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152-675: The Working Committee has had different levels of power in the party at different times. In the period prior to Indian independence in 1947, the Working Committee was the centre of power, and the Working President was frequently more active than the Congress President. In the period after 1967, when the Congress Party split for the first time (between factions loyal to Indira Gandhi and those led by

304-479: A Muslim-majority population and a large Hindu minority ; it later lost most of its Hindu population following its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which saw the secession of East Pakistan as the independent country of Bangladesh . While both countries established full diplomatic ties shortly after their formal independence, their relationship was quickly overshadowed by

456-556: A mother goddess , who stood variously for Bengal, India, and the Hindu goddess Kali . The unrest spread from Calcutta to the surrounding regions of Bengal when Calcutta's English-educated students returned home to their villages and towns. The religious stirrings of the slogan and the political outrage over the partition were combined as young men, in such groups as Jugantar , took to bombing public buildings, staging armed robberies, and assassinating British officials. Since Calcutta

608-713: A Muslim India and a non-Muslim India". Lala believed in partition in response to the riots against Hindus in Kohat, North-West Frontier Province which diminished his faith in Hindu-Muslim unity. Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 's Hindutva ideology had embryonic form of a two-nation theory since 1920s. Savarkar in 1937 during the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in Ahmedabad supported two-nation theory where he said "there are two nations in

760-592: A Pakistani military operation and a genocide on Bengalis in December 1971, following a political crisis in East Pakistan, the situation soon spiralled out of control in East Pakistan and India intervened in favour of the rebelling Bengali populace. The conflict, a brief but bloody war, resulted in the independence of East Pakistan. In the war, the Indian Army invaded East Pakistan from three sides, while

912-540: A boycott of British goods. Sporadically, but flagrantly, the protesters also took to political violence , which involved attacks on civilians. The violence was ineffective, as most planned attacks were either prevented by the British or failed. The rallying cry for both types of protest was the slogan Bande Mataram ( Bengali , lit: 'Hail to the Mother'), the title of a song by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , which invoked

1064-560: A charge that Pakistan denied. Tensions de-escalated following international diplomatic mediation which resulted in the October 2002 withdrawal of Indian and Pakistani troops from the international border. The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings was a terrorist attack targeted on the Samjhauta Express train on 18 February. The Samjhauta Express is an international train that runs from New Delhi, India to Lahore, Pakistan, and

1216-567: 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. Two years after World War II , the United Kingdom formally dissolved British India , dividing it into two new sovereign nations: the Union of India and Pakistan . The partitioning of the former British colony resulted in

1368-546: A de jure Pakistan, which may make the League more responsible. Freedom is coming. We have 75 to 80 percent of India, which we can make strong with our genius. The League can develop the rest of the country. Following Gandhi's denial and Congress' approval of the plan, Patel, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari represented Congress on the Partition Council, with Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan and Abdur Rab Nishtar representing

1520-611: A divided India or a destroyed India." On that morning, armed Muslim gangs gathered at the Ochterlony Monument in Calcutta to hear Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy , the League's Chief Minister of Bengal, who, in the words of historian Yasmin Khan, "if he did not explicitly incite violence certainly gave the crowd the impression that they could act with impunity, that neither the police nor the military would be called out and that

1672-422: A full-fledged military of 32 battalions, and India insisted that it should be disbanded as part of the demilitarisation. No agreement was reached and the plebiscite never took place. Other conflicts Border skirmishes Strikes India and Pakistan have fought in numerous armed conflicts since their independence. There are three major wars that have taken place between the two states, namely in 1947, 1965 and

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1824-665: A government-in-exile, the Arzi Hukumat (in Urdu : Arzi : Transitional, Hukumat : Government) of the people of Junagadh. Patel ordered the annexation of Junagadh's three principalities. India cut off supplies of fuel and coal to Junagadh, severed air and postal links, sent troops to the frontier, and occupied the principalities of Mangrol and Babariawad that had acceded to India. On 26 October, Nawab of Junagadh and his family fled to Pakistan following clashes with Indian troops. On 7 November, Junagadh's court, facing collapse, invited

1976-600: A group of "Young Party" Muslims from the United Provinces (UP), most prominently, the brothers Mohammad and Shaukat Ali , who had embraced the Pan-Islamic cause. It gained the support of a young lawyer from Bombay, Muhammad Ali Jinnah , who later rose to leadership roles in the League and the Indian independence movement. In later years, as the full ramifications of the pact unfolded, it was seen as benefiting

2128-726: A group of terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba stormed the famous Red Fort in New Delhi . The Fort houses an Indian military unit and a high-security interrogation cell used both by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Indian Army . The terrorists successfully breached the security cover around the Red Fort and opened fire at the Indian military personnel on duty killing two of them on spot. The attack

2280-608: A large share of political spoils for the Indian Muslims with the withdrawal of British rule, others believed the main political objective was the preservation of the cultural entity of Muslim India. The two-nation theory was a founding principle of the Pakistan Movement (i.e., the ideology of Pakistan as a Muslim nation-state in South Asia), and the partition of India in 1947. Theodore Beck , who played

2432-412: A major milestone in its efforts after it covertly performed a series of non-fission tests , codename Kirana-I . No official announcements of such cold tests were made by Pakistan government . Over the next several years, Pakistan expanded and modernised nuclear power projects around the country to supply its electricity sector and to provide back-up support and benefit to its national economy. In 1988,

2584-564: A major role in founding of the All-India Muslim League in 1906, was supportive of two-nation theory. Another British official supportive of the theory includes Theodore Morison . Both Beck and Morison believed that parliamentary system of majority rule would be disadvantageous for the Muslims. Arya Samaj leader Lala Lajpat Rai laid out his own version of two-nation theory in 1924 to form "a clear partition of India into

2736-560: A mass nationalist movement of millions. In August 1942, Congress launched the Quit India Resolution , asking for drastic constitutional changes which the British saw as the most serious threat to their rule since the Indian rebellion of 1857 . With their resources and attention already spread thin by a global war, the nervous British immediately jailed the Congress leaders and kept them in jail until August 1945, whereas

2888-441: A mutual understanding was reached between the two countries in which each pledged not to attack nuclear facilities. Agreements on cultural exchanges and civil aviation were also initiated, also in 1988. Finally, in 1998, India exploded its second nuclear test (see: Pokhran-II ) which invited Pakistan to follow the latter's step and performed its own atomic tests (see Chagai-I and Chagai-II ). Countries including India and

3040-464: A negative view, while 11% of Pakistanis view India's influence positively, with 62% expressing a negative view. Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly formed states in the months immediately following the partition. There was no conception that population transfers would be necessary because of the partitioning. Religious minorities were expected to stay put in the states they found themselves residing in. However, while an exception

