Imperialism In Pakistan

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Pakistan, officially called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a Muslim majority nation located on the crossroads of Western and Eastern Asia. Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with a total population that exceeds 200 million. It is bordered by India, Afghanistan, Iran, and China and possesses 650 miles of coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Pakistan is unique in comparison to other Muslim-majority countries as it is the only nation in the world that was created in the name of Islam. Their government and all aspects of daily life are influenced by Islam and the Qur’an. This was a result of a movement led by the Muslim League with President Muhammad Ali Jinnah and fueled by strong Islamic nationalism. …show more content…

India had strong pre-existing divides between the two major religions of the region: Hinduism and Islam. As a result, two separate nationalists movements seeking their own individual independence were being fought against the British in unison. The Muslim League, led by their President Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was aiming to create an Islamic nation state from the removal of Britain in the region (Britannica). The Indian National Congress had the goal of Hindu-Indian independence and was led by President Dadabhai Naoroji (Robinson). Both groups were fighting the British leadership, but for their own goals. When the British gave in to the pressure that the nationalists were putting on them and withdrew from India, the Partition of India created the two independent nations. While both sides were pleased that they finally had their own countries, there were still issues standing in the way. One of the most glaring was the mass immigration of people into their new countries. The Hindus that had been in the area that was now Pakistan had to migrate to India, and the Muslims that had been in India had to migrate to Pakistan. The sudden displacement of nearly 12 million people across newly founded religious lines was a catalyst for conflict. All across the region, multi-religious communities that had co-existed for nearly 1,000 years began to fight in a chaotic outbreak of territorial and religious violence. By the time the mass immigration had come to a close, one to two million people had been killed (Jamal). The violent results of the Partition are one of the the main reasons for the hostility and hatred that exists between India and Pakistan in the present day. It was the unorganized and careless way that the Partition was implemented by the British that allowed all of this to happen. Britain granted the two nations their independence and quickly exited.

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