IndiaThe Birth of Pakistan - Assignment Example

Essay, Other Introduction The people and Pakistan and Bangladesh suffer from many identical problems. If the creation of Pakistan can be compared to a normal delivery, the creation of Bangladesh is a cesarean delivery. In both the courtiers people suffered immensely, with the loss of democratic rights, with military rule imposed intermittently. Yet religion of Islam is the strong binding force for the people and they think, their religion alone bring about all-round prosperity in their secular life and take care of their afterlife. The Birth of Pakistan “The British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act on July 18, 1947. The Act created two dominions, Indian Union and Pakistan… The Muslims of the Sub-continent had finally achieved their goal to have an independent state for themselves, but only after a long and relentless struggle under the single-minded guidance of the Quaid.”(Story of…)Pakistan was born after the partitioning of united India “on the basis of the Two-Nation Theory.” From the beginning it was a theocratic state. Earlier, the British, before departing to their homeland forever, yet again succeeded in giving the final blow to the people of the continent with their famous ‘divide and rule theory’. It is the firm conviction of the leadership of Pakistan that the Muslims are distinctly a different community as for their religion, traditions, way-of-life and historical background and as such they deserve to live in a separate nation. Religion is the main factor that paved way for the division of the Indian continent. The main reason for the birth of Pakistan is the mentality of those who practiced the religion of Islam. They thought that the nationalistic fervor of the Hindus will work to their disadvantage. Democratic governance by the British during the last leg of their rule in India, led to politicisation of all communities, including the Muslim community and they began to assert their separate identity. Muslim nationalism got shot in the arm. Muslims began to lose trust in Congress party. The Muslim League chose to reject the proposals for Hindu-Muslim unity and they decided to follow an independent path. “The idea of a separate homeland for the Muslims of Northern India as proposed by Allama Iqbal in his famous Allahabad Address showed that the creation of two separate states for the Muslims and Hindus was the only solution. (Story of…) “In the Lahore Declaration of March 23, 1940” (Story of…), the Muslim League decided to press for two separate states, on the basis of religion. Thus the bifurcation of the Indian continent as two separate nations became a reality with the creation of Pakistan on 14th August 1947, and on the 15th of the same month, India attained independence as a separate, secular country. Mahatma Gandhi was against the creation of a separate state for Muslims. Partition of the continent led to the biggest migration of people from both the newly formed nations and about 10 million people were uprooted from their original place of inhabitance and about half a million people died in riots and massacres. The states of Bengal and Punjab were greatly affected with the creation of Pakistan. The Birth of Bangladesh East Pakistan became independent state Bangladesh on 16th December 1971.The birth of Bangladesh is the pointer to the fact that ethnicity and language are as important factors as the religion in uniting or dividing the people. Majority of the people of Bangladesh are Muslims. Yet they denounced the Muslim rule dominated by the leaders of West Pakistan. Simmering discontent between the people of western part of Pakistan and eastern part ultimately led to the Bangladesh War in 1971, when Pakistan suffered utter defeat. India backed the so-called “Mukhti Bahini “ of Bangladesh and India sheltered, supported and trained guerrillas and their contribution to the war efforts led to the total defeat of Pakistan. Compare and contrast the birth of Pakistan and Bangladesh The important theme relating to the birth of Pakistan and Bangladesh is: Religion is not the final frontier that unites any nation. Both were Muslim-dominated states and yet they failed to hold together and Bangladesh was obliged to take the help India, a secular state with the Hindu-majority. The discord between the people of West Pakistan and that of East Pakistan gradually grew and attained intolerable limits, though the latter had whole heartedly supported the creation of Pakistan. Some of the facts relating to the birth of Pakistan and Bangladesh are: 1. Pakistan was born on the bloodshed of Hindus and Muslims. The dividing factor was religion and different cultural backgrounds of both the religious groups. Though there was large-scale violence immediately on the announcement of partition, it did not lead to formal declaration of war. 2. The birth of Bangladesh also resulted in bloodshed, and it was due to war of liberation, in which the Indian troops took the leading role. From the point of view of Pakistan and people from Bengal, it was Muslims killing the Muslims. Religion could not unite the people and identity of language was a strong factor that led to the creation of Bangladesh. 3. “The socio-cultural diversity between the two wings of Pakistan was enormous. In fact… Islam was understood, interpreted, and exercised in different ways in these two separate wings. The history of Islam in “West Pakistan” and East Bengal was completely dissimilar.” (Akram…) 4. “The secession of East Bengal demonstrated that the claims of national unity based upon religious conceptions could not prevent the disintegration of the state of Pakistan.”