The concept of an Indo-Pakistani Confederation advocates for a political confederation consisting of the sovereign states of India and Pakistan as a means of ending bilateral conflicts and promoting common interests in defence, foreign affairs, and cultural and economic development. [1] While this idea does not propose to end the sovereign existence of either nation through reunification, it is aimed to resolve the conflicts afflicting the subcontinent since the partition of India in 1947. [2]
The partitioning of India formally came into effect on 14 August 1947, dividing the provinces of Bengal (with East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) and Punjab (with West Pakistan, now Pakistan proper) to create a separate nation (from India) as outlined by the Pakistan Movement, which advocated the "Two-Nation Theory" — that Muslims and Hindus cannot sustain a nation together because of religious differences that would prove too difficult to compromise on or, in some cases, simply impossible to reach a mutual consensus on. [3] The partition provoked great communal conflicts and shortly afterwards, a major dispute over the territory of Kashmir (a former princely state under the British Raj which was sovereignly claimed in full by both the Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan) sparked a large-scale war between the two neighbouring countries. India and Pakistan have, since their independence, engaged in four armed conflicts against each other (1947, 1965, 1971, 1999), all of them stemming from their disputes in Kashmir with the exception of the war in 1971. However, some diplomatic efforts have succeeded in promoting bilateral trade and sports events between the two nations as well as permitting Indians and Pakistanis to peacefully cross the border and visit through services provided by the Samjhauta Express and the Delhi-Lahore binational bus route. The 1972 Shimla Agreement and subsequent bilateral accords have bound both nations to seek a peaceful solution to the Kashmir conflict while promoting trade and economic cooperation.
Some politicians and academicians in India and Pakistan have promoted the concept of a confederation between the two republics as a means to resolve their conflicts while promoting common cultural bonds, economic development and solidarity in major issues, with a ceremonial head of state and important posts held alternately by Indians and Pakistanis. [4] [1] Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah supported the idea. [5] In 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the civilian Chief Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, explored the possibility of a Pakistan-India Confederation and asked "the Government-owned Pakistan Times to write in favour of India-Pakistan confederation." [4] Some advocates of the concept perceive the two-nation theory to have been a failure, being unable to resolve conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, and that a closer bonding of the two nations would be the best possible solution and bring about a greater possibility of peace, prosperity and progress in the region. [6] According to some advocates, such an arrangement would not only end the Kashmir conflict and bring about peace, but would forge a powerful geopolitical entity of equal standing with various global powers such as the United States, European Union, Russia and China. [1] As a result of a confederation between Pakistan and India, M. V. Kamath said that instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on defense, the Indo-Pakistani Confederation would have funds "available for constructive activities like health, education and economic infrastructure." [1] Kamath appealed to the Hindu–Muslim unity demonstrated in the War of Indian Independence in 1857 as support for an Indo-Pakistani Confederation. [1] The Indo-Pakistani Confederation, according to Kamath, would have a common currency and a common Parliament. [1]
Former Vice President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari called for an Indo-Pakistani Confederation that would be "based on the principle of equality" and in which "India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should remain separate, and yet together on issues of common concern and common benefit." [2] According to Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal and former Pakistani Prime Minister Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, the Lahore Resolution originally called for a Hindustan-Pakistan Confederation in a United India, not for Pakistan as a separate state from the rest of India. [7] Chundrigar "said that the object of the Lahore Resolution was not to create Ulsters (a reference to the violent separatist movement aimed at Northern Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom), not to 'destroy the unity of India', but to get the 'two nations (Pakistan and Hindustan)... welded into united India on the basis of equality'. [7] Harry Hodson, the Reforms Commissioner in India in 1941, said that leaders of the All-India Muslim League "interpreted Pakistan as consistent with a confederation". [7]
Lieutenant General Asad Durrani, the former director-general of both Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence, envisioned in 2018 a future Indo-Pakistan Confederation that would possess a common currency and laws. [8] Durrani stated that such an Indo-Pakistan Confederation would soften the borders of India and Pakistan and eventually integrate the armed forces of both entities, paving the way for Indian reunification, in which Delhi would serve as the capital city. [8]
Asghar Ali Engineer envisaged a broader confederation between the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – akin to the European Union. [9] [1] Dinanath Mishra supported such a confederation, and believed that along with India, "Countries like Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka may be willing to start the process this decade itself". [10]
