Partition of India: Forgotten Story

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gonzalo

gonzalo

Central Defender
Does every modern historical documentary have to have some kind of contrived dig at the British?

Dont get me wrong I know we overstayed our welcome over in subcontinent and that its a rather controversial topic, but the narrator claimed that British officials 'knew' that once India and Pakistan was divided that the 'brown people would kill each other'.

Went onto say that everyone except the British were victims, despite previously mentioning that organised militias went out and raped/murdered/brutalised members of other religions, im sorry but the British didnt go to the Indians "ere pal go kill them muslims" and etc
 


gonzalo said:
Does every modern historical documentary have to have some kind of contrived dig at the British?

Dont get me wrong I know we overstayed our welcome over in subcontinent and that its a rather controversial topic, but the narrator claimed that British officials 'knew' that once India and Pakistan was divided that the 'brown people would kill each other'.

Went onto say that everyone except the British were victims, despite previously mentioning that organised militias went out and raped/murdered/brutalised members of other religions, im sorry but the British didnt go to the Indians "ere pal go kill them muslims" and etc
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we may have overstayed our welcome--but they were quick enough to follow us out:lol:;)
 
gonzalo said:
Does every modern historical documentary have to have some kind of contrived dig at the British?

Dont get me wrong I know we overstayed our welcome over in subcontinent and that its a rather controversial topic, but the narrator claimed that British officials 'knew' that once India and Pakistan was divided that the 'brown people would kill each other'.

Went onto say that everyone except the British were victims, despite previously mentioning that organised militias went out and raped/murdered/brutalised members of other religions, im sorry but the British didnt go to the Indians "ere pal go kill them muslims" and etc
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It's usually the case.

As you say our time in India wasn't blameless but let's face it, these people didn't need coercing into killing each other.
 
gonzalo said:
Does every modern historical documentary have to have some kind of contrived dig at the British?

Dont get me wrong I know we overstayed our welcome over in subcontinent and that its a rather controversial topic, but the narrator claimed that British officials 'knew' that once India and Pakistan was divided that the 'brown people would kill each other'.

Went onto say that everyone except the British were victims, despite previously mentioning that organised militias went out and raped/murdered/brutalised members of other religions, im sorry but the British didnt go to the Indians "ere pal go kill them muslims" and etc
Click to expand...
The latter does seem to imply the former. ;)
 
The British were to blame for the partition of India. We had plenty of opportunities to negotiate a deal which would have kept India together, including the 1941 Cripps mission. We may not have been the only ones to blame, but it is right, 70 years on, that we acknowledge our role, and the terrible events which led up to it.

My father in law was a Hindu from Lahore who was expelled during partition. He grew up in a refugee camp. We are going to the Punjab this weekend to see where it happened.

If you want to watch something on the telly which gives an uncritically positive view of Britain why not stick to fictional accounts like war movies, and give actual history stuff a miss?
 
Lankester Merrin said:
The British were to blame for the partition of India. We had plenty of opportunities to negotiate a deal which would have kept India together, including the 1941 Cripps mission. We may not have been the only ones to blame, but it is right, 70 years on, that we acknowledge our role, and the terrible events which led up to it.

My father in law was a Hindu from Lahore who was expelled during partition. He grew up in a refugee camp. We are going to the Punjab this weekend to see where it happened.

If you want to watch something on the telly which gives an uncritically positive view of Britain why not stick to fictional accounts like war movies, and give actual history stuff a miss?
Click to expand...
We made a mess of it but i think partition was inevitable.
 
I dont know why it had to be a single or two state country after the British left. It's f***ing massive, there were originally many different kingdoms all with different languages and cultures. When your over there, different states feel like different countries and there's loads of separatist groups including a suprising amount of terrorism. Should've been at least 6 countries split across geographic/ cultural boundaries with no migration.
 
Lankester Merrin said:
There was a deal agreed in 41 which could have worked, Churchill stopped it.

We need to stop being such softies about our past. We made mistakes, some of them terrible. We need to own up to them.
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That's fair enough, I think.

