It has been 75 years since both the countries became independent. Pakistan was carved out of British India in 1947. It consisted of East and West Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan separated and became Bangladesh.
Pakistan and India today stand at two very different points in their trajectories and it is interesting to see which points of departure triggered these diverse paths.
The most critical difference right at birth was the way the core identity was defined. India decided to be a secular republic whereas Pakistan decided to become an Islamic country. This meant religion was to be given primacy in the formulation of any policy. Many parts of religion are incompatible with modern democratic values and Pakistan like any other country has not been able to resolve these conflicts. This became more of a problem after the Islamic radicalisation process started by Zia Ul Haque.
Gandhi died in January 1948. Patel died in 1950. But from the top echelons of Congress, a stellar set of leaders from Nehru, Maulana Azad, and Rajgopalchari were there to see the country through the initial tumultuous years. Nehru continued till 1964 and gave a sound democratic framework and built several institutions in the fledgeling republic. In Pakistan, Jinnah was ailing and died in 1948. The first Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan was shot dead in 1951. After that, the political leaders did not have that stature and the first decade after independence witnessed a lot of turbulence ending with military rule.
The Indian founding fathers were foresighted enough to calibrate the power of armed forces. The army retained its stranglehold over power in Pakistan and over time this has led to several military coups and regimes disrupting the democratic fabric.
The basic ethos of the Indian constitution was diversity. It tried to accommodate languages, religions, and cultures. The Pakistan establishment dominated by the Urdu-speaking West Pakistan elites tried to impose their language and culture on the very different Bengali East Pakistan. This led to resentment finally culminating in the liberation of Bangladesh. This weakened the country significantly not only militarily and strategically but also psychologically. The country could not then recover from a vicious cycle of events after that.
Today India has one of the largest economies in the world, a vaunted technological workforce, and macroeconomic stability. Pakistan is still struggling with debt and supplying basic amenities like electricity and water.
It is sad but shows how history can be cruel if people are not alert and allow their leaders to choose self-aggrandising paths over progressive thinking.
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