Bharat Ek Khoj | Episode-51 | Separatism

Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 51: Separatism

#separation #independence #revolution #hindu #muslim #issue #society #social

With K.K. Raina as Majid, S.M. Zahee as Hamid Ali, Harish Patel as Lala Makhanial, Ahmed Khan as Dr. Ahsan, Aparajita Krishna as Khursheed, Irfan Khan as Saleem, Sohaila Kapur-Limaye as Nafisa, Lubna Siddiqi as Shaheen, and Satish Kaushik as Pandit. The script is by Javed Siddiqi and the consultant is Asghar Ali Engineer.

Nehru notes that during the post-mutiny period, all the leading men among Indian Muslims, including Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, were products of the old traditional education, although some of them were influenced by new ideas. Thanks to Gandhi’s leadership, a united Hindu-Muslim front was forged against the British. The Congress spearheaded the non—cooperation movement, started in 1920 by Gandhi and the Khilafat Committee. In 1922, Gandhi announced a new phase of civil disobedience leading to the ultimate defiance of paying taxes, but called it off later. Amidst the Hindu-Muslim collaboration crumbling at the edges, M.A. Jinnah, the Muslim League leader, walked out of the Congress. While Gandhi languished in jail, a parliamentary commission under Sir John Simon arrived in 1928 to make a review of the Montague-Chelmsford reforms of 1927 only to be greeted by massive demonstrations throughout India. The Congress, with Gandhi released, rallied around a boycott of Simon Commission. An angry mob shouts slogans: ‘Simon! Go back’ against stiff police resistance. Sir Mohammad Iqbal (who wrote the fiery nationalist poem Sare jehan Se Achha…) plays a vital role in influencing the newly growing middle class and the younger generation. Emerging leaders like Dr. Ansari are confabulating to provide a sense of direction to the Muslim masses at nodal centres like Allahabad and Aligarh. They discuss how Ali Brothers (Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali) had played a prominent role in the Khilafat movement and suffered imprisonment for the Congress in the 1920’s. When, in 1930, news comes that Mohammad Ali is no more, the condolence meeting resolves that Lucknow city would observe a a total closure as a mark of respect to his departed soul. But some Hindu shopkeepers object on the ground that Ali was a Muslim. This takes most leaders by surprise,’as Ali,’ besides having chaired a Congress session, Harish Patel was part of Gandhi’s no tax agitation and Nehru’s socialistic campaign.

In retaliation against this Hindu resistance, many Muslim shopkeepers Ahmed Khan refuse to bring down shutters for Bhagat Singh, even though he died for the cause of India’s freedom. Enforced closures result in riots, to the utter dismay of the higher leadership who declare that Hindus and Muslims are as indivisible as the air and the sky.

The drama takes the separatism forward, in holding central and provincial elections under the Act of 1935. Muslim League is revamped under Jinnah and the rivalry between the Congress and the Muslim League gathers momentum in the electioneering campaigns. The results go overwhelmingly in favour of the Congress in most provinces and their government is established in 1937.

Nehru observes that Indian Nationalism, as represented by the Congress, opposed British imperialism. Jinnah had propounded a theory that India consisted of ’two nations‘: Hindu and Muslim. From this theory developed the concept of ‘Pakistan’, or the splitting up of India: as a direct offshoot of the ‘Divide-and—rule’ policy of the British.

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