Copyright by Amber Heather Abbas 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Amber Heather Abbas Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Narratives of Belonging: Aligarh Muslim University and the Partitioning of South Asia Committee: Gail Minault, Supervisor Kamran Ali Philippa Levine Wm. Roger Louis Martha Norkunas Narratives of Belonging: Aligarh Muslim University and the Partitioning of South Asia by Amber Heather Abbas, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication For my many families, around the world, who made this possible. Acknowledgements First, I must extend my gratitude to the seventy-two individuals whose narratives form the foundation of this analysis. They and their families invited me—a veritable stranger in most cases—into their homes, offering tea, snacks and stories. The interviews often blossomed into rich conversation that provided the comfort of family. I am grateful for their hospitality and their stories. Without them, this project would not be. My own family has supported me every step of this journey with emotional support, funds, nourishment, and long conversations about triumphs and trials. My parents and sisters never stopped believing in this project. My nieces brought welcome distractions. The Warrens have made me one of them and our vacations together have been a highlight of the last many years. My extended family in Pakistan lived the experience of leaving Aligarh and settling in Pakistan, and I was driven by my desire to understand their experience. My great uncle and initial interlocutor, Major General Wajahat Husain (Ret’d)—Poonan Mama—spent dozens of hours speaking with me in his study, and this relationship has meant the world to me. My thanks are also due to his family, Talat Mami, Kashif and Atiqa, who loaned him to me. My grandmother, Begum Birjis Abbas, was in many ways my muse, and I worried after her death in February 2007 that I might lose my way. But this story is driven by survivors; they provided the inspiration to keep going. My aunts, uncles and cousins in Lahore fed me, taught me, and put up with me during several research visits to Pakistan. I know I did not always make it easy. Thank you. In Karachi and Islamabad, too, my relatives always gave me a home, and sometimes a car, as well as company, encouragement and conversation. v Many friends and families who took me in when I was no more than a friend of a friend. Sumer, Parul and Sanat Datta invited me to call their (quite incredible) Gurgaon home my home. More broadly, The Bindaas Gang—too numerous to name here (special mention to Vinita and Sandy Ahuja and Juhi and Rathin Mathur)—made my life in India the best kind of adventure with endless Bollywood dance parties. Rupin Jayal often listened, advised, and made me laugh when I needed it most. By extension, Bindaas Pakistan made it all possible by setting the original example for hospitality: Shandana Mohmand, Miguel Loreiro, and the (growing!) Bandey family. In Delhi, Theresa, Olivier, Sasank, Martin, and Ryna were a gateway to the rest of the world with music, laughter, late nights, and mince pies. Of course, James supported all of us. In Lucknow, the whole crew at the AIIS Urdu program, led by Ahtesham Sahib, supported my Urdu and introduced me to narrators in addition to providing a classroom to which former students, like me, can always return. Thanks to the Piping Hotties just for being! I must thank the Jacob family for giving us a home in the summer of 2008. My friends Devon, Fazal, Jaclyn and Kate Z. took care of me there in 2009. Many other graduate researchers in Delhi and Lucknow formed a community of shared experience. For this, I must mention Rebecca, Irish Dave, Harshita and Audrey, especially. In Aligarh, when I arrived alone, knowing nobody, a phone call went around the world and Dr. Maqbool Alam appeared at the guest house to pick me up. He, Raffia Aunty and their daughter-in-law Asra helped me to get settled and became my local family. Without their support and advice I might not have been able to stay. Maqbool Uncle took me to look for (and find) my family’s ancestral home in Aligarh City- that was amazing! Thank you! Of our many friends in Austin, Edward Tierney was our first; thank you for opening your whole community to us. Sylvia Gale and Alistair Jones made Austin feel vi like home and offered much needed love and guidance. Sylvia deserves special mention for understanding so much more than I ever could, and for sharing her wisdom with me. In academic matters, this has been a long and often wonderful journey. I owe my gratitude above all to my inimitable supervisor, Gail Minault, who was always ready to remind me, when I sometimes forgot, what my dissertation was about. Her scholarship