India-Pakistan Partition Politics in Tamil Nadu: A Review

In the first quarter of the 20^th century a good part of the social and political life in history of Tamil Nadu was marked by conflicts arising out of the demand for reservation in officialdom which is termed as Non-Brahmin Movement and at the same time the Muslims also never failed to put their demands of communal reservation which the British encouraged by granting reservations on communal basis that stimulated communalism. The emergence of Muslims as separate political entity with the establishment of Muslim League in 1906 had kindled the growing demand for the communal representation throughout the freedom struggle and as such the period of national movement in India also witnessed the process of communalization which had led to communal tensions and the communal factors had played an important role in the political happenings of the period which ultimately led to the partition of the country in 1947. There is no doubt about that the claim for communal representation was much higher than the demand for independence which ultimately leads to the demand for a separate state on the basis of religion. Mr. Jinnah’s influence among the Muslims increased rapidly in the years following the advent of 1935 constitution. The Muslim League grew into a powerful organization with branches all over the country. Tamil Nadu is not an exception to the growing communal frenzy where the political mobilization on religious and caste line had fragmented the masses in to Hindu, Muslim, Brahmin, Non-Brahmin etc. When Jinnah introduced the two nation theory it had its impact on the politics of Tamil Nadu. When views about partition are more popular, there definitely existed silent voice against partition. This paper is a review of the pro and anti partition views that emerged in Madras Presidency.