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Sunday, August 26, 2018
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Friday, August 17, 2018
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Indian Summer
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On the eve and the day of India's and Pakistan's seventy first independence anniversary I thought I will reflect on the book I recently read on the history of this event.
Here are my random thoughts, not particularly on the politics but the logistics of gaining independence.
The book is written well by Alex Von Tunzelmann a youngish female British writer. I really enjoyed the thoroughness with which the history is documented and memorialized.
As a sidebar, before I read this book I was not aware how much Winston Churchill, the then Prime Minister of England hated India and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He had some choice words for both of them. And, what soft corners did Lord and Lady Mountbatten harbored for India and its population. Before I read this book I did not know that there was a secret but an intense romance blossoming between Lady Mountbatten, Edwina, and India's freedom fighter and the contributor to architecture of new India, as well as the first Prime Minister of independent India; Jawaharlal Nehru. It was refreshing to learn Lord Louis Mountbatten was inexhaustibly devoted to his wife in spite of the fact that she loved another.
World has seen the Berlin being split into two, East and West Berlin in 1961. The Russians erected wire fence dividing the city into two overnight. Within couple of weeks concrete blocks replaced the wires. One city was split up into two within a month. Families were broken up, lives were ruined. Many lost their lives trying to cross over to West Berlin. The split was harsh but simple.
In 2011 Sudan in Africa split into two, Sudan and South Sudan. The divide was drawn along the religion and oil income lines. South is mostly Christian and North is mostly Arab Muslim. Division was not entirely painless, but relatively less painful.
In both of above cases, and many more such in past world history when countries have been plundered, decimated, conquered and then left to survive at their own devices. That is what conquerers did. Division as well as the absorption of nations were uncomplicated.
In case of pre-partition India division into two nations was not at all simple. It must have been rather excruciatingly difficult. British germinated and supported the idea of a majority Muslim state and a majority Hindu state. Muslim state became Pakistan and Hindu state remained India.
Before partition there were between 400 and 500 sovereign Rajas and Maharajas with both, Hindu and Muslim subject coexisting within their state boundaries. Each sovereign was asked to make a choice, without coercion, which state they wanted to be part of. An idea was floated that the parts of India where there was majority of Muslim population will be part of a new country, Pakistan, the name chosen by Dr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In many instances, the Raja was Muslim but the subject was primarily Hindu and vice versa. How does one partition such sovereignties? What about the cases where the population was evenly split but centrally situated? How do you demarcate the boundaries? It must have been the cartographers' nightmare. Western part of India was majority muslim which obviously became Pakistan. Now how does one combine it with another majority muslim part at opposite end of the land? This logistic nightmare relates to religion only. There are others. The issues related to the country's wealth and debt obligation. How does one divide that? How does the defense get split? How do you spilt Army, Navy and Air Force? How do you handle laws, natural resources, currency, citizenship and trade? Whatever pain Britishers and Indian freedom fighters went through, not to mention the millions who lost their lives, India and Pakistan earned and were granted their respective Independence in 1947. May we have good sense to know its worth and preserve it. charu 08142018 |
Saturday, August 11, 2018
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