sets the bar high for her students, and I aspire to do justice to her reputation. Kamran Ali and Martha Norkunas have guided and shaped the project from its inception. Wm. Roger Louis’ support has always made a difference and provided a regular community. Philippa Levine joined later, but brought her signature enthusiasm and energy. Many other professors at UT have guided aspects of my development, including but not limited to: Cynthia Talbot, Martha Selby, Denise Spellberg, Akbar Hyder, Julie Hardwick, Madeline Hsu, Daina Berry and Howard Miller. From other institutions too: Yasmin Saikia, Lucy Chester, Neilesh Bose. I am grateful to many friends and colleagues at UT in the Departments of History, Anthropology and Asian Studies with whom I’ve shared this journey. Special thanks to Courtney Meador and Marilyn Lehman in the Department of History. In India, my Aligarh advisor Shireen Moosvi and the faculty and staff of the Department of History and the Center for Women’s Studies at AMU made me welcome and guided me through Aligarh’s mazes. I am also indebted to the staff of the Maulana Azad Library, especially Ramesh in the Sir Syed Room, and Dr. Shayesta Khan and S.M. Mohsin Jafri in the Manuscripts Section. In addition, staff at the Sir Syed Academy supported my access to their collections. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, it was the friendly staff at the National Archives that made my daily work possible. To the many organizations who funded my research, I must acknowledge my gratitude: The Department of History at the University of Texas, the South Asia Institute, vii the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies. My research in India was mostly funded by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award in 2009. Many thanks to the USIEF Staff in Delhi and to Adam Grotsky who was running the show. My initial interest in this project was facilitated by an IIE Fulbright to Pakistan in 1999. Of course, the support of these colleagues, friends and institutions has been significant, but the ideas here, the mistakes, and responsibility for them, is mine. Finally, Jamison Warren deserves more than thanks. His love and patience keeps my world turning on its axis. He tolerated long months apart, and long, difficult months after my return. I am grateful for our life together, and excited for our future. viii Narratives of Belonging: Aligarh Muslim University and the Partitioning of South Asia Amber Heather Abbas, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Gail Minault The partition of India that accompanied that nation’s independence in 1947 created the additional state of Pakistan; by 1971, this Pakistan had fractured into the two independent states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. This dissertation seeks to expand our temporal and spatial understanding of the sub-continent’s partitioning by examining the experiences of a group of South Asian Muslims across time and space. As this dissertation will show, South Asia’s partitioning includes more than the official history of boundary creation and division of assets, and more than the people’s history of unbridled violence. I have oriented my investigation around a single institution, the Aligarh Muslim University, and spoken to former students of the 1940s and 1950s, whose young lives were shaped by the independence and partition of India. The memories of these former students of Aligarh University offer a lens for examining the “multiple realities” of partition and the decolonized experiences of South Asian Muslims. The educational institution at Aligarh, founded in 1875, had long been concerned with cultivating a sporting, activist, masculine identity among its students; Muslim League leaders further empowered that identity as they recruited students for election work in support of Pakistan. The students embraced the values of the demand for Pakistan that appeared to be consistent with the values engendered at Aligarh. This dissertation uncovers the history of these students throughout the 1947 partition and beyond. It explores unexpected histories of trauma among communities who “chose to stay” but later experienced a powerful discontinuity in independent India. It exposes contradictions evident in remembered histories from Pakistanis who express triumph and grief at the prospect of Pakistani independence. Finally, this dissertation assesses the position of Muslims after partition and how the “disturbances” that began in the late 1940s continue to affect them today in both lived and remembered experience. As a site for examining the “disturbances” of partition, Aligarh University proves to be a hub of a community that was and remains deeply disturbed by the changes partition wrought.