3192-593: A new province with a Muslim majority would directly benefit Muslims aspiring to political power. World War I would prove to be a watershed in the imperial relationship between Britain and India. 1.4 million Indian and British soldiers of the British Indian Army would take part in the war, and their participation would have a wider cultural fallout: news of Indian soldiers fighting and dying with British soldiers, as well as soldiers from dominions like Canada and Australia, would travel to distant corners of

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3344-586: A part of British-ruled India. The Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, but its sovereignty had been left undefined. In 1947, Sikkim became an independent kingdom under the suzerainty of India. The Maldives became a protectorate of the British crown in 1887 and gained its independence in 1965. In 1905, during his second term as viceroy of India , Lord Curzon divided

3496-558: A plan". He said that if the Muslims were not granted a separate Pakistan then they would launch "direct action". When asked to be specific, Jinnah retorted: "Go to the Congress and ask them their plans. When they take you into their confidence I will take you into mine. Why do you expect me alone to sit with folded hands? I also am going to make trouble." The next day, Jinnah announced 16 August 1946 would be " Direct Action Day " and warned Congress, "We do not want war. If you want war we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We will either have

3648-648: A presence in Pakistan. On 11 May 2011, India released a list of 50 "Most Wanted Fugitives" hiding in Pakistan. This was to tactically pressure Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad . After two errors in the list received publicity, the Central Bureau of Investigation removed it from their website, pending review. After this incident, the Pakistani interior ministry rejected

3800-411: A quicker transfer of power. When Lord Mountbatten formally proposed the plan on 3 June 1947, Patel gave his approval and lobbied Nehru and other Congress leaders to accept the proposal. Knowing Gandhi's deep anguish regarding proposals of partition, Patel engaged him in private meetings discussions over the perceived practical unworkability of any Congress-League coalition , the rising violence, and

3952-411: A retributive genocide. Total migration across Punjab during the partition is estimated at 12 million people; around 6.5 million Muslims moved from East Punjab to West Punjab, and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from West Punjab to East Punjab. According to the British plan for the partition of British India, all the 680 princely states were allowed to decide which of the two countries to join. With

4104-410: A separate country were thus conceded. The Congress 's position on unity was also taken into account while making Pakistan as small as possible. Mountbatten's formula was to divide India and, at the same time, retain maximum possible unity. Abul Kalam Azad expressed concern over the likelihood of violent riots, to which Mountbatten replied: Indo-Pakistani relations India and Pakistan have

4256-732: A separate homeland. Tensions heightened while the Muslim League was unable to form ministries outside the two provinces of Sind and Bengal, with the Congress forming a ministry in the NWFP and the key Punjab province coming under a coalition ministry of the Congress, Sikhs and Unionists. The British, while not approving of a separate Muslim homeland, appreciated the simplicity of a single voice to speak on behalf of India's Muslims. Britain had wanted India and its army to remain united to keep India in its system of 'imperial defense'. With India's two political parties unable to agree, Britain devised

4408-534: A successful military campaign against Pakistan. Starting preparations for a nuclear test in 1972, India finally exploded its first nuclear bomb in Pokhran test range, codename Smiling Buddha , in 1974. During the 1980s–90s, India began development of space and nuclear rockets , which marked Pakistan's efforts to engage in the space race with India. Pakistan's own program developed space and nuclear missiles and began uncrewed flight tests of its space vehicles in

4560-647: A trade agreement, and committed to resolving bilateral conflicts through peaceful means. Steadily, hundreds of thousands of Hindus returned to East Pakistan, but the thaw in relations did not last long, primarily owing to the Kashmir conflict . According to some reports published by the Council of Foreign Relations , the Pakistan military and the ISI have provided covert support to terrorist groups active in Kashmir, including

4712-455: A transfer of populations (i.e., the total removal of Hindus from Muslim-majority areas and the total removal of Muslims from Hindu-majority areas) was a desirable step towards a complete separation of two incompatible nations that "cannot coexist in a harmonious relationship." Opposition to the theory has come from two sources. The first is the concept of a single Indian nation , of which Hindus and Muslims are two intertwined communities. This

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4864-464: A two-hour speech in English, in which were laid out the arguments of the two-nation theory , stating, in the words of historians Talbot and Singh, that "Muslims and Hindus...were irreconcilably opposed monolithic religious communities and as such, no settlement could be imposed that did not satisfy the aspirations of the former." On the last day of its session, the League passed what came to be known as

5016-434: Is a founding principle of the modern, officially- secular Republic of India . Even after the formation of Pakistan, debates on whether Muslims and Hindus are distinct nationalities or not continued in that country as well. The second source of opposition is the concept that while Indians are not one nation, neither are the Muslims or Hindus of the subcontinent, and it is instead the relatively homogeneous provincial units of

5168-670: Is one of two trains to cross the India-Pakistan border. At least 68 people were killed, mostly Pakistani civilians but also some Indian security personnel and civilians. The 2008 Mumbai attacks by ten Pakistani terrorists killed over 173 and wounded 308. The sole surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab who was arrested during the attacks was found to be a Pakistani national. This fact was acknowledged by Pakistani authorities. In May 2010, an Indian court convicted him on four counts of murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism offences, and sentenced him to death. India blamed

5320-446: Is thought that between 14 million and 18 million people moved, and perhaps more. Excess mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to be around one million. The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day. The term partition of India does not cover the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, nor

5472-509: The 1857 Rebellion and the Second Anglo-Afghan War . In the three decades since the 1871 census, Muslim leaders across North India had intermittently experienced public animosity from some of the new Hindu political and social groups. The Arya Samaj , for example, had not only supported the cow protection movement in their agitation, but also—distraught at the census' Muslim numbers—organized "reconversion" events for

5624-826: The Bengal Presidency —the largest administrative subdivision in British India—into the Muslim-majority province of Eastern Bengal and Assam and the Hindu-majority province of Bengal (present-day Indian states of West Bengal , Bihar , Jharkhand , and Odisha ). Curzon's act, the partition of Bengal —which had been contemplated by various colonial administrations since the time of Lord William Bentinck , though never acted upon—was to transform nationalist politics as nothing else before it. The Hindu elite of Bengal, many of whom owned land that

5776-896: The British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions : India and Pakistan . The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India , and the Dominion of Pakistan—which at the time comprised two regions lying on either side of India—is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh . The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947 . The change of political borders notably included

