1. The document discusses the historical background leading up to the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state in 1947. It covers the various empires and groups that ruled the region from ancient times through the establishment of British rule in the 19th century. 2. Tensions grew between Hindus and Muslims over political representation and autonomy, despite attempts at compromises. The Muslim League increasingly demanded self-rule, culminating in the acceptance of the independence and partition of India along religious lines in 1947. 3. Pakistan was established through referendums and representative votes in the Muslim-majority provinces and regions of British India, but faced immense challenges in setting up institutions and dealing with the human costs of partition.

1. Chapter 1
The Emergence of Pakistan
Historical Background
1. The late 19th marked the beginning of the seminal transformation in the political
evolution of South Asia with the penetration of modern ideas of nationalism and self-
rule.
2. Before that ruled by whoever conquered their lands.
3. Region was aggregation of kingdoms, princely states, with kaleidoscopic boundaries.
4. 325 BC Alexander’s Invasion
5. Chandragupta Maurya: Indus and Gangetic plains
6. Ashoka: Afghanistan to Kalinga(Orissa), expansion of buddhism
7. 200 BC: Bactrians: Upper Indus Valley
8. Supplanted by Central Asian Kushans who ruled from Peshawar till 5th century
9. Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushans, extended the realm from Kabul to Kashgar and
Kashmir in the North, Sindh in the South, and the Gangetic plains in the east.
10. The Gandhara region became a meeting place of Buddhist and Hellenistic arts and
cultures, leaving a legacy of glorious sculptures
11. Guptas rulers of Central India unleashed Brahminical reaction and wiped out
Buddhism
12. The Arabs penetrated South Asia via the Indus delta in the 8th century
13. After the pirates pillaged ships carrying Muslim pilgrims, the Governor of Basra sent a
force under M Bin Qasim in 711 to Debul.
14. Multan became the first Muslim province in South Asia.
15. 12 century: M Ghori , a Turkic ruler of Ghazni, extended the realm eastwards to Dehli.
16. 13 century: Iltutmish and Balban
17. 14 century: the Dehli Sultnate was taken over by Khilji and Tughlak dynasties
18. Amir Taimur marched his army through Afghanistan into Punjab and returned to
Samarkand in 1399.
19. Sayyids and the Lodhi Afghans re-established the Dehli Sultanate.
20. 1526: Babar led his army from Kabul to supplant the last lodhi Sultan.

2. 21. Babar descendent of Amir Taimur, laid foundation of great Mughal Empire
22. 17th Century zenith of Mughal Empire Shah Jehan
23. 18th Century decline after Aurangzeb
24. Its fall was hastened by European empire builders who scrambled to pick up the pieces.
25. The last Mughal emperor was exiled to Barma and Britain assumed the reins of
government directly under 1947
26. The Central Asian people mixed with the locals so Persian developed as a court
language
27. Immigrant scholars preached the message of Islam and Sufi saints won a cross religious
following
28. The Muslim rulers did not impose religion
29. After British took control, the Muslims were not only supplanted by loyal non-muslims
but also subjected to suppression, exclusion and expropriation. They were further
marginalized, because of their refusal to reconcile and adjust to the loss of power.
30. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98) social reformer and political visionary, discerned the
dangers confronting his community, and embarked on a campaign to awaken and inspire
the Muslim people to abandon the boycott of the foreign rulers and to acquire
contemporary education.
31. The Muslim community, comprising a quarter of the population in British India, awoke
to its predicament characterized by economic disparities and social exclusion.
32. The idea of nationhood captured the imagination of the Muslim community as its
leaders discerned the looming danger of political domination across the religious and
social fault line.
33. At first they sought legal and constitutional safeguards to secure and ensure an
equitable share in social and political institutions.
34. The rift began to widen after the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1886 with
Allan Octavian Hume, a British ex-official, as its first secretary general for two decades.
35. To protect and promote the rights of the Muslims community, its leaders with modern
education and political vision established the Muslim League in 1906.
36. 1909: Congress opposed the Muslim demand for separate electorates that would ensure
representation for Muslims in the government

3. 37. The two communities clashed over the British government’s decision in 1905 to create
the new province of East Bengal and Assam, which brought some relief to the Muslim
majority from domination and exploitation by West Bengal. In 1911, the British
annulled the partition.
38. M Ali Jinnah, a brilliant barrister with impeccable anti-colonial credentials successfully
promoted a compromise package for the future constitution. The package known as the
Lucknow Pact, after its approval by both the Congress and the league in 1916, included
separate electorates, provincial autonomy, one-third share for Muslims in the Central
assembly and safeguards in respect of legislation affecting any of the religious
communities.
39. The INC, however, went back on its commitment in 1928, when it adopted the Motilal
Nehru Report, recommending replacing the separate electorates with the joint electorate
and the curtailment of provincial autonomy., thus striking a fatal blow to any prospect of
harmonious politics.
40. The ML struggle evolved through four stages.
(a) At first it sought an equitable share in the political and social life
(b) During the second stage, constitutional safeguards for Muslims in provinces where
they were a minority.
(c) Autonomy for Muslim majority provinces
(d) Independent state
41. The influential poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal to conclude, as early as 1930, that the
formation of the Muslim state amalgamating the Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan
“appears to me the final destiny of the Muslims”
42. The cleavage between the League and the Congress widened following the elections in
early 1937. The Congress exploited its triumph by excluding League members from
participation in governments in the provinces, adopting symbols of the Hindu raj and
promoting the replacement of Urdu with Hindi.
43. The Second World War accelerated the political evolution.
44. The British wanted to win the war first and transfer power afterwards; the Congress
demanded power at once, and a Hindu-Muslim settlement afterwards; the Muslims
insisted on a Hindu-Muslim settlement first.

4. 45. On 23 March 1940, a historic resolution was passed.
46. Enfeebled by the war, the British announced their intention to depart. The Congress
demanded transfer of power, claiming the right of succession as the largest political
party. The ML reiterated its ‘divide and quit’ demand, asking the British to first agree to
the creation of Pakistan in regions where Muslims constituted a majority.
47. The British Cabinet Mission, in 1946, proposed a constitutional plan based on the
division of British India into three autonomous zones with the powers of the center to be
limited to foreign affairs, defence and communication.
48. The ML first accepted the plan but later rejected it, because the Congress leader,
Jawaharlal Nehru, asserted his party ‘regarded itself free to change or modify the
Cabinet Mission Plan as it thought best”. With the plan thus undermined by the
Congress refusal to guarantee the autonomy of the zones, the league reverted to the
demand for the partition of India into sovereign states.
49. The British Government then proposed the Partition Plan, announced on 3rd June,
1947.
50. Pakistan was established through the exercise of self-determination by the people of the
Muslim majority provinces and parts of provinces of the British Indian empire, either in
popular referenda or by the votes of the elected representatives of the people.
51. The Congress grudgingly agreed to the partition.
52. Mahatma Gandhi said “ So long as I am alive, I will never agree to the partition of India”
53. Apart from the difficult and divisive legacy of pre-independence political rivalry, adversarial
perceptions of history, differences of religions and cultures and the clash of political ideologies,
deep bitterness was engendered by communal rioting. This led to massacre of people on a wider
scale.
54. The 3rd
June Plan gave only 72 days for transition to independence.
55. Within this period three provinces had to be divided, referenda organized in NWFP and the
Sylhet division of Assam, civil and armed services personnel given the opportunity to decide
which country they would serve, and assets apportioned.
56. Pakistan did not inherit a capital with a functioning secretariat nor the resources to establish
and equip the administrative, economic and military institutions of the new state.
57. More daunting problems arose in the wake of partition.