Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, told Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru that Pakistan was not economically viable and would come begging to re-join India within six months: “Administratively it was the difference between putting up a permanent building, a Nissen hut or a tent. As far as Pakistan is concerned, we are putting up a tent.”

There is a compelling logic to that conclusion. Pakistan was not an existing political entity but a conceptually new country, an idea, two territories on either side of a hostile country, with extraordinary cultural diversity. It had a handful of industrial units, no military equipment and no government structure. From a security perspective, as the British Commander in Chief of the Indian Army Claude Auchinleck noted, Pakistan lacked strategic depth, with no natural barriers with India.

A skill vacuum was created by the exodus of Hindu and Sikh professionals after Partition. The coffers were empty. India did not release its portion of funds until Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went on a fast to exert pressure. The military equipment sent was damaged, uniforms had mismatched shoes and crates contained scrap wood and stationery instead of equipment. The first government offices in Karachi were tents with furniture made of crates.

Indian statesman........

© Dawn (Magazines)