5928-477: The Cabinet Mission Plan . Through this mission, Britain hoped to preserve the united India which they and the Congress desired, while concurrently securing the essence of Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan through 'groupings.' The Cabinet mission scheme encapsulated a federal arrangement consisting of three groups of provinces. Two of these groupings would consist of predominantly Muslim provinces, while

6080-493: The Dominion of India or the Dominion of Pakistan . Despite the standstill agreement with Pakistan, teams of Pakistani forces were dispatched into Kashmir. Backed by Pakistani paramilitary forces, Pashtun Mehsud tribals invaded Kashmir in October 1947 under the code name " Operation Gulmarg " to seize Kashmir. The Maharaja requested military assistance from India. The Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten , required

6232-530: The Gateway of India and the other at the famous Zaveri Bazaar, killing at least 48 and injuring 150 people. Though no terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks, Mumbai Police and RAW suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba 's hand in the twin blasts. In an unsuccessful attempt, six terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba , stormed the Ayodhya Ram Janmbhomi complex on 5 July 2005. Before

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6384-546: The House of Commons , with an offer of dominion status to India at the end of the war in return for the Congress's support for the war effort. Not wishing to lose the support of the allies they had already secured—the Muslim League, Unionists of Punjab, and the princes—Cripps's offer included a clause stating that no part of the British Indian Empire would be forced to join the post-war dominion. The League rejected

6536-521: The Indian Navy used the aircraft carrier INS  Vikrant to impose a naval blockade of East Pakistan. The war saw the first offensive operations undertaken by the Indian Navy against an enemy port, when Karachi harbour was attacked twice during Operation Trident (1971) and Operation Python . These attacks destroyed a significant portion of Pakistan's naval strength, whereas no Indian ship

6688-511: The Lahore Resolution , sometimes also "Pakistan Resolution," demanding that "the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in the majority as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign." Though it had been founded more than three decades earlier, the League would gather support among South Asian Muslims only during

6840-665: The Lashkar-e-Taiba , a Pakistan-based militant group, for planning and executing the attacks. Indian officials demanded Pakistan extradite suspects for trial. They also said that, given the sophistication of the attacks, the perpetrators "must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan". In July 2009 Pakistani authorities confirmed that LeT plotted and financed the attacks from LeT camps in Karachi and Thatta . In November 2009, Pakistani authorities charged seven men they had arrested earlier, of planning and executing

6992-609: The Line of Control (LoC) in the region of Kashmir . This was the first major military standoff between India and Pakistan since the Kargil War in 1999. The military buildup was initiated by India responding to a 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2001 Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly attack . India claimed that the attacks were carried out by two Pakistan-based terror groups, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad , both of whom India has said are backed by Pakistan's ISI

7144-568: The Minto-Morley Reforms , and more recently of the Congress-Muslim League Lucknow Pact, was reaffirmed, with seats being reserved for Muslims , Sikhs , Indian Christians , Anglo-Indians , and domiciled Europeans, in both provincial and imperial legislative councils. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms offered Indians the most significant opportunity yet for exercising legislative power, especially at

7296-696: The Swami Narayan temple complex in Ahmedabad , Gujarat killing 30 people, including 18 women and five children. The attack was carried out on 25 September 2002, just few days after state elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir. Two identical letters found on both the terrorists claimed that the attack was done in retaliation for the deaths of thousands of Muslims during the Gujarat riots . Two car bombs exploded in south Mumbai on 25 August 2003; one near

7448-626: The United Provinces (where Hindus attacked Muslims), and on to Rawalpindi in March 1947 in which Hindus and Sikhs were attacked or driven out by Muslims. In London, the president of the India League , V. K. Krishna Menon , nominated Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma as the only suitable viceregal candidate in clandestine meetings with Sir Stafford Cripps and Clement Attlee. Prime Minister Attlee subsequently appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as India's last viceroy , giving him

7600-600: The al-Qaeda affiliate Jaish-e-Mohammed . Pakistan has denied any involvement in terrorist activities in Kashmir, arguing that it only provides political and moral support to the secessionist groups who wish to escape Indian rule. Many Kashmiri militant groups also maintain their headquarters in Pakistan-administered Kashmir , which is cited as further proof by the Indian government. Journalist Stephen Suleyman Schwartz notes that several militant and criminal groups are "backed by senior officers in

7752-457: The "Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946". The next day, Hindus struck back, and the violence continued for three days in which approximately 4,000 people died (according to official accounts), both Hindus and Muslims. Although India had outbreaks of religious violence between Hindus and Muslims before, the Calcutta killings were the first to display elements of " ethnic cleansing ". Violence

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7904-589: The "official majority" in unfavourable votes. Although departments like defence, foreign affairs, criminal law, communications, and income-tax were retained by the viceroy and the central government in New Delhi, other departments like public health, education, land-revenue, local self-government were transferred to the provinces. The provinces themselves were now to be administered under a new dyarchical system, whereby some areas like education, agriculture, infrastructure development, and local self-government became

8056-494: The 1920s, being surrounded by Labour statesmen who were affiliated with Krishna Menon and the India League , and for years had supported it. He now took charge of the government position and gave the issue the highest priority. A Cabinet Mission was sent to India led by the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick Lawrence , which also included Sir Stafford Cripps , who had visited India four years before. The objective of

8208-685: The 64 reserved Muslim seats. In the Muslim-majority regions of the Punjab and Bengal regional parties outperformed the League. In Punjab, the Unionist Party of Sikandar Hayat Khan , won the elections and formed a government, with the support of the Indian National Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal , which lasted five years. In Bengal, the League had to share power in a coalition headed by A. K. Fazlul Huq ,

8360-693: The Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. In addition to this was the unofficial Kargil War in 1999 and some border skirmishes. While both nations have held a shaky cease-fire agreement since 2003, they continue to trade fire across the disputed area. Both nations blame the other for breaking the cease-fire agreement, claiming that they are firing in retaliation for attacks. On both sides of the disputed border, an increase in territorial skirmishes that started in late 2016 and escalated into 2018 killed hundreds of civilians and made thousand homeless. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 started following

8512-416: The British and their allies were now in conflict with the Ottoman Empire, doubts began to increase among some Indian Muslims about the "religious neutrality" of the British, doubts that had already surfaced as a result of the reunification of Bengal in 1911, a decision that was seen as ill-disposed to Muslims. In the Lucknow Pact, the League joined the Congress in the proposal for greater self-government that

8664-587: The British government decided to end British Raj in India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948. Attlee wrote later in a memoir that he moved quickly to restart the self-rule process because he expected colonial rule in Asia to meet renewed opposition after the war from both nationalist movements and the United States, while his exchequer feared that post-war Britain could no longer afford to garrison an expansive empire. Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee had been deeply interested in Indian independence since

