What Were the Problems Facing a Newly Independent India After the Partition of 1947

August, 14, 1947 and August, 15, 1947 the Indian partition of 1947 was created and it granted Indian its freedom from its 350 year of British ruling. After India’s freedom was granted it was divided into two states which were Dominion of Pakistan later known as Islamic republic of Pakistan and Union of India later known as Republic of India. Right after the partition of 1947, it declared that it was leader or King of the state to decide if the state should follow the Muslim or a Hindu religion. This Policy separated the people of India and Pakistan, and caused a lot of hatred between both sides.This policy also cause huge problems because some states would have a huge population of Hindus, and the king would be Muslim which made Hindus follow the beliefs and religious acts of the Muslims. Since this policy was cause of the partition of 1947 it made Muslims in India to migrate to Pakistan, and Hindu’s in Pakistan migrate to India, in between this transition or migration, there were many riots, looting, and rapes which left both countries in devastation and a breakdown of the civil government.

The breakdown of the civil government, made it impossible for an army to restore order preventing any crimes such as murders or arson by locals. The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000. If there were an army to restore order there would be less people killed during this tragic event.Hindu Sindhis would have remained in Sindh following the Partition, if wasn’t for the violence that erupted, when massive amounts of Urdu speaking Muslims started pouring into Sindh. They began attacking the Hindu population. Before the announcement of the Partition, there were 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis in their ancestral land Sindh.

However, in a space of less than a year approximately 1,200,000 Hindus Sindhis fled their homes, most of them leaving with little more than the clothes on their bodies.The province of Bengal was divided into the two separate entities of West Bengal which went to India, and East Bengal which went to Pakistan. East Bengal later was renamed to East Pakistan, and later became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 also known as the indo-Pakistan war of 1971. Kashmir was created in 1846 after its victory in the first Angelo-Sikh war. Kashmir was a princely state in the British Empire in India. The princely state lasted until 1948.After the Indian partition of 1947 was pass it gave princely states of India a choice to move to India or Pakistan or stay independent.

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The ruler of Kashmir wanted to remain independent which led to a war which is known as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 which was fought between Pakistan and Indian over the region of Kashmir. The war lasted a year and it was first war between the two newly independent nations. Early November 1947, India attack successfully broke through enemy defenses.Even though the attack was such an early success the Indian army suffered a setback in December of that year because of logistical problems. These problems gave the forces of Azad Kashmir to take the initiative and force the Indian troops to retreat from the Border States which the war was taken place. Azad Kashmir was also known as free Kashmir because it was part of Kashmir that was under control by Pakistanis. By spring of 1948, the Indian had another offensive to retake some of the ground that it had lost.

Fearing that the war might move into Pakistan property, the Pakistani army became more actively involved. As the problem escalated more and more, the Indian leadership was quick to realize that the war could not be brought to an end unless Pakistan stops aiding the Azad Kashmir forces. The Indian government sought United Nations mediation of the conflict on December 31, 1947. There was some opposition to this move within the cabinet by those who did not agree with referring the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations.The United Nations mediation process brought the war to an end on January 1. The mediation force Pakistan to retreat its forces, while letting India to maintain some strength of its forces in the state to preserve some law and order. It gave Pakistan two-fifths of Kashmir and India maintaining the remind three fifths of Kashmir which included the most populous and fertile regions.

This war caused 1500 soldiers died on each side. On August 5, 1965 the second Indo-Pakistani war took place. The conflict was also over Kashmir, it also started without a formal declaration of war.The war was started by Pakistan, Pakistan also though it was great timing to start this war with India because they assumed that India’s military would be unable to defend against a quick military campaign in Kashmir. The first major battle in this war between Pakistan and India took place on August 15, when Indian forces scored a major victory after a prolonged artillery barrage and took over three important mountains positions in the northern sector. A month later, Pakistan counter attacked, which moved the war near Tithwal, Uri, and Punch.This attack provoked India to thrust into Azad Kashmir.

India also had other forces gain position on other mountains and eventually took over Haji Pir Pass which was eight kilometers into Pakistan territory. India’s claiming Haji Pir Pass, made Pakistani move all forces to the southern sector in Punjab, to catch Indian forces of guard which was a success and India suffered a heavy loss. On September 20th the UN passed a resolution which called for a cease fire which ended the war on September 23. India lost 3,000 and Pakistani lost 3,800 during this war.Both sides signed a declaration on January 10, 1966 which required both sides to move all positions that was held during the war. The declaration also reached an agreement on the new cease fire line on June 30, 1965. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a nine month long conflict between the people of then East Pakistan and the military rulers of Pakistan, which ended in two week long armed conflict between Mukti Bahini aided by India against Pakistan in December of 1971.

India intervened on behalf of East Pakistan, later Bangladesh, in its civil war with West Pakistan.The war began as the Pakistani Civil War . A conflict between the traditionally dominant West Pakistanis and the East Pakistanis whose Awami League party had won the most seats in the 1970 Pakistani election and who claimed the right to form the government. The largely West Pakistani military was called in by President Yahya Khan. After several days of rioting on the morning of March 25 the citizens of Dhaka woke to discover the city shut down by the military. Mass arrests of dissidents began, and attempts were made to disarm the East Pakistani members of the armed forces.The Awami League was banned and its members began to flee into exile in India.

As the month progressed the situation developed into a full scale civil war. The West Pakistani army began killing thousands and the East Pakistanis armed themselves forming Mukti Bahini guerilla group. Ziaur Rahman, a major in the Pakistani army formed a government in exile in India and proclaimed an independent Bangladesh. The East Pakistan Rifles, an elite paramilitary force defected and joined the rebellion. On December 3 the Pakistani air force launched sorties on eight airfields in northern India.It was based on the Arab- Israeli six day war and the success of the Israeli preemptive strike. The Indians had anticipated such a move and the raid was a resounding failure.

The next day the Indian forces responded with a coordinated and massive air, sea, and land assault on East Pakistan. Against the West the India military mounted smaller probing attacks designed to pin down Pakistani forces. In the East a five pronged land assault quickly routed the Pakistani forces. The Indians repeatedly broke through Pakistani defenses and outflanked and outfought the Pakistani defenders.On December 16 the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered. The next day Indira Gandhi announced a unilateral cease fire, to which Pakistan agreed. In conclusion I think the aftermath partition of 1947 was horrible and led to many wars.

As you can see three different wars took place and two of the war’s conflicts were almost the same. I felt all these problems should have been handled a little differently meaning without the wars because it led to many deaths. But in the end of the wars it reached to an agreement and most of the agreements were successful.

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