On the day PM Modi declared August 14 to be observed as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ to acknowledge the pain undergone by Indians due to the partition of India in 1947, an unseen picture of Congress delegates voting in favour of partition has gone viral on the internet. The picture of Congress members, which also included India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, attending a meeting of delegates that had convened to vote for partition of the country was shared by popular Twitter user @IndiaHistorypic, known for posting historical photographs.
In the picture, one can see Pandit Nehru, along with several other Congress members, with their hands raised, presumably to express their consent to India’s partition and vote in favour of creating two new countries: India and Pakistan.
1947 :: Congress Delegates Voting For Partition of India
— indianhistorypics (@IndiaHistorypic) August 14, 2021
(Photo- Homai Vyarawalla ) pic.twitter.com/5DjyxundJH
The picture is from the Delhi Congress session on 14th June 1947, during which the resolution for India’s partition was passed. As per this resolution, which accepted the Mountbatten Plan, the decision to partition India, along with the division of Bengal and Punjab, was implemented. The Mountbatten Plan was announced on June 3, which means the plan to partition India was accepted by the Congress party in just 10 days.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and Govind Ballabh Pant are seen in the background in the picture shared in the above tweet. The picture was captured by Homai Vyarawala, who had captured many historical photographs around that period.
PM Modi institutionalises conversation around partition horrors on Pakistan Independence Day
The image of Congress leaders voting to ratify India’s partition went viral on the day PM Modi announced observing Partition Horrors Remembrance Day on the 14th of August, Pakistan’s Independence Day. It is the day when Pakistan, the Islamic State, was carved out of India after a blood-soaked partition, based on the two-nation theory that asserted that Muslims and Hindus cannot co-exist in the same country because Muslims are a country unto themselves. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended that silence by institutionalising the conversation around the partition by announcing 14th August to be observed as #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay.
Taking to Twitter, PM Narendra Modi announced that 14th August would henceforth be celebrated as Vibhishika Memorial Day or #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay.
The Prime Minister said, “The pain of partition of the country can never be forgotten. Because of hatred and violence, lakhs of our sisters and brothers were displaced and even lost their lives. In memory of the struggle and sacrifice of those people, it has been decided to celebrate 14th August as ‘Vibhishika Memorial Day’”
He further tweeted, “#PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay This day will not only inspire us to eliminate the poison of discrimination, animosity and ill-will, but it will also strengthen unity, social harmony and human sensibilities”