8816-408: The CWC, saying "they cannot be trusted anymore." In 2020 a paper by Observer Research Foundation calls a large number of CWC members "unprincipled, opportunists and self-serving individuals for whom self-interest is paramount." Partition of India The Partition of India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of

8968-425: The Center weak. On 10 July 1946, Nehru gave a "provocative speech," rejected the idea of grouping the provinces and "effectively torpedoed" both the Cabinet mission plan and the prospect of a United India. After the Cabinet Mission broke down, in July 1946, Jinnah held a press conference at his home in Bombay. He proclaimed that the Muslim League was "preparing to launch a struggle" and that they "have chalked out

9120-400: The Congress itself rallied around the symbolism of Kali. It was not lost on many Muslims, for example, that the bande mataram rallying cry had first appeared in the novel Anandmath in which Hindus had battled their Muslim oppressors. Lastly, the Muslim elite, including Nawab of Dacca , Khwaja Salimullah , who hosted the League's first meeting in his mansion in Shahbag , were aware that

9272-413: The Government of India to take over the State's administration. The Dewan of Junagadh, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto , the father of the more famous Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto , decided to invite the Government of India to intervene and wrote a letter to Mr. Buch, the Regional Commissioner of Saurashtra in the Government of India to this effect. The Government of Pakistan protested. The Government of India rejected

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9424-420: The Indian army vacated its posts at very high peaks in Kargil sector in Kashmir as it used to do every year. Pakistani Army intruded across the Line of Control and occupied the posts. Indian army discovered this in May 1999 when the snow thawed. This resulted in intense fighting between Indian and Pakistani forces, known as the Kargil conflict . Backed by the Indian Air Force, the Indian Army regained many of

9576-446: The Maharaja to accede to India before India could send troops. Accordingly, the instrument of accession was signed and accepted during 26–27 October 1947. The accession as well as India's military assistance were supported by Sheikh Abdullah , the state's political leader heading the National Conference party, and Abdullah was appointed as the Head of Emergency Administration of the state the following week. Pakistan refused to accept

9728-424: The Muslim League was now free for the next three years to spread its message. Consequently, the Muslim League's ranks surged during the war, with Jinnah himself admitting, "The war which nobody welcomed proved to be a blessing in disguise." Although there were other important national Muslim politicians such as Congress leader Abul Kalam Azad , and influential regional Muslim politicians such as A. K. Fazlul Huq of

9880-428: The Muslim League, which functioned under state patronage, organized "Deliverance Day" celebrations (from Congress dominance) and supported Britain in the war effort. When Linlithgow met with nationalist leaders, he gave the same status to Jinnah as he did to Gandhi , and, a month later, described the Congress as a "Hindu organization." In March 1940, in the League's annual three-day session in Lahore , Jinnah gave

10032-450: The Muslim League. Late in 1946, the Labour government in Britain , its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, decided to end British rule of India, with power being transferred no later than June 1948. With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten , advanced the date, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. In June 1947,

10184-426: The Muslim masses of future Hindu domination. The view that Muslims would be unfairly treated in an independent India dominated by the Congress was now a part of the public discourse of Muslims. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Lord Linlithgow , Viceroy of India , declared war on India's behalf without consulting Indian leaders, leading the Congress provincial ministries to resign in protest. By contrast

10336-429: The Muslim minority elites of provinces like UP and Bihar more than the Muslim majorities of Punjab and Bengal. At the time, the "Lucknow Pact" was an important milestone in nationalistic agitation and was seen so by the British. Secretary of State for India Montagu and Viceroy Lord Chelmsford presented a report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter. After more discussion by

10488-474: The Pakistani army, the country's ISI intelligence establishment and other armed bodies of the state." The attack on the Indian Parliament was by far the most dramatic attack carried out allegedly by Pakistani terrorists. India blamed Pakistan for carrying out the attacks, an allegation which Pakistan strongly denied. The following 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff raised concerns of a possible nuclear confrontation. However, international peace efforts ensured

10640-403: The Second World War. In August 1940, Lord Linlithgow proposed that India be granted dominion status after the war. Having not taken the Pakistan idea seriously, Linlithgow supposed that what Jinnah wanted was a non-federal arrangement without Hindu domination. To allay Muslim fears of Hindu domination, the "August Offer" was accompanied by the promise that a future constitution would consider

10792-482: The Syndicate of regional leaders including Kamaraj , Prafulla Chandra Sen , Ajoy Mukherjee , and Morarji Desai ), the power of the Working Committee declined; but Indira Gandhi's triumph in 1971 led to a re-centralisation of power away from the states and the All-India Congress Committee and caused the Working Committee in Delhi to once again be the paramount decision-making body of the party. The centralised nature of Congress decision making has since caused observers in

10944-518: The United States have demanded that Pakistan stop using its territory as a base for terrorist groups following multiple terrorist attacks by Islamic jihadists in Kashmir and other parts of India. The Pakistani government has denied the accusation and accused so-called "state-backed terror" in India. India has accused some of the most wanted Indian fugitives, such as Dawood Ibrahim , of having

11096-462: The assault. On 9 April 2015, the foremost ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was granted bail against surety bonds of Rs.  200,000 (US$ 690) in Pakistan. India has a long history of development of nuclear weapons . Origins of India's nuclear program dates back to 1944, when started its nuclear program soon after its independence. In the 1940s–1960s, India's nuclear program slowly matured towards militarisation and expanded

11248-501: The battles were fought by opposing infantry and armoured units, with substantial backing from air forces, and naval operations. It ended in a United Nations (UN) mandated ceasefire and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration . Pakistan, since independence, was geo-politically divided into two major regions, West Pakistan and East Pakistan . East Pakistan was occupied mostly by Bengali people . After

11400-530: The central and provincial legislatures. The Muslim League favoured this "communal award" as it had the potential to weaken the Hindu caste leadership. Mahatma Gandhi , who was seen as a leading advocate for Dalit rights, went on a fast to persuade the British to repeal these separate electorates. Ambedkar had to back down when it seemed Gandhi's life was threatened. Two years later, the Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy, increasing

11552-496: The conflict to the United Nations Security Council , requesting it to prevent the outbreak of a general war between the two fledgling nations. The Security Council passed Resolution 47 , asking Pakistan to withdraw all its nationals from Kashmir, asking India to withdraw the bulk of its forces as a second step, and offering to conduct a plebiscite to determine the people's wishes. Though India rejected

