Very unusually, for Partition along the borders of the proposed two-states of India and Pakistan, the Sylhet region (within Assam) at the time had a public poll to decide whether the district would fall into either India or Pakistan.
And while it was hotly contested, it did mean it had a mandate and, as a result, a major explanation of why we had a lot less communal violence in Assam than in Punjab and Bengal.
Within the impacts of Partition in Sylhet during 1947 remains an important bit of their history, and whilst we still have people amongst us with memories of those momentous days 70 years ago, we need to record their verbal history before it is too late.
The public poll
On July 6 and 7, 1947, the Sylhet Division of Assam, under the British Raj, held the most momentous poll for the future of the district and its inhabitants -- whether it wanted to be in the future state of Pakistan.
The referendum simply asked: “Should Sylhet join East Bengal?” And for many this would be the first time they voted. So, in many ways, it was a more important referendum than something like Brexit, as it involved potentially joining a new state altogether.
Interestingly, the government of British Raj only declared on July 3, 1947 that a referendum would be held to decide the future of Sylhet and HC Stock was appointed as commissioner of the referendum.
That is only a few days before the poll itself.
Why the poll?
It was clear that the Assamese wanted to hand back Sylhet anyway as it once belonged to the Bengal province. Essentially, Sylhet was seen as a Muslim-majority division within a Hindu-majority province like Assam, and its people did not speak Assamese but Sylheti and Bangla.
The government of Assam believed that removing Sylhet would make it more homogeneous and stronger as a result. This was encapsulated well when Assam’s then Prime Minister Gopinath Bordoloi said, in 1946, that his wish was to “hand over Sylhet to East Bengal.”
Furthermore, Sylhet, as a colonial province of Assam, was known little -- other than for tea production and for being a religious centre -- but was eventually included into Jinnah’s demand for six-province Pakistan.
Jinnah was clearly lobbied by Bengali Muslims, and indeed made a visit to Sylhet in March 1946 for its inclusion within Pakistan, as Muslim League leaders entertained him in their tea plantations.
In many ways, it was a more important referendum than something like Brexit, as it involved potentially joining a new state altogether
Memories from the grave
My late father Mushtaq Qureshi wrote quite extensively about the poll just before Partition in his autobiography, and it is a useful example of the verbal history his generation of Bangladeshis have of the separation and the poll itself.
Many of his contemporaries are still alive in the UK and Bangladesh, and could give verbal histories of those events in Sylhet during their childhood. I quote extensively from his book, to illustrate the insight you can get from this verbal history amongst the remaining members of his generation who were witnesses to the events around the poll at Partition.
The build-up
There was a lot happening in Sylhet in the years before the poll was declared -- the famine in 1943, the ending of the World War II, and, of course, the campaign for the British to quit India.
These were just the things my father’s generation’s school children in Sylhet Town were observing. For example, he states:
“When I was a primary school student, the Non-Cooperation Movement was going on. Almost every day there would be a demonstration of students in front of the DC’s office. The Congress activists would have meetings and processions. The police would beat them black and blue -- we used to observe silently as some town-dwellers would assist the police in beating up Congress activists, some of whom were Hindus. Later, I realised that it had been a mistake to take every Congressman for a Hindu.”
He remembers the build-up to the poll very well, highlighting the political activity around the poll, as the quotes below illustrate from his book:
“There were all sorts of rumours in the air: India and Pakistan would definitely be separated; there would be a united Bengal; Punjab would become a separate country. Amidst all this, the question that was troubling the people of Sylhet was: ‘What will happen to Sylhet?’ ‘Would it be a part of India along with Assam, or would it be a part of Pakistan?’
“We learned that this would be decided through a public poll. Although Sylhet was a stronghold of Congress and Hindus, the Muslim League built a powerful team which started a rigorous campaign for union with Pakistan.
“We later learned that they were funded by the central branch of the Muslim League. We also learned that Hossain Shaheed Sarwardi was most enthusiastic about including Sylhet in Pakistan and played the most active role in this respect. He sent a team of around 40 students to Sylhet to campaign for Pakistan.
“Arrangements were made for this team to stay at Bakhtiar Bibi School in the Rai Nagar area of Sylhet, where we went in groups to meet them. We were hardly 13 or 14 years old then.”
He continues:
“On one particular day, the students of our school pulled down the Union Jack Flag from the court building and hoisted the flag of the Muslim League in its place.
“Compared to the brutality with which the Bangladesh police treat politicians nowadays, especially women activists, the police force of the British government and the members of the Assam Rifles appear to have been much better. However, one day there was a clash between the police and the students, as an attempt was made to retrieve the Union Jack from Sylhet Kotoali Thana. A student called Alkas died and others were injured when the Assam Rifles fired at them. Having witnessed all of this with my bare eyes, I can claim to be an eye-witness of the anti-British movements.”
He also remembers the political leaders who came along and campaigned in Sylhet as well.
“Around this time, most probably on March 3, 1946, Jinnah came to Sylhet and spoke to a large audience in Eidgah Maidan. He attended a students’ meeting in which I was also present. I still remember what he said: ‘Today is the third day of March. Students, you march forward’ … ”
. . .
