What was the role of various streams on the demand for creation of Pakistan and partition?
ANS: The biggest role was of the British who, since the beginning of the century, used the communal divide to prolong their stay in India. They even used the Muslim League as a powerful weapon for this. But the League alone cannot be faulted for this; the major organisation of the nationalist movement, the Congress, was also mainly responsible for the alienation of the minorities. The 1939 Tripuri session of the Congress was inaugurated with a havan by the pandits; we were present in Maulana Azads tent there. He tauntingly asked: which non-Hindu will be ready to join the Congress now? Of all the traditional Congress leaders, it was Gandhi alone who had tried to win over the minorities for that party. After the Second World War, the League intensified its demand for Pakistan. Based on a wrong understanding of nationality, we too initially accepted this demand. But soon we rectified this mistake. This game plan was hatched to break communal unity and to give a religious colour to it. Bar
