that 25,000 Muslim girls had band of Sikhs carried away young girls campaign of loot.49 The nexus of citizen- been abducted by Sikhs in eastern and set fire to a house where they had ship in Pakistan and, by extension, India, Punjab.54The situationin Kashmirwas pushed all the old women and children. as the Congress insisted Hindustan be "a permanentmenace to Muslims".55 In one instance, a terrified young woman known, had a bloody baptism that cannot Dograraids on Sialkotand the abduction left her child on the road side when told be ascribed to religion by any stretch of of Muslimwomen merely served to confirm by the driver of a bus full of Muslims that imagination. the paranoia.The image of Kashmiras a there was space for only one person.46 Muslim excesses against their Hindu powerlesswoman enslaved by Dogra rulers Collective memories of violence in social and Sikh neighbours in western Punjab hadnever failed to excitePunjabi Muslims. spaces, embodying some of the strongest assumed appalling proportions which no Yet the decorumof wantingto rescuethe identities of individuals and collectivities, amount of nationalist selfjustification can symbol of a ravished woman married have woven a dark shroud over the corpse .wash away. This was not to be the ideal awkwardly with attitudes towards the of undivided Punjab. A scrupulous sifting stateof Islam of which the poet-philosopher living and the real. UnidentifiedMuslim of the threads, however, confirms the of Punjabi Muslims had spoken in his men, operatingas local gangs, had been personalised and localised nature of the reconstructionlectures. Far from providing abductingand raping non-Muslim women. violence as well as the singular victimi- any basis for the realisation of the spiritual There was nevertheless anguish upon sation of women - Muslim. Hindu and in each individual, far less the collectivity, hearingthat a columnof Muslimevacuees Sikh - by men purportedly battling to in temporal activity, this was a state born on its wayto Pakistanhad been mercilessly safeguard their communitarian interests. of the purely material greed which the attackedby Sikh '' in Ferozepur An analysis of the violence, perpetrated chaos of the British departure let loose in district.56But if there were only a few as well as suffered in Punjab, offers quite Punjab. characterslike KhushwantSingh's Jagga astonishinginsightsinto the social attitudes The situation was much the same in in the Sikh community,there were men which marked the birth of independent India. Muslims in Delhi were attacked and of the Muslimcommunity, as Mantohas citizenship in . The sacred their property seized. This had catalytic depictedin his classic story 'Khol Do', rapidly turned profane in the process of effects in westernPunjab. There were cases for whom Sirajuddin'sdaughter Sakina advancing the battle for sovereignty in of conversion, both voluntaryand involun- was the first and foremost woman as different tehsils and districts. The award tary, especially in Jhelum, and prostitute,not ornament,irrespective of of Punjab boundary commission, whose .50 Even an unsympathetic her religious identity as a Muslim.57 announcement was postponed to allow for commentator like G D Khosla believes All said and done, the commonalityof the transfer of power ceremonies to that it was "not religious emotion or masculinitywas strongerthan the bond of proceed,predictably "caused much dis- aggressivechauvinism...but the prospect religion. Men of all three communities

Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998 2189 delighted in their momentary sense of adaptationto its Indiansetting - had been one 3 andGyanendra Pandey, 'Prose of Otherness' of the cruellest cuts inflicted the rhetoric in David Arnold and David Hardiman over vulnerable women; such was by (eds), power of Hindu, Hindi and Hindustan. SubalternStudies VIII:Essays in Honour of the courage of these citizens of newly inde- 13 Hum mashriqkai maskeenonka dil maghrib Ranajit Guha, Oxford, Delhi, 1994.) pendent states. Gender eroded the barriers main ja atka hai 33 Sadaat Hasan Manto, 'Parhiya Kalima' in that had been forced to