1940s India: Triumph and Tragedy (PDF)

Wk12/ Metcalf Ch7: The 1940s: triumph and tragedy (p. 203-217) Lord Linlithgow → 1939: declared Britain & India at war with Germany In protest, Congress provincial ministers resigned 1940→ Pakistan Resolution ○ ML saw Congress resignation as opportunity ○ At annual meeting in...

Wk12/ Metcalf Ch7: The 1940s: triumph and tragedy (p. 203-217) Lord Linlithgow → 1939: declared Britain & India at war with Germany In protest, Congress provincial ministers resigned 1940→ Pakistan Resolution ○ ML saw Congress resignation as opportunity ○ At annual meeting in Lahore ○ Demanded independent Msulim states Economic nationalism & good self-governance by Congress ministers after 1937 destabilised Britain’s position in India By end of war, india had piled up sterling balances in london of over 1k million pounds FROM NEGOTIATION TO THE AUGUST RISING Congress di not support war effort in 1939 like they had in 1914 (WW-1) The character of the war – as struggle against fascism – appealed to liberal internationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru, who had toured Europe in the 1930s Gandhi → non-violence lover so didnt participate Subhas Chandra Bose → India’s freedom by cooperating w fascist powers Nehru’s views dominated Working Committee (India should take part in global struggle for freedom, but for that Idnia needs to be free first) Cripps mission→ Sir Stafford Cripps (leftist member of Labour Party & Nehru’s friend) flew to Delhi in April 1942 ○ (Brit ready to accept Indian independence after war/ believed indian colonialism imp during war) ○ During war, Indians promised more seats on viceroy’s EC However Brit’s ally USA (franklin roosevelt – pres) (louis johnson – american rep in delhi)--> pushed Indian govt towards conciliation Flaws of Cripps mission: ○ Defence ministry not transferred to Indian hands ○ Viceroy’s EC not responsible for India legislature (despite proposals) ○ Gandhi called it “‘postdated cheque on a failing bank’” Winston Churchill (head of wartime coalition govt) NOT in support of “liquidation of British Empire”  1942→ Quit India Movement/ August ‘Rising’ (by Congress) ○ Uncoordinated violence unlike previous disciplined movemetns of civil disobedience ○ Bcz Congress leadership jailed ○ Gravest threat after Great Revolt (1857) ○ Even gandhi, in jail, had depicted India as a young woman attacked by a soldier/ argued that she ought to fight back with teeth and nails rather than submit to rape/ Violence was preferable to cowardice ○ Low-level leaders, students & activists: Statrted in Bombay → (factory worker strikes/ attacks on police) In countryside–UP, western Bengal, Bihar → (peasant rebellion) Benares & Patna → militant students (recruited by radical by kisan sabha organizations) ○ Launched attack on govt property & comms network of the Raj (railway stations & tracks destroyed/ telegraph lines pulled down/ elephants employed too) ○ BIhar→ 170 police stations, post offices, other govt buildings, destroyed ○ ‘National’ govt set up in Midnapur (Bengal) ○ British crushed uprising (movement became moment of idealism and sacrifice kro) ○ Jayaprakash Narayan (socialist) → established ‘provincial govt’ on the Nepal border JINNAH & PAKISTAN IDEA:- British looked elsewhere for war support bcz of congress upheaval→ Muslim League 1940→ League adopted Pakistan idea stemming from Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry and other writing a decade ago Muslim majority areas of northwest India 1933 → Named ‘Pakistan’ by grp of Cambridge students ○ Giant confederation of discontinued states ○ Incorporates names of provinces meant to be in nation ○ Land of pure Muslim majority areas already protected by regional parties  Muslim majority areas as independent states with autonomous constituent units Until 1946 no one, neither Jinnah, the provincial Muslim leaders, nor the British, envisaged, much less desired, the partition that ultimately took place. SIkander Hayat’s Unionist Party had Punjab (key area of Pak) under his control & they didnt want Pakistan Congress-allied Ulama of Deoband opposed 2 nation theory → promoted individual morality in Muslims & cooperation bw religions i independent India Jinnah used pakistan as bargaining card to play in post-war settlement (Ayesha Jala in Sole Spokesman) WAR & FAMINE 1943—> Bengal famine (2million ppl died) ○ Due to administrative failure ○ Stoppage of rice imports from japanese-occupied burma ○ Govt decided to divert grain frm countryside to city for military Sonar bangla (golden bengal) image tarnished after suffering and death of war & famine 2 indian armies against each other Desp to enlarge military, soldiers hired across the country, indian officers promoted to commaidng positions (except top ranks) Subhas Chandra Bose→ commanded force of Indian soldiers captured after fall of Singapore→ Indian National Army (INA) ○ Had led the leftist socialist wing within congress ○ Committed to more egalitarian social & gender politics than Gandhi ○ Denied Congress presidency in 1939 & he left ○ Fled india with allied fascist powers against british ○ First to germany them to japanese occupied singapore ○ Force also had women’s detachment (named after Rani of Jhansi) ○ Slogan→ “Dilli chalo” (similar to 1857) ○ Evoked pride 1945 → British tried 3 INA officers (Sikh, Hindu, Muslim) for disloyalty  ○ Secured rep of INA as freedom fighters of India Bose died in airplane crash Viewed as heroic myth instead of his vision of authoritarian rule under him FROM SIMLA CONFERENCE TO CABINET MISSION War coming to end 1945→ Simla Conference ○ Lord Wavell (viceroy) brought tog Jinnah, Gandhi & Congress leadership to get over political deadlock ○ Wholly Indian EC w equal Caste