Pakistani Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, advocated an Indo-Pakistani Confederation that would govern the state of Jammu and Kashmir, "taking responsibility for defence, currency and foreign affairs". [1]
Critics have described the proposal as naïve and impractical given the extent of mutual distrust and antagonism between India and Pakistan after decades of consistent fighting and skirmishes. [11]
The idea of a confederation gained prominence with the endorsement of senior Indian political leader and then-Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who on April 29, 2004, said in an interview to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn , that he envisaged both nations coming together to form a confederation: "I conceive that there would be a time when decades hence, both the countries would feel that partition has not solved matters. Why not come together and form some form of confederation or something like that." [12] [6] [13] Another senior Indian politician, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia had similarly advocated the idea. This public endorsement from Advani, a prominent Hindu leader, gave rise to much speculation and media coverage, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan responded by calling the idea a "mirage," stating that both nations were sovereign in their own right and this status was in their view "irreversible." [13] On the other hand, Pakistani leader Altaf Hussain who founded the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has had a favourable stance towards an India-Pakistan confederation, saying that such a confederation would "set another example like the European Union." [14] Some leaders throughout other nations of South Asia have discussed the practicality of this idea. Some advocates added ideas such as the two nations retaining their sovereignty but issuing and dealing in the same currency and also signing an accord with which they can resolve problems related to defence with world powers like the United States, European Union and Russia. [1]
Some Pakistani commentators have argued that Indian leaders specifically rejected the notion of such a confederation during the early years of the Cold War, when Pakistan attempted to covertly contact India to outline the possibility of Indo-Pakistani defence cooperation in Kashmir against growing Chinese ambitions in the region, [15] which was rejected by India with the reasoning that the entirety of Kashmir is an integral part of India alone which shuts down the question of any Pakistani presence in the region. [1] Others have contended that two nations did not necessarily imply two states, and the fact that Bangladesh did not merge with India despite the cultural similarities (especially with Indian Bengal) after separating from Pakistan supports the initial two-nation theory professed by the Pakistan Movement. However, many see the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in itself to be a rejection of the two-nation theory, [16] since ethnic nationalism trumped religious nationalism.
Since the Partition of British India in 1947 and subsequent creation of the dominions of India and Pakistan, the two countries have been involved in a number of wars, conflicts, and military standoffs. A long-running dispute over Kashmir and cross-border terrorism have been the predominant cause of conflict between the two states, with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which occurred as a direct result of hostilities stemming from the Bangladesh Liberation War in erstwhile East Pakistan.
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, also known as the second India–Pakistan war, was an armed conflict between Pakistan and India that took place from August 1965 to September 1965. The conflict began following Pakistan's unsuccessful Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. The seventeen-week war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed the largest engagement of armored vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II. Hostilities between the two countries ended after a ceasefire was declared through UNSC Resolution 211 following a diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration. Much of the war was fought by the countries' land forces in Kashmir and along the border between India and Pakistan. This war saw the largest amassing of troops in Kashmir since the Partition of India in 1947, a number that was overshadowed only during the 2001–2002 military standoff between India and Pakistan. Most of the battles were fought by opposing infantry and armored units, with substantial backing from air forces, and naval operations.
The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence and known as the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the Bangladesh genocide.
The Simla Agreement, also spelled Shimla Agreement, was a peace treaty signed between India and Pakistan on 2 July 1972 in Shimla, the capital city of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It followed the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which began after India intervened in East Pakistan as an ally of Bengali rebels who were fighting against Pakistani state forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Indian intervention proved decisive in the war and led to East Pakistan's breakaway from its union with West Pakistan and the emergence of the independent state of Bangladesh.
Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia and is generally known as the originator of the Pakistan Movement.
Akhand Bharat, also known as Akhand Hindustan, is a term for the concept of a unified Greater India. It asserts that modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet are one nation.
