After reading the article and viewing the video, in my opinion the British imperialism in India was more negative because it destroyed the unity of India, triggered the partition and caused Indian suffered from it.
Firstly, the imperialism of British intensified India’s internal contradiction in religion and the conflicts between Muslim and Hindu.
Although before imperialism, India had already have lots of inner conflicts between those two religions, but the level of conflicts were not enough to cause partition, there were also many leader like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who were advocating solidarity and unity of India, thus if British did not colonize India, it probably won’t be partied.
For example, “ Under imperial rule, Muslim had grown accustomed to having their minority status protected by a system of reserved legislative seats and separate electorates.
The prospect of losing this protection as independence drew closer worried more and more Muslims.
This quote from the article “How the Partition of India happened – and why its effects are still felt today” tells that under the divided and rule (British political), Muslims were used to the fact that their minority statues were protected by the political system.
But when British was going to leave India, they were fear to live under the Hindu-majority so they wanted Muslim to get independence. Therefore, the British imperialism totally broke up India’s unity, completely split the Muslim and Hindu, and strengthened the Muslim idea of independence into firm objective.
The partition really caused a series of problems that brought a number of issues with negatively impacted on India and Indians which would be mentioned below.
In the one hand, British imperialism hastily issued the “Partition Agreement”, and only considered about their own profit, never considered about India and their locals.
The situation between Muslim and Hindu became more serious, brutal acts happened frequently, the stocked changed into inferno during that time, for instance, “All the while, communal violence was escalating. In August 1946, the Great Calcutta Killing left some 4,000 people dead and a further 100,000 homeless.
On June 3, Lord Louis Mountbatten agree to the creation of two separate states. They had been drawn up by a Boundary Commission, led by British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe, who later admitted that he had relied on out-of-date maps and census materials.”
This quote illustrates that the lots of Indians got hurt or even be killed at that time, the “Great Calcutta Killing” led more than ten thousands of citizens suffered from the partition.
In another hand , British just divided India based on religions, out-of-date maps and census materials which was inaccurate and showed how irresponsibility they were, that irresponsibility and hasty partition caused many serious consequences like “Torn apart, Partition triggered riots, mass casualties, and a colossal wave of migration.
Muslims heading towards Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs in the direction of India. As many as 14-16m people may have been eventually displaced, and estimates of the death toll post-Partition range from 200,000 to two million.”
This paragraph demonstrates the situations that Indians faced during the process of partition.
Killings, forced conversions, arson, abductions, rape and ethnic cleaning always happened because Radcliffe divided India based on religion with the unfair and irresponsibility way which caused 14 million more people moved between Pakistan and India, 1 million were killed in the process by murdered, starved and poisoned.
Families spilt apart, militaries are useless because soldiers were busy about there own lives, the religious violence, and a large group of refuges, were all of the consequences or negative impacts of the Partition and the British imperialism.
Also the west and east area which belong to Muslim is poorer and backward than the center area which for Hindu. So it would cause an unfair, confuse and strange situation in whole India and would hurt the citizens.
Maybe people would ask why did Muslim agree with partition even though their territories were much backward then Hindu, that was because at “At the time, few people understood what Partition would entail or what its results would be,”.
In fact, most citizens did not understand what partition turly is, so how could them be agree to divided India? The answer would probably be partition is only the decision of those leader, no one really cared about the citizens’s lives and benefits.
Therefore, British imperialism directly caused Indians lived in a catastrophic, confused and unsafely society, “they did little to help after they left.”
Last but not Least, the religion in each country is still mixed until now, and the conflicts between them still have today.
For example, “Another unforeseen consequence of Partition was that Pakistan’s population ended up more religiously homogeneous than originally anticipated, later bouts of communal tension generated further movement, with a trickle of people still migrating as late as the 1960s.
Today, the two countries’ relationship is far from healthy, seven decades on, well over a billion people still live in the shadow of Partition.”.
This long quote shows two main problems which partition caused until today. First, a big group of Muslim lived in India and also a big part of Hindu lived in Pakistan, they would face discrimination, homesick and unfair treatment in this situation, lots of them would even be apart from their families.
Secondly, there are lots conflicts, debates and fought between India and Pakistan, such as border (Kashmir and Jammu), resources, religious, army and Nuclear power issues until today, which influence more than a billion of innocent civilians.
All in all, the British imperialism directly caused the Partition of India, and the Partition brought a number of negative impacts to them which I have already mentioned above.
So British imperialism in India was more negative which destroyed their unity, pace and the locals’ original lifestyle. India should remember this dark history and never let this happen again, British should apologize for India and helped them to improve and develop in now days.
