The RSS and BJP never tire of complaining about India’s partition.
“If only Gandhi hadn’t agreed to it,” they whine, as if Mahatma Gandhi single-handedly drew the lines on the map. But let’s set aside the rhetoric and look at some numbers.
Before Partition (1947)
• India’s total population: 389 million
• Muslim population: 94 million (24%)
After Partition
• India’s total population: 361 million
• Muslim population: 35 million (9.8%)
Present-Day India (2025)
• Total population: 1.43 billion
• Muslim population: 210 million (15%)
Present-Day Pakistan
• Population: 255 million (up from 34 million in 1951)
Now let’s do the math:
210 million Muslims in India + 255 million Pakistanis = 465 million Muslims.
That’s 32.5% of India’s population today if the country had never been divided.
The uncomfortable question
Would the RSS/BJP have ever gained a foothold in politics with one-third of the population Muslim?
The answer is obvious: No chance. Instead of whining, they should be sending daily thank-you notes to Gandhi for Partition.
Two inconvenient twists
1. The Hindu Rashtra Illusion
A “Hindu Rashtra” with 33% Muslims? Add Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, atheists, Dalit movements, and secular Hindus — suddenly, the so-called “Hindu majority” dissolves. Hindu Rashtra would have been mathematically impossible in a united India.
2. The Statlessness Fantasy
Did the RSS imagine rendering Muslims stateless in a united India? Even if they did, it was impossible under British rule. And once independence arrived with universal suffrage, that dream evaporated.
The irony
Partition — which the RSS/BJP portray as India’s greatest tragedy — is in fact the very reason they could exist and thrive. Without Partition, their politics would have been irrelevant, their slogans hollow, their dream of Hindu Rashtra stillborn.
So maybe it’s time they stop blaming Mahatma Gandhi. After all, it was Partition that gave them political oxygen.