11-14-2003, 03:28 AM
Krishna
I purposly named the thread what I did, since I wanted the discussion to focus on a specific aspect of the Partition, the possible rationale behind the decsion, and the impacxt of that decision on India.
You are right in general terms about who and what started the killings. Yu are also right that Gandhi was dead against reciprocating the muslim favour, and some strange compulsion in him wanted muslims to stay.
Under Jinnah's Direct Action plan, Hindu's and Sikhs were massacred on the West Punjab side for several days. In addition, those trying to escape were killed in the trains, and the trains sent onwards to Amritsar.
Read Arun Shouries compilation of SUPERB Essays, "Indian Controversies. It has a whole chapter on Direct Action, called "The Pistol that Jinnah forged"
I would make it cumpolsory reading for every grade 10 student in India.When it was clear the govt was unable or unwilling to stop this, Sikhs and Hindus took matter in their own hands and the rest as they say is history.
But as I have said, my main purpose in starting this thread is to explore the rationale and the consequences of that decision.
My own view, in a nutshell, is that we have a great civilizational weakness, which saw us make this huge blunder.
I purposly named the thread what I did, since I wanted the discussion to focus on a specific aspect of the Partition, the possible rationale behind the decsion, and the impacxt of that decision on India.
You are right in general terms about who and what started the killings. Yu are also right that Gandhi was dead against reciprocating the muslim favour, and some strange compulsion in him wanted muslims to stay.
Under Jinnah's Direct Action plan, Hindu's and Sikhs were massacred on the West Punjab side for several days. In addition, those trying to escape were killed in the trains, and the trains sent onwards to Amritsar.
Read Arun Shouries compilation of SUPERB Essays, "Indian Controversies. It has a whole chapter on Direct Action, called "The Pistol that Jinnah forged"
I would make it cumpolsory reading for every grade 10 student in India.When it was clear the govt was unable or unwilling to stop this, Sikhs and Hindus took matter in their own hands and the rest as they say is history.
But as I have said, my main purpose in starting this thread is to explore the rationale and the consequences of that decision.
My own view, in a nutshell, is that we have a great civilizational weakness, which saw us make this huge blunder.