Mapping Partition: the Cartographic Construction of Pakistan
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Mapping Partition: The Cartographic Construction of Pakistan by Shaheer Tarar A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of Geography & Planning, University of Toronto Copyright by Shaheer Tarar, 2020 Mapping Partition: The Cartographic Construction of Pakistan Shaheer Tarar Master of Arts Department of Geography & Planning University of Toronto 2020 Abstract In the summer of 1947, a British barrister who had never before set foot in India used paper maps to sketch out the lines that would lead to its partition. Today, the border he designed is one of the most militarized and surveilled spaces on earth. Thousands of floodlights installed along its perimeter render it visible from space in a bright orange hue, underscoring the power of pencil lines drawn decades ago. In this thesis, I investigate how British and Muslim political interests used cartography to construct, reinforce, and contest ideas of nationhood and statehood during India’s partition; and show how maps can at once be used as tools of colonial intervention and decolonial struggle. ii Acknowledgements Though this thesis was written between me, a computer, and the texts I have cited, so much of it was also shaped by uncitable forces in unknowable capacities. Among them, numerous converging local and global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the global movement against racist policing; my mood and tenor as I wrote amidst widespread discontent and unrest; and my discussions with friends and family which may have felt like they had nothing to do with the topic. In ways I cannot directly point to, the ideas underpinning this work were shaped and sharpened by numerous conversations with my dear friends Ali, Atif, Jandell, Khalood, Mariba and Tucker. I also cannot imagine the process of conducting this research without the constant encouragement, unflappable support and thoughtful feedback offered by my supervisor, Dr. Emily Gilbert. Her edits, insights and questions were tremendously helpful in raising fascinating dimensions of this work I had not considered before, sharpening my analysis, honing the arguments I offer here. I would also like thank my thesis examiners, Matthew Farish and Rajyashree N. Reddy, whose generous reading and thoughtful questioning helped strengthen and clarify this work. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their always unwavering support (and being willing to translate documents at any hour of the day). I could not have coped with the doubly isolating process of writing a thesis in the midst of a pandemic without the encouragements, comforts and sustenance offered by my greatest supporter, Sean. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Summary of Sections ........................................................................................................... 4 2. Imagined Geographies, Cartography and the Geo-Body ............................................................ 4 2.1. Performing as a Nation ........................................................................................................ 4 2.2. The Role of Documents in the Performance of Space ......................................................... 7 2.3. The Work Maps Do ............................................................................................................. 8 2.4. Critical Cartography........................................................................................................... 11 3. Methods and the Archive .......................................................................................................... 14 3.1. Method of Cartographic Analysis ...................................................................................... 14 3.2. Archival Research .............................................................................................................. 16 3.3. The Afterlives of Empire ................................................................................................... 17 4. Historical Overview .................................................................................................................. 19 4.1. The Morley-Minto Reforms ............................................................................................... 19 4.2. World War II ...................................................................................................................... 20 4.3. The Quit India Movement .................................................................................................. 20 4.4. Direct Action Day .............................................................................................................. 21 5. The Cartographic Development of Pakistan ............................................................................. 22 iv 5.1. Pakistani State Mythology ................................................................................................. 22 5.2. The Two-Nation Theory .................................................................................................... 24 5.3. Early Visions of Muslim India ........................................................................................... 25 5.4. The First Map of Pakistan .................................................................................................. 27 5.5. The Jinnah Archives .......................................................................................................... 33 5.6. Keeping Pakistan Nebulous ............................................................................................... 44 5.7. Public Imaginaries of Pakistan........................................................................................... 47 5.8. The Boundary Commissions .............................................................................................. 50 5.9. The Muslim League’s Map ................................................................................................ 52 6. The Radcliffe Award................................................................................................................. 54 6.1. The Revelation of the Radcliffe Award ............................................................................. 54 6.2. Inside the Manila Envelopes .............................................................................................. 58 6.3. Endowing Paper with Power .............................................................................................. 59 6.4. Radcliffe’s Maps ................................................................................................................ 63 6.5. Reading the Empire in its Maps ......................................................................................... 67 6.6. The ‘Radcliffe’ Line .......................................................................................................... 76 7. The Legacy of Radcliffe’s Award............................................................................................. 78 8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 80 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 83 v List of Figures Figure 1. India-Pakistan borderlands at night. Image taken from the International Space Station on August 21, 2011. Image ISS028-E-029679, retrieved from NASA’s Visible Earth catalog, originally published September 5, 2011. .................................................................. 1 Figure 2. The Millat of Islam and the Menace of ‘Indianism’, C. Rahmat Ali, 1942. From India Office Records and Private Papers (Mss Eur F158/615). British Library, London, UK. ... 28 Figure 3. Continent of Dinia and its Dependencies, From The Greatest Betrayal, C. Rahmat Ali, 1947. From the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, UK. ................. 31 Figure 4. India and Europe: A Comparison. From The Statesman, August 31, 1944. From India Office Records and Private Papers (IOR Neg 10760/1), British Library, London, UK. ..... 36 Figure 5. Taqseem-e-Hind Ka Nazara. From India Office Records and Private Papers (IOR Neg 10760/1), British Library, London, UK, ca. 1944. .............................................................. 37 Figure 6. Map of India showing borders presumably hand-drawn by Maulana Haik Rauf. From India Office Records and Private Papers (IOR Neg 10760/1), British Library, London, UK, ca. 1944. ............................................................................................................................... 40 Figure 7. Map in the Jinnah Papers showing hand-drawn borders for Pakistan. From India Office Records and Private Papers (IOR Neg 10811/41), British Library, London, UK. ............. 41 Figure 8. Sketch of Pakistan in the Jinnah Papers. From India Office Records and