Minorities, Gandhi's last fasts and the secular choice

Detail

1. The question Partition raised

• The question: India was divided on the basis of religion. Did that make the India left behind a Hindu nation?
• The numbers: Many people moved across the new border. Even so, a large Muslim population stayed in India.
• NCERT: Muslims were 10-12% of India's population in 1951.
• Census 1951: a little under 10%.

• Other minorities also stayed: Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews.

• Two sides pulling in opposite directions:

• The Muslim League had argued for the two-nation theory. This is the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations.

• Some organisations wanted a Hindu nation (Hindu Rashtra). They argued that India should now treat Hindus as its main people.

• The government's task: It had to decide how the new state would treat minorities. It had to do this while riots, refugee flows and anger were at their height (1947-48).

2. The secular choice

• The national movement's answer: All citizens are equal, whatever their religion. Being religious or not religious is not a test of citizenship.
• Secularism (definition): the state has no official religion. It treats all religions with equal respect. It does not favour or punish anyone because of their faith.
• How this was written into the Constitution (legal anchors):
• Article 14: equality before law.
• Article 15: no discrimination on grounds of religion.
• Article 16(2): no religious bar to government jobs.
• Articles 25-28: freedom of religion. This includes freedom to profess, practise and spread one's religion, and freedom to manage religious affairs. No religious teaching is allowed in schools fully funded by the state.
• Articles 29-30: minorities can protect their culture and run their own educational institutions.
• Article 325: there is a single electoral roll. Nobody is kept off it because of religion. Separate electorates (seats where only one religious group voted) were ended.
• Articles 5-11: citizenship at the start of the Republic. Article 6 covered migrants from Pakistan. Article 7 covered people who had migrated to Pakistan.
• The word "secular" was added to the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment (1976). The idea itself was in the Constitution from 1950.
• The Supreme Court later held secularism to be part of the basic structure in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994). Basic structure means the core features that Parliament cannot destroy, even by amending the Constitution.

3. Nehru's letter to Chief Ministers (15 October 1947)

• From 1947 onwards, Nehru wrote regular letters to the Chief Ministers of the provinces. They are a key source on early policy.
• What he said:
• India had a Muslim minority so large that it "cannot go anywhere else". It would stay in India whatever happened.
• The state had to give Muslims security and the full rights of citizens.

• If it failed, the minority would become a "festering sore" that would poison the whole body politic (the whole political life of the nation).

• NCERT Exercise 6: were Nehru's reasons only ethical (based on right and wrong)? Or were they also prudential (practical and sensible)?

• Ethical reasons: equal citizenship was a promise of the freedom struggle. It was also the moral basis of the new state.
• Prudential reasons:
  • An insecure minority would keep communal conflict alive.
  • It would weaken democracy and slow nation-building.
  • It would also give Pakistan a reason to interfere.
• Answer: the reasons were both. The letter joins the two.

4. Gandhi's last months: Noakhali, Kolkata and Delhi

• Noakhali (1946-47): Gandhi walked from village to village in riot-hit Noakhali in East Bengal to restore peace between Hindus and Muslims. NCERT has a photo of this.
• 15 August 1947: Gandhi did not attend the Independence Day celebrations in Delhi. He was in Kolkata (Calcutta), trying to stop the riots there.

• Effect: his presence brought a short peace. Hindus and Muslims celebrated Independence together with joy.

• Kolkata fast, 1-4 September 1947:

• Riots broke out again → Gandhi began a fast → the violence stopped.
• This came to be called the "miracle of Calcutta".

• Beyond NCERT: Mountbatten called him a "one-man boundary force". In Punjab, a large army force could not stop the killing. In Bengal, one man did.

• Delhi fast, 13-18 January 1948 (his last fast):

• Context: Gandhi moved to Delhi, where refugees had arrived and riots had broken out.
• His demands:
  • safety and dignity for Delhi's Muslims
  • payment of Pakistan's dues. These were Pakistan's share of the assets of undivided India, which India was holding back.

• Result:

  • Communal violence fell sharply, and Muslims could return to their homes.
  • The Government of India agreed to pay Pakistan's dues.
  • Leaders of all communities gave solemn promises that Muslims could live in Delhi in peace and with dignity. Gandhi then broke his fast after five days. [3]

• Extremists on both sides blamed him. Some Hindus and Sikhs said he favoured Muslims and Pakistan. Some Muslims in Pakistan said he was only defending Hindus.

5. Assassination (30 January 1948)

• Nathuram Vinayak Godse shot Gandhi on 30 January 1948, as Gandhi went to his evening prayer meeting at Birla House, New Delhi. [3]
• Godse's motive: he was a Hindu extremist. He believed Gandhi was too soft on Muslims. [3]
• Impact (NCERT):
• The whole country was shocked into grief.
• Communal groups lost public support, and violence fell.

• Gandhi's death strengthened the secular choice.

