With a POD no earlier than the partition, have Pakistan develop into a nation widely talked about as a 'potential superpower' with a strong economy and a rapidly developing middle class while India devolves into a terrorism infested region bordering on a failed state.
It would have to be a hell of a POD for Pakistan, like a threatened Chinese invasion or something. You'd need a totally different border with Afghanistan (no Tribal areas), a radically different Jinnah and above all no army coups every five minutes.
Plus Pakistan simply isn't big enough. At best, it can turn out like Indonesia or Argentina. But no one talks about those countries as potential superpowers.
For this to really work, you need to keep East and West Pakistan together, or simply have Pakistan not be based on the idea of a Muslim homeland. But both of those require PODs at least in the 1800s.
Cheers,
Ganesha
Indonesia is a member of the G20 and at its current rate of economic growth will be one of the top ten world economies within the next decade. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with the chief of the International Monetary Fund on July 10 and pledged a 1 Billion US Dollar loan to the IMF for the bailout of Europe. Germany’s Angela Merkel was in Indonesia this week for financial talks concerning how the Indonesians can assist Europe. If people aren’t taking about Indonesia as a potential superpower then they need to fucking wake up.Plus Pakistan simply isn't big enough. At best, it can turn out like Indonesia or Argentina. But no one talks about those countries as potential superpowers.
Jinnah's demands at the time of partition like the whole of Punjab or the whole of Bengal or a corridor connecting the two halves of Pakistan were all ludicrous and preposterous and would not have been accepted by the Viceroy or the Congress leaders. As Pakistan itself was founded on a false notion of Islamic identity and the aspirations of the feudal elements of the North Indian Muslims, it had no potential to develop as a normal democracy. It is no wonder that it became a military dominated polity and is becoming a failed state.
It is not the areas in the neighborhood of Pakistan that are more advanced portions of India.Only Punjab can be described thus. Actually it is the South and the West ie. the Peninsular portions that have advanced. The North India,the Indo-Gangetic Plain Heartland has lagged behind. When the Home Minister of India hailing from the southern state of Tamilnadu commented that the North and the East are pulling the South and the West back,inviting criticism from many people, he was just telling the truth.
It is the challenge that the Government of India has to face. To pull the Northern Heartland in line with the Southern Peninsular India. It is similar to the unequal development of the East and the West Portions of China.
It is true that India has religious,linguistic and cultural diversities. But considering it as an artificial creation of British Raj is a silly notion of British Imperialism. The concept of India as an entity existed from centuries back. Many empires from the Mauryas downwards has aspired to bring the entire subcontinent under their control. The philosophers, poets, writers and artists have upheld the concept of Bharatvarsh, Aryavart or Hindustan through their works down the centuries.
I'm thinking a secular Pakistan is needed here, rather than a Muslim state.
Then it doesn't exist. That's its purpose. Pakistan is an artificial entity. Maybe as part of a loose Indian Confederation you could have a secular Punjab state but that ignores the OP.
I'm thinking a secular Pakistan is needed here, rather than a Muslim state.
A better UK outcome to WWII might make it less determined to wash its hands of the subcontinent, and a multifaith Pakistan might avoid some of the worst atrocities of OTL Partition, as well as being the larger state needed for TTL's desired outcome.
Then if one of those border clashes in the Himalayas between China and India (you know, where the weather kills more troops than the enemy does) bizarrely spirals into WMD usage or something, then India might go badly wrong leading to Pakistani assistance in border areas which then secede in some de facto way.
Correct! Flocculencio has said it!The problem is that the whole concept of Pakistan was based on it being a Muslim state. Theres no reason to set up a separate state in North-West India otherwise- besides appealing to the idea of Muslim identity theres nothing else Jinnah can go for. What's the point of a secular multi-faith Pakistan? There's nothing to distinguish it from the existing secular multi-faith India. It's not as if everyone in North-West India had some sort of unifying factor- they were just as polyglot as the rest of India comprising Punjabis, Sindhis, Pathans, Baluchis etc. And thats not even considering the justification for East Pakistan and the Bengalis. Once the idea of secular Indian nationalism encompassing all the Indian ethnicities is established there's no real reason for these disparate ethnic groups to clump together to form another state. Why would Sindhis join a secular state that would overwhelmingly be dominated by Punjabis as opposed to joining India where the ethnic balance would be a bit better?
Plus Pakistan simply isn't big enough. At best, it can turn out like Indonesia or Argentina. But no one talks about those countries as potential superpowers.
For this to really work, you need to keep East and West Pakistan together, or simply have Pakistan not be based on the idea of a Muslim homeland. But both of those require PODs at least in the 1800s.
Cheers,
Ganesha