Dead

Thanks,guess I should have said Muslim officials.

SameerP

You are painting a picture that the Muslims were the agrieved party in the partition? That is ludricious. The "tensions" in India leading up to partition were all created by the British as part of their balkanization of the sub-continent. Gandhi offered Jinah (not sure of spelling) the ENTIRE cabinet if he would not insist on partition. Let me restate this, Gandhi offered to let Muslims, roughly 25% of the population, have control of the entire cabinet to keep them from leaving. Jinah refused the offer. Jinah wanted to parlay the British balkanization efforts into a new country.

India has a flourishing Muslim population, indeed, if i am not mistaken, it has one of the world's largest muslim populations after Indonesia and Pakistan. However, there are almost no Hindus in Pakistan. Musliums and Hindus have lived peacefully together ever since Islam was born. Some the the highest glories of India came from the Mughal rulers, who were Muslims.

When partition came, Hindus were forced from the newly minted Pakistan more so than Muslims. Look at the map, why does Pakistan exist? It does because Muslims were concentrated in E and W India at the time of partition...those areas were predominantly Muslim already...it was the Hindus that had to leave those areas to return to the now truncated India.

Pakistan attacked India three times over Kashmir. All three times Pakistan was the agressor, and India was on the defensive. Don't make me pull out the UN resolutions which each time condemned the agressive nature of Pakistani attacks. India has never in its 50 year history initiated hostilities with a neighbor.

In the last war, India crushed E and W Pakistan. What did we do with E Pakistan? Did we annex it? No, we let it follow its own course, and thus the soverign nation of Bangladesh was born. India could have annexed the land...but did not.

Pakistan continues to support terrorists looking to destabilize that region, as well as provide assistance to Osma. Once again, UN resolutions have recognized this.

So why does the US support Pakistan? This is a legacy of the cold war. India pioneered the non-aligned movement, which refused to recognize that the entire world had to join one of the two factions. Secretary of State (US) Dulles called this "immoral." Thus, the US started to support Pakistan to have influence in the region. Thus US support is a legacy, one that is changing with time, and will surely continue to change.

Fact remains that India is the world's largest democracy, and Pakistan is a corrupt military dictatorship. Fact remains that India's military outclasses Pakistan in EVERY category, thus Pakistan resorts to supporting militants, and occasional border shelling, as its only means of continuing to harass India. Fact is India shows restraint over the border situation, and does not esclate it with increasing force commitments (which it could easily do) Fact is the Indian constitution reserved 25% of all government jobs to Muslim and backward classes, in an attempt to further equality.

Don't you dare point the finger at India, when it is Pakistan's actions that have made it into a near-pariah. It was the Muslims that betrayed nearly 1000 years of history in a power grab.

Cheers

Bimmer Love

Sameer, I am half Indian and half Pakistani...
are you?
I'm not saying your viewpoint isn't objective,
but I have no reason to point fingers at India
blindly. You're right about Mohammad Ali Jinnah
being an idiot for making the wrong decision..
I can't disagree with you there.
I can't disagree with you saying that the Pakistani
government is corrupt and turning into a military
dictatorship (if it hasn't already come to that)
it is quite unfortunate.
As far as Kashmir is concerned, you're wrong.. both
sides have had their share of trying to take that
land... they're both wrong. Trying to paint a
picture of India being some great big angel in
that sub continent is pointless... they aren't,
India and Pakistan are both at fault. The people
have so much in common, there is no reason
they can't live in peace... cept for the fact
that our people are stupidly stubborn.

You yourself said that muslims made up 25% of
India before the partition. Yes, some muslims
did horrible things to Hindus during the partition,
but the simple fact is that a good 70% of the
nation was Hindu, and the simple outnumbering
made the atrocities against the Muslims more
numerous.

Here's what I know for sure. My father's
family was one of the families that lived
peacefully in a remote portion of India before
the partition. All of my grandfather's friends
were Hindu. When the whole partition business
was going on, my grandfather's Hindu friends
actually ended up dying trying to get my
grandfather's family out of the village safely.
Apparently, poor Hindus from other villages
were looting, pillaging and so on. I'm sure
the same was going on in what is now Pakistan when
the resident Hindus were forced to leave.

If my post seemed to favor Pakistan or Muslims,
I apologize. I was simply trying to impart the
small amount of knowledge I have to others that
might be interested.

SameerP

I too lost relatives (im 100% Indian, Hindu) to Muslims in the partition. We all have horror stories of that time, i suppose.

However, fact remains that Pakistan was the initiator of hostilities in all three wars fought between the nations. Pakistan is patently unhappy with the current borders in Kashmir.

I feel we are all brothers, and this is more of a family squabble than anything else. What i would like more than anything is for India and Pakistan to become one again...as India was throughout its history.

Just seemed like you were headed in a direction i couldn't accept, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Cheers

Bimmer Love

personally, I like the way the countries
are separated... probably less pointless
racism/bloodshed that way.. but what do I know?