Delhi University passes resolution to set up centre for independence, partition studies

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University's academic council on Friday passed a resolution to set up a centre for independence and partition studies, officials confirmed. The centre will facilitate research on the "high voltage politics" accompanying the country's partition and how the then central leadership failed to contain the "germs of separatism", they said.

It will also focus on the "non-insistence of central leadership on having the Frontier Province with India" and the way the "Congress Working Committee consented to the Partition without consulting (Mahatma) Gandhi", according to the documents. “It (the resolution) was presented during Friday's Academic Council meeting and passed by the members. Now it will be presented before the Executive Council,” an official informed.

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The proposed centre should focus on different facets of the struggle for freedom and the reasons and impact of the partition. It should emerge in due course of time as a specialised resource and research centre to facilitate such studies, the committee formed to set up the centre stated in a note. The centre will focus on studies about unsung heroes of the freedom struggle and the role played by Cyril Radcliffe in the partition. Radcliffe was a British lawyer who drew the 'Radcliffe Line' - a geographical marker that demarcated the boundary between India and the newly-created dominion of Pakistan.

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"The centre shall broadly focus on the intricacies surrounding partition. Within this context, many questions need further research. For instance, the role played by Radcliffe (who was hardly familiar with Indian culture, geography and demographic pattern) in partition; the game plan and the strategies of the imperial government; the high voltage politics accompanying Partition; the germs of separatism that the central leadership failed to contain; the way Congress Working Committee consented to partition without consulting Gandhi," the note read. The centre will be a constituent of the faculty of social science.