India and Pakistan

Today, this country is called India, and this country, Pakistan. But before 1947, they were part of the same area. At that time, the region was controlled by Great Britain. It was a British colony. One person who did not accept British rule was the lawyer and politician: Mahatma Gandhi.

He advocated non-violent resistance. The British colonisers? Oh, they used violence. But after the second World War, Great Britain did not have as much money left as they were used to. It suddenly became difficult to pay for the army in India.

Hmmm... maybe it would be best if India became independent after all. But how would that work? The two major political parties, the Indian National Congress, INC, and All India Muslim League had both worked for independence for many years. But they did not agree on the form of that independence.

The INC which was led by Ghandi and another man, named Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted it to be one country. They thought that everyone in India were one and the same people. And that religion wasn't a good enough reason to divide a territory into several countries. But this fellow, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, from the muslim party All India Muslim League was worried. He and many of the country's muslims were afraid to live under a Hindu majority and believed that their rights would be restricted.

Instead, they wanted a separate country for the Muslims: Pakistan. But Ghandi's party, the INC, rejected the proposal to divide India into a Hindu-dominated India and a Muslim Pakistan. But Jinnah's party, All India Muslim League, did not give up. In 1946 muslims demonstrated in the city of Calcutta, for an independent Muslim country. The Muslims and the Hindus started fighting; and a violent riot happened, that led to the death of almost ten thousand people. ...

so, the British thought that: maybe a single unified India isn't the best idea after all. In August 1947 the British government decided that the region would be divided into two different countries: Pakistan, and India. But all the muslims didn't live in the area that became Pakistan, and all the Hindus didn't live in what became India. So what happened? Well, seven million muslims had to move one way and seven million hindus and sikhs moved the other way.

This led to violence again, and several hundred thousand people died during this period. But when everything calmed down it was peace... no? Well... In this area, Kashmir, the large majority of the population is muslim ...

and many of them wanted to become part of Pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir, the Maharaja, on the other hand, was a Hindu and he wanted to be neutral. After only a few months of independence, Pakistan decided in October of 1947 to invade Kashmir. The Maharaja of Kashmir therefore decided that Kashmir should become part of India, so that Kashmir would gain military assistance from there. And so began the first war between India and Pakistan.

That all ended with two thirds of Kashmir becoming part of India and one third, part of Pakistan. But then there was peace, right? Weeeeeell... there's actually been another three wars between India and Pakistan since then. One war was about this territory: East Pakistan.

And it became a new country: Bangladesh. And the other two wars were over Kashmir. But since 1999, these countries have actually enjoyed a peaceful relationship. Well, as long as they are not playing cricket!