• Beyond NCERT: the RSS was banned in February 1948. The ban was lifted in July 1949.

6. Nehru-Liaquat Pact / Delhi Pact (8 April 1950)

• Definition: an agreement signed in Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister of India) and Liaquat Ali Khan (Prime Minister of Pakistan). Each country promised to protect the religious minorities on its own side. [2]
• Background:

• India and Pakistan cut off economic relations in December 1949 → tension grew in East Pakistan → fresh communal violence broke out in East and West Bengal in early 1950 → refugees moved in large numbers both ways. [2]

• Main terms: [2]

• Minorities in both countries were promised equal citizenship, security of life and property, and freedom of religion. Their minority rights were confirmed.
• Refugees could return home safely and sell their property.
• Abducted women and looted property were to be returned.
• Forced conversions (people made to change religion by force) were not recognised.

• Minority commissions were set up to put these terms into practice.

• Result:

• Confidence came back for a time.

• In the months after the Pact, more than a million more refugees still moved into West Bengal. [2]

• Opposition inside India:

• Syama Prasad Mukherjee and K.C. Neogy, both from Bengal, resigned from Nehru's cabinet in protest. They felt the Pact did not protect Hindus in East Pakistan enough.
• Mukherjee went on to found the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951). It was a leading opposition party during the period of one-party dominance (the years when the Congress won almost every election).

7. Link to the present: the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

• Official reasoning: The Government of India has said that Pakistan did not honour its commitments under the 8 April 1950 Pact, and that religious persecution of minorities continued there. [4]

• When the Bill was passed, the government named two reasons for bringing it: India's partition on religious lines, and the failure of the Nehru-Liaquat Pact to protect minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. [5]

• What the CAA 2019 does: it amends the Citizenship Act, 1955. [6]

• Who it covers: Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014.
• Main change: these migrants are no longer treated as "illegal migrants". For them, the residence needed for naturalisation (gaining citizenship by living in India) falls from 11 of the past 14 years to 5 years.

• Exemptions:

  • Sixth Schedule tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura
  • Inner Line Permit states: Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. An Inner Line Permit is a special pass that outsiders need to enter these areas.

• The debate: critics ask whether the Act meets Article 14, the equality clause. Under Article 14, the law may treat groups differently only if there is a fair and clear reason (reasonable classification). The Act sorts people by country of origin, religion, date of entry and place of residence. [6]

• Supporters say the Act repairs a broken 1950 promise.
• Critics say a religious filter goes against the secular choice of 1947.

Prelims Hooks

• Nehru-Liaquat (Delhi) Pact → signed 8 April 1950 by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan. It set up minority commissions.
• Ministers who resigned over the Pact: S.P. Mukherjee and K.C. Neogy. Trap: B.R. Ambedkar also resigned, but in 1951 over the Hindu Code Bill, not over this Pact.
• S.P. Mukherjee → founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.
• Gandhi's fasts:
• Kolkata, 1-4 September 1947 ("one-man boundary force", "miracle of Calcutta")

• Delhi, 13-18 January 1948, his last fast. Its demands were safety for Delhi's Muslims and payment of Pakistan's dues.

• Gandhi's assassination: 30 January 1948, at Birla House, by Nathuram Vinayak Godse.

• RSS ban: February 1948 → lifted July 1949.
• Muslim share in 1951: NCERT gives 10-12%. The Census gives about 10%.
• "Secular" was added to the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment, 1976. Secularism was held to be basic structure in S.R. Bommai (1994).
• CAA 2019:
• It covers 6 communities from 3 countries, with a cut-off date of 31 December 2014.
• The residence period was cut from 11 years to 5 years.
• Sixth Schedule and Inner Line Permit areas are exempt.

Mains Points

• Ethics and practical sense in Nehru's secularism (GS-I):
• Ethical side: equal citizenship was a moral promise of the freedom struggle.
• Practical side: an insecure minority of tens of millions would become a "festering sore". It would harm democracy, internal security and India's position abroad.

• The secular choice was a principle and a strategy at the same time.

• Gandhi's moral leadership as a peace tool:

• In Bengal, fasts and personal presence brought peace where armed forces failed in Punjab.

• His assassination took away the public support of communal groups and strengthened the secular consensus of the Constituent Assembly.

• Bilateral guarantees for minorities have limits:

• The 1950 Pact depended on each state's goodwill and on its own enforcement. When Pakistan did not keep its promises, refugees kept coming.

• That failure is used today to justify the CAA 2019.

• CAA 2019 debate (GS-II):

• For the Act: it is a humanitarian remedy for minorities persecuted after the Pact failed.
• Against the Act: a religion-based filter raises Article 14 and secularism concerns. It sits uneasily with the 1947 promise of "no religious test of citizenship".
• A balanced answer should present both sides and note the Sixth Schedule and Inner Line Permit carve-outs.