What if Pakistan had not come into being?

We typically talk about creation of Pakistan, on both our flanks, as an unmitigated disaster, moderated, if at all, only by the reality of sending the “undesirables”, not all of them of course, packed off to across the borders. Is this a correct assessment?

The only way to discuss on this is to speculate what indeed could have happened had Pakistan not come into being. Here is a word of caution. The only such historical speculation I have come across is the following and that would not give anyone much confidence in this effort.

What if, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, had Nikita Khrushchev been assassinated instead of John F Kennedy? The only definitive answer that could even be tentatively (Modifiers “definitive” and “tentative” in one sentence! This is what historical speculation brings to discussions) offered is Aristotle Onassis would not have dared to take the latter’s widow as his wife!

Now you know the spirit of the post.

We would not have had West Bengal, only Bengal. Therefore, no Poschimbanga, only Banga. We may not have had 34 year rule of the left front and subsequently the shenanigans of didi.

Rabindranath Tagore would not have the distinction of composing the National Anthem of two countries, only of one. Our list of Nobel Laureates would have been clarified and extended. Some Prize winners are listed as both Pakistani and Indian Nobel Laureates! For example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Abdus Salam and Har Gobind Khurana find mention under both the countries (source: Wikipedia). What sacrilege! Besides unifying the nationalities of these eminences, India would have also had Mohammad Yunus on our list, if only we had not had partition.

Bharatiyar’s song “Sindhu Nadhiyin Misai …” would have resonated better. There would not have been treaty for sharing the waters of River Indus. People of Northeastern states would have felt more integrated with the rest of the country.

We would not have had the everyday stupid spectacle of foot stomping and banging the gates shut at Wagah border. The trivial thing is we would not have had major wars and constant skirmishes at the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh, because these borders would not have been delineated! Lal Bahadur Shastri would not have died in Tashkent.

It is likely that the current combined defense (euphemism for going on the offensive) budgets of the three countries would have been less than that of the unified nation-state.

Thinking geo-politically (Oh, how I was looking forward to using such high jargon!), the US could have played us only against Afghanistan and you know what disaster would have visited the world’s sole super power. By the way, India would have been more than keen to offer USSR direct access to warm water ports, through what is now Pakistan! Afghanistan would have become irrelevant geo-strategically. The world would have continued to have a bi-polar power configuration.

USSR would not have invaded Afghanistan, the US would not have boycotted Moscow Olympics, and the eastern bloc would have enjoyed the LA Olympics four years later. Goodwill Games would not have been conceived. In all likelihood Chandigarh would not be the capital of two states.

There would be places for additional IITs and IIMs. Of course, for “Deemed Universities” too! There would have been many more dysfunctional schools in remote and rural areas. Our per capita carbon emissions would have been lower than what it is, reckoned as a weighted average of the three countries as of now.

So on and on …

It was fun speculating.

Raghuram Ekambaram