11704-558: The cooling of tensions between the two nuclear-capable nations. Apart from this, the most notable was the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 en route New Delhi from Kathmandu , Nepal. The plane was hijacked on 24 December 1999 approximately one hour after takeoff and was taken to Amritsar airport and then to Lahore in Pakistan. After refuelling the plane took off for Dubai and then finally landed in Kandahar , Afghanistan. Under intense media pressure, New Delhi complied with

11856-425: The countries have remained frigid, following repeated acts of cross-border terrorism. The "minimalist engagement" by both countries allows them to keep a " cold peace " with each other. Northern India and most of modern-day Pakistan overlap with each other in terms of their common Indo-Aryan demographic , natively speaking a variety of Indo-Aryan languages (mainly Punjabi , Sindhi , and Hindi–Urdu ). Although

12008-403: The culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 and Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar , which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against rule by India. India retaliated by launching a full-scale military attack on West Pakistan . The seventeen-day war caused thousands of casualties on both sides and witnessed

12160-415: The deaths of five terrorists, six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel and a gardener, in total 14 and to increased tensions between India and Pakistan , resulting in the 2001–02 India–Pakistan standoff . The 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff was a military standoff between India and Pakistan that resulted in the massing of troops on either side of the border and along

12312-478: The disemboweling of pregnant women, the slamming of babies' heads against brick walls, the cutting off of the victim's limbs and genitalia, and the displaying of heads and corpses. While previous communal riots had been deadly, the scale and level of brutality during the Partition massacres were unprecedented. Although some scholars question the use of the term ' genocide ' concerning the partition massacres, much of

12464-428: The displacement of any of its inhabitants, whether they were Sikhs or Hindus. The theory is also a source of inspiration to several Hindu nationalist organizations, with causes as varied as the redefinition of Indian Muslims as non-Indian foreigners and second-class citizens in India, the expulsion of all Muslims from India , the establishment of a legally Hindu state in India, prohibition of conversions to Islam , and

12616-528: The displacement of up to 15 million people, with the death toll estimated to have reached between several hundred thousand and one million people as Hindus and Muslims migrated in opposite directions across the Radcliffe Line to reach India and Pakistan, respectively. In 1950, India emerged as a secular republic with a Hindu-majority population and a large Muslim minority . Shortly afterwards, in 1956, Pakistan emerged as an Islamic republic with

12768-404: The dispute and division of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir between India, Pakistan, and later China; the incorporation of the enclaves of French India into India during the period 1947–1954; and the annexation of Goa and other districts of Portuguese India by India in 1961. Nepal and Bhutan , having signed treaties with the British designating them as independent states , were not

12920-808: The division of two provinces of British India , Bengal and Punjab . The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army , the Royal Indian Navy , the Royal Indian Air Force , the Indian Civil Service , the railways , and the central treasury. Self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively. The partition caused large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration between

13072-481: The exception of a few, most of the Muslim-majority princely-states acceded to Pakistan while most of the Hindu-majority princely states joined India. However, the decisions of some of the princely states would shape the Pakistan-India relationship considerably in the years to come. Junagadh was a state on the south-western end of Gujarat , with the principalities of Manavadar , Mangrol and Babriawad . It

13224-628: The form of the 1946 elections with the Congress winning 91 percent of the vote among non-Muslim constituencies, thereby gaining a majority in the Central Legislature and forming governments in eight provinces, and becoming the legitimate successor to the British government for most Hindus. If the British intended to stay in India the acquiescence of politically active Indians to British rule would have been in doubt after these election results, although many rural Indians may still have acquiesced to British rule at this time. The Muslim League won

13376-717: The government and parliament in Britain, and another tour by the Franchise and Functions Committee to identify who among the Indian population could vote in future elections, the Government of India Act of 1919 (also known as the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms ) was passed in December 1919. The new Act enlarged both the provincial and Imperial legislative councils and repealed the Government of India's recourse to

13528-466: The hijackers' demand and freed Maulana Masood Azhar from its captivity in return for the freedom of the Indian passengers on the flight. The decision, however, cost New Delhi dearly. Maulana, who is believed to be hiding in Karachi , later became the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed , an organisation which has carried out several terrorist acts against Indian security forces in Kashmir. On 22 December 2000,

13680-522: The infamous trial of three senior officers − Shah Nawaz Khan , Prem Sahgal , and Gurubaksh Singh Dhillon − of Subhas Chandra Bose 's defeated Indian National Army (INA) who stood accused of treason . Now as the trials began, the Congress leadership, although having never supported the INA, chose to defend the accused officers and successfully rescued the INA members. British rule had lost its legitimacy for most Hindus, and conclusive proof of this came in

13832-463: The largest engagement of armored vehicles and the largest tank battle since World War II. Hostilities between the two countries ended after a United Nations -mandated ceasefire was declared following diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration . The five-week war caused thousands of casualties on both sides. Most of

13984-481: The leader of the Krishak Praja Party . The Congress, on the other hand, with 716 wins in the total of 1585 provincial assemblies seats, was able to form governments in 7 out of the 11 provinces of British India . In its manifesto, Congress maintained that religious issues were of lesser importance to the masses than economic and social issues. The election revealed that it had contested just 58 out of

14136-659: The leaders of the Indian National Congress , it would lead to calls for greater self-government for Indians. The 1916 Lucknow Session of the Congress was also the venue of an unanticipated mutual effort by the Congress and the Muslim League, the occasion for which was provided by the wartime partnership between Germany and Turkey. Since the Ottoman Sultan, also held guardianship of the Islamic holy sites of Mecca , Medina , and Jerusalem , and, since

14288-604: The leftist Krishak Praja Party in Bengal, Sikander Hyat Khan of the landlord-dominated Punjab Unionist Party , and Abd al-Ghaffar Khan of the pro-Congress Khudai Khidmatgar (popularly, "red shirts") in the North West Frontier Province , the British were to increasingly see the League as the main representative of Muslim India. The Muslim League's demand for Pakistan pitted it against the British and Congress. The 1945 United Kingdom general election

14440-567: The list forwarded by India to Islamabad, saying it should first probe if those named in the list were even living in the country. After the 1971 war, Pakistan and India made slow progress towards the normalisation of relations. In July 1972, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto met in the Indian hill station of Shimla . They signed the Shimla Agreement , by which India would return all Pakistani personnel (over 90,000) and captured territory in

14592-453: The main: the Hindus and the Muslims, in India". Muhammad Ali Jinnah undertook the ideology that religion is the determining factor in defining the nationality of Indian Muslims in 1940. He termed it as the awakening of Muslims for the creation of Pakistan. However, Jinnah opposed Partition of Punjab and Bengal, and advocated for the integration of all Punjab and Bengal into Pakistan without

