Would a "cleaner" partition of India have been a good thing ?

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Q Cubed

Now that's a tragedy. But really, didn't hundreds of thousands of others do it too, making it a statistic-type thing?

You're totally right.
In fact, he got off pretty well compared to many others.
I just wanted to tell the story from a more personnal side I guess.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I don't forsee a way of resolving this issue because for the forseeable future Pakistan is not going to respect any poll that disagrees with its viewpoint no matter who conducts it.

And India is not going to give up the Kashmiri territory it occupies, or allow independence, despite the fact that the majority of people there are Muslim.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Tingkai


And India is not going to give up the Kashmiri territory it occupies, or allow independence, despite the fact that the majority of people there are Muslim.

Firstly - I challenge your assumption that any Muslim-majority areas of India bordering Pakistan do not morally belong to India , and should go to Pakistan . In the north-east , there is a strong Christian presence . Should India give that part up , too ?

Secondly - once upon a time , it had Hindus there , too . But they have been driven out of there . The Kashmiri Pundits now live in refugee camps in Delhi . This is one of the worst , and yet most ignored , ethnic cleansings of out time .

We will never give up land that legally belongs to us ( going by the treaty of ascension signed by the ruler of Kashmir at the time of Independence ) .

[Dr Strangelove]

So was your question moot, or did you have something in mind?

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by aneeshm


Firstly - I challenge your assumption that any Muslim-majority areas of India bordering Pakistan do not morally belong to India , and should go to Pakistan . In the north-east , there is a strong Christian presence . Should India give that part up , too ?

Secondly - once upon a time , it had Hindus there , too . But they have been driven out of there . The Kashmiri Pundits now live in refugee camps in Delhi . This is one of the worst , and yet most ignored , ethnic cleansings of out time .

We will never give up land that legally belongs to us ( going by the treaty of ascension signed by the ruler of Kashmir at the time of Independence ) .

Britain gave up India because (amongst other things) the people wanted independence. Why should they be allowed to hang on to Kashmir If (and I accept its an IF) the people want to join Pakistan or go independant.

[axi]

There are other ethnic groups in India, apart from Hindus an Muslims. There are Sikhs, f.e.

Should India be carved up to secure "clean" space for everybody? That's impossible.

In a culture that does not share the western ideas of democracy, equality and civil liberties, it was wrong to assume that all those people could live peacefully, either together in one big state, or apart, in national states. They should be trying to achieve a stable and peaceful society before giving independence, but alas, this was not in the capacity of British colonialism. They bred and manipulated the ethnic animosities to suit their own agenda and when they had no more use for the place, they let go. They did the same in Palestine, in Cyprus in South Africa and in Eastern Africa, to name a few such places.

[TheStinger]

The British may be responsible for many things however I fail to see why its Britains fault that Muslims and Hindus feel the need to kill each other. Do they not have any personal responsibility.

[axi]

They have, because their imperial rule essentially froze Indian politics into what was essentially it's 18th century state, plus they had stripped all power out of the traditional elite (the maharaja's or whatever there was before the british). So what came to fill the void was leninistically organised (i.e. modern) political parties built on top of illiterate masses with a barbaric political agenda.

[aneeshm]

Hindus , Parsees , Jains , Sikhs , and Buddhists , all live and lived together peacefully . Why is it that Muslims have a problem ? This is one thing I have never understood .

[Dr Strangelove]

Actually wasn't there a problem with the Sikhs some time ago? Something about invading some sort of golden temple wasn't it?

I've also heard that the burial practices of the Parsees occassionally causes a bit of unrest.

[Jon Miller]

I had a teacher in middle school (a sub) (or junior high) who was a Parsee..

Jon Miller

[Odin]

The Kashmiris are muslims, Kashmir shoud go to Pakistan. Why would India want to keep them? It's about as irrational as the Turks keeping the Kurds even though they would be much better off letting the Kurds go free.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Odin
The Kashmiris are muslims, Kashmir shoud go to Pakistan. Why would India want to keep them? It's about as irrational as the Turks keeping the Kurds even though they would be much better off letting the Kurds go free.

When Kashmir acsended to India , it had its population of Hindus at 25 % . Why is it that you ignore that ? Those 25 % have to be returned to their homeland , which is Kashmir . Muslim barbarians have driven them out .

And again - I challenge your assumption that India has no moral right to keep territories which are majority-Muslim . On what do you base it ?

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Hindus , Parsees , Jains , Sikhs , and Buddhists , all live and lived together peacefully . Why is it that Muslims have a problem ? This is one thing I have never understood .

Yeah like the Hindus never go on rampages killing every Muslim they can find.

And India is treating the people in the northeast with incredible kindness, only occassionally shooting them. But hey, they deserve it. It's always their fault, eh.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by aneeshm
When Kashmir acsended to India , it had its population of Hindus at 25 % . Why is it that you ignore that ? Those 25 % have to be returned to their homeland , which is Kashmir . Muslim barbarians have driven them out.

And again - I challenge your assumption that India has no moral right to keep territories which are majority-Muslim . On what do you base it ?

It appears that you are advocating a partition here.

If that is the case the most logical procedure is to divide the land up according to ethnic dominance. Seeing that Kashmir is predominately Islamic, it should go to Pakistan.

Unless you are saying that the best land should go to the Hindus, regardless of ethnic distribution.