Why were Muslims in India afraid?

Answer 1

At the time of partition of India, there were two main political parties in India.

Those were the MUSLIM LEAGUE and INDIA NATIONAL CONGRESS.

The MUSLIM LEAGUE consists of the muslims only and they wanted a separate State Province from Hindus.

Answer 2

Millions of Muslims are still living in India. Unfortunately, in 1947, at the time of partition of India into two independent states, the Hindus and the Sikhs looted the properties of the Muslims and butchered them mercilessly. Therefore, they migrated to Pakistan.

Answer 3

That's certainly news to me that the Muslims have left India ! As far as I know India has the third largest population of Muslims of any country in the world, over 138 million of them.

Answer 4

I assume the question refers to the millions of Muslims that fled India during the partition in 1947. This is nowhere near the majority of India's Muslims and India still has roughly the same number of Muslims as either Pakistan or Bangladesh. (The difference is that India has nearly a billion Hindus to dilute the percentage.) Since the partition, there has been no major flight of Muslims from India.

The reasons that those millions of Muslims fled India during the partition in 1947 are the following:

1) Islamic Nationalism: A number of Indian Muslims were caught in an idealistic wave that they should have their own country in which they would be able to guide their own future, absent India's Hindu majority. They came to Pakistan or Bangladesh in pursuit of the dream that they could steer themselves forward.

2) Fear of Long-Term Discrimination: As a minority, Muslims were afraid (incorrectly as history has demonstrated) that they would be railroaded by Hindus and subject to unequal and discriminatory treatment in a united Indian subcontinent. As a result, they fled India to the Muslim-majority areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh to avoid the possible discrimination.

3) New Life: A number of Muslims moved simply because it would give them a chance to start over; their lives were poor and/or uneventful and moving could improve that situation.

4) Community Break-Up: In a number of places, the border between India and Pakistan/Bangladesh was arbitrary, leading to communities being divided. Since Pakistan/Bangladesh was the Islamic State of India, a number of Muslims who happened to be on the India-side of the border crossed in order to stay with the Islamic community under Islamic leadership.

5) Violence in the Wake of Partition: Muslims and Hindus both violently attacked members of the other group, destroying their possessions and murdering civilians. Some Muslims fled to Pakistan to avoid this violence or because they had already suffered and saw no reason to stay where they had been brutalized.