Apropos Partition, Auden on Sir Cyril Radcliffe is perfect black humour about the situation.
Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission, Having never set eyes on this land he was called to partition Between two peoples fanatically at odds, With their different diets and incompatible gods. 'Time,' they had briefed him in London, 'is short. It's too late For mutual reconciliation or rational debate: The only solution now lies in separation. The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter, That the less you are seen in his company the better, So we've arranged to provide you with other accommodation. We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu, To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.' Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day Patrolling the gardens to keep assassins away, He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect, But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot, And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot, But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided, A continent for better or worse divided. The next day he sailed for England, where he quickly forgot The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not, Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot. One line Auden maybe missed adding: No one knows how many millions died. If at all anything has to be learned from India's Partition, the answer maybe, don't do it like that. On Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 07:38 Udhay Shankar N via Silklist, < silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote: > While this is probably not your intention, Bruce, this is A grade > flamebait. :) > > On Sun, Dec 24, 2023 at 12:32 AM Bruce Metcalf via Silklist < > silklist@lists.digeratus.in> wrote: > > Which brings me to the history of India (and Pakistan/Bangladesh). While >> perhaps not a perfect analogy, and not (yet) a perfect solution, it is a >> case of a nation that voluntarily separated along religious lines. >> > > Without getting into some lengthy (and potentially tendentious) history, > it can be argued that "voluntary" is stretching things a bit > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India>. > > > >> My questions for this list: >> >> 1. Do you think that the history of India provides any helpful lessons >> that could be applied to Israel? >> > > The first lesson that comes to mind > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine>is "don't trust the > British <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Independence_Act_1947>" but > that is of low value in resolving an existing situation. > > > >> 2. Do you think it reasonable for India to provide an occupying force to >> separate the two parties and help effect the split (with UN approval, of >> course)? > > > Historically, this has not been a greatly successful strategy > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Peace_Keeping_Force>, with various > undesirable outcomes. > > Udhay > > -- > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > > -- > Silklist mailing list > Silklist@lists.digeratus.in > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >
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