The partitions of India and Palestine and the dawn of majority rule in Africa and Asia

Kattan, Victor

Abstract

This chapter explains why majority rule remained the basis for the partition of the Indian subcontinent, but was not put into effect in Palestine as the Jewish population only formed a majority in one of Palestine’s subdistricts – the Jaffa subdistrict – which was too small to establish an independent Jewish state. So majority rule was applied in British India between Muslims and non-Muslims, but denied to the Arabs of Palestine where subdistricts with overwhelming Arab majorities were allotted to the Jewish state. Drawing on archival sources, the chapter explains how the Muslim League made inquiries with the Permanent Mandates Commission in Geneva in the late 1930s as to whether, as representatives of British India, they could challenge the legality of British policy in Palestine at the Permanent Court of International Justice, which they alleged was incompatible with Britain’s obligations under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Strikingly, this inquiry bore a resemblance to the later attempt by Ethiopia and Liberia to challenge apartheid in South West Africa at the International Court of Justice that was based on the same provision of the League’s Covenant. One of the consequences of this flagrant deprivation of Palestinian democratic rights, and the perpetuation of minority rule in large parts of the colonial world, was that it paved the way for the emergence of an aggressive form of Third World nationalism that led to the development of irredentist forms of violent nationalism and anti-imperialism.

• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Aug 24, 2023
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Book Title: The breakup of India and Palestine: The causes and legacies of partition
• Chapter Number: 7
• ISBN: 9781526170309
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/24581583
• Related Public URLs: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526170309/