Abandoned Alternatives

Abstract

At first few people wished Pakistan well or even believed in the viability of a state carved out of the subcontinent not only on the basis of religious nationalism but also having two wings separated by more than 1000 miles of hostile Indian territory. Nehru even regarded the idea of creating a state on the basis of religion as politically absurd and asserted that this idea would soon vanish at the first touch of reality.¹ King Farooq of Egypt is reported to have ridiculed Pakistan’s expressed devotion to Islam by saying, ‘Don’t you know that Islam was born on August 14, 1947.’² Sensing the likely birth of Pakistan, Afghanistan began to openly support Pakhtoonistan and even thought fit to cast the solitary vote against Pakistan’s entry to the UN.³ To many Westerners, Pakistan merely appeared another India and Pakistanis, for quite some time, were referred to as Indians.⁴ It took them quite some time to establish their country’s own separate and independent identity. Besides, the problems emanating from the partition processes not only resulted in the emergence of an extremely hostile neighbour but also produced a Pakistan lacking in almost all those essentials deemed to be so necessary for the viability of a modern state.⁵ During the massive migration movement following the partition Pakistan lost more skilled manpower than India. A vast bulk of the Muslims who opted for Pakistan consisted of unskilled workers and peasants whereas those who went across to India included ‘thousands of skilled and professional Hindu and Sikh engineers, industrialists, bankers, teachers, doctors and skilled workers’.⁶