Avoiding Armageddon: America, India, and Pakistan to the Brink and Back

2. America, The Raj, and Partition

26 CHAPTER TWO AMERICA, THE RAJ, AND PARTITION India is the richest and most splendid country in the world. —Marco Polo THE CABINET DINING room at Number 10 Downing Street is a historic, impressive place to meet. I was a guest of Prime Minister David Cameron, who had invited me to participate as an outside expert in a meeting of the United Kingdom’s National Security Council in December 2011 to take stock of British policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan. More British soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan than to any other conflict zone in the world, and many have paid the ultimate price in service to their country. The key decisionmakers of the United Kingdom—the prime minister, deputy prime minister, chancellor of the exchequer, foreign secretary, minister of defense, chief of staff, and the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6)—were seated around the table to review the state of war in South Asia. John Sawers, or M, the head of SIS, was an old friend. As an American, I considered it a singular honor to be asked to address this group.1 For centuries, that particular room had seen generations of British leaders discuss and review policy toward India, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. No analysis of the rise of India and 02-2408-7 ch2.indd 26 1/3/13 5:14 PM AMERICA, THE RAJ, AND PARTITION 27 Pakistan can begin without a proper understanding of their modern origins in the British Raj. In many ways, the British were the godfather of Pakistan; it was on the banks of the River Cam, not far from London, that the idea of Pakistan developed in the 1930s. At the end of the Raj, the idea of partition became reality and India and Pakistan became the states that they are now. To understand America and the rise of India and Pakistan today, then, one must begin with the British Empire. America, India, and Pakistan are all products of that empire, and their political systems are derived from their common British heritage, to which they also owe a common language. But their experiences with the United Kingdom also differed in important ways. In addition to the Native Americans already living in the New World, who were soon outnumbered , America was populated primarily by immigrants from Europe and by African slaves. Most of the European immigrants, at least, came willingly. India is populated by the descendants of its original inhabitants, not those of colonial settlers. There were never more than 100,000 Europeans in the Indian Empire. While for Americans the memory of the British Empire is fairly benign, the memory of the Raj is bittersweet for Indians and Pakistanis. Many appreciate the benefits that it provided and still enjoy some of its legacy, but it also led to partition, pain, and the enduring conflict over Kashmir. The legacy of the Raj also deeply affected the future foreign policy strategies of India and Pakistan. It left India with an abiding distaste for great power politics and a fierce determination to maintain full independence in making decisions on national security. India does not want to be a partner, especially not a junior partner, in constraining alliances against communism, China, or anything else. The legacy of the Raj left Pakistan the weaker and more vulnerable state, always at war with its bigger neighbor. It needs a partner—or better, multiple partners—to stand up to India. These legacies are as alive today as they were in 1947. America and British South Asia also have had very different timelines. The United States fought for and gained its independence 02-2408-7 ch2.indd 27 1/3/13 5:14 PM AMERICA, THE RAJ, AND PARTITION 28 from Great Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, just as India was losing its independence to the British East India Company at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century . America would fight a terrible civil war in the middle of the nineteenth century; at about the same time, India would fight a terrible war to gain independence, lose the war, and formally become a part of the British Empire. By the end of World War I, in 1918, America would be a global power; India would be just beginning its successful battle to achieve independence. ORIGINS Europeans “found” America and...