What’s Up with India and Pakistan?

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the dispute between India and Pakistan in relation to the terrorists attacks in Mumbai.  Why are relations between the two countries so tense?

Starting in the sixteenth century, traders from Europe began to arrive in India. Taking advantage of the weak government, they established colonies in the country. By 1856, the British East India Company controlled most of India. British rule in India caused discontent amongst the Indian population. The Indians felt that the British didn’t respect their traditions and culture. They formed several nationalist movements.

From the beginning, the British had ruled the Moslems and the Hindus separately. Therefore, when they left India on August 14, 1947, they divided it into two states, India and Pakistan. Pakistan was created as an Islamic state and India as a secular one. Although Ghandi opposed the partition, he was unable to prevent it.

The decision to partition India was made hurriedly by the British government, which realized that it could not afford to hold on to its vast empire. The boundaries between the two states were drawn up by a British lawyer named Cyril Radcliffe, who had little knowledge of Indian conditions, and used out-of-date maps and census materials.

Once the British left India, millions of citizens left their homes to travel either to India or to Pakistan. A million were killed in religious rioting. Both countries started off with ruined economies and devastated lands. They had no established governments, and they lost many of their leaders soon after partition, including Ghandi.

The British left some boundaries undecided, and as a result, boundary issues have been the cause of two wars between Pakistan and India and are still unresolved. The territory of Kashmir is still under dispute.

Interestingly, the partition of India occurred around the same time as the partition of Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish one.  As the British Empire began to fall apart, the British used partition as a way to solve ethnic conflict.  It didn’t work in Israel and it didn’t work in India.  And the effects of this policy are still being felt around the world.

Explore posts in the same categories: Interesting facts