“Why did we ever choose to ally ourselves with the Pakistanis?”
The Indians were in bed with the Soviets.
The Russians supplied India with armaments when America refused to sell them to the latter, and even forced Britain to stop such sales - one of the Soviet premiers famously gave India’s Nehru tours of Russian aircraft factories with promises of supplying India with the latest of Russian weaponry - at a time when the West refused to entertain any such efforts.
The American bet was on a religiously “cohesive” Pakistan to survive over the long term, in comparison with what was thought to be a very unstable, secular India. On top of that, the Russians quite early on shored up support for India in booting out French and Portuguese territorial claims from within her territory - especially Goa.
Things turned out quite differently, for all parties, through the years. India, no doubt, acted in India’s interests and stuck with it.
Yes, but for the purposes of this biased crap article, the Soviets (Evil Empire) are referred to as Russians.
And Pakistan was and is an apartheid state where non-muslims are freely attacked and even enslaved.
Siding with Pakistan is like siding with the Third Reich.