Imagine Scenario: If Pakistan had continued to be united and not got divided in 1971

[Maira La]

Imagine, if India was never divided?

Imagine, if British India was never created.. ;p

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Imagine, if British India was never created.. ;p

What would we have done without these guys? Makers of British India.

 

[khanz]

it was bound to happen sooner or later bangladesh is surrounded and encircled by india on all 3 sides other than small bay of bengal coastline but it should have granted peaceful independence .

granted BD is better off in some ways as it's free from our reputation as a "dangerous" country does not have deal with having afghanistan as a neighbour but if we were still together BD gains far more from us while with all due respect if you look at the facts objectively there is little pakistan would have currently benefited from them other than larger population and a little larger GDP.

meanwhile bangladeshis would have many gained much from pakistan :

-Bangladesh would have been sole nuclear power of muslim world

-Powerful military and atleast middle power status like pakistan

- Access to much more strategically and economically important location very close to persian gulf,border with oil rich iran,border with china,closer to the major indian cities and gateway and transit route to afghanistan and many coveted oil and gas pipelines.

- massive territory increase in land and EEZ

 

[Maira La]

What would we have done without these guys? Makers of British India.

You know, had this guys done a better job and marched further West, today Indians would be crying a river over "partition" of Iran from united India. Lol.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

You know, had this guys done a better job and marched further West, today Indians would be crying a river over "partition" of Iran from united India. Lol.

Actually blame it on the Russians. Had they been slower in advancing into Central Asia the British would have moved north into Afghanistan and raced to Tajikistan. Only the Russians arrived at Amu Darya in mid 1800s and that arrested further British expansion as it might have led to Russo-British war. Both sides agreed to leave Afghanistan in the middle as a buffer zone. The British stayed south of Durand Line and the Russians north of Amu Darya. Had it been not for this today Indian's would be talking about a "India" that includes Afghanistan, Tajikistan etc and as part of Akhand Bharat.

That led to profound division of this part of the world. Entirely separated to the south the region become exposed to British law and English language in addition interaction with wider South Asia. The north of Amu Darya what we call Central Asia went all Russian law and Russian language. With rise of communism that region drifted away from Islam and today is more secular than the south. I have met some of our "neighbours" from above north of Amu darya and I find it fascinating how "Russian" they have gone. On the other hand they think we have gone all "British".

Another strange effect is all their surnames have picked up Russian suffix like Mirof (Mir) or Khanov (Khan) or Aliev (Ali) Sultanov (Sultan) etc. It is amazing what 100 years of foreign rule can do.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

We will be 40+cror and an constant headache for India from both sides

That's what you want to listen precisely

That is going to happen anyway. India is now so detested in Bangladesh that if the AL falls there will be an anti-Indian backlash.

 

[NP-complete]

Wouldve presented great economic opportunities. Big markets have reduced overhead compared to a collection of equivalent smaller markets which leads to economic gains. We punjabis really appreciate Bengali girls. Hassle free access to them wouldve also led to higher national happiness scores. Political difference wouldve themselves sorted out once people were closer.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Bangladesh was never part of the game, below is the expert of Allama Iqbal's 1930 speech at Ali garh.

" I would like to see the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire"

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_iqbal_1930.html

Sadly, you are precisely right. The OP was wishful thinking, of the dangerous and delusionary sort that cost millions of lives to rectify.

It is only the Bangladeshi equivalents of Lal Topi that keep hoping for a re-union.

It was unfeasible for one nation of similar amount of people to be governed as one when so far apart

It coud be 1971,1980, 2000 or 3060 Bangladesh was always going to be a reality


It could just have been done better without alloeing a otherwise gutless india to take advantage of the problem and civil war in East Pakistan

Oh, so now we need your personal certificate to demonstrate guts? An adventurous war or two, perhaps? A wilful act of aggression? Taking over someone else's territory? Is that what you think is guts?

Ek dhundo to sou nikl aate hain.

It was not feasible, sooner or later it was bound to happen.

Besides, Bangladesh was supposed to be a different nation according to 40's resolution. Bengalis leaders knew that india will create problems by not letting go Bdsh or by occupying areas, so it prefered joining Pakistan.

On the contrary, there was a serious move for a Greater Bangladesh, in which Congress leaders Kiran Shankar Roy and Sarat Bose (Subhash Bose's brother and a prominent Congress leader) participated, which needed urgent action by Congress leaders to quench in time.

You write good stories bhai.

I don't know about that. There's a lot in what he says.

There is no Kashmir in it either.

I keep laughing about this, every time someone quotes the speech.

It would never stayed united their divide was inevitable,besides the major Muslim leaders did wanted kpk Punjab sindh and balochistan as Pakistan and they wanted Bangladesh as a independent country

Just to correct your contemporary impressions, KPK, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan leaders were not keen on Pakistan; the Muslim League leaders were, and the strength of the Muslim League was in UP and in Bombay. Look up the events of those times, and you will get a very different picture from the one that you have.

The whole idea was ridiculous from the word go.

Any real democratic state would have meant permanent Bengali domination over the rest of the country and that is something that the rest of the country would not have accepted forever. Let us not get into the issue of 1000 miles that also separated the two wings.

BD and Pakistan are best going it alone and co-operating where there is mutual interests.

If I might add to the confusion, if there had been no partition, Bengal would have dominated the rest of the country effortlessly, containing as it did the bulk of the educated, the vast bulk of industry, huge natural resources, and a given position of leadership in politics. After partition, all this was systematically whittled down, until now West Bengal is a marginal state, and Bangladesh is an upward aspiring economically prosperous politically disunited battleground between Islamism and the forces of progress. My personal views entirely.

BD would have been occupied by India and Pakistan would have been shouting "India, you have taken East Pakistan, its okay but give us Kashmir"

What else have they been doing since 1971?