In his autobiography, my late father, Mushtaq Qureshi, remembered the days of the poll very clearly: “Finally, the day of the public poll came. On the first day of the two-day long poll, Muslim women were prevented from voting by the female activists of Congress. The next day, however, Muslim leaders fetched the female voters from their homes and arranged for them to vote. “While it drizzled throughout the day, people waited anxiously for the results. As far as I can remember, 51% of the votes were in favour of Pakistan. “Congress’ election symbol was ‘house’ and the Muslim League’s -- that is Pakistan’s -- was the ‘axe.’ We used to chant slogans like ‘Strike the box of the house with the axe.’” And regarding the involvement of some of the characters involved in mobilising the women’s vote: “All the members of our family, even the women and children, worked hard to persuade people to vote in favour of Pakistan in this public poll. Our mothers, aunts, and grandmothers worked especially hard in teaching people how to cast their votes. “While Sherajunnesa and Hajera Mahumud also played important roles, Jobeda Khatun was the most prominent of the women leaders. She was the Begum Rokeya of Sylhet in the field of women’s development. “Despite being the daughter of a high-ranking government officer and the wife of a public prosecutor, she worked as one of the leaders of Congress without any hesitation. The women of Sylhet worked for the Pakistan movement under her leadership.” Begum Rokeya of Sylhet was also to play a critical role in the 1970 General Election in Pakistan in the lead up to the liberation of Bangladesh, something l saw for myself.The result Over half a million people voted in the referendum, of which 57% voted in favour of Sylhet joining East Bengal, and 43% against. The majority of the population had voted in favour of joining Pakistan -- the first instance of electoral irredentism, at least in the Indian sub-continent. Interestingly, there was just over 22% of votes that were invalid or left blank on their ballot. Not surprising, as for many it would have been their first time of voting. The result was then implemented in Article 3 of the Indian Independence Act of July 18, 1947.Independence Day and its aftermathMy father remembered the day of independence well: “On August 14, 1947, the District Commissioner of Sylhet, Mr Khurshed, formally raised the flag of Pakistan in front of his office. Although we were still very apprehensive and unsure as to whether the mighty British really had left India and whether we were really free, our happiness knew no bounds. “Little did we know that we were being freed from one master, only to be ruled by another. Soon, we came to realise that we had fallen out of the British pan into the Pakistani stove.” Incredibly, the precise borders of the partition of Bengal and Assam were only revealed two days after partition of the rest of country, which added to apprehension of whether the British had left or not. It would also have added hugely to the tension of migration between the two states as no one really knew precisely which side of the border there were on. It strikes me as criminally negligent on the part of the authorities not to have at least announced the borders before partition itself.Karimganj misses out Karimganj was left out of the transfer of land to Pakistan. Even though there was a majority vote across Sylhet to join East Bengal, the published Radcliffe line gave some areas of Sylhet to India like Karimganj, while the rest of Sylhet joined East Pakistan. It had a majority of Bengali Muslim population which had opted for Pakistan (East Bengal), unlike some other areas in Sylhet like Moulvibazar which had not. There has never been an adequate explanation for this from the government of the British Raj. This botched handover was also highlighted by the number of enclaves we had within both India and East Bengal of Pakistan which has only recently been sorted out by the Bangladesh and Indian respective governments in 2015 and has referred to as “the world’s craziest border.”‘Little did we know that we were being freed from one master, only to be ruled by another’As within the main body of Bangladesh, there were 102 enclaves of Indian territory, which in turn contained 21 Bangladesh counter-enclaves, on which contained an Indian counter-counter-enclave -- the world’s only third-order enclave. Within the Indian mainland were 71 Bangladesh enclaves, containing three Indian counter-enclaves. A joint census in 2010 found 51,549 people residing in these enclaves, of which 37,334 were in Indian enclaves with Bangladesh and 14,215 in Bangladeshi enclaves within India. Of the many Sylhetis in the UK, very few are from the parts of Sylhet which remained in India. Evidence enough that if Sylhet had not been adopted within Pakistan (and eventually incorporated with Bangladesh), it is uncertain whether many of them would have been able to get to the shores of the UK. As it is clear that Sylhet within East Bengal was nearer to a centre of power like Dhaka, than Sylhet in Assam to Delhi, and was better able to protect their interests, thus their ability to travel abroad and migrate. Therefore, although the poll was rushed and the implications of the poll result were only made apparent after independence, having the poll at least legitimised the move of Sylhet division into East Bengal, Pakistan.The transition My father’s last sentence in last quote also tells why many Sylhetis moved from saying “Pakistan Zindabad” in 1947 to “Joy Bangla” in 1971, the transition of which is worthy of much discussion in itself but not here, as it put pay to the two-nation theory of partition based on religious affiliation. Given that it was done under the Indian Independence Act of 1947, why were not similar polls undertaken in provinces like Kashmir? While Kashmir had another dimension -- princely head of states had the option of either being in India or Pakistan or even going independent as well -- a poll of local views then would have been a much better means of dividing up Kashmir. Finally, these and many other instances of maladministration during partition (like the creation of enclaves creating problems along the India and Bangladesh border; giving the princely states the option to opt in or out of joining India and Pakistan; declaring borders of the two nations two days after independence) makes a good case for criminal negligence by the last government of the British Raj, as partition displaced up to 15 million people and caused the killing of over one million.
Murad Qureshi writes from London and is a part of Qureshi Associates. He can be followed on Twitter at @MuradQureshiLDN.
