Volume 14, Issue 4, October 2023
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Corrigendum
Studies in History, Volume 38, Issue 2, Page 192-192, August 2022.
Remembering a Date in the History of the Indian Subcontinent
Studies in History, Volume 38, Issue 2, Page 162-179, August 2022.
In light of the seventy-fifth year of India’s independence from colonial rule and the Indian government’s announcement that 14 August will be commemorated as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, this article connects the histories of the three nations in the Indian subcontinent: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Using inputs from archives and oral testimonies, this article will revisit the important date of 15 August 1947, to preserve the multiple meanings of the day as portrayed in official and public memories.
In light of the seventy-fifth year of India’s independence from colonial rule and the Indian government’s announcement that 14 August will be commemorated as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, this article connects the histories of the three nations in the Indian subcontinent: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Using inputs from archives and oral testimonies, this article will revisit the important date of 15 August 1947, to preserve the multiple meanings of the day as portrayed in official and public memories.
Muslim Minority Against Islamic Nation: The Shias of British India and the Demand for Pakistan, 1940–45
Studies in History, Volume 38, Issue 2, Page 133-161, August 2022.
This article analyses the relationship between British colonialism and Islamic sectarianism, and its consequent impact on the Shias, the largest Muslim minority in British India. In the critical decade leading up to independence and partition in 1947, politics in British India were dominated by the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan. However, leading Shia organizations were opposed to the League’s idea of an Islamic nation and supported India’s independence without partition. Instead, they demanded that the British recognize the Shia as a Muslim minority, and thereby confer statutory protections from Sunni domination. The British government arbitrarily and unjustly ignored Shia entreaties for constitutional protections. Imperial realpolitik required the colonial state to acknowledge the Muslim League as the sole political representative of all Muslims, thus, rendering Pakistan a fait accompli. The intersection of the colonial government’s political calculations with the League’s political ambitions compelled both to discard the Shias. This study of the complex issue of minorities and their uncertain position in the nation promised for all Muslims has relevance for current debates on the nation and nationalism, on minorities and their rights, on sectarianism and majoritarianism, and on the politics of identity.
This article analyses the relationship between British colonialism and Islamic sectarianism, and its consequent impact on the Shias, the largest Muslim minority in British India. In the critical decade leading up to independence and partition in 1947, politics in British India were dominated by the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan. However, leading Shia organizations were opposed to the League’s idea of an Islamic nation and supported India’s independence without partition. Instead, they demanded that the British recognize the Shia as a Muslim minority, and thereby confer statutory protections from Sunni domination. The British government arbitrarily and unjustly ignored Shia entreaties for constitutional protections. Imperial realpolitik required the colonial state to acknowledge the Muslim League as the sole political representative of all Muslims, thus, rendering Pakistan a fait accompli. The intersection of the colonial government’s political calculations with the League’s political ambitions compelled both to discard the Shias. This study of the complex issue of minorities and their uncertain position in the nation promised for all Muslims has relevance for current debates on the nation and nationalism, on minorities and their rights, on sectarianism and majoritarianism, and on the politics of identity.