14744-522: The majority of the Muslim vote as well as most reserved Muslim seats in the provincial assemblies, and it also secured all the Muslim seats in the Central Assembly. Recovering from its performance in the 1937 elections, the Muslim League was finally able to make good on the claim that it and Jinnah alone represented India's Muslims and Jinnah quickly interpreted this vote as a popular demand for

14896-478: The mid-1990s, which continues in the present. After the defeat in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 , Pakistan launched its own nuclear bomb program in 1972, and accelerated its efforts in 1974, after India exploded its first nuclear bomb in Pokhran test range, codename Smiling Buddha . This large-scale nuclear bomb program was directly in response to India's nuclear program. In 1983, Pakistan achieved

15048-415: The ministry would turn a blind eye to any action they unleashed in the city." That very evening, in Calcutta, Hindus were attacked by returning Muslim celebrants, who carried pamphlets distributed earlier which showed a clear connection between violence and the demand for Pakistan, and directly implicated the celebration of Direct Action Day with the outbreak of the cycle of violence that would later be called

15200-460: The mission was to arrange for an orderly transfer to independence. In February 1946, mutinies broke out in the armed services, starting with RAF servicemen frustrated with their slow repatriation to Britain. These mutinies failed to turn into revolutions as the mutineers surrendered after the Congress and the Muslim League convinced the mutineers that they won't get victimised. In early 1946, new elections were held in India. This coincided with

15352-407: The mostly Hindu and Sikh eastern part became India's East Punjab state (later divided into the new states of Punjab , Haryana and Himachal Pradesh ). Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and the fears of all such minorities were so great that the Partition saw many people displaced and much inter-communal violence. Some have described the violence in Punjab as

15504-431: The mutual effects of the partition as well as by the emergence of conflicting territorial claims over various princely states , with the most significant dispute being that of Jammu and Kashmir . Since 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and one undeclared war , and have also engaged in numerous armed skirmishes and military standoffs; the Kashmir conflict has served as the catalyst for every war between

15656-592: The national level, they constituted only 10% of the total adult male population, many of whom were still illiterate. In the provincial legislatures, the British continued to exercise some control by setting aside seats for special interests they considered cooperative or useful. In particular, rural candidates, generally sympathetic to British rule and less confrontational, were assigned more seats than their urban counterparts. Seats were also reserved for non- Brahmins , landowners, businessmen, and college graduates. The principle of "communal representation," an integral part of

15808-486: The nationalist leaders, including Nehru , Valllabh Bhai Patel and J B Kripalini on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, and Abdul Rab Nishtar representing the Muslim League, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs , agreed to a partition of the country in stark opposition to Gandhi's opposition to partition. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to

15960-469: The new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The communal violence that accompanied the publication of the Radcliffe Line , the line of partition, was even more horrific. Describing the violence that accompanied the partition of India, historians Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh wrote: There are numerous eyewitness accounts of the maiming and mutilation of victims. The catalogue of horrors includes

16112-501: The nuclear power infrastructure throughout the country. Decisions on the development of nuclear weapons were made by Indian political leaders after the Chinese invasion and territorial annexation of North India . In 1967, India's nuclear program was aimed at the development of nuclear weapons, with Indira Gandhi carefully overseeing the development of weapons. In 1971, India gained military and political momentum over Pakistan, after

16264-492: The number of voters in India to 35 million. More significantly, law and order issues were for the first time devolved from British authority to provincial governments headed by Indians. This increased Muslim anxieties about eventual Hindu domination. In the 1937 Indian provincial elections , the Muslim League turned out its best performance in Muslim-minority provinces such as the United Provinces , where it won 29 of

16416-419: The offer, seeing this clause as insufficient in meeting the principle of Pakistan. As a result of that proviso, the proposals were also rejected by the Congress, which, since its founding as a polite group of lawyers in 1885, saw itself as the representative of all Indians of all faiths. After the arrival in 1920 of Gandhi, the pre-eminent strategist of Indian nationalism, the Congress had been transformed into

16568-434: The office of prime minister . Mountbatten remained in New Delhi for 10 months, serving as the first governor-general of an independent India until June 1948. Gandhi remained in Bengal to work with the new refugees from the partitioned subcontinent. At a press conference on 3 June 1947, Lord Mountbatten announced the date of independence – 14 August 1947 – and also outlined the actual division of British India between

16720-696: The posts that Pakistan had occupied. Pakistan later withdrew from the remaining portion under international pressure and high casualties. The Indus Waters Treaty governs the rivers that flow from India into Pakistan. Water is cited as one possible cause for a conflict between the two nations, but to date issues such as the Nimoo Bazgo Project have been resolved through diplomacy. In 1949, India recorded close to 1 million Hindu refugees, who flooded into West Bengal and other states from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), owing to communal violence, intimidation and repression from authorities. The plight of

16872-438: The preserve of Indian ministers and legislatures, and ultimately the Indian electorates, while others like irrigation, land-revenue, police, prisons, and control of media remained within the purview of the British governor and his executive council. The new Act also made it easier for Indians to be admitted into the civil service and the army officer corps. A greater number of Indians were now enfranchised, although, for voting at

17024-429: The previous part of the resolution, which calls for it to vacate all territories occupied. In September 1997, the talks broke down over the structure of how to deal with the issues of Kashmir, and peace and security. Pakistan advocated that the issues be treated by separate working groups . India responded that the two issues be taken up along with six others on a simultaneous basis. Attempts to restart dialogue between

17176-704: The promotion of conversions or reconversions of Indian Muslims to Hinduism. There are varying interpretations of the two-nation theory, based on whether the two postulated nationalities can coexist in one territory or not, with radically different implications. One interpretation argued for sovereign autonomy, including the right to secede, for Muslim-majority areas of the Indian subcontinent, but without any transfer of populations (i.e., Hindus and Muslims would continue to live together). A different interpretation contends that Hindus and Muslims constitute "two distinct and frequently antagonistic ways of life and that therefore they cannot coexist in one nation." In this version,

17328-519: The protests of Pakistan and accepted the invitation of the Dewan to intervene. Indian troops occupied Junagadh on 9 November 1947. In February 1948, a plebiscite held almost unanimously voted for accession to India. Kashmir was a Muslim-majority princely state, ruled by a Hindu king, Maharaja Hari Singh . At the time of the partition of India , Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of the state, preferred to remain independent and did not want to join either

17480-640: The provincial level, though restricted by the still limited number of eligible voters, by the small budgets available to provincial legislatures, and by the presence of rural and special interest seats that were seen as instruments of British control. The two-nation theory is the assertion, based on the former Indian Muslim ruling class' sense of being culturally and historically distinct, that Indian Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations . It argued that religion resulted in cultural and social differences between Muslims and Hindus. While some professional Muslim Indian politicians used it to secure or safeguard

