Thread: Division of Indian Sub Continent

Originally Posted by surasak

The problems in Pakistan were numerous: separation of the nation into two parts, the fact that the government structure of Pakistan was non-existent upon independence, a stucture of government and civil service that was Western in nature but not Islamic in principle, civil war, the war in Afghanistan which drove millions of refugees into Pakistan from the Soviet invasion, the fact that the government has gone through many major changes, and, the dispute over Kashmir. When India was partitioned only about 10% of all major civil servants were Muslim and none were that were of the secretary level or higher. So, at the onset, there was no government in Pakistan to help get things going. The UK carved out a section of India and made it the 'homeland' for Muslims. Sort of what the UK did in the Middle East. Bloody hell, let's carve it up and let them sort it out!

It's kind of hard to build a modern nation in less than 50 years. Israel has had hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indrect aid and still doesn't have permanent borders. I would argue that it took almost 150 years for the U.S. to be a modern power. Even after 100 years of independence the U.S. still couldn't fight a major war without outside help. What makes anyone think a small country with a weak economy and a non-existent civil service is going to do it sooner?

Which is why Congress and the Muslim League should have listened to the British to put back the date of independence.
Both parties were intransigent and insisted that the date could not be moved.

Actually, if you want to blame a single person for this mess, then blame Maharajah Hari Singh.
He was the hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir. His subjects were predominantly muslim and wanted to join Pakistan. Hari Singh had the choice of which country his kingdom would be a part of.
He chose India.