Before entering into a discussion on the subject of Indo-Pak amity, it is necessary to take a brief look at the history of India before its partition.
The development of India before partition is the history of advent of various races, religions and civilisations into India, such as, Aryans, Kushans, Huns, etc. All of them intermixed with the local people who were called ‘Dravidians’ and lived together with them, as it is revealed by archaeological researches of Harappa, Mohenjo daro, Taxashila, etc.
While there is no historical or chronological data of the birth and growth of Hindu religion except mythological beliefs, people of various other religions that originated in Asia, such as, Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews, also came to India and started mixing with the local people. All these factors had contributed to the growth of India as a civilisation with a unique blend of various cultures and religions.
Going into details of the growth of this syncretic Indian civilisation is beyond the scope of this short article. However, it is an accepted truth that India was very prosperous and a great centre of trade. Enticed by the manufacturing growth of India and opportunities of trade, various expeditions from the West to India took place. Earlier, the Western powers came to India by land route which necessitated wars with the countries that lay in between. To avoid such conflicts and war and some Western powers attempted to explore the sea route for trade with India. The first attempt to find a sea route was made by Columbus; in his search for a sea route to India, in 1492 he reached a new world that had so far been unknown to the rest of the world, a region that is now known as the Americas. Some years later, the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, sailing via the southernmost part of Africa, landed in India in 1498, followed a century later by the Dutch.
In order to compete with the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch traders, the English traders formed a Trading Company under the name of ‘East India Company’ on 31 December 1599 and obtained the Charter from the then British Monarch, Elizabeth I, on 1 January 1600. After obtaining the Charter, the English traders, under the leadership of Sir Thomas More, landed in Surat, India. In 1602 Sir Thomas More obtained his first audience with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Thereafter, East India Company began to expand its trade with different towns in India, such as Madras (Chennai), Calcutta and Bombay. The decline of the Mughal Empire created a great opportunity for East India Company to not only expand its trade adventures but also develop itself into a political power by winning diwani rights in Bengal, Awadh, etc.
After the decline of Mughal power, there emerged several chieftains calling themselves as Rajas, Maharajas, Nawabs, Nizams, etc. These chieftains were spread all over the country. Taking advantage of the rivalry of local chieftains among themselves, the East India Company became a powerful political entity, capturing the whole of India by mid-nineteenth century. Its massive plunder eventually led to the first war of independence against British in 1857.
On account of rivalries of local chieftains, the first war of independence was unsuccessful, following which the British parliament enacted the first Government of India Act, 1858, by which the British imperialists took over direct control of India, assisted by local chieftains, who named themselves as Rajas, Maharajas, Nawabs, etc.
These treacherous acts of British imperialists brought an awakening among Indians led by Raja Rammohan Roy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and several others. The Indian National Congress was established in 1885 to get some concessions and reforms in the British imperialistic rule. This awakening among Indians brought Mahatma Gandhi into the freedom struggle in 1915. He had gained some experience of fighting British imperialistic rule in South Africa. Mahatma Gandhi realised that the only way of fighting the British imperialistic force was by awakening the ordinary people of India who had been suffering from the atrocities of British Empire and their local stooges—the Rajas, Maharajas, Nawabs, etc. Mahatma Gandhi’s first campaign began in Champaran in 1917, and gradually spread all over the country as a non-violent movement, one of whose slogans was non-cooperation with the British Government and resisting and rebelling against the laws of British Empire.
The mass movement that Gandhi successfully built up started shaking up the British imperialistic force. It was a movement that was historically unknown in any part of the world. The British government realised that the only way of weakening this mass movement was to divide Indians on the basis of religion. So, they invented the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ and made efforts to divide Hindus and Muslims, and ultimately became successful in dividing this land into two countries, India and Pakistan.
We request our readers to pardon us for encumbering them with these historical facts about the development of India. The main aim behind this effort is to equip all of you with the past history of India and give an idea about what were the factors that led to the partition of India into two nations, India and Pakistan. The fact is that the division of our country under the Two-Nation theory was a British imperialistic invention, this theory was entirely their creation and not of any Indian, including Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Even after this successful action of the British Empire in dividing this country, nobody can deny that these two nations (now three—India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) have the same civilisation, race, heritage, etc.
Without going into further details of the division of India into three nations, all these three nations must realise that they are the divisions and parts of ONLY ONE NATION with a common heritage and common civilisation.
I appeal to the people of these three nations, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to recognise who are their common enemies who are keeping them still divided and not allowing them to unite, if not as one nation, then as one amity of nations of this sub-continent. The common enemies of these three nations are poverty, ignorance and Western imperialistic forces like Britain and America. If these three nations, along with Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Afganistan, come together, they will work as a BULWARK against the Western imperialistic forces. It is, therefore, necessary that these three nations come together and develop closer trade relations, while maintaining their political and territorial sovereignty, by building up a Common Economic Zone like the European Union. This will enable them to keep Western imperialistic forces at bay and make this region one of the most prosperous in the world, as it was three centuries ago.
