Partitioning the University of the Panjab, 1947

Abstract

In the summer of 1947, as preparations commenced for the partition of the province of Punjab in British India, the Lahore-based Panjab University became the site of a fierce debate concerning its future. Waged within, by its officials as well as between the members of the Punjab Partition Committee, this debate saw the Hindus and Sikhs among them wishing for a ‘physical’ partitioning of the university, while the Muslims wanted it to stay intact at Lahore, which was expected to fall in Pakistan. With no agreement forthcoming, and after references to the respective ‘national’ governments, the university remained where it was, while any ideas of academic cooperation between the two sides collapsed as a new ‘East Panjab University’ was established at Simla, India. The debate over this new university, vis-à-vis its old counterpart, further carved out the university as a space of not just education but one of exhibiting new-found sovereignty and creating a staff/student-citizenry, in those partitioned times.