Transforming the Indian Subcontinent

The 200-year period between the end of the 18th century till the second half of the 20th century was a time of great churning in human history. Most major countries of today took their current form during this period as monarchies were toppled to establish a rule of and by the people.

Be it the American Revolution in 1776, French Revolution in 1789, multiple South American Revolutions in the 19th century, Chinese and Russian Communist Revolution in the early 20th century, and finally the Independence of all the Asian and African countries after the end of the Second World War.

The Europeans after destroying themselves in two intra-continental wars, they presumptuously called World Wars, were left incapable of continuing their colonial rule. Moreover, the battle-hardened colonial soldiers, who were tired of fighting someone else's wars, decided to revolt. In India for example, the British army and navy were inspired by the heroics of the Indian National Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose and revolted in 1946. This led to the wave of Independence that culminated in the formation of the sovereign nations of the Indian subcontinent like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, etc.

This was similar to the many new countries that were carved post the First World War when Turkey was partitioned and Syria and Iraq were divided between the French and the British, and a West-supported Monarchy in Persia/Iran, which tried to navigate the Great Game being played by the colonial powers.

Colonial powers made a royal mess of the Middle Eastern region by mindlessly and foolishly drawing borders that did not make any sense - by jumbling together warring ethnicities while separating similar ethnicities across countries (Kurds in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq).

Moreover, in the 1960s when many Arab countries tried to form Socialist Arab Republics, the West led by the USA - which had become the de facto power of the world - sabotaged these attempts in the name of their ideological war with Russia but mainly to ensure its petroleum supply and business interests in the name of energy security were secure.

A similar exercise in Africa from the colonial period still haunts the African continent, especially sub-Saharan Africa, with the man-made straight lines as borders being prime examples of the mind-numbingly stupid endeavor.

However, one has to admire the colonial powers for their ability to destroy millions of lives in their pursuit of securing their strategic interests or ignore the bloodbath that followed every such shoddy exercise.

Source: Google

We will not delve into the details of the mess in Africa and the Middle East but I do leave you with the current political map and a much more appropriate realigned map (made by a retired US Army member) of the Middle East to see the extent of their mess.

Source: Google

One can see the changes that the map above makes into the entity called Pakistan - the source of all the additional ills that plague any chance of prosperity in the Indian Subcontinent. The creation of this artificial entity called Pakistan was fuelled by rabid pan-Islamism and remains the source of all terrorist activities by ISIS, Taliban, and Al-Qaeda today.

The main objective of its creation was to ensure that a client state that would always remain dependent on the Anglo-West (the UK and later, USA) to ensure their strategic access to the Indian Ocean and prevent the Soviet Union from getting access to the warm waters of Indian Ocean. A derivate effect of this was an entity that was perennially anti-India under the garb of Islamism.

To achieve this objective, the Indian subcontinent, which prized its civilizational unity, was mercilessly split that revived a rabid extremist ideology to break its social fabric.

Muslim-majority areas of the Indian region were carved out from both the West and East part of India into West and East Pakistan, despite knowing such an entity was never viable.

East Pakistan with its Bengali culture and language always struggled until it separated in 1971. East Pakistan could only last for 24 years and resulted in two bloodbaths that killed millions in 1947 and then again in 1971.

The Bengalis are the ONLY people in the world who have had to suffer 3 partitions in the lifespan of a generation with the first in 1905, followed by 1947 and 1971.

Since then, Pakistan has been boiling with social strife led by either the Pashtuns, Balochis, or the Sindhis. The domination of the Punjabis, since its creation, has led to insurgencies by the Balochis as well as the Pashtuns that continue to this day.

It has, in fact, intensified post the Taliban takeover in 2021 with multiple attacks on Pakistani police and the army.

The collapse of this artificial entity called Pakistan, meaning 'The land of the pure', is eminent.

The challenge now is to ensure sustainable peace so that the ~2 billion people of the Indian subcontinent can focus solely on prosperity and take this great civilization forward. The collapse of this fake entity is necessary as it will serve as an anti-thesis to the two-nation theory according to which Hindus and Muslims cannot live together. This poses an existential challenge to Secular India as accepting the existence of Pakistan means accepting the premise that India is a Hindu Rashtra, which makes the life of Muslims living in India a paradox.

