Undoing Partition through the Idea of Greater India

India achieved independence on 15th August 1947, but was divided into two countries and the State of Pakistan was created, amidst large-scale violence. People living peacefully together for centuries suddenly had to free their homes and become refugees on both sides of the new border. It all happened due to the haphazard manner in which the decision about the date of independence was taken without adopting a consultative process. Knowing fully well that communal violence would flare up, no strong steps were taken to prevent it or to contain it. While leaving, the British gave a parting shock to India. The partition of the country happened due to the obstinate stand of the communal forces and the proponents of the two-nation theory. Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan among others had demonstrated that if the ideas of love, compassion and non-violence are propagated diligently, then we may have large numbers of people who when the situation arises, behave responsibly. Leaders with such revolutionary ideas in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh may be able to initiate a movement of reunification with a resolve to uproot communalism and to nullify its very achievement—Partition—in order to restore the original India or Greater India. Let the Radcliffe Line be erased like the Berlin Wall was in 1989.