Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah never wished for a homogenous Muslim state. That was the result of the partition violence that led to the total transfer of the Hindu and Sikh populations from Western Punjab to India and of the entire Muslim population from Punjab to Pakistan.
Despite Jinnah's declaration that Pakistan was to be a secular state, not a Muslim state, the result has been the opposite. Although in fact, most Pakistanis, like most Indians, do not wish to see Pakistan become a state based on religion, the circumstances of Pakistan's creation have enhanced the influence of the ulema in policy formation and encouraged the proliferation of intolerant islamist political movements.
Nehru and his successors sought to formulate a distinctive Indian foreign policy in relation to the world system, namely non alignment. But whatever india did, Pakistan did the opposite, in this case turning towards outright alignment with the United States in the cold war. This in turn influenced India's own policies, which increasingly then tilted towards semi alignment with the Soviet Union, culminating in the 1971 friendship treaty, which also arose at a time when India was about to go to war to dismember Pakistan.
Trade relations and even travel from one state to the other have often been highly restricted in South Asia, the least integrated region in the world.
Acknowldegement : Excerpted from the Routledge Handbook of South Asian Politics.
Despite Jinnah's declaration that Pakistan was to be a secular state, not a Muslim state, the result has been the opposite. Although in fact, most Pakistanis, like most Indians, do not wish to see Pakistan become a state based on religion, the circumstances of Pakistan's creation have enhanced the influence of the ulema in policy formation and encouraged the proliferation of intolerant islamist political movements.
Nehru and his successors sought to formulate a distinctive Indian foreign policy in relation to the world system, namely non alignment. But whatever india did, Pakistan did the opposite, in this case turning towards outright alignment with the United States in the cold war. This in turn influenced India's own policies, which increasingly then tilted towards semi alignment with the Soviet Union, culminating in the 1971 friendship treaty, which also arose at a time when India was about to go to war to dismember Pakistan.
Trade relations and even travel from one state to the other have often been highly restricted in South Asia, the least integrated region in the world.
Acknowldegement : Excerpted from the Routledge Handbook of South Asian Politics.
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