For @Raj-Hindustani , @Jackdaws @achhu
Please comment on the discussion below:
https://defence.pk/pdf/goto/post?id=12973063
Silverblaze said:
However, forgetting this loss and convincing ourselves that it was bound to happen should not be the premise of our narrative.
For me, loss of east pakistan is a reminder that india is the ideological and civilizational enemy of muslims of subcontinent and particularly Pakistan the symbol of muslim sovereignty in S. Asia.
I would have agreed with you if the declassified documents 50 years later had not been revealed. India lost the civilizational battle against Muslims in 1947. ( Note, I used the word Muslims not Pakistan).
East Pakistan or Bangladesh as it is now known is still majority Muslim.
India was inimical to the existence of Pakistan for the first few years after independence and had hoped Pakistan would collapse on its own.
Once the carnage of Partition was over India tried to adopt a secular political structure, and its enmity to Pakistan ( at that time) was not so much religious, but an admission of the failure of a secular character of an anti-colonial struggle. India was loathe to be seen as a sectarian communal state in the aftermath of World War 2 that had seen the most horrific excesses of religious persecution.
Once India realized that Pakistan would survive it concentrated on recovering the rest of Kashmir, or at least threaten Pakistan on the IB so that Pakistan gives up its claims on the rest of Kashmir. The 1965 war was a stark reality check exposing the limits of India's military power.
An even bigger reality check was the aftermath of the 1971 war. India, having a multilingual structure itself was loathe to encourage parochial linguistic chauvinism which could erupt back home ( and it did ! ). Pakistan could no longer be held hostage by its Eastern Wing. The Indian armed forces had failed to deliver a victory in the West and capture Azad Kashmir .
Pakistan would survive to retain Azad Kashmir, and rearm, rebuild and resist India for the foreseeable future. With its "1000 year victory" India had got more than it bargained for. Which is why India went for a disengagement and territory swap just a few weeks after the ceasefire in February 1972 and just seven month later initiated peace talks.
There is a difference between the secular centrist left leaning government in power in India back in 1971, and the fascist regime ruling India today.
With a request to remain on the topic.
