Would a United India be a good thing or a disaster?

kernals12

Banned
If India hadn't been partitioned, it would've at least avoided the 10 million deaths that resulted from the population transfers. But given how Muslims are treated in India IOTL, I reckon that India would wind up with something akin to Jim Crow or devolve into Civil War if it had an even bigger muslim minority.

What do you guys think?
 
Depends...but after China become communist, i can see even both trying make it work to fight against the red chinese, a common enemy among muslim pakus(atheist) and the hindi(the chinese)
 
My intuition is much better. No Indo-Pakistani Wars and none of the horrific deaths from partition. Whatever you think of the status of Muslims in India are today, it's better than war and mass death. Probably butterflies out the horrific 1973 repression in modern-day Bangladesh too.
 
i can see even both trying make it work to fight against the red chinese, a common enemy among muslim pakus(atheist) and the hindi(the chinese)
Why would it work given both have far more beef with each other than the Chinese who are on the other side of the World's tallest mountains
 

kernals12

Banned
My intuition is much better. No Indo-Pakistani Wars and none of the horrific deaths from partition. Whatever you think of the status of Muslims in India are today, it's better than war and mass death. Probably butterflies out the horrific 1973 repression in modern-day Bangladesh too.
Why are you so sure about this? Why wouldn't the Indo-Pakistani wars be replaced by civil wars?
 
Why would it work given both have far more beef with each other than the Chinese who are on the other side of the World's tallest mountains

Yeah, China and India are only semi-neighbors really. The Himalayas are not particularly...passable.

There's a lot of trade/cultural contact between China & India in history, but it largely goes through either Central Asia or Southeast Asia.
 
Why would it work given both have far more beef with each other than the Chinese who are on the other side of the World's tallest mountains
I think you underestimated the little love chinese bore in asia...and how their geopolitics were pre and post colonialism, specially with chinese under soviet nuclear umbrella and their own, a smilling buddah can not come fast enough
 

kernals12

Banned
I think you underestimated the little love chinese bore in asia...and how their geopolitics were pre and post colonialism, specially with chinese under soviet nuclear umbrella and their own, a smilling buddah can not come fast enough
China was under the Soviet nuclear umbrella for a very brief period. In 1969, Moscow was considering launching a nuclear attack on China.
 
Pakistan and Bangladesh would likely turn into larger versions of Kashmir given the distant and poorer nature of the regions.
 
Countries that have significant religious minority groups tend to not get along well.

That's... most countries in Asia?

In any event, political tensions do not always equal civil war. OTL India has 150 million Muslims. There are very real issues, but there is no catastrophic civil war.
 

kernals12

Banned
That's... most countries in Asia?

In any event, political tensions do not always equal civil war. OTL India has 150 million Muslims. There are very real issues, but there is no catastrophic civil war.
Do you think those tensions would be better or worse if India had 500 million Muslims instead?
 
Do you think those tensions would be better or worse if India had 500 million Muslims instead?

Better and worse? I think you're likely to see more political gridlock. But I also think there'd be greater integration than present. And religious minorities would not be viewed as fifth columns or as "disloyal" (i.e. Muslims in India being accused of being "loyal to India." And India's Muslim heritage not seen as inauthentically Indian, or Pakistani Hindu heritage being seen as inauthentically Pakistani.)

I've said this in the past in other threads on this subject, but to me the bigger risk in an unpartitioned India is that civil unrest / political deadlock leads to a military coup early on - and India in general being more authoritarian.

Obviously some sort of catastrophic later breakup is possible, but OTL balkanization is pretty rare and the country is more likely than not to remain in one piece if it gets independence in one piece.
 

kernals12

Banned
Better and worse? I think you're likely to see more political gridlock. But I also think there'd be greater integration than present. And religious minorities would not be viewed as fifth columns or as "disloyal" (i.e. Muslims in India being accused of being "loyal to India." And India's Muslim heritage not seen as inauthentically Indian, or Pakistani Hindu heritage being seen as inauthentically Pakistani.)

I've said this in the past in other threads on this subject, but to me the bigger risk in an unpartitioned India is that civil unrest / political deadlock leads to a military coup early on - and India in general being more authoritarian.


Obviously some sort of catastrophic later breakup is possible, but OTL balkanization is pretty rare and the country is more likely than not to remain in one piece if it gets independence in one piece.
That's probably a more likely scenario than civil war.
 
So long as it holds together, there AT LEAST is one plus, that rather than the focus of national foreign/military policy being the Indo-Pakistani conflict for decades, all that time, money and attention can be focused elsewhere.

Now WHERE that goes is the question.
 

kernals12

Banned
So long as it holds together, there AT LEAST is one plus, that rather than the focus of national foreign/military policy being the Indo-Pakistani conflict for decades, all that time, money and attention can be focused elsewhere.

Now WHERE that goes is the question.
And since the US would not need to pick sides in that conflict (they picked Pakistan due to its location), Washington and New Delhi could have that special relationship that they always should've had as the world's two largest democracies.
 
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