Holding the Minorities Hostage

According to Gandhi, European ideas can produce violence in attempts to recover past glories. In Pakistan, Partition has only become a publicly debated issue quite recently. To think about the violence of Partition for them, is to question the very legitimacy of the state.

Gandhi was right when he said that no peace between the two is possible until all those who had been driven away are given rights to return and compensation for their losses of life and property.

Gandhi and Jinnah had relied upon communal allegiances, to hold the country together. It was not trust in each other that allowed Indian and Pakistani leaders to agree to Partition, but the famous ‘hostage’ theory, according to which a Hindu or Muslim minority in one country guaranteed the good treatment of its fellows in the other.

It has always been the lack of concern of the citizens of each country for the other, that has kept India and Pakistan united. The imperial character of these diverse societies has kept them united, the mutual relations of citizens of each country defined neither by love nor hatred but indifference.