create. Wahan kantar sab buloori hain yaan aik Manto Nama, Sang-e-Meel, Lahore, 1990, religion matka hai 259-67. For an translation see Whateverwomen have purana pp English may accomplished Iss duor main sab mittjain ghai, haan baqi 'Nothing but the Truth' in Hamid Jalal, by aligning their interests with nationalist wo rahe jai gha Blackmilk, Alkitab, Lahore, 1956; reprinted organisations, it was more as abstractions Jo qaim apni rah pai hai aur paka apni hat Sang-e-Meel, Lahore, 1997 ka hal 34 Secret Police Abstract to the community Punjab of Intelligence, appended religious Aie Sheikh o Brahman!Suntay ho kiya ahl- NCHCR, May 19. 1947, vol lxix, no 19, seeking sovereign statehood than as i-baserat kahte haitn Lahore, , pp 233-34. substantive subjects constituting the Gardonnai kitne bulandi saay oon qaumoon 35 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, nation. Women's achievements in cdaipatka hai NCHCR, May 31, 1947, vol Ixix, no 22, meagre Ya baham kai dastoor-i- 277. defence of their own interests were piyar jalse thay; Lahore, Islamabad, p vividly nuihabatqaim tha 36 'Note by Jenkins', TP, March 20. 1947, ix, in evidence during partition violence in Yatbahis main Urdu-Hindihai, ya qurbani p 997. which they were the main victims. Alas, ya jatka hai. 37 Enclosure to 'Jenkins to Wavell', ibid, in March 881. Punjab had betrayed its patriarchical bent (Iqbal, 'Bang-i-Dara' Kulliyat-i-Iqbal, 7, 1947, p p 234.) 38 'Note by Jenkins',ibid, March20, 1947,p 997. more decisively thanthe affective affinities 14 Statementon the Simon Commission. From 39 Fortnightly report from Jenkins to of religious community. In the memorable Inqilab, November 12, 1927. Cited in Afzal, Mountbatten,June 15, 1947 in The Partition words of Amrita Pritaminvoking the spirit Guftar-e-lqbal, p 51. of Punjab: A Compilation of Official of the author of the or 15 Inqilab, September 10, 1929 in ibid, p 91. Documents, vol 1, (second edition), Sang-e- legendary 'qisa' 16 Iqbal's presidentialaddress to the AIML in Meel, Lahore, 1993, pp 41-42. folk-tale Heer-Ranjha while composing December 1930 in SharifuddinPirzada (ed), 40 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, the ultimate epithet for undivided Punjab: Foundations of Pakistan, Lahore, 1970, NCHCR, June 21, 1947, vol lxix, no 25, Today I call upon Waris Shah vol 11,pp 156-57. Lahore, Islamabad, pp 325-26. To rise from the and 17 Jinnah'spresidential address to the AIML in 41 Ibid, p 330. grave speak March 1940, ibid. p 335. 42 Ibid. And plead with him to open anotherpage 18 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, 43 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, in the book of love NCHCR, May 20, 1944, vol lxvi, no 21, NCHCR, June 28, 1947, vol lxix, no 26, One daughter of Punjab had cried Lahore, Islamabad, p 291. Lahore, Islamabad, p 339. And were moved to write reams on 19 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, 44 See the Muslim League's memorandumto you November vol no commissionin ThePartition her sorrow NCHCR, 18, 1944, lxvi, 47, Punjabboundary Lahore, Islamabad, p 639. of Punjab, vol 1. pp 283-84 and 287-89. Today thousands of crying daughters 20 Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman:Jinnah, 45 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, Call upon you, o. Waris Shah the Muslim League and the Demand .fr NCHCR, August 9. 1947, vol lxix, no 32. O you.the sympathiser of thebroken hearted, Pakistan, 1985, p 149, Cambridge, fn 99. Lahore, Islamabad, p 407. Arise and see 2 1 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, 46 Shaukat Hayat , The Nation that Lost your Punjab. NCHCR,September 1, 1945, vol Ixvii, no 32, Its Soul: Memoirs of Sirdar Shaukat Hyat Todaydead bodies are cramming the forests Lahore, Islamabad,p 292. Khan,Jang Publishers, Lahore, 1995, pp 184-86. And the Chenab is brimmingwith blood 22 Ibid, p 291. 47 Secret Punjab Police Abstractof Intelligence, Someone has mixed poison with the water 23 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, NCHCR, August 23, 1947, vol lxix, no 34, of the five rivers NCHCR, January 5, 1947, vol Ixix, no 1, Lahore, Islamabad, p 419. Islamabad, 4. 