There should really have been an army presence to facilitate the vast movement of people. Even in the final week people didn't know whether they were going to be living in India or Pakistan which added to the tensions. Partition really could have been managed better but on the other hand this happens all of the time in history. An invading force keeps a lid on internal problems which fester and break out spectacularly when the invaders leave.
 
Lankester Merrin said:
There was a deal agreed in 41 which could have worked, Churchill stopped it.

We need to stop being such softies about our past. We made mistakes, some of them terrible. We need to own up to them.
Click to expand...
I agree we need to stop being softies about our past. I think we need to acknowledge that without the Empire the world would not be anything like it is. It was brutal, avaricious and not very pc but the propelled the world into the modern era.
 
gonzalo said:
Does every modern historical documentary have to have some kind of contrived dig at the British?

Dont get me wrong I know we overstayed our welcome over in subcontinent and that its a rather controversial topic, but the narrator claimed that British officials 'knew' that once India and Pakistan was divided that the 'brown people would kill each other'.

Went onto say that everyone except the British were victims, despite previously mentioning that organised militias went out and raped/murdered/brutalised members of other religions, im sorry but the British didnt go to the Indians "ere pal go kill them muslims" and etc
Click to expand...

Seems great for the left today to jump on any bandwagon that undermines whatever country they are a member of. If I'm right, the programme was by an Indian as well - blames Britain then her and her family and thousands of others are given a home in Britain, where she remains today. The latest one to remove Nelson's Column due to his links with slavery is just as bad and links with the removal of history in the US. I'm currently writing to the Italian Embassy to ask them to remove all those Roman statues in their country as they used to crucify people the bassas.
 
Wierd Valley Mackem said:
We made a mess of it but i think partition was inevitable.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say it was inevitable from what I have been seeing this past week or so on the documentaries.
Britain seemed to want a divided India where they could keep a strategic presence as a buffer against soviet expansion in the far east (the old story of empire but this time communist expansion rather than tsarist). The secret conversations and letters between Churchill and jinna were particularly interesting.
We basically fucked it up in our haste to get rid of the post war financial burden. We had too much on to be bothered about what happened to India.
 
York said:
Seems great for the left today to jump on any bandwagon that undermines whatever country they are a member of. If I'm right, the programme was by an Indian as well - blames Britain then her and her family and thousands of others are given a home in Britain, where she remains today. The latest one to remove Nelson's Column due to his links with slavery is just as bad and links with the removal of history in the US. I'm currently writing to the Italian Embassy to ask them to remove all those Roman statues in their country as they used to crucify people the bassas.
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Bit of a confused post but what's the problem with pointing out mistakes the british made while living in England. Are the two related?
 
Lankester Merrin said:
The British were to blame for the partition of India. We had plenty of opportunities to negotiate a deal which would have kept India together, including the 1941 Cripps mission. We may not have been the only ones to blame, but it is right, 70 years on, that we acknowledge our role, and the terrible events which led up to it.

My father in law was a Hindu from Lahore who was expelled during partition. He grew up in a refugee camp. We are going to the Punjab this weekend to see where it happened.

If you want to watch something on the telly which gives an uncritically positive view of Britain why not stick to fictional accounts like war movies, and give actual history stuff a miss?
Click to expand...

Did I say I didnt believe we were to blame for the partition? You've completely missed my point.

Its the fact that the presenter straight up said we were directly responsible for the Sikh/Hindu/Muslim hate gangs roving the streets, murdering those that werent part of their religion?

Personally think that the documentary makers wanted an easy ride by producing a short and snappy piece and werent arsed to make something complex that would suggest multiple people were to blame, stuff like that isnt even 'history' its just looking at the past and making assumptions.
 
Lankester Merrin said:
There was a deal agreed in 41 which could have worked, Churchill stopped it.

We need to stop being such softies about our past. We made mistakes, some of them terrible. We need to own up to them.
Click to expand...

The Indians themselves rejected the proposals. You left that little tit bit out. You can at least show both sides of the story. Pathetic.
 
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