What if British India had been divided differently?

Fatal Wit

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In our timeline, the division of British India(into India and Pakistan, from which Bangladesh later splintered) was done largely along religious lines- with the exception of territories under the rule of monarchs, where the monarch was given the choice of whether to be part of Pakistan or India. That is why, for example, India has a claim to Kashmir(conversely, Junagadh, a state were a Muslim ruled over a majority Hindu population, opted to join Pakistan but was maneuvered into India by Indian "diplomacy":rolleyes:).

Which leaves some interesting possibilities for alternate divisions of India. What if, for example, Kashmir had been assigned to Pakistan/India based on the majority religion rather then the ruler's desire? Similarly, might Junagadh have become What if some monarchic Indian states formed independant nations(Sikkim, Junagadh, or Kashmir might be a candidate).

Besides that, might India have been granted independance as a single state rather then partitioned based upon religion? I would assume such a state would have to be relatively weaker in terms of central authority, and would have a high likelihood of fracturing however...given that the hostility between India and Pakistan, is a major reason both states have been able to avoid splintering into multiple states. The hostility between both states results in unity in both.

Which leaves some interestin possibilities... what potential fracture lines, apart from religion, exist in India? Monarchy for one, I would think- potential for a monarchy like Mysore or Hyderbrad to secede, perhaps?
 
Hyderabad did declare itself an independent state, but India invaded and integrated it by force.

What happened that made the division of India more or less inevitable was the Morley-Minto reforms, which created separate electorates for Muslims and Hindus. This reserved 25% of seats in all legislatures for Muslims, but more importantly, only Muslims could vote for the Muslim seats, and only Hindus for the Hindu seats. That led to an increase of radical sectarianism, because Muslim candidates didn't have to appeal to Hindu voters.

By 1947 the intercommunal situation had probably deteriorated too badly for a united India, but if it had been created, it would probably have a lot of Muslim-Hindu problems - but it's hard to imagine it being as bad as the human tragedy causes by the exchange of populations when the split was made, or the horrendous resources expended my India-Pakistan hostility.

The only alternative to the way the split was handled would be to hold plebicites, which would have probably been better as it would have solved the Jammu & Kashmir issue.
 
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