Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition
Nisid Hajari
Language: English
Pages: 368
ISBN: 0544705394
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A Seattle Times Book of the Year
William E. Colby Award Winner
“A beautifully written, deeply intelligent book about [a] crucial moment.” — Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of Pakistan to be so violent—it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for more than a century. But as the summer of 1947 approached, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs were heavily armed and on edge after a year of riots and gang fighting, and the British rushed to leave. Hell broke loose. Trains carried Muslims west and Hindus east to their slaughter. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many of today’s most menacing security threats, from jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation. Based on major new sources, Nisid Hajari’s revelatory Midnight’s Furies lays out the searing truth about one of the world’s most momentous and least understood tragedies.
“Fast-moving and highly readable . . . The story of what happens when a composite society comes apart.” — New York Times Book Review
“Makes the complex and tragic story of the great divide into a page-turner.” — Guardian
“Engaging and incisive . . . Hajari writes with grace, precision, and an unerring eye for detail. Midnight’s Furies is the best of recent offerings.” — Wall Street Journal
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Muslim laborers from the great jute mills across the Hooghly River had started flooding into Calcutta proper at dawn. At some bridges Hindus had built makeshift barricades to block them.40 As Muslim marchers filed toward the Maidan, Hindus rained bricks and flowerpots down on them.41 British commanders in Calcutta had fully expected trouble, and they watched the incoming incident reports with concern but not panic.42 In the past year, several anti-British demonstrations—including one led by.
26. Interview with Durga Das, Oral History Archive, NMML. 27. See Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan. 28. In Quest of Jinnah, 213. 29. Dwarkadas, Ruttie Jinnah, 54. 30. In Quest of Jinnah, 89. 31. Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, with Alden Hatch, We Nehrus (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), 175. 32. Dwarkadas, Ruttie Jinnah, 58, 59–60. 33. Foundations of Pakistan: All-India Muslim League Documents, 1906–1947, 2 vols., ed. Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada (Karachi: National Publishing House,.
Must make it clear that political ends are not to be achieved by methods of violence now or in the future.23 Almost everywhere, the news had an initial calming effect. Over the next fortnight, provinces reported a palpable easing of tensions across most of the subcontinent. Rather than exploding into riots, cities like Bombay and Calcutta seemed to exhale in relief—their citizens glad finally to have clarity and a break from the ceaseless fear of preceding weeks. “A new feeling of hope and.
Settle this in one day,” Mountbatten recorded.86 When Ismay stepped out of the room, Mountbatten lacerated the Quaid for his uncompromising attitude. Jinnah was unmoved. “Mr. Jinnah became extremely pessimistic and said it was quite clear that the Dominion of India was out to throttle and choke the Dominion of Pakistan at birth, and that if they continued with their oppression there would be nothing for it but to face the consequences,” Mountbatten recorded. “However depressing the trouble might.
Avoiding a quagmire. When the two sides finally met at the end of November, a month after the lashkar’s invasion, they nearly reached a breakthrough. By that point, Sardar Patel was assured and “in good heart” about the situation in the subcontinent, Mountbatten reported upon his return from London.40 Hyderabad had at last approved the yearlong standstill agreement, one that would, in theory, prevent Jinnah from interfering in the state’s affairs. Junagadh was now firmly in the Indian fold, and.