Module blames largest displacement in human history to misguided ideas
Underlining Partition as the largest displacement in human history, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), in a special module released to mark Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, has held Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Congress, and then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten responsible for India’s division.
“The Partition was the largest displacement in human history. At least six lakh people were killed in communal violence during the Partition. Crores became homeless and, as refugees in their own country, were forced to search for shelter. The atrocities committed against women were unimaginable,” the module states.
The module emphasises that Partition occurred due to misguided ideas. It recalls that the Muslim League, representing Indian Muslims, held a conference in Lahore in 1940, where its leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, and literatures. … They have different epics, different heroes, and different episodes. Very often, the hero of one is the villain of the other.”
In a section titled “Culprits of Partition”, the module notes: “Ultimately, on August 15, 1947, India was divided. But this was not the doing of any one person. There were three elements responsible: Jinnah, who demanded it; the Congress, which accepted it; and Mountbatten, who implemented it.”
It adds that Mountbatten was guilty of a major blunder. He advanced the transfer of power from June 1948 to August 1947, persuading all sides to agree. As a result, adequate preparations for Partition could not be made. The demarcation of boundaries was done hastily, with Sir Cyril Radcliffe given only five weeks. In Punjab, even two days after Independence, millions of people did not know whether they were in India or Pakistan. “Such haste was a great act of carelessness,” the module says.
The text also points out that Kashmir emerged as a new problem after Partition, creating challenges for India’s foreign policy. It notes that some countries continue to aid Pakistan and pressure India in the name of the Kashmir issue.
While the module blames Jinnah, it also quotes him admitting he never expected to see Pakistan in his lifetime. “Later, even Jinnah admitted he had not expected Partition. He told his aide, ‘I never thought it would happen. I never expected to see Pakistan in my lifetime.’”
The module quotes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as saying that the situation had become explosive: “India had become a battlefield, and it was better to partition the country than to have a civil war.”
It cites Mahatma Gandhi’s stance, noting that he opposed Partition but would not resist Congress’s decision through violence. The text states: “He said that he could not be a party to the Partition, but he would not stop Congress from accepting it with violence.”
NCERT has published two separate modules, one for Classes 6 to 8 (middle stage) and another for Classes 9 to 12 (secondary stage). These supplementary resources, available in English and Hindi, are not part of the regular textbooks but are meant to be used for projects, posters, discussions, and debates. Both modules open with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2021 message announcing the observance of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.
The middle-stage module asserts that Partition “was not inevitable” and resulted from “wrong ideas.” Patel had described it as “bitter medicine,” while Nehru called it “bad” but “unavoidable.”
The secondary-stage module traces Partition to Muslim leaders’ belief in a separate identity rooted in “political Islam,” which, it claims, “rejects any permanent equality with non-Muslims.” It argues that this ideology drove the Pakistan movement, with Jinnah as its “able lawyer-leader.”
