Hey everyone, this is my first post so bear with me. We all know the story of the partition of India, but one province was the bloodiest in terms of communal violence; Punjab. In this thread, I want to see if we can make it possible that all of Punjab was given to Pakistan (This is before the states reorg Act so this includes Haryana and Himachal as well as Delhi although Delhi may be a stretch). Punjab has always had Muslim Majority anyways and provinces like Sindh and EB had extremely large religious minorities ( for example the city of Karachi barely had any Muslims) however they were not partitioned, unlike Punjab. I do have a few ideas on how to achieve this, IOTL overwhelming Majority of Punjabi Christians remained with Pakistan so that minority was pretty much indifferent or supported the movement. Now obviously the Hindus did not want to join Pakistan however, there is one other minority in Punjab; the Sikhs. IOTL Jinnah actually offered the Sikhs to join Pakistan offering them positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Military, but they declined this due to historical reasons. Some anti-Indian Sikhs actually regret this but they are few in numbers. Let's say the Sikhs were convinced to join if you added the population of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians you would get a figure of roughly 70% this is more than enough for Pakistan to gain entire Punjab. This would have a plethora of effects but one major one would be; Kashmir. Since this Punjab included Himachal it would cut off India from Kashmir completely making India, the Maharaja would most likely not ask for help from India you may see something like the annexation of Balochistan. This means that India-Pakistan animosity wouldn't be that large it might be comparable to India-Bangladesh relations. Giving Pakistan all of Punjab also gives Pakistan a larger minority population and if it does fulfil its promise to the Sikhs this would mean minority religions would be treated better as the head of the military belongs to one. This may be a stretch but what a way it can get Delhi or a part of it (ie old city). Also unrelated, what if Pakistan gained Lakshwadeep as well since that too was a Muslim majority area. Please tell me your thoughts and what you think would effect would occur if this happened or another way to achieve this.
:extremelyhappy:
EDIT: Scratch that Delhi part out
 
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Not extremely knowledgeable about Partition, but wouldn’t the INC never agree to this?
The INC didn't support the creation of Pakistan in general. We also must remember the ML cooperated with the British in WW2 while the INC gave a harder time, if the support is large enough it wont be up to the INC
 
The INC didn't support the creation of Pakistan in general. We also must remember the ML cooperated with the British in WW2 while the INC gave a harder time, if the support is large enough it wont be up to the INC

But what if it drove India to declare war on Pakistan? If Pakistan is claiming Delhi that’ll be more than enough for Hindu nationalists
 
But what if it drove India to declare war on Pakistan? If Pakistan is claiming Delhi that’ll be more than enough for Hindu nationalists
I agree as I mentioned before Delhi is a stretch and I only included it because it was part of Punjab province. Also, Delhi doesn't really have that much significance to Hindus as you may think it was always the base of the Islamic empire and most of the old city is Islamic influenced
 

Srihari14

Banned
Impossible, Punjab and Bengal were Split between Muslim and Non Muslim in 50 - 50, most sikhs during partition teemed up with hindus against muslims, there is a deep hatred between sikh and muslim religious leaders
 
I think giving all of Punjab (modern haryana & Himachal) would have been a stretch. These areas were even then majority hindu. Also it would have left Delhi practically a border city. Keep in mind the radcliffe line wasn't just partition 50/50, but also took strategic & logistic factors somewhat in mind.

But the current Indian pubjab area was quite religiously diverse prepartition & could easily have gone to Pakistan if such an alliance as you proposed happened
 
A Pakistan with all of Punjab essentially becomes an ethnically Punjabi state lording it over some incidentally Muslim majority states like Sindh and Baluchistan, where the separatism is likely to be turbocharged far beyond OTL (and amusingly, India might be the one sponsoring Kashmiri separatists upset over Punjabi control of everything).
 
The INC did support the Partition eventually; Gandhi never wavered. And they wouldn’t go for this. The first war between India and Pakistan would start over Punjab rather than Kashmir.
 
A Pakistan with all of Punjab essentially becomes an ethnically Punjabi state lording it over some incidentally Muslim majority states like Sindh and Baluchistan, where the separatism is likely to be turbocharged far beyond OTL (and amusingly, India might be the one sponsoring Kashmiri separatists upset over Punjabi control of everything).
Not really the muslim poulation would be the same since they left anyway. Also bengal was more populated i think
 
Impossible, Punjab and Bengal were Split between Muslim and Non Muslim in 50 - 50, most sikhs during partition teemed up with hindus against muslims, there is a deep hatred between sikh and muslim religious leaders
Yeah but Jinnah had offered sikhs head of army
 
I think giving all of Punjab (modern haryana & Himachal) would have been a stretch. These areas were even then majority hindu. Also it would have left Delhi practically a border city. Keep in mind the radcliffe line wasn't just partition 50/50, but also took strategic & logistic factors somewhat in mind.

But the current Indian pubjab area was quite religiously diverse prepartition & could easily have gone to Pakistan if such an alliance as you proposed happened
true maybe leave out haryana and himichal but keep amritsar and modern indian punjab
 
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