17632-460: The purpose of welcoming Muslims back to the Hindu fold. In the United Provinces , Muslims became anxious in the late-19th century as Hindu political representation increased, and Hindus were politically mobilized in the Hindi–Urdu controversy and the anti-cow-killing riots of 1893. In 1905, Muslim fears grew when Tilak and Lajpat Rai attempted to rise to leadership positions in the Congress, and

17784-529: The refugees outraged Hindus and Indian nationalists, and the refugee population drained the resources of Indian states, which were unable to absorb them. While not ruling out war, Prime Minister Nehru and Sardar Patel invited Liaquat Ali Khan for talks in Delhi. Although many Indians termed this appeasement, Nehru signed a pact with Liaquat Ali Khan that pledged both nations to the protection of minorities and creation of minority commissions. Khan and Nehru also signed

17936-473: The resolution, it accepted a suitably amended version of it negotiated by the UN Commission set up for the purpose, as did Pakistan towards the end of 1948. A ceasefire was declared on 1 January the following year. However, India and Pakistan could not agree on the suitable steps for demilitarisation to occur as prelude to the plebiscite. Pakistan organised the rebel fighting forces of Azad Kashmir into

18088-517: The separation of Burma (Myanmar) from the British Raj in 1937 or the much earlier separation of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the rule of the EIC in 1796. Other political entities or transformations in the region that were not a part of the partition were: the political integration of princely states into the two new dominions; the annexation of the princely states of Hyderabad and Junagadh by India;

18240-482: The state's accession to India and escalated the conflict, by giving full-fledged support to the rebels and invading tribes. A constant replenishment of Pashtun tribes were organised, and provided arms and ammunition as well as military leadership. Indian troops managed to evict the invading tribes from the Kashmir Valley but the onset of winter made much of the state impassable. In December 1947, India referred

18392-663: The states to informally describe instructions from Delhi as coming from the High Command . Sources: President Members The Congress has not held internal elections for CWC for nearly 20 years and the last elections were held in 1998. In 2017 Election Commission ordered it to hold internal elections but as of 2020 no elections were held. When Congress was trying to forge an alliance with ideologically opposite Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in 2019, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam publicly urged Sonia Gandhi to dissolve

18544-526: The states was able to resolve this issue amicably and it only added fuel to an already charged environment. Sardar Patel , India's Home Minister , felt that if Junagadh was permitted to go to Pakistan, it would create communal unrest across Gujarat. The government of India gave Pakistan time to void the accession and hold a plebiscite in Junagadh to pre-empt any violence in Gujarat. Samaldas Gandhi formed

18696-410: The status of Kashmir, (referred by India as Jammu and Kashmir), an issue since Independence, remains the major stumbling block in their dialogue. India maintains that the entire former princely state is an integral part of the Indian union, while Pakistan insists that UN resolutions calling for self-determination of the people of the state/province must be taken into account. It however refuses to abide by

18848-633: The subcontinent which are true nations and deserving of sovereignty ; the Baloch have presented this view, Sindhi , and Pashtun sub-nationalities of Pakistan and the Assamese and Punjabi sub-nationalities of India. In 1933, Choudhry Rahmat Ali had produced a pamphlet, entitled Now or Never , in which the term Pakistan , 'land of the pure,' comprising the Punjab , North West Frontier Province (Afghania) , Kashmir , Sindh , and Balochistan ,

19000-562: The supposed merits of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Except for a few honourable exceptions, Muslim officials from the top down to the chaprasis ( peons or servants) are working for the League. The communal veto given to the League in the Mission Plan would have blocked India's progress at every stage. Whether we like it or not, de facto Pakistan already exists in the Punjab and Bengal. Under the circumstances, I would prefer

19152-526: The task to oversee British India's independence by 30 June 1948, with the instruction to avoid partition and preserve a united India, but with adaptable authority to ensure a British withdrawal with minimal setbacks. Mountbatten hoped to revive the Cabinet Mission scheme for a federal arrangement for India. But despite his initial keenness for preserving the centre, the tense communal situation caused him to conclude that partition had become necessary for

19304-550: The terrorists could reach the main disputed site , they were shot down by Indian security forces . One Hindu worshipper and two policemen were injured during the incident. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was an attack at the Parliament of India in New Delhi on 13 December 2001, during which fourteen people, including the five men who attacked the building, were killed. The perpetrators were Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists. The attack led to

19456-418: The third grouping would be made up of the predominantly Hindu regions. The provinces would be autonomous, but the centre would retain control over the defence, foreign affairs, and communications. Though the proposals did not offer independent Pakistan, the Muslim League accepted the proposals. Even though the unity of India would have been preserved, the Congress leaders, especially Nehru, believed it would leave

19608-706: The threat of civil war. At the All India Congress Committee meeting called to vote on the proposal, Patel said: I fully appreciate the fears of our brothers from [the Muslim-majority areas]. Nobody likes the division of India, and my heart is heavy. But the choice is between one division and many divisions. We must face facts. We cannot give way to emotionalism and sentimentality. The Working Committee has not acted out of fear. But I am afraid of one thing, that all our toil and hard work of these many years might go waste or prove unfruitful. My nine months in office have completely disillusioned me regarding

19760-407: The total 482 Muslim seats, and of these, it won in only 26. In UP, where the Congress won, it offered to share power with the League on condition that the League stops functioning as a representative only of Muslims, which the League refused. This proved to be a mistake as it alienated Congress further from the Muslim masses. Besides, the new UP provincial administration promulgated cow protection and

19912-479: The total population, reflecting both their status as former rulers and their record of cooperating with the British. This would result in the founding of the All-India Muslim League in Dacca in December 1906. Although Curzon by now had returned to England following his resignation over a dispute with his military chief, Lord Kitchener , the League was in favor of his partition plan. The Muslim elite's position, which

20064-510: The two countries have linguistic and cultural ties, the size of India-Pakistan trade is very small relative to the size of their economies and the fact that they share a land border. Trade across direct routes has been curtailed formally, so the bulk of India-Pakistan trade is routed through Dubai in the Middle East. According to a BBC World Service poll in 2017, only 5% of Indians view Pakistan's influence positively, with 85% expressing

20216-455: The two dominions. Among refugees that survived, it solidified the belief that safety lay among co-religionists. In the instance of Pakistan, it made palpable a hitherto only imagined refuge for the Muslims of British India. A poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan in 2011 shows that an overwhelming majority (92%) of Pakistanis held the view that separation from India was justified in 1947. The migrations took place hastily and with little warning. It