(Akram) Explain why poverty is still major reality in Pakistan? The growth of poverty is like the growth of octopus. It grows in all the directions. Heterogeneous factors contribute to poverty but the root cause of it in Pakistan is population explosion. The main requirements needed to meet a very fast growing population like capital and investment, education, employment and infrastructure is not growing in tandem. Unfortunately Pakistan has been a violence prone country since its creation on 14th August 1947, due to one reason or the other. Alleviation of poverty in Pakistan demands peace, stability and economic development and these factors do not have their robust presence in the country. Serious political and religious conflicts have resulted in the suffering on the people of the country and heavy demand on the exchequer for internal security and defense purposes. Social unrest is deterrent to poverty alleviation. One additional child means one more job, one more housing unit and one more seat in the educational institution. In the last decade the population in Pakistan has increased by 40 million and it is the 6th largest country in the world with the population of about 180 million. Corruption and unimaginative government strategies have resulted in the increase in the population of the poor. Lack of productivity and low literacy levels of the indigenous workforce are the important factors that contribute to poverty. Statistically speaking only 50% of the population was literate in the year 2006 and government spending on education was still only half of the average of many other developing countries. The literacy levels is gradually improving but with an anomaly. 70% of men but only 45% of the women are literate. Traditional methods of farming are not conducive for agricultural growth. To sacrifice culture for the sake scientific growth in agriculture is not fair, yet unless progressive methods are employed in a rational manner agricultural output will not be able to cope up with the demand of rice, wheat and cereals of the growing population. As such, a balanced change in agricultural production is necessary to avoid recurring shortage of products. Importing them would the drain on the exchequer as import means depletion of foreign exchange reserves. As such to withstand development GDP growth needs to be more than the population growth. The issue of urbanization is also the contribution factor for poverty in Pakistan. More than 50% of the population is living in the cities in Pakistan. Child labor is another factor that contributes to poverty. Poverty and child labor are alternative beats of the same heart. Because the poor conditions obtaining in the family, the family head expects the children to work and contribute to the family budgetary needs. Thus education is denied to the children and they remain poor. Since the big chunk of the population in Pakistan inhibits in rural areas, children in those areas are engaged in hunting, fishing and agriculture. The cultural bias against the girl-children works to their disadvantage. Though child labor is banned in Pakistan since 1991, its practice continues overtly and covertly and the children are encouraged to participate in illegal activities like drug trafficking, theft and prostitution by the mafia. Explain why poverty is still major reality in Bangladesh? Bangladesh is one of the thickly populated countries in the world. Of the population of over 15 million people, approximately 25% live below the national poverty line. The rate of malnutrition amongst children is 48% and that is linked to the poor status of women in Bangladesh society. Name any negative factor that contributes to poverty and backwardness, one will find it in Bangladesh. Lack of infrastructure, political instability, poor power production and supply, corruption at all levels; inefficient governance, uninspired bureaucracy etc. haunt the nation. 45% of the population of the country depends on agriculture for survival. 80% of the population lives in the rural areas. Those living in remote areas, hardly have access to education, health facilities, road links and markets. Their diet lacks nutritional value. Gender discrimination is rampart. Women have limited earning opportunities and their food intake is inadequate, their dwellings are temporary structures that collapse during rainy season. The geographical and demographic structure of the country is also the major contributor for poverty in Bangladesh. Vast tracts of low-lying areas are prone to recurring floods. Floods are annual features in such areas. Willem van Schendel writes, “The combination of rainfall, river inundation, flash-floods and storm surges has made it impossible to control summer flooding in Bangladesh. Even today, the timing, location and extent of flooding are very difficult to predict, let alone control and floods vary considerably from year to year.”(6) Floods damage the crops, their homes are destroyed and they suffer from waterborne and diarrheal ailments. Soil erosion and flooding affects the agricultural productivity. The additional curse for these poor people is the attack of deadly diseases like dengue and malaria. One contributing factor to poverty leads to another factor that jeopardizes the chances of the poor making efforts to progress in life. When the rope of the marginal farmers( those owning less than 2 ½ acres of land, are destroyed in floods, they resort to distress land selling either for survival or to make repayment of the loan taken by them from the indigenous money lenders, who charge high rate of interest. Thus they are further trapped into poverty. Thus, the poor are entangled in the vicious cycle that contributes to making their situation from bad to worst. 