I'm sorry to say but this romanticised version of colonialism, and a historical Indian past will not work any longer. We seriously need to understand the nuances and the factors at play in history. Interpreting history through repeated sound bites is unfair and simply wrong.
This simple interpretation of history has given this region Hindu extremism, the RSS and the BJP fascist government.
The British did not take over India/South Asia with 20,000, it was far less, it increased with time, neither did they take over this so-called India, because India never existed as a country, it's truly a sad and false representation of a nation that never was.
The British took over South Asia/India, a region, by defeating multiple kingdoms in multiple battle. It took them a hundred years to reach Lahore from Calcutta, that's because it never a country. Hence the size differential doesn't come into it.
The kingdoms were a lot smaller, and whatever deficiencies the British had were compensated by superior technology, better governance, and better education, plus, partnerships with local allies. Partnering with local allies has been the name of the game throughout history, it is nothing special to the British as it has been repeated for so long.
Please read The Anarchy by William dalrymple, you'll find interesting details.
The Mir Jaffar's is another overblown drama that gets repeated far too often. During the decade before the battle of Plassey in 1757, the Marathas had killed nearly 500,000 Bengalis and Biharis, which had weakened Bengal, and played a major role in the British victory. Suffering at the hands of the Marathas, that's an another kingdom, because India was never a country, losing half a million people, and the associated destruction, and paying 25% of your income to the Marathas for them to stop attacking is going to weaken you. This story gets ignored, But there is never one single reason. Mir Jaffar's were just a single reason among many.
Size matters, but please do not take one view as a singular answer, that as the only determinant factor. It is a sound bit for a bigger argument. Size always matters, but you have to get other factors right. despite the perception, Pakistan has gotten and is getting lot of things right.
India inherited a fully functioning state, that matters, and all the resources and a proper industrial base, that matters. It's main founding father lived on for 17 more years, and it had large number of other capable top tier national leaders, that matters. Still, despite all this, India does not have a national language, even today. They have created a fantasy for themselves and the world has bought into it, about a historical India, but, they still do not have a national language, meaning, they are still in the process of nation building. There was no India before 1947, just a region, there is an India now, but it is still in the process of nation building.
Pakistan inherited the poorest areas of South Asia/British India, with no industrial base at all. No resources, Not a single complete university, no governance structures, they had to build everything anew, they had to do this when it's single most important founding father was sick and died in one year, the second most capable was killed by an Afghan, just 4 years later in 1951, possibly backed by India. The rest of the leadership was second tier, just regional leaders. But they held the country together, that matters.
All this, and at the same time hosting 6-7 million refugees, that's over 20% of the population, whilst fighting a year long war with a neighbour 11 times bigger then you, that matters. India also had around 6 million refugees but that only amounted to 1.5% of their population, they had everything intact.
We Pakistanis have forgotten far too much, and disrespect our history by ignoring what we have achieved and what our Civilian leaders have delivered.
20% refugees amounts to around 250 million in India. 65 million in America, 13 million in the UK, 16 million in Germany. They cry about few hundred thousands. lets see how they would cope with those numbers, even with fully functional governments, their societies would collapse overnight.
But Pakistan did, and we did it when nothing was in place, nothing. So please do not forget and do not under value the resilience of our nation.
All Pakistanis have accepted Urdu as our national language, people have pride in their local mother tongues but they have wholeheartedly accepted Urdu, whereas India is still on that path. There is a Pakistani nation out there, it already exists, it is the foolish who cannot see it, or lack faith.
Size matters, but we have to get other things right, hopefully we will, we have been derailed by factors outside our control, but like before, we WILL deal with it, because the links between the people of Pakistan go back to the dawn of time, to the Indus Valley Civilisation, those links are in our blood, few other nations can make such a claim. Please show some faith in our resilience, and also express faith when evaluating.
@Mangus Ortus Novem
.THis is nothing my friend.This country is plagued with idiots.
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