India gained Independence after suffering the pangs of partition, says Ram Madhav

‘The partition of 1947 was not just partition of territory or land, but it was division of hearts’

We are celebrating 75 years of Independence and we have attained it after a long and unique struggle. But we had attained freedom after suffering the pangs of partition, said senior BJP leader V. Ram Madhav.

He was delivering a talk after releasing his book ‘Partitioned Freedom’, here on Wednesday.

Outlining the idea of his book, he said, the hard-fought freedom was gained with the overnight creation of a new country, which is Pakistan. “It was not created peacefully but over dead bodies, as it is estimated that over 3 to 15 lakh people had died during the partition,” he said. He also added that his book does not blame anybody or criticises anybody.

Mr. Ram Madhav pointed out that the book deals with the Bengal partition of 1905 and the partition of 1947, and also the roles played by key persons of that time such as Gandhi and Jinnah.

“The important lessons that one should take back from my book are: never look at people from the prism of their separate identities (religion) and never compromise with those who espouse separatism, be firm. The partition of 1947 was not just partition of territory or land, but it was division of hearts,” he said.

Earlier, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies and former Rector of Andhra University, A. Prasanna Kumar, introducing the book, drew parallels between cricket and politics, by saying that politics is a field of uncertainty and cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty.

Speaking about the book and the author, he said that he was fascinated by the ease and elegance with which Mr. Ram Madhav had written the book. But he also pointed out that he was a bit hurt, as the book was a little critical about Gandhi.