48 Secret Police Abstract Andthat water has all overthe land.58 Lahore, p Punjab of Intelligence, spread 24 'Jenkinsto Wavell', TP, July 3 and 4, 1946, (signed by Anwar Ali, deputy inspector of Notes vol viii, pp 2 and 8-9. police,CID, Punjab)NCHCR, August 23, 1947, 25 Ibid. vol lxix, no 34, Lahore, Islamabad, p419. 26 See 'Jenkinsto 49 Stern 120-216. G M Seminar, of Wavell', ibid, July 15, 1946, Khosla, Reckoning, pp [The Trevelyan University 60. 50 Secret Police Abstractof lntelligence. November 27, 1997.] p Punjab Cambridge, 27 Secret Purjab Police Abstractof Intelligence, NCHCR,September 20, 1947, vol lxix, no 39. I M N Roy, 'Punjab Money-lenders' Bill' in NCHCR, August 24, 1946, vol Ixviii, no 33, Lahore, Islamabad, p 457 Sibnarayan Ray (ed), Selected Works of Lahore, Islamabad,p 409. 51 Gopal Das Khosla, Stern Reckoning,p 198. M N Roy, 1923-1927,vol II,Delhi, 1988,p 439. 28 IntelligenceBureau (Home Department),TP, 52 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence. 2 See David Page, Prelude to Partition: The September 23, 1946, vol viii, p 577. NCHCR, August 23, 1947, vol Ixix, no 35. IndilanMuslinis and the ImpnerialSystem of 29 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, Lahore, Islamabad, p 423. Control 1920-1932, Oxford University Press. NCHCR, March 8, 1947, vol Ixix, no 10, 53 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, Delhi. 1982, 1987, passimn. Lahore, Islamabad, p 102. NCHCR, September 20, 1947, vol lxix, no 3 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its 30 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, 39, Lahore, Islamabad, p 461. Fragmrents:. Colonial and Postcolonial NCHCR, March 15, 1947, vol Ixix, no 11, 54 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, Histories, Delhi, 1994, p 74. Lahore, Islamabad, pp 113-114. NCHCR, September6, 1947, vol Ixix, no 37, 4 Ibid, pp 73-74. 31 Admiyat ke libas-i-bartari ko phaar ke Lahore, Islamabad, p 441. 5 Muhammnadlqbal, The Reconstruction of Shauq-i-Aaron mneinye racks-i-janoon hey 55 Secret PuntjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, Religious Thought in Islanl, edited and fitna gar NCHCR,September 13, 1947, vol lxix, no 48, annotatedby M Saeed Sheikh,Iqbal Academy, Too ne apni bartari ke dekhae wo hunur Lahore, Islamabad, p 452. (second edition), 1989, p 122. Khlakmein jin s.ey mili tauqir-i-insan sar 56 Secret PunjabPolice Abstractof Intelligence, 6 Ibid, pp 122-23. basar NCHCR,September 20, 1947. vol lxix, no 39, 7 Ibid, p 138. Asmanonsey sada aiye ghi ye sham-wa-sahr Lahore, Islalnabad, p 457. 8 Ibid, p 124. Heif ah Punjab, tuj pey aur teri tehzib pey. 57 See , Train to Pakistan, 9 MuhammadIqbal, 'Bal-i-Jabrial'in Kulliyat- (In Muzaffar Abbas, Urdu Mein Qaumi Shairi, Grove Press, New York, 1961 and Sadaat i-lqbal, (no date), p 34. Lahore, 1978. pp 205-06.) Hasan Manto's 'Sakina' in Blackmilk, 10 Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious 32 Both Veena Das and Gyanendra Pandey pp 43.-46. Thought in Islam, p 116. commit the fallacy of not deconstucting the 58 AmritaPretam, 'Aaj AakhanWaris Shah Noo' 11 ParthaChatterjee,'Secularism and Toleration' 'conmmunity'in their accounts of partition (my translation)cited without the final lines in Econonmicand Political Weekly, July 9, violence. Consequentlythey fail to pinpoint in Hanif Ramay, Punjab ka Muqadammah, 1994, p 1773. Yet the notion of a blend of the pain of violence and dislocation Jang Publishers, Lahore, (fourth edition), individualand collective rights was available experienced by both individuals and 1988, pp 25-26. For a different English in the realm of Muslim political philosophy communities during the holocaust of 1947. translation of the whole poem see whichhad reached beyond the rigidboundaries (See Veena Das, Critical Events: An Serebryakov, I Punjabi Literature:A Brief of a unitary colonial rationality. Anthropological Perspective on Contem- Outline, Progressive Books, Lahore, 1975, 12 The attack on Urdu - a symbol of Muslim porary India, Oxford, Delhi, 1996, chapter p 107.

2190 Economic and Political Weekly August 8, 1998