Day 14 August 15 India and Pakistan celebrate 74 years of independence. But the first dawn of the two countries in 1947 was the world’s darkest days in the 20th century. Ethnic violence led to the deaths of nearly 1 million people when about 15 million people had to leave their homes and evacuate to the mainland.
From the 18th century, large areas of India were gradually annexed by the British East India Company. A large portion of the Indian population became slaves to work on plantations to create wealth for the British. Others were given land but had to pay high taxes and were banned from practicing some traditional religious rituals.
By 1857 a large-scale uprising took place. but it only lasted a year. The British government directly controlled India with its army. About 74,000 people were killed. After World War I, the independence movement took place everywhere, most notably the non-violent movement of leader Mahatma Gandhi.
During World War II, the United Kingdom promised to grant independence to India in exchange for Indians participating in the war. After the war, the British economy suffered heavy losses and maintaining colonies in India became a burden. British Prime Minister Clement Atlee at that time announced his withdrawal from India scheduled for June 1948. However, India’s internal conflicts have been tense and bloody.
For centuries, the three main religions in India, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism, have existed interspersed. The Muslim League led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah fought strongly to separate Pakistan into a separate state because of fears that power would return to the Hindus. The Indian National Congress led by Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru wanted religions to coexist in a unified country. A compromise was proposed in which Pakistan had more power in a federal India but was not accepted by Mr. Nehru.
On August 16, 1946, Jinnah called on Muslims to have a general strike nationwide. India to demand secession. Riots broke out in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal province, sparking a bloody week called the “Great Calcutta Massacre” that killed 5,000 people and then continued to spread to Noakhali Bihar between Muslim and Hindu groups.
In 1947 Muslims attacked and overwhelmed the Sikhs in Punjab province. According to The Guardian the main perpetrators of the killing are armed organized gangs. These groups were created by village chiefs or landowners to take advantage of the chaos to ethnically cleanse or gain more property and power.
To avoid being responsible for the increasing violence Governor General Louis Mountbatten decided to push the independence date for India earlier, August 15, 1947 instead of June 1948 as expected. India is divided into two countries. Accordingly, the Muslim majority provinces belong to Pakistan and the Hindu majority provinces belong to India. The provinces of Punjab and Bengal are divided in two with undecided boundaries. On August 14-15, 1947, Pakistan and India respectively declared independence although the territorial boundaries were unclear.
On August 18, 1947, when the border was announced, Muslims had to left India for Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs had to go to India. During August and September 1947, millions of refugees formed lines many kilometers long. Diseases plague abandoned children. Others evacuated on overloaded trains and became targets of gangs. In the following months, about 15 million people had to cross the border, about 1 million people died. Tens of thousands of women were kidnapped and raped, thousands of people suffered in refugee camps.
Since independence, India and Pakistan have remained at odds. The two sides have been locked in a war over Jammu and Kashmir. Those were the wars of 1947-1948, 1965, 1971, which were intense in 2019 and 2020.
In October 1947, Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Maharaja and Hari Singh signed a treaty annexing Kashmir to India. This country parachuted troops into Kashmir and took control of the region. In December 1947, the Pakistani army along with Muslim rebel forces continued to attack Southwest Kashmir. By May 1948, fighting expanded to both North and Northwest Kashmir. Thanks to the United Nations, the two sides reached a ceasefire agreement effective from January 1, 1949. However, the issue of Jammu and Kashmir remains unresolved.
Day 5 August 1965 Pakistani armed groups broke into Indian-controlled Kashmir. India also sent troops to occupy a number of points on the ceasefire line on the Pakistani side. On September 1, Pakistan launched a major tank attack in the Jammu and Kashmir region. On September 6, India launched a counterattack to capture Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province. On September 23, both sides ceased fire at the request of the United Nations. The peace conference between India and Pakistan was held from January 4-10, 1966.
December 3-4, 1971 Pakistan attacked Kashmir because India supported its establishment. establish Bangladesh separate from Pakistan. India also attacked East Pakistan and some areas in West Pakistan. On December 16, India occupied Dacca, creating conditions for Bengali forces to gain control of East Pakistan. On December 17, India announced a ceasefire to end the third India-Pakistan war. However, the risk of war and military conflict still exists.
In 1999, India – Pakistan approaching nuclear war at an alarming rate. In 2003, India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire, but in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India came to power and took a hard line with Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi also canceled his trip to the capital Islamabad to attend a regional summit in 2017.
On February 14, 2019, a bombing at the border of the two countries killed 45 people. soldiers died. Tensions continued to escalate on February 27 when both sides announced they had shot down each other’s planes and closed northern airspace. On February 28, Pakistan shelled the border, killing 5 Indian soldiers. India also responded, causing 14 Pakistani casualties.
August 5, 2019, India revoked its special status authority over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan strongly condemned the decision and vowed to “exercise all possible options” to counter it. Pakistan downgraded diplomatic relations with India and suspended all trade activities. On November 26, 2020, fighting broke out again between the Indian army and the Pakistani army at the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the disputed region of Kashmir.
So after many years of conflict between India and Pakistan is still unresolved. And the current picture remains unclear as both countries are more vulnerable than ever to religious extremism.
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