Notes

The English were concerned that the two religious groups, the Hindus and Muslims, would not be able to get along. The English decided to create two countries out of India. The two countries were India in the south and Pakistan in the north. The Muslims were to live in Pakistan and the Hindus in India. The only problem with the division was that there were Hindus living in the area of Pakistan, and Muslims were living in India. The creation of these new nations led to a mass migration of people as they moved to be in the country where their religion dominated. During these migrations, thousands of Muslims passed thousands of Hindus and fighting broke out. Hopefully you remember this from watching the movie Gandhi, because it had a scene depicting this violence. In the end, over five hundred thousand people were killed because of these migrations. It was during this violent time in India’s history that Gandhi himself was killed.

India’s first leader would have been Gandhi had he not been killed. Instead, the first leader was a man named Nehru. Nehru established three goals for India so the country would become a world leader. What do you think were the three goals Nehru set for India?

These were the three goals:

Industrialization: Nehru wanted to see India develop a more advanced industry so it could compete in the world. India is a country with many natural resources, and Nehru attempted to put these resources to work for India.
Modern agriculture: Nehru wanted India to practice more modern farming techniques. He tried to modernize the farming industry in India. One of the most significant additions to the farming techniques was irrigation. With irrigation, Indian farmers were no longer dependent on the monsoon rains for good crops. This meant that farmers could control their output more easily.
National unity: Nehru realized India was a diverse land with many different religious and ethnic groups. Though India was largely populated by Hindus, several other religions were represented as well. He wanted to see Indians get along with each other. If India could be a nation of peace, it would grow faster. Unfortunately, this attempt by Nehru failed.
Nehru faced some significant problems while trying to organize India. The first problem was a population explosion. As has been stated already throughout this course, a population explosion adds unexpected pressures to a government. Money that could be used to develop a nation is poured into feeding all of the unexpected people. The other problems that hindered India’s progress was the conflicts between different religious and ethnic groups.

These problems continue to drag India down. India has never been able to control its population and the problems associated with its size The minority groups have also caused much civil unrest throughout the country. In one incident, one of these groups assassinated the prime minister of India (Indira Gandhi) because she would not grant them their own country.

How have things fared for the other country that was divided from India in 1948? Things have been better, but the history of Pakistan is also a rocky one. Pakistan was a country divided into two parts; there was west Pakistan, on the northwestern part of India, and east Pakistan, on the northeastern part of India. The two parts of Pakistan were divided by over one thousand miles of land of India. What kind of problems can you identify with a country in a situation such as Pakistan?

I can identify a few. The first problem is governing a country divided into two parts. A government has a more difficult time addressing all of the people’s needs in such a situation. A second problem is fairness. Inevitably, one of the two parts of a divided country is going to feel like it is getting a bad deal. It is like two children who are always saying, “He got that so I want it.” The final problem is similar to the second one; what happens if one part of the country is richer than the other part? The richer side is going to feel the burden of supporting the poorer side and will not like it at all.

All of these problems arose in Pakistan. West Pakistan was the richer side and tended to control the government. East Pakistan had most of the people and most of the problems with poverty. The two sides struggled to get along. In 1970, east Pakistan elected a person from its side of the country as president. The people of west Pakistan did not want this individual, so they had the military take over the government in a coup d’etat (or a military coup). How do you think the people of east Pakistan reacted to this?

They were fed up. East Pakistan demanded its independence and went to war with west Pakistan for it. By 1971, east Pakistan had gained its independence and changed its name to Bangladesh.

How has Bangladesh fared since gaining its independence? Not too well. The country lacks resources and it is poor. To compound the situation, Bangladesh suffers from periodic floods that make an economically bad situation even worse. Pakistan, on the other hand, is faring quite well. Pakistan does suffer from some of the problems common in India, namely frustration from minority groups, but, overall, Pakistan is a fairly wealthy country that has a lot of potential.