Wouldve presented great economic opportunities. Big markets have reduced overhead compared to a collection of equivalent smaller markets which leads to economic gains. We punjabis really appreciate Bengali girls. Hassle free access to them wouldve also led to higher national happiness scores. Political difference wouldve themselves sorted out once people were closer.

People saw that.

 

[SQ8]

Just to correct your contemporary impressions, KPK, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan leaders were not keen on Pakistan; the Muslim League leaders were, and the strength of the Muslim League was in UP and in Bombay. Look up the events of those times, and you will get a very different picture from the one that you have..

I am aghast, do you mean to say that the "sons of the soil" wanted actually nothing to do with the soil being an independent state at all?

And those Hindus the UP and Bombay guys wanted a middle eastern country like Pakistan?

 

[NP-complete]

People saw that.

Are you referring to 1971. Soldiers are not normal people. Civilians make life as juicy as possible but soldiers want the work done at any cost. They live a depraved life.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I am aghast, do you mean to say that the "sons of the soil" wanted actually nothing to do with the soil being an independent state at all?

And those Hindus the UP and Bombay guys wanted a middle eastern country like Pakistan?

Zigackly, mon seigneur. Look up the referendum results of the KPK referendum (one referendum that is never, never referred to), look up the feudal chief Allah Bux Soomro, and look up (I know you don't need these references but are just goading me with an electric cattle prod in the, erm, vitals) the remarkable career of Sikandar Hayat Khan (the knighted Punjabi son of the Nawab of Wah) and the Unionist Party. We shall glide delicately over any other provinces that I might have advertently omitted.

Are you referring to 1971. Soldiers are not normal people. Civilians make life as juicy as possible but soldiers want the work done at any cost. They live a depraved life.

@NP-complete

You are right. That piece of sarcasm from me was misplaced. It was the Bengali in me getting the better of me. Apologies.

 

[django]

Had Pakistan continued to remain united with 'Bangladesh', may be the relations between the two wings would have gradually improved and a genuine unity may have emerged. May be there would have been mass movement of people between the two wings for jobs and even marriages. Who knows the final provocations like military action etc was actually the doings of CIA to trigger an Indo-Pak war.

Anybody interested to imagine how the scenario would have looked like?

The cricket team composition, the film industry, the economy, the politicians, tourism, the military etc.

It might have been more possible than Pakistanis think. You know exchange of fraction of population between the two wings. The two communities (Bengalis and West Pakistanis) complementing each other economically. And lo and behold - a synthesis!

No Pakistani feels any connection with bangladesh, I say good riddance.

 

[mb444]

All things considered BD is better off on its own.

Nukes does not mean much as we can see from the state of Pakistan at the moment.

The Muslim consciousness given form as a sovereign nation was born in Bengal. We have achieved it.

I thank allah that the the realisation of Pakistan movement effectively allowed Bangladesh to ultimately realise a homogeneous sovereign Muslim nation.

I am all for Muslim unity but the two wings were just too different. The west lacked any history of democracy. The fudal autocracy of the west and democracy driven east could not be reconciled.

A peaceful divorce should have been achieved but alas no.... That is regrettable.

It is better to be separate and cooperate where our interests coincide. I do not personally see any benefit to BD remaining with the east. All the things OP poslulated can still be achieved as two separate entity, it is not a lost cause.

 

[Kamikaze Pilot]

it was bound to happen sooner or later bangladesh is surrounded and encircled by india on all 3 sides other than small bay of bengal coastline but it should have granted peaceful independence .

granted BD is better off in some ways as it's free from our reputation as a "dangerous" country does not have deal with having afghanistan as a neighbour but if we were still together BD gains far more from us while with all due respect if you look at the facts objectively there is little pakistan would have currently benefited from them other than larger population and a little larger GDP.

meanwhile bangladeshis would have many gained much from pakistan :

-Bangladesh would have been sole nuclear power of muslim world

-Powerful military and atleast middle power status like pakistan

- Access to much more strategically and economically important location very close to persian gulf,border with oil rich iran,border with china,closer to the major indian cities and gateway and transit route to afghanistan and many coveted oil and gas pipelines.

- massive territory increase in land and EEZ

Nukes does not mean much as we can see from the state of Pakistan at the moment.

@Saiful Islam @UKBengali @asad71 @monitor @BDforever @bongbang @Maira La

Oh yeah?

Do you know the number of and quality of scientists produced by the region of now-Bangladesh? Shall I rattle off the names?

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

If that was the case then Karachi and Lahore would be flooded with Bengalis; there are already 5 million Bengalis in Karachi - we dont want anymore.

Bangladesh has different ethnicity, culture, ideas and ect...

Bengal is an ethnic nationalist country
Pakistan is an Islamic nationalist country

We dont mix, nor will we ever.

Imagine, if India was never divided?

India was never 'united' in the first place; there was no India before 1947.

Zigackly, mon seigneur. Look up the referendum results of the KPK referendum (one referendum that is never, never referred to), look up the feudal chief Allah Bux Soomro, and look up (I know you don't need these references but are just goading me with an electric cattle prod in the, erm, vitals) the remarkable career of Sikandar Hayat Khan (the knighted Punjabi son of the Nawab of Wah) and the Unionist Party. We shall glide delicately over any other provinces that I might have advertently omitted.



@NP-complete

You are right. That piece of sarcasm from me was misplaced. It was the Bengali in me getting the better of me. Apologies.

All ethnicity at that time basically wanted an independent country.

But that fact that India faces half a dozen separatist insurgencies show that Pakistan is much more united than India.

KPK today is more loyal than any other province in Pakistan.

There is no Kashmir in it either.

P - Punjab
A - Afghania
K - Kashmir
S - Sindh
TAN - Balochistan