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The provinces of British India was divided to create the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan) and the Union of India(later Republic of India).Two countries were born at the stroke of midnight and Pakistan got its independence on 14th of August 1947,and India on 15th of August 1947,in accordance with the Indian Independence Act 1947.
The line was decided by the Border Commissions chaired by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was to divide equitably 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people. Sir Radcliffe, a person who had no knowledge about India, arrived on 8th of July, 1947 and had only 5 weeks to decide. The line was drawn hastily that not only divided the land on the basis of religion but also villages and in some cases right through houses.
Someone might question the reason behind partition; someone might question the process of partition itself, but I am not interested in all that. I am interested in the after effects. What did we, the people of South Asia, irrespective of our current national boundaries, gain or lose from partition?
We have indeed paid a heavy price for the partition as an immediate after effect. Millions found themselves on the 'wrong side' of the border after August 1947's Indian Independence Act. Partition gave rise to one of the biggest exodus in recorded history. An estimated 14.5 million people crossed the border in the months immediately after partition. Even if that was not enough, religious riots broke out in a way that the subcontinent has never seen before. Hundreds of thousands were killed in resulting clashes, in Bengal in Punjab. There were countless cases of organized killing, rape, torture and rampant looting. Amidst all these miseries two nations were born, India and Pakistan.
It is interesting to note that, the two states had conflicting interests starting from the very beginning. Why was Pakistan necessary? Because it was meant to be a homeland of the Muslims, the land of the pure . Why a separate homeland was necessary for the Muslims? Because they would have got the equal treatment had they been a part of India.64 years have passed since independence, and we still carry our differences right at the core of our heart, little has changed.
This essay is of course incomplete, without the mention of Kashmir. India and Pakistan became independent in August 1947, and before everybody could understand its significance properly we end up fighting a war for control over the land, in the year 1948.Since then, Kashmir has been a central cause of tension between the two countries. It has been made much more convoluted owing to the issues related to militancy, troop build-up, atrocities against minorities, and ruthlessness of the military.
There have been 3 wars, 1 undeclared war and numerous skirmishes in the border region between the two countries, resulting in nothing but loss of wealth and priceless lives between India and Pakistan.
We fought in 1965.Some genius to the west of Radcliffe line thought it will be a nice idea to push in militia in order to take over Kashmir. Things did not turn out as they meant to be, and before everyone could know we ended up fighting a full scale war. In the end none achieved anything.
1971, it was Indias turn. The deteriorating political situation in East-Pakistan was closely observed by the Indian bureaucrats and political leaders of India and did nothing but add fuel to the already raging fire. War broke out inevitably, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh and India, especially the state of West Bengal ended up having millions of refugees, something that destroyed the economy of the state from which it is yet to recover.
There was the Kargil incident. Some genius again thought of finishing the unfinished business of 1965 and ending up nowhere in the end.
The situation did not get any better with the involvement of the super powers and their own interests and agenda in the region. Pakistan decided to hold the hand of USA, from the 1960s.India tried playing it cool, being a part of Non-Aligned movement but heavily influenced by the Soviets nonetheless. The relation of Pakistan with USA gained solidarity with the agreement of cooperation back in 1959 and has been growing ever since. During the Soviet Afghan conflict, USA found Pakistan as its most reliable partner and used their assistance to settle the score of NAM with the Soviets. The two super powers had their own agenda, conflicting interests and it did not help the two countries in the region at all.
Ever since the creation, we have been nothing but enemies. We spend heavily on defence, procurement of arms. We are the counted among some of the biggest customers of weapons in the World, and all the other developed countries, UK, USA, France, Russia line up to supply arms to us, to help us to protect our sovereignty. They make hefty profit, while we fight and fight. We also take pride in being nuclear powers, now we have the capability to kill thousands and thousands, if not millions, and the biggest tragedy is we take pride in that.
We have gained nothing but miseries and sufferings over all these years due to Partition. The massive amounts of money spent on this arms race could otherwise have been very well used for the betterment of the people. Indian defence budget stands at $36.03 billion, Pakistans at $6.41 billion, imagine a situation where there is no necessity of any.