Hindus & Muslims to be interim govt (excpet Wavell & commander-in-chief) ○ Negotiations died when Jinnah asked Muslim League to nominate its Muslim members Jinnah → ‘sole spokesman’ for Indian Muslims// (didnt ack right of Congress or Punjab Unionists to rep Muslims) Wartime collab of Muslim League w British had provided Jinnah enough value to stop negotiations 1945 → Labour ministry under Clement Attlee replaced Churchill’s Conservative govt ○ More sympathetic to Indian struggles and call for independence Despite victory from war, britian was struggling with lack of manpower or economic resources //// impossible to subdue Indian resistance British in india attracted to socialist govt’s promise of jobs, housing etc. 1946→ Naval mutiny in Bombay Elite Indian CIvil Service (steel frame of raj)--> one half Indian by 1945 1945/46 → elections held during winter ○ COngress & Muslim league pitted against each other ○ Congress won 90% of votes ○ ML won all 30 reserved Muslim seats in central legislature & 442/ 500 Muslim seats in PAsway better for ML than 1937 elections Jinnahs cold western attire did not symbolise charm as a leader Begam Ikramullah scared to meet Jinnah bcz ‘very rude and snubs everybody’------> ‘to listen to him and not be convinced was not possible’/ ‘so thoroughly, so single-mindedly, so intensely convinced of the truth of his point of view that you could not help but be convinced also’.  Appeal of pakistan most successful in modern Muslim nationalism-fostering institutes (e.g. Aligarh University) Hard to reach rural population of Maulism majority areas Punjabi and Bengali Muslims were protected by their majority position in provinces possessing a large measure of autonomy ○ unlike elite, who feared for their place in Congress-run india ○ Jinnah needed their allegiance for Pakistan to happen Krishak Praja Party (Fazl-ul-Haq’s party in Bengal) ○ In the crisis of the famine, Fazl-ul-Haq’s ministry gave way to a Muslim League government under Khwaja Nazimuddin. Punjab Unionist Party rested upon ties of kin & clan/ linked landlord & peasant across religious community→ more resistant to appeals based on Muslim solidarity ○ Chief minister Sikander Hayat Khan had agreed w Jinnah’s all-India qs ○ Successor Khizr Hayat Khan 1944 broke away from Jinnah ○ Both parties on loggerheads Jinnah tried to undermine Unionist Party ○ Use local landlords’ conflicts to his advantage ○ endeavoured to appeal over the heads of these clan leaders directly to the peasant voter. In so doing he turned for help to the I(spiritual guides) of the sufi shrines scattered about the countryside. JInnah rallied rural population of Punjab w cry: ‘Islam in Danegr’ Previously, private belief had had little to do with public identity Under the pressure of the 1946 election campaign, with its explosive communal rhetoric, all this was changed personal commitment to Islam became fused with an assertion of Muslim community solidarity→ voting becamse ritual act of incorporation in body of Islam ‘wherever I went, everyone kept saying, bhai (brother), if we did not vote for the League we would have become kafir (an infidel)’. For avg Muslim voter, pakistan became: ○ Modern nation state ○ Culmination of process of colonial politics Evoked ideal Islamic political order → realization of an Islamic life fused with the state’s ritual authority  During the bloody upheavals of 1946 and 1947, Pakistan underwent a transformation from visionary ideal to territorial state Could not shake off legacy of ‘pure’ land & Muslims & confessional Islam 1946 → Cabinet Mission ○ British authorised cabinet to devise plan ○ The proposal for an independent India involved a complex, three-tiered federation whose central feature was the creation of groups of provinces. ○ 2 groups → Muslim majority provinces fo east & west// 3rd would be HIndy majority centre & south ○ These grps work under Union Govt controlling defence, foreign affairs, & communications ○ (united India–Congress & secure essence of Paksitan–Jinnah)large Hindu populations of Bengal and the Punjab → no diffrence in treatment bw Muslim Hindu. ○ ML accepted Cabinet Mission Jinnah woul hv preferred 2 groups (Muslim & Hindu?) not all 3 Jinnah argued that, as Muslim India comprised a ‘nation’ as much as Hindu India did, it was entitled to equal representation in any central government institutions Electoral logic saw muslims as minority At all costs Jinnah wished to avoid what he called in 1944 a ‘maimed, mutilated, and moth-eaten’ Pakistan in which all non-Muslim majority districts, regions comprising some 40 per cent of Bengal and Punjab, would be shorn from the new state ○ Congress feared centre would be too weak to achieve goals of Congress In socialist wing under Nehru, wanted central govt to direct India to poverty free & industrialised future Nehru rejected grouping of provinces (key to Jinnah’s pakistan) Cabinet mission collapsed (thought independent pak better than two too strong provinces & clashing communal a& landlord interests that the ML represented)  1944 → group of leading industralists formulated the Bombay Plan: scheme for the rapid development of basic industries under the leadership of the state Central idea: creation of groups of provinces Prototyping→ service simulation Minimum prototypes expected (atl 5 corresponding to each team member) 1. Discussion 2. Participation 3. Simulation 4. Pilot Personas important in prototyping Physical models Paper+digital models Elements of UX Design: (busines and user needs combined) Strategy (base) (start here) → Scope → scope out target audience/ ur medium Structure → journey map Skeleton → wire-frame Surface (peak) (end here) Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) Prototype testing