The purpose of this article is to argue the need for this, and why it is not just in India's interest but also the entire Indian subcontinent's interest. This article will give context to the impending changes in the borders to its readers.

To begin with, let us have a look at the current as well as what a realigned map of the Indian Subcontinent would look like.

Right: Realigned Borders post Collapse of Pakistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan will be a net gainer as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region (erstwhile FATA and NWFP) will be merged with it as the Afghans (ethnically Pashtuns) have never recognized the artificial British-made Durand Line that demarcates its borders with Pakistan.

Balochistan

A new sovereign secular country of Balochistan will be created. The people and leaders of Balochistan have been fighting for it for decades, after being wronged by Mohammad Ali Jinnah who took his weight in gold in exchange for their independence but later went back on his promise. This country will primarily comprise the province of Balochistan in Pakistan and a large chunk of the Pakistani Sindh state including Pakistan's biggest city - Karachi - as Balochistan is an arid region with most of the Balochi's living in Sindh. This would mean that the remaining part of Sindh will go to India.

India

India would gain its lost territory of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan while it would have to carve out a new Union Territory for Sindh (shown in yellow above). This new UT would comprise the Kutch district from Gujarat and include the many Hindu-majority districts of Sindh in Pakistan such as Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, and Tando Allahyar.

Demography of Sindh in Pakistan

This would be extremely desirable as it gives Sindhis their own state in the Indian Union along with a land border for India with Balochistan, giving India direct land access to reach Europe.

Moreover, India can also use this opportunity to merge the Buddhist majority Chittagon Hills Tracts in Bangladesh into India. India can also use this to get back the Kartarpur Corridor, the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev, into India that takes up a few square kilometers of Pakistani area and is anyway open for Indians to visit.

Pakistan

This would leave Pakistan with just one state - Punjab - who were anyway dominant in the establishment be it the army, bureaucracy, or in terms of political representation.

Pakistan would become a landlocked country and thus dependent on its neighbors for not just a prosperous future but also make sure it has an incentive to have good ties with them.

This will also be a great opportunity for the Indian subcontinent to bury this deadly ideology called Pakistan that has been plaguing not just their country but also India and Bangladesh.

Ideally, it would be better to re-name Pakistan to end this dark chapter in Indian history once and for all.

In my opinion, Pakistan could be renamed Lahoredesh considering it is their biggest city and has ancient origins as the name Lahore is derived from the name of Lava, Bhagwan Ram's son.

The dismemberment of Pakistan will ensure that the oppressive and destructive ideology of pan-Islamism called Pakistan in the Indian subcontinent is junked into the annals of history. It would also pave the way for the true assimilation of Muslims in India.

However, the Indian and American armies would have their task cut out to ensure the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan is secured and does not fall into the hands of the terror groups. According to intelligence experts, the USA has a 'snatch-and-grab' plan in place to ensure this.

Moreover, the new country of Lahoredesh or Pakistani Punjab would have to focus on weeding out its terror groups, developing infrastructure, and ensuring greater Ease of Living for its people. Being a landlocked country, India would need to step up to ensure that both the new countries Lahoredesh and Balochistan jog forward on the path to prosperity.

To ensure this, an economic bloc can be created to replace the defunct SAARC. Such economic unions allow for free trade of goods and a common customs union. This would allow for better bargaining power for the collective to trade with other economic blocs.

West Africa has ECOWAS while Southeast Asia has ASEAN, both of which have contributed massively in their development and enabled them to better negotiate with the developed world. East Africa is working on a similar but more ambitious project - a political union called the East African Federation.

Source: Google

Sri Lanka has already decided to economically integrate with India post its 2021 economic crisis while Bhutan is like an Indian state with the Indian government giving it more than 3000 crores every year to run its country. Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh already have porous borders with India, and the Indian government is actively working to increase connectivity via road projects, power projects, and inland waterways.

I hope this realignment will pave the way for an integrated and prosperous Indian subcontinent that can then march towards a sustainable and peaceful future.