49% of the Bangladesh population is still living below the poverty line. Under such grim circumstances, all factors that contribute to growth like education, health facilities are affected. Since poverty is rampart in the rural areas, it has created disparities between the rural and urban population of the country. Urban poverty is intimately linked to the housing issue, and a big chunk of the urban population lives in slums. With the high percentage of unskilled workforce, foreign investors are not enthusiastic about investing in Bangladesh and as such this situation stalls the overall economic growth. With poor purchasing power, the consumer goods market also does not enjoy the happy tiding and the lifestyles of the people are not on the progressive lines. With chronic poverty, proper healthcare facilities are non-existent for the poor. The immunity to diseases is very low amongst the poor which results in the rapid spread of diseases. Studies suggest that non-secular education is one key trend both in Pakistan and Bangladesh for the simple reason that the leaders, both political and religious, strongly believe that their religion, Islam, alone can protect the future of their country collectively and take care of their afterlife individually. Why is non-secular education gaining prominence? Give five reasons to explain your answer. 1. The quest for God with intolerance as the guiding principle When a community is not willing to accept noble thoughts from any side, other than the one mentioned in the scripture of their religion, the community develops the trait of exclusivity and moves away from the mainstream society. The one who is not willing to question beliefs and enter into arguments as for their merits and demerits, he descends into uncompromising fundamentalism. When a nation subscribes to such principles, the ruling authorities and religious leaders make it a part of the education system, and the seeds of poison of fundamentalism are sown. “This all matters because when beliefs become unquestioned, a community can become increasingly divorced from reality. This is especially true when individual leaders or belief-based authorities claim to be acting in accord with a divine principle, such as Gods will.”(Crabtree) 2. Increasing Literalism has unfortunately not turned out to be a trait of human development. The religious leaders know that the ideal raw material for brainwashing is children and the combustible younger generation. When religious principles are implanted in them through education they turn out to be the conduits for fundamentalism. As such literalism becomes yet another tool of destruction (mental destruction) and a powerful conduit for non-secular education. Increased literalism has resulted in increased fundamentalism. The organised religion takes to the path of destruction easily, as the leaders provide no scope for arguments and counter-arguments to the followers. 3. Islam and non-secular education. Non-secular education is gaining prominence in Islam due to historical reasons. “Islam rapidly became literalistic, and once there it seems the way back is permanently blocked. Those official words became unarguable doctrine, debatable only under pain of death.”(Crabtree...) All those who argue, analyse and disagree are punished, shunned or even silenced forever. 4. Feeling of insecurity in living in a secular atmosphere. Even in a secular country the minority versus majority complex is reflected in the education system. The minority community is gripped with the latent fear that their religious beliefs, culture, and lifestyles will be obliterated by interaction with the majority culture and as such they want to propagate their system through the educational institutions run and controlled by them. Believing became more important than doing the right things. 5. Multiculturalism is like the double-edged sword. In the context of globalisation, multiculturalism has become like the double-edged sword. In this confusing situation of interaction with different cultural groups, one’s own religion has assumed added importance one’s self-definition. An individual takes the defensive posture to protect one’s religious and cultural traits. He does not want to lose in the religious race. As such, the families chose such educational institutions, wherein the educational syllabus imbibes the religious values in their children. Parents watch with caution the cultural transition of their children and want them to retain the original identity. Works Cited Schendel, van Wilem. A History of Bangladesh. New York: Publisher: Cambridge University, 2009. Print Akram, Tanweer. The Birth of Bangladesh - Virtual Bangladesh www.virtualbangladesh.com › ... › Web: December 5, 2014 Crabtree, Vexen. The Causes of Fundamentalism, Intolerance and Extremism, November, 4 2014 www.humanreligions.info/fundamentalism.html,Web: December 5, 2014 Poverty in Pakistan – Population Pressure & Inequalities www.poverties.org/poverty-in-pakistan.html, Web: December 5, 2014 Story of Pakistan |The Birth of Pakistan, Admin, Oct 24, 2011 storyofpakistan.com › Uncategorized, Web: December 5, 2014 Read More