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IF BOUNDARY DRAWN IS NOT NATURAL IT WILL PUT THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA IN GREAT JEOPARDY
New Delhi, July 20, 1947.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, in a statement today said that the partition of the Punjab and Bengal was not a local problem to be left to the people of these two provinces, but an “AllIndia problem” for it involves the fixation of the Frontiers of Pakistan and India and must be determined primarily by “considerations of facility of defence and administration.”
Dr. Ambedkar said : “From the reports of controversies going on in the newspapers regarding the fixation of the boundary line betwen the West Punjab and the East Pubjab and between West Bengal and East Bengal and of the gists of the memoranda submitted to the Boundary Commission by the Muslims and Non-Muslims, it becomes clear that the results of the Boundary Commission may be disastrous to the country.
“In the first place, the problem is treated as though it was local problem, to be left to the people of the Punjab and Bengal to fight among themselves. In the second place, the problem is regarded by the local people as one of land-grabbing. In this scramble for land, a frantic search is being made to find out Muslim enclaves in Non-Muslim areas and Non-Muslim enclaves in Muslim areas with a view to push the national boundaries backwards and forwards and to bring as many Muslims from Non-Muslim area to Muslim area and as many Non-Muslims from Muslim area to Non-Muslim area.
“Both these methods of approach are, to my mind, wrong and misleading. The shifting of national boundaries with reference to enclaves could have been justified if it was accepted that Pakistan and Hindustan should be homogeneous states. This has, however, not been the basis of partition, as is clear from the fact that neither the Congress nor the Muslim League has stipulated for transfer of population. No matter how the national boundaries are chopped and changed, a large number of Non-Muslims will remain in Pakistan and an equally large number of Muslims will remain in