We, the people of South Asia are gifted with the natural resources. We have millions of barrels of mineral oil, gas reserves, coal deposits, iron ore copper mines, gold and silver, diamond mines and what not. We have vast tracts of fertile land, rivers flowing through them, enough, not only to feed our own people but also feed many others. We have the human resources, the ability to work hard and the desire to excel. The Indians and the Pakistanis have achieved a lot being each others enemy, God knows what we could have achieved had we been each others friends.
I am talking about possibilities here, what could have been. Until recently India had more Muslims than Pakistan. So I really dont see the purpose of creation of Pakistan being fulfilled. We were brothers, but we have been manipulated, we let ourselves being manipulated and used by others for their own purpose and vested interests. We let ourselves being divided and ruled. If the outside forces have taken advantage of us, then we are equally guilty of letting then take advantage of us.
Pakistan is going through a bad phase nowadays and the decisions taken in past are play a big role in that. India is doing just recovering from an economic crisis, but things could have been better. Its not like we did something spectacular or splendid over the years. We have just barely managed to sustain ourselves, and in the mean time we have managed to keep fighting. Its not like we grew up to be economic powers and developed countries the way Japan or France or Germany or UK did after the Second World War. Things are going on as usual, as it was before, we have just perfectly managed to add some more trouble to the already troubled region. Nowadays we are aiming nuclear missiles at each other, giving out tenders to buy and amass more and more weapons. The region has become the largest breeding ground for terrorists and a real pain for the entire World. A large section of the people are still uneducated, a sizeable population very poor and the state welfare is yet to reach the all corners. Practically, we have done nothing with our own countries that is worth mentionable. We have simply created mutual hatred for each other, tried to bleed each other with a thousand cuts and then rubbed salts at each others wounds. Is this what we had Partition for?? Is this our forefathers had envisioned?
What did we gain from this Partition after all??
I would like to finish with a quote of Prof. Balrai Madhok,apt in this situation:
"Time factor and human factor play very important role in all human affairs, particularly in the political field. A mistake committed by leadership on the spur of moment often penalizes a nation for centuries. (LAMHON NE KHATA KI, SADIYON NE SAZZA PAI.) For the errors of moments, centuries stood punished.
The line was decided by the Border Commissions chaired by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was to divide equitably 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people. Sir Radcliffe, a person who had no knowledge about India, arrived on 8th of July, 1947 and had only 5 weeks to decide. The line was drawn hastily that not only divided the land on the basis of religion but also villages and in some cases right through houses.
Someone might question the reason behind partition; someone might question the process of partition itself, but I am not interested in all that. I am interested in the after effects. What did we, the people of South Asia, irrespective of our current national boundaries, gain or lose from partition?
We have indeed paid a heavy price for the partition as an immediate after effect. Millions found themselves on the 'wrong side' of the border after August 1947's Indian Independence Act. Partition gave rise to one of the biggest exodus in recorded history. An estimated 14.5 million people crossed the border in the months immediately after partition. Even if that was not enough, religious riots broke out in a way that the subcontinent has never seen before. Hundreds of thousands were killed in resulting clashes, in Bengal in Punjab. There were countless cases of organized killing, rape, torture and rampant looting. Amidst all these miseries two nations were born, India and Pakistan.
It is interesting to note that, the two states had conflicting interests starting from the very beginning. Why was Pakistan necessary? Because it was meant to be a homeland of the Muslims, the land of the pure . Why a separate homeland was necessary for the Muslims? Because they would have got the equal treatment had they been a part of India.64 years have passed since independence, and we still carry our differences right at the core of our heart, little has changed.
This essay is of course incomplete, without the mention of Kashmir. India and Pakistan became independent in August 1947, and before everybody could understand its significance properly we end up fighting a war for control over the land, in the year 1948.Since then, Kashmir has been a central cause of tension between the two countries. It has been made much more convoluted owing to the issues related to militancy, troop build-up, atrocities against minorities, and ruthlessness of the military.
There have been 3 wars, 1 undeclared war and numerous skirmishes in the border region between the two countries, resulting in nothing but loss of wealth and priceless lives between India and Pakistan.
