Posted on 11/09/2019 4:33:08 AM PST by C19fan
Hindus fled the emerging Pakistan because of violence. Now Pakistanis flee Pakistan because of the violence. A few years ago some jihadist 'hole was found guilty of murder (I think it was one of those so-called honor killings) but wasn't taken straight to prison. He killed the judge out in the street and was cheered by his supporters. Yeah, it's a Happy Place.
Imagine a world where China 'discovered' Europe and declared it a single country.
That's sorta what The British Empire did to the Indian subcontinent.
N&V: it’s not that simple.
“mainland” India i.e. all of the current Republic of India + pakistan + bangladesh + nepal + sri lanka MINUS the north-east of the republic of India.
has had at least since 500 BC a sense of “self” — Bharat which is the name of the continent in Sanskrit.
just as Europe is founded on Graeco-Roman-Christianity, so india is founded on the META-religion of Hinduism (an umbrella religion that covers everything from polytheism to monotheism to atheism)
Prior to the Brits, the Mauryans and the Mughals did bring most of these regions under a common hegemony.
you are RIGHT though in talking of the diversity of the subcontinent.
He oversimplified it.
When India was partitioned the north-west and eastern Bengal became “Pakistan”.
But there were huge numbers of Muslims in Hyderabad and in Kerala (among other places).
the population transfers occured mainly in two “states” (really nations) which were split religiously
Bengal — this is an ancient nation with a language dating back (in written texts) 2000 years and a very distinct culture. This was split into east and west — the eastern part is now Bangladesh.
punjab is where the biggest mess happened and what your professor described - because this was a heavily integrated state. hindus AND Sikhs moved east and Muslims moved west.
This was like Yugoslavia in the 1990s - the opening up of a 1000 years of tensions
Good summarization, SC
There are a lot of queer things hidden in those statements
1. the most prominent Muslim leader who led the partition, who wanted a ‘homeland for Muslims’ and who was the first leader of Pakistan - Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He was a pork-eating, smoking, drinking non-believer.
Jinnah married a Zoroastrian (Parsi) woman and there is no indication the believed in Islam at all. He wanted a state that gave its minorities freedom (brilliant plan....)
2. The Bengalis were mistreated by West Pakistanis - putting the lie that religion alone can be a common factor
3. Pakistan no longer has a raison d’etre. It was planned as a home for the subcontinent’s Muslims - but 50% elected to stay back. Then the Bengalis broke away (after the West Paki muslims committed genocide there) and now what is Pakistan? it’s not the land of the subcontinent’s muslims. It is nothing
And Pakistan has, uh, restive ethnic minorities and various jihadist groups — it’s basically a pseudostate.
Hindus and Muslims would be at each other's throats even more than they are, if there weren't a country for (non-Bengali) Muslims.
Partition was a disaster for the country 70 years ago, but there were Muslims who didn't want to live under Hindu rule and Hindus who wanted fewer Muslims around, so it happened.
Those feelings persist and so does Pakistan.
well, yes there were Muslims who didn’t want to be under Hindu rule.
But next to no Hindus wanted Pakistan — they probably didn’t want so many Moslems, but they didn’t want to give away a part of India to the Muslims
true - I would give Baluchistan to Iran - give the Iranis a headache as the Baluchis are Sunni yet an Irani people.
And give the North-west frontier province back to Afghanistan - after all those are Pashtun people there.
The USA should have gone into Pakistan after Afghanistan in 2002 - saved everyone from Iraq II
It's the world's only muslim nuclear power. That's something. I guess.
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