India Pakistan Foreign Policies

The rapport between India and Pakistan since 1947 has been distressed and unfriendly, Marked by indiscriminating communal massacres at the time of partition of British India; three wars and countless trivial conflicts and clashes afterwards. One critical factor in this history has been the pre- partition heritage of the two political movements that dominated the political environment of India before and after independence- The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. Most of the political and social concepts that dominated the ideology and psychology that controlled these two movements survived into the independence period and have not disappeared. This is particularly true of their intensely negative perceptions about each other. Many political analysts believe ,today India’s continued adversarial relations with Pakistan have resulted in India having to divert its scare financial, material and trained manpower resources for defence purposes, there for, to a great extent reducing its capabilities to implement social and economic policies for internal matters. This article seeks to go deeper into Indo- Pakistan’s relations with each other and study India’s policies towards its neighbour.
History of Relations:
Timeline leading to Partition:

1858 - The India Act: power transferred to British Government.

1905 - First Partition of Bengal for administrative purposes. Gives the Muslims a majority in that state.

1906 - All India Muslim League founded to promote Muslim political interests.

1909 - Revocation of Partition of Bengal. Creates anti-British and anti-Hindu sentiments among Muslims as they lose their majority in East Bengal.

1919 - Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (implemented in 1921). Communal representation institutionalized for the first time as reserved legislative seats are allocated for significant minorities.

1930 - Dr. Allama Iqbal, a poet-politician, calls for a separate homeland for the Muslims at the Allahabad session of the