[Go Gordon]

Thanks for the info. I hated history when I was in school. Now I find it fascinating. The more the merrier. What I didn't quite get from your info was: what really caused the physical splitting of the land, and why were Hindu's predominently left in India, while predominently muslims were left in Pakistan. Was it original geographics? Or was it more like birds of a feather?

[USMMA_83]

The cause for the split was that the Muslim landowners did not want to give up the land they acquired by collaborating with the Brits. Another being that Muslims find it insulting to be "ruled" by infidels. This was known as the two nation theory. Basically implying the Muslims could not cohabitant with the Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians.

The reason Pakistan is where it is because the Brits decided that Pakistan would exist wherever there were a majority of Muslims.

So, there you have it...there was a east and west Pakistan. In 1970 (or thereabouts), East Pakistan became Bangladesh. India invaded to help the opposition to West Pakistan rule - this pissed off the Pakistanis very much because they thought that Nixon would send in the 6th fleet to defend Pakistan. Nixon did send in the 6th fleet...but only to make sure that West Pakistan remained intact.

I know I'm going on but hold on...

It was at this time (late 70's) that Pakistan started realizing that militarily it could not compete with the Indians. So they started training Islamic militants. Luckily (for them), the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The US needed local intelligence and warriors...guess who stepped in to help (no points here). Guess who took the US dollars and started a parallel army, independent of any oversight. The Taliban were created by this money, as well as the Kashmiri Mujahadeen.

And, here we are....52 years later (after Pakistan's creation by the Brits.). The lessons are numerous for all nations. I believe that land for peace is not at all possible (Gandhi went for land for peace because Jinnah informed him that there would be civil war where millions upon million would die). Because once you go for that, there will always be one sub-faction that believes they were short changed. It is then a never ending conflict.