The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated by the two boundary commissions for the provinces of Punjab and Bengal during the Partition of India. It is named after Cyril Radcliffe, who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissions, had the ultimate responsibility to equitably divide 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people.
The two-nation theory was an ideology of religious nationalism that advocated Muslim Indian nationhood, with separate homelands for Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus within a decolonised British India, which ultimately led to the Partition of India in 1947. Its various descriptions of religious differences were the main factor in Muslim separatist thought in the Indian subcontinent, asserting that Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus are two separate nations, each with their own customs, traditions, art, architecture, literature, interests, and ways of life.
India–Pakistan relations are the bilateral ties between the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The two countries have a complex and largely hostile relationship that is rooted in a multitude of historical and political events, most notably the partition of British India in August 1947.
The India–Pakistan, Indo–Pakistani or Pakistani-Indian border is the international boundary that separates the nations of the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At its northern end is the Line of Control, which separates Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistani-administered Kashmir; and at its southern end is Sir Creek, a tidal estuary in the Rann of Kutch between the Indian state of Gujarat and the Pakistani province of Sindh.
The 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff was a military standoff between India and Pakistan that resulted in the massing of troops on both sides of the border and along the Line of Control (LoC) in the region of Kashmir. This was the second major military standoff between India and Pakistan following the successful detonation of nuclear devices by both countries in 1998, the first being the Kargil War of 1999.
The United Nations has played an advisory role in maintaining peace and order in the Kashmir region soon after the independence and partition of British India into the dominions of Pakistan and India in 1947, when a dispute erupted between the two new States on the question of accession over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. India took this matter to the UN Security Council, which passed resolution 39 (1948) and established the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to investigate the issues and mediate between the two new countries. Following the cease-fire of hostilities, it also established the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the cease-fire line.
Bengali nationalism is a form of ethnic nationalism that focuses on Bengalis as a single ethnicity by rejecting imposition of other languages and cultures while promoting its own in Bengal. Bengalis speak the Bengali language and mostly live across Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. Bengali nationalism is one of the four fundamental principles according to the Constitution of Bangladesh and was the main driving force behind the creation of the independent nation state of Bangladesh through the 1971 liberation war. Bengali Muslims make up the majority (90%) of Bangladesh's citizens (Bangladeshis), and are the largest minority in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal, whereas Bengali Hindus make up the majority of India's citizens (Indians) in Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, and are the largest minority in the Indian states of Assam and Jharkhand and the independent state of Bangladesh (8%).
Transport between India and Pakistan has been developed for tourism and commercial purposes and bears much historical and political significance for both countries, which have possessed few transport links since the partition of India in 1947. In 2019, all public transport links between the two countries were severed because of Pakistani protest at India's revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The only way for travelers to make this journey is to cross on foot at Wagah.
Greater Bangladesh, or Greater Bengal is the irredentist ideology of Bangladesh to inevitably expand its territory to include the Indian states that currently has, or historically had, large populations of ethnic Bengali people. These include West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand to the west, Sikkim to the north, and the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland to the east. With the inclusion of so many independent territories, Bangladesh would logically change to Bengal, as her people would be represented under a common ethnicity and heritage based on language rather than one based on nationality.
Anti-Pakistan sentiment, also known as Pakistan-phobia, Pakophobia or Pakistanophobia, refers to hatred, fear, hostility or irrational fixation toward Pakistan, Pakistanis and Pakistani culture. The opposite is pro-Pakistan sentiment.
Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947.
Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts is a military doctrine followed by the Pakistani military against India. It consists of waging covert war against India using insurgents at multiple locations. According to scholar Aparna Pande, this view was put forward in various studies by the Pakistani military, particularly in its Staff College, Quetta. Peter Chalk and Christine Fair cite the former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) explicating the strategy.
Opposition to the Partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. The Hindu, Christian, Anglo-Indian, Parsi and Sikh communities were largely opposed to the Partition of India, as were many Muslims.
The History of Indian foreign policy refers to the foreign relations of modern India post-independence, that is the Dominion of India (from 1947 to 1950) and the Republic of India (from 1950 onwards).
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