5. India, UNSCOP, and the Partition of Palestine
Speaking before the Constituent Assembly of India on December
4, 1947, just days after the UN General Assembly voted for the partition of
Palestine, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared: “After a great deal
of thought we decided that this was not only a fair and equitable solution
of the problem, but the only real solution of the problem. Any other solution
would have meant fi ghting and confl ict.”^1 He was referring not to parti-
tion but to the ill- fated federal solution that India had advocated as a mem-
ber of the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). In the wake of
de cades of violence following the partition of Palestine, many Indian
scholars now engage in uncritical adulation of the federal plan and pres-
ent it as a missed opportunity.^2
If the Indian proposal was widely hailed within the country, why did it
evoke a dismal response elsewhere? Why did both Arabs and Jews refuse
to consider Nehru’s “only real solution”? Why did the rivals join hands and
outright reject the Indian formula? Why is it barely discussed not only by
the United Nations but also by scholars of the partition plan?^3 What was
this magic Indian solution for Palestine? What about it evoked nearly uni-
versal neglect and dismissal? Was the Indian solution a realistic option in
1947, or was Nehru advocating a course that he himself had rejected for
the Indian subcontinent?
The minority report... is acceptable neither to Jews nor Arabs. For us to advocate
Minority report would please no one and lead us nowhere.
—Vijayalakshmi Pandit, leader of the Indian delegation to the United Nations