In part 3 of his series on Pakistan, Kapil Komireddi advances an important point: India was partitioned because Muslim leaders insisted their people could not safely live in a state with a 75% non-Muslim majority.
But the post-1948 emergence of India as a secular democracy debunked the argument for Pakistan. Partitioned India has a 10% Muslim minority who enjoy more personal and political freedom, greater personal security, and increasingly more prosperity, than the Muslims of Muslim-majority Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Pakistan could succeed only if India failed – and India did not fail.
Read Kapil’s next installment here.
2 responses so far
1 ScottGreen // Nov 19, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Unless we develop a comprehensive South Asia strategy, the most we can hope for is a temporary peace in Afghanistan.
What would such a strategy look like? Well, at the very least it requires some moderation of the strategic competition between India and Pakistan.
Without attention to this aspect of the problem, we really are only playing around at the edges of the conflict.
For more, see http://bit.ly/3vYHPk
2 MrPerkins // Mar 16, 2010 at 9:44 am
Quote: In part 3 of his series on Pakistan, Kapil Komireddi advances an important point: India was partitioned because Muslim leaders insisted their people could not safely live in a state with a 75% non-Muslim majority.”
But the post-1948 emergence of India as a secular democracy debunked the argument for Pakistan. Partitioned India has a 10% Muslim minority who enjoy more personal and political freedom, greater personal security, and increasingly more prosperity, than the Muslims of Muslim-majority Pakistan and Bangladesh.”
OH REALLY MR COMMIEREADIE?
Id say 900 million people living in abject slum dog poverty with less of a voice than the all important 75 million middle class , and regular sectarian killings and tensions, makes India the failed state.
In fact more reputable and integrity conscious geo politics experts than yourselves have made the prediction that India will eventually split as this divide continues.
I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land if you can claim with a straight face that India is a beacon of secular harmony. I suppose the sikh outrages of the 80’s, the Assamese seperatist movement, the continued indian army genocide in kashmir has passed you by????
Im sure the muslims of Kashmir who form 80% of the population would disagree with you that they have a more prosperous life than Bangladeshi and Pakistani muslims who breathe the fresh air of emancipation from Hindu fundamentalists and their propoganda such as propogated by you Mr Kapil.
Lets see India is such a harmonious country since partition it has had 2 wars with China, a war with Portugal, and 3 wars with Pakistan. To this day it continues meddling in Pakistans internal affairs and supporting terrrorist activity all the while attempting through ridiculous blogs like this to break up Pakistan.
Pakistan could succeed only if India failed – and India did not fail.
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