We fought in 1965.Some genius to the west of Radcliffe line thought it will be a nice idea to push in militia in order to take over Kashmir. Things did not turn out as they meant to be, and before everyone could know we ended up fighting a full scale war. In the end none achieved anything.
1971, it was Indias turn. The deteriorating political situation in East-Pakistan was closely observed by the Indian bureaucrats and political leaders of India and did nothing but add fuel to the already raging fire. War broke out inevitably, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh and India, especially the state of West Bengal ended up having millions of refugees, something that destroyed the economy of the state from which it is yet to recover.
There was the Kargil incident. Some genius again thought of finishing the unfinished business of 1965 and ending up nowhere in the end.
The situation did not get any better with the involvement of the super powers and their own interests and agenda in the region. Pakistan decided to hold the hand of USA, from the 1960s.India tried playing it cool, being a part of Non-Aligned movement but heavily influenced by the Soviets nonetheless. The relation of Pakistan with USA gained solidarity with the agreement of cooperation back in 1959 and has been growing ever since. During the Soviet Afghan conflict, USA found Pakistan as its most reliable partner and used their assistance to settle the score of NAM with the Soviets. The two super powers had their own agenda, conflicting interests and it did not help the two countries in the region at all.
Ever since the creation, we have been nothing but enemies. We spend heavily on defence, procurement of arms. We are the counted among some of the biggest customers of weapons in the World, and all the other developed countries, UK, USA, France, Russia line up to supply arms to us, to help us to protect our sovereignty. They make hefty profit, while we fight and fight. We also take pride in being nuclear powers, now we have the capability to kill thousands and thousands, if not millions, and the biggest tragedy is we take pride in that.
We have gained nothing but miseries and sufferings over all these years due to Partition. The massive amounts of money spent on this arms race could otherwise have been very well used for the betterment of the people. Indian defence budget stands at $36.03 billion, Pakistans at $6.41 billion, imagine a situation where there is no necessity of any.
We, the people of South Asia are gifted with the natural resources. We have millions of barrels of mineral oil, gas reserves, coal deposits, iron ore copper mines, gold and silver, diamond mines and what not. We have vast tracts of fertile land, rivers flowing through them, enough, not only to feed our own people but also feed many others. We have the human resources, the ability to work hard and the desire to excel. The Indians and the Pakistanis have achieved a lot being each others enemy, God knows what we could have achieved had we been each others friends.
I am talking about possibilities here, what could have been. Until recently India had more Muslims than Pakistan. So I really dont see the purpose of creation of Pakistan being fulfilled. We were brothers, but we have been manipulated, we let ourselves being manipulated and used by others for their own purpose and vested interests. We let ourselves being divided and ruled. If the outside forces have taken advantage of us, then we are equally guilty of letting then take advantage of us.
Pakistan is going through a bad phase nowadays and the decisions taken in past are play a big role in that. India is doing just recovering from an economic crisis, but things could have been better. Its not like we did something spectacular or splendid over the years. We have just barely managed to sustain ourselves, and in the mean time we have managed to keep fighting. Its not like we grew up to be economic powers and developed countries the way Japan or France or Germany or UK did after the Second World War. Things are going on as usual, as it was before, we have just perfectly managed to add some more trouble to the already troubled region. Nowadays we are aiming nuclear missiles at each other, giving out tenders to buy and amass more and more weapons. The region has become the largest breeding ground for terrorists and a real pain for the entire World. A large section of the people are still uneducated, a sizeable population very poor and the state welfare is yet to reach the all corners. Practically, we have done nothing with our own countries that is worth mentionable. We have simply created mutual hatred for each other, tried to bleed each other with a thousand cuts and then rubbed salts at each others wounds. Is this what we had Partition for?? Is this our forefathers had envisioned?
What did we gain from this Partition after all??
I would like to finish with a quote of Prof. Balrai Madhok,apt in this situation:
"Time factor and human factor play very important role in all human affairs, particularly in the political field. A mistake committed by leadership on the spur of moment often penalizes a nation for centuries. (LAMHON NE KHATA KI, SADIYON NE SAZZA PAI.) For the errors of moments, centuries stood punished.
Both Should be Happy.
