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importance of partition on 1947 for Hindus has been completely
missed by the proponents of secular nationalism and Hindu rashtra
alike. Though partition did not settle the civilizational contest
that began with Muslim rule first in Sind and then in much of North
India, it facilitated the task for Hindus since they now had a
well-organized and powerful pan-Indian modern state of their own. As
in the case of Europe, India could have remained a civilization and
not become a nation. For it to be both, it needed the intervening
agency of an effective pan-Indian modern state. The British provided
us with such an agency. Regardless of whatever else they did, the
importance of this contribution cannot be denied. On 15 August 1947,
the Hindus finally became a nation, though not a Hindu nation. The
distinction is important.
I have often said, half in jest and
half in seriousness, that Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the greatest
benefactor of Hindus in modern times, if he was not a Hindu in
disguise. That has been mu way of saying that partition was the best
thing that could have happened for Hindus in the given situation in
the mid-forties, because, without it, they could not have produced
even a workable Constitution, not to speak of a viable economic and
democratic political order. But it never occurred to me till
recently that the Hindu-Muslim problem, as we faced it in the whole
of this century, was the result of an old civilizational stalemate
and that partition had finally ended it in favour of Hindus in
three-fourths of India.
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