Book Review | Doc Who Tried to Stop Partition
After Independence, Davar continued to play an important role with the refugees who flooded Delhi, and he was Nehru’s campaign agent in Phulpur in the 1952 election
It is an almost charming, romantic and heroic age, the era of the Freedom Movement. India was going through political convulsions of a historic kind in the 1930 and 1940s. A young man from Lahore moves to Calcutta (Kolkata) to study homeopathy, and at the same time engages in the political movements of the day. He becomes the captain of Seva Dal and he is in the vanguard of inviting Jawaharlal Nehru to come to Calcutta and address meetings after 1931. He also joins the Bengal Revolutionary Party and Punjab Youth League. He gets to know Nehru and in 1938 meets Subhas Chandra Bose in Dalhousie. Bose tells him to put aside his medical practice and work for Hindu-Muslim unity to counter the Muslim League. He was in his early 20s. The young man was M.C. Davar, and his son recounts the milestones in his father’s life. The milestones are tied to the fateful partition of India.
Davar remained a staunch Congressman, a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi, and follower of Nehru. But he pursued an independent path to get to the elusive goal of Hindu-Muslim unity. It was his reputation as the homeopathy magician that takes him close to important Muslim League leaders, and he passionately pleads with them about the need for Congress-Muslim League partnership. After qualifying as a homeopathy practitioner he sets up practice in Lahore, then Shimla, and finally to Delhi. Sir Mohammed Yakub, deputy chairman of the Central Assembly sends for him because Davar has now earned the title of the best homeopath in Delhi in 1940. Yakub sends Davar to Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, the chief minister of Punjab and the Unionist Party leader. Sir Sikander assures Davar that he would not let Punjab be partitioned, and that if there is no division of Punjab then there would be no partition. But he fails to keep his word because he seconds the partition motion moved by Rahmat Ali at the League meeting. Davar meets Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru to revive the all-party meeting to counter the partition idea.
Davar then floats the United Party of India and holds the All Religions Conference. And even pushes for the Liaqat Ali Khan-Bhulabhai Desai pact, which he and Sir Syed Sultan Ahmed, a prominent Bihar Muslim leader, had worked out. His final attempt is when he meets Nehru in Shimla at the prodding of Rajan Nehru, wife of Nehru’s cousin, Ratan Kumar Nehru. Twelve Muslim League Working Committee members were ready to jump boat and join Congress. Davar met Nehru after midnight. Nehru said that they should meet Maulana Azad, who was the Congress president.
After Independence, Davar continued to play an important role with the refugees who flooded Delhi, and he was Nehru’s campaign agent in Phulpur in the 1952 election. He mooted India-Pakistan Confederation, an Asian Market. He was what Thomas Carlyle would have described as an “individual as hero”.
He almost Prevented Partition: The Life and Times of Dr M.C. Davar
By Praveen Davar
Speaking Tiger
pp. 237; Rs 499