The Sickle and the Crescent Communists, Muslim League and India's Partition
Sunanda Sanyal and Soumya Basu
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ISBN 13
9788190884167
Year
2011
The Sickle and the Crescent: Communists, Muslim League and India's Partition makes an in-depth study of the role played by the communists in India during India's Partition in 1947. While Indian National Congress and Muslim League are primarily blamed for vivisection of the country, the communists' colluding participation with the Muslim League during 1942 and 1947 only accelerated the birth of the two nations: India and Pakistan. The Communists, following the Soviet model of the Nationality Theory, declared that India was only a family of nations, where places like Punjab, Hyderabad and Bengal being nations had the right of self-determination to the extent of right to secede ? a theory only corroborated League's demand for a separate state of Pakistan. With the end in view of expanding party base in an opportune political scenario, it makes an interesting read to examine how the Communist Party of India, a class-based representative had joined hands with the Muslim League having roots only in religious fanaticism. The discourse is the outcome of relentless research made in the archival sources including the intelligence documents which unearth the communists' participation in the Muslim League sponsored Direct Action Day in August 1946 which, as a sequel of communal bloodbath, rendered hundreds dead and thousands homeless only in the city of Calcutta itself. The Sickle and the Crescent: Communists, Muslim League and India's Partition offers a new approach to India's Partition and aims to evoke a fresh debate and rethinking.