20368-493: The two new dominions in what became known as the "Mountbatten Plan" or the "3 June Plan". The plan's main points were: The Indian political leaders had accepted the Plan on 2 June. It could not deal with the question of the princely states , which were not British possessions, but on 3 June Mountbatten advised them against remaining independent and urged them to join one of the two new Dominions. The Muslim League 's demands for

20520-554: The two states, with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 , which instead occurred alongside the Bangladesh Liberation War. The India–Pakistan border is one of the most militarized international boundaries in the world. There have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship, notably with the 1972 Shimla summit , 1999 Lahore summit , and the 2001 Agra summit in addition to various peace and co-operation initiatives. Despite those efforts, relations between

20672-509: The use of Hindi. The Muslim elite in UP was further alienated, when they saw chaotic scenes of the new Congress Raj, in which rural people who sometimes turned up in large numbers in government buildings, were indistinguishable from the administrators and the law enforcement personnel. The Muslim League conducted its investigation into the conditions of Muslims under Congress-governed provinces. The findings of such investigations increased fear among

20824-744: The views of minorities. Neither the Congress nor the Muslim League were satisfied with the offer, and both rejected it in September. The Congress once again started a program of civil disobedience . In March 1942, with the Japanese fast moving up the Malayan Peninsula after the Fall of Singapore , and with the Americans supporting independence for India, Winston Churchill , then Britain's prime minister, sent Sir Stafford Cripps , leader of

20976-623: The violence was manifested with genocidal tendencies. It was designed to cleanse an existing generation and prevent its future reproduction." Mountbatten administered the independence oath to Jinnah on the 14th, before leaving for India where the oath was scheduled on the midnight of the 15th. On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor-General in Karachi . The following day, 15 August 1947, India, now Dominion of India , became an independent country, with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi , Jawaharlal Nehru assuming

21128-510: The west, and the two countries would "settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations." Diplomatic and trade relations were also re-established in 1976. In 1997, high-level Indo-Pakistan talks resumed after a three-year pause. The Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India met twice and the foreign secretaries conducted three rounds of talks. In June 1997, the foreign secretaries identified eight "outstanding issues" around which continuing talks would be focused. The conflict over

21280-542: The world both in newsprint and by the new medium of the radio. India's international profile would thereby rise and would continue to rise during the 1920s. It was to lead, among other things, to India, under its name, becoming a founding member of the League of Nations in 1920 and participating, under the name, "Les Indes Anglaises" (British India), in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp . Back in India, especially among

21432-515: Was campaigned for by Tilak and his supporters; in return, the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims in the provincial legislatures as well as the Imperial Legislative Council. In 1916, the Muslim League had anywhere between 500 and 800 members and did not yet have its wider following among Indian Muslims of later years; in the League itself, the pact did not have unanimous backing, having largely been negotiated by

21584-486: Was coined for the first time. It did not attract political attention and, a little later, a Muslim delegation to the Parliamentary Committee on Indian Constitutional Reforms gave short shrift to the idea of Pakistan, calling it "chimerical and impracticable." In 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald accepted Ambedkar 's demand for the " Depressed Classes " to have separate representation in

21736-616: Was leased out to Muslim peasants in East Bengal, protested strongly. The large Bengali-Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok ), upset at the prospect of Bengalis being outnumbered in the new Bengal province by Biharis and Oriyas , felt that Curzon's act was punishment for their political assertiveness . The pervasive protests against Curzon's decision predominantly took the form of the Swadeshi ('buy Indian') campaign, involving

21888-465: Was lost. The Indian Navy did, however, lose a single ship, when INS Khukri (F149) was torpedoed by a Pakistani submarine. 13 days after the invasion of East Pakistan, 93,000 Pakistani military personnel surrendered to the Indian Army and the Mukti Bahini . After the surrender of Pakistani forces, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh . During the winter months of 1998–99,

22040-406: Was made for Punjab, where the transfer of populations was organised because of the communal violence affecting the province, this did not apply to other provinces. The partition of British India split the former British province of Punjab and Bengal between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan . The mostly Muslim western part of the province became Pakistan's Punjab province ;

22192-483: Was not confined to the public sphere, but homes were entered and destroyed, and women and children were attacked. Although the Government of India and the Congress were both shaken by the course of events, in September, a Congress-led interim government was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as united India's prime minister. The communal violence spread to Bihar (where Hindus attacked Muslims), to Noakhali in Bengal (where Muslims targeted Hindus), to Garhmukteshwar in

22344-439: Was not contiguous to Pakistan and other states physically separated it from Pakistan. The state had an overwhelming Hindu population which constituted more than 80% of its citizens, while its ruler, Nawab Mahabat Khan , was a Muslim. Mahabat Khan acceded to Pakistan on 15 August 1947. Pakistan confirmed the acceptance of the accession on 15 September 1947. India did not accept the accession as legitimate. The Indian point of view

22496-409: Was reflected in the League's position, had crystallized gradually over the previous three decades, beginning with the 1871 Census of British India , which had first estimated the populations in regions of Muslim majority. For his part, Curzon's desire to court the Muslims of East Bengal had arisen from British anxieties ever since the 1871 census, and in light of the history of Muslims fighting them in

22648-624: Was significant because it was carried out just two days after the declaration of the cease-fire between India and Pakistan. In 2002, India claimed again that terrorists from Jammu and Kashmir were infiltrating into India, a claim denied by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf , who claimed that such infiltration had stopped—India's spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry did away with Pakistan's claim, calling it "terminological inexactitude". Only two months later, two Kashmiri terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed raided

22800-479: Was that Junagadh was not contiguous to Pakistan, that the Hindu majority of Junagadh wanted it to be a part of India, and that the state was surrounded by Indian territory on three sides. The Pakistani point of view was that since Junagadh had a ruler and governing body who chose to accede to Pakistan, it should be allowed to do so. Also, because Junagadh had a coastline, it could have maintained maritime links with Pakistan even as an enclave within India. Neither of

22952-423: Was the imperial capital, both the outrage and the slogan soon became known nationally. The overwhelming, predominantly-Hindu protest against the partition of Bengal, along with the fear of reforms favouring the Hindu majority, led the Muslim elite of India in 1906 to the new viceroy Lord Minto , asking for separate electorates for Muslims. In conjunction, they demanded representation in proportion to their share of

23104-622: Was won by the Labour Party . A government headed by Clement Attlee , with Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence in the Cabinet, was sworn in. Many in the new government, including Attlee, had a long history of supporting the decolonization of India. The government's exchequer had been exhausted by the Second World War and the British public did not appear to be enthusiastic about costly distant involvements. Late in 1945,

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