New Delhi, India: June 3, 2008 – Released by FGB- After Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, the World War II ended even though the official surrender was announced on September 2, 1945.

Now time had come for all connected countries to retreat from their original military positions as the servicemen, who were enrolled during the war, to meet their emergency, had to be retrenched from their respective forces including India, and most of the Indian servicemen started getting prepared to return homes and I was one of them.

The service conditions of all servicemen during the war were temporary. The people were recruited for the Armed forces on the express condition: “for 12 months and thereafter so far their services are required.” In the retreating process, it took about a year and we had entered the year 1946.

In 1946, I used to read in the newspapers that efforts were being renewed by the Indian leaders and the people to get freedom for India.
 
I could very well anticipate two dangers in India; good news could be the freedom of India in course of time, if Indians succeeded. The bad news was that it could bring along with it merciless killings of millions of innocent people in Hindu Muslim riots, since the Partition of the country was inevitable if India was set free.

I was cock sure that no one was capable or competent to avoid this major tragedy, since the Indian leadership, in my opinion, not only lacked far sightedness but also equally impatient where their individual interests come, which they treat on top priority leaving behind all other duties or responsibilities, whatsoever. 

I was thinking the leaders of undivided India would only be serious in getting the freedom for the country and once the date for Independence fixed, the race of chairs would start and that would prove very dangerous for the Indian frame of mind, which would push back all sacrifices made to wrest freedom.

The riots were sure to erupt in the country to my mind, since both Hindus and Muslims were never given any education promoting the high sense of national integration or human integration among them.

The education system in India was faulty, unpleasant historian events were packed in the school books to encourage the students of both the communities to keep a major distance from each other. Only formal and outer friendship prevailed between the communities and no close relationship of hearts ever was there among Hindus and Muslims except some political leaders who were fighting for the cause of independence.

The old history of both the communities only showed two things, the heroes of one community had been the enemies of the other and vice versa. I would not say that the leadership of both the communities was not honest but it was really not up to the mark so far national interests were concerned; they would always prefer their individual and community interests at the top priority.
 
My way of thinking was normally different; to follow blindly was not in my blood. I was wondering when I used to hear that the people solely gave credit of freedom struggle to Mahatma Gandhi, I begged to differ. There were other important leaders who were playing their vital roles like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dadabhai Navroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai  Patel, Maulana Azad, Mohd. Ali Jinnah, among others.

In addition, there were certain young people who had laid their lives to build the base of the freedom like Bhagat Singh, who was born in 1907. He was hanged (along with his comrades Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar) at the age of 23 for his participation with the “Second Lahore Conspiracy Case”.

I held extreme respect for Bhagat Singh for his exceptional nationalist historiography along with his associates, who had woven the atmosphere of long vision, national ideology and set an example of sacrificing their life for the sake of their country.

While I felt great regards for the Indian leadership, who had initiated for Indian freedom revived after the World War IInd; I would not like to ignore the circumstances which weakened the Britishers to such an extent that they had no other option but to leave India.

If I say that the circumstances were created by Herr Hitler or Adolf Hitler, it might not be wrong because it was his action, wrong or right, that pitched the Great Britain and made it so weak that it could not hold India or other countries in their iron fist for a long time.

The brutal clutches of British Empire needed to be broken to open their gate of freedom for those countries, which they had captured treacherously and made them virtually slaves and treated them as an inferior caste of human beings and unfortunately India was among them of which I was one of the citizens.

The German’s war had practically wrecked their control over their complete empire where the Sun was said to be never set, so much expansion they had all over the globe, they had in effect made many countries as part of their colonies. They had four major strategies to take advantage and rule over other countries:

First was the trick of ruling the illiterate people, among others and that was exposed to  the Indian leadership including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbai  Patel, who were educated in UK and they knew the difference of freedom and slavery and could proper guide the people.

There were many more tricks of the trade which the Indian leadership either did not realize or took them light. They included: Replacing the local market with their imported trade to establish their superiority over the colonized country and send that money to their own country.

Wherever they went, they spread the network of espionage and spying over the people through their selected employees to analyze their weak points and based on that they adopted the policy of Divide and Rule and created vast differences among the people through several channels, caste, creed, religion and status.

They started giving bounties to their loyal and punished those who refused to budge before them. All these factors were more or less broken but the weakness of religious differences did not die of which I was afraid that the riots would occur and would kill more innocent people than killed in the World War II.  

In 1946, there were reports of riots between Hindus and Muslims, innocent people were reported to be killed at different places and towns, in small or large numbers, as I was visualizing that millions could die if India got freedom.

I left the Army voluntarily and reached my home town Montgomery since there were clouds of death roving in all cities which were likely to fall in the region of the proposed 2nd part of undivided India i.e. Pakistan. The policy was declared before India’s freedom and the areas of partition were earmarked and Montgomery where my parents were living was to go to Pakistan, and that area was very dangerous from safety point of view.

It is really shocking to recall that large scale riots happened in many parts of India. The Calcutta Riots of 1946, also known as the “Great Calcutta Killing,” mainly reigned for more than four days of continuous massive killings as a result of Hindu-Muslim riots in the capital of Bengal, between 16th and 19 August 1946.

The official figure of dead exceeded one lakh and about 50,000 were injured, whereas unofficially it was more than 10 times the number of people killed and wounded and it is the account of only one city. In fact the killing of the people started much earlier not only by the people but also by the police to favour their community, and the killing was totally stopped much later. The authorities being afraid of the people did not release the correct figures of death and wounded in all parts of the country.
 
Continued…