August 15, 1947. People of same genes were divided on the way they worship.
August 15, 2022. India’s GDP is around ten times higher than Pakistan’s GDP. In nominal terms, the gap is wider (above ten times) than ppp terms (8.3 times).. India’s economically largest state, Maharashtra, has GDP much greater than Pakistan. Even the second largest economy Tamil Nadu is very close.
The reason: India focused on her own path with non-alignment and the leaders always kept the Nation above anything whereas Pakistan became the bullet of Western Powers and chose the leaders who kept their personal interests above the national interest.
The character of a leader shapes the character of the Nation.
One of the tallest leader in India was Jawaharlal Nehru who remained engrossed in Nation’s freedom and later in the Nation building while his wife suffered from illness and passed away. He remained unmarried till his last breath. On the other hand, there was Jinnah who at the age of 42 years married 18-year-old daughter of his best friend against the serious objection of his friend and family after converting her to Islam.
Where Jawaharlal Nehru gave all his properties to fund the freedom struggle including his famous Allahabad house, on the other hand, Jinnah was busy grabbing the prime properties in Karachi with the excuse that he had to leave his properties back in Mumbai due to partition.
I might not agree to Nehru’s policies or even the leaders that follow him. But In literary and historical analysis, there is term called presentism where we think that the past was also the same as the present day.
Just imagine, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and all other stalwarts were born to families that had seen only oppression first from Islamic Invaders and then from Britishers.
How much ever we deny but it is a fact that India was constantly at war within her boundaries the day Babur stepped in India. But then also for another 200 years or so the country was one of the wealthiest nation but in mess. Britishers took advantage and started looting till the last drop of blood. And trust me they were horrific.
So, the first generation of leaders saw and heard only the brutalities. From early 1900s there were 02 world wars, and there were dictators around the world. It was killing, killing, and killing around them.
It is really of great disbelief that people growing in these circumstances chose to remain calm and focused on building the nation treating all citizens as equal and even giving more importance to marginalized society so that they don’t feel left out. Pakistan chose other way.
The result is in front of us and everyone to see.
I can keep on writing the difference and then how the fate of both countries was shaped but then that would be too lengthy. So, let’s try and analyze the most important chapter of post-India.
Today we can go on and on and debate why Nehru took the decision of bringing UN into Kashmir. But think from his point of view and the level of his dedication. Pakistan attacked Kashmir and then there was war when the Instrument of Accession was signed with India. Thus India entered the war. But do we all know how days/month/year did this war was fought?
It was fought for more than a year which is more than 14 months which in turn is more than 431 days.
On 22 October 1947 the Pashtun tribal attack was launched in the Muzaffarabad sector and The terms of the cease-fire, laid out in a UN Commission were adopted by the commission on 5 January 1949.
Just imagine the strain on human loss/capital loss.
And mind you, all this was happening when the world witnessed the biggest population exchange in her memory where millions were killed, where trains were filled with body corpses, where 99% of the population was without food, about 90% population did not know how to read/write, where only 1% of the household had electricity and road connectivity.
It is on record that In 1943, the Bengal famine killed millions of Indians from starvation, disease and destitution. Destitution was so intense in Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa, that entire families and villages were “wiped out” of existence. Village artisans, along with sustenance farming families, died from lack of food, malnutrition and a wave of diseases. The 1943 famine was not an isolated tragedy. Devastating famines impoverished India every 5 to 8 years in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Between 6.1 and 10.3 million people starved to death in British India during the 1876–1879 famine, while another 6.1 to 8.4 million people died during the 1896–1898 famine. The Lancet reported that 19 million people died from starvation and the consequences of extreme poverty in British India between 1896 and 1900 Sir MacDonnell observed the suffering and poverty in 1900, and noted, “people died like flies” in Bombay.
We have come out of this….
So, let’s pledge today when India is @75 that we will not question what they did but will ask to ourselves what I have done??
Happy Independence Day!