BERTRAND JAMES GLANCY

One of the ideas to implement the Partition of India to create a Muslim Pakistan was to have plebiscites in many provinces to vote on whether the Province should remain with India or be a part of Pakistan. The Punjab was the largest of the mixed religion areas in question but the Punjab governor was opposed to the idea as most of the voters were illiterate and the Pro Pakistan forces would couch the alternatives in stark religious terms to the Muslim voters who will not realize that they could remain as Muslims in India just as they were at the time. In a number of areas—Kashmir being the most notable—there were a majority of Muslims yet enough of them preferred to remain with India than be part of Pakistan as they were Islamic moderates and did not want to be part of a Muslim Pakistan that might pressure them or force them to a more rigid form of Islam. Also many valued democracy and religious freedom. Some doubted Pakistan's likelihood of thriving in its own and preferred the stability of India.

The Muslim League was demanding that the Punjab become a part of Pakistan when independence was granted later. However, the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians were all adamant that they would not live in a Muslim nation which would soon become a de facto theocracy if the British could not control them. The Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan, and hundreds of thousands died in Sikh-Muslim attacks and then Hindu-Muslim conflict in the Punjab.

One of the ideas to implement the Partition of India to create a Muslim Pakistan was to have plebiscites in many provinces to vote on whether the Province should remain with India or be a part of Pakistan. The Punjab was the largest of the mixed religion areas in question but the Punjab governor was opposed to the idea as most of the voters were illiterate and the Pro Pakistan forces would couch the alternatives in stark religious terms to the Muslim voters who will not realize that they could remain as Muslims in India just as they were at the time. In a number of areas—Kashmir being the most notable—there were a majority of Muslims yet enough of them preferred to remain with India than be part of Pakistan as they were Islamic moderates and did not want to be part of a Muslim Pakistan that might pressure them or force them to a more rigid form of Islam. Also many valued democracy and religious freedom. Some doubted Pakistan's likelihood of thriving in its own and preferred the stability of India.

The Muslim League was demanding that the Punjab become a part of Pakistan when independence was granted later. However, the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians were all adamant that they would not live in a Muslim nation which would soon become a de facto theocracy if the British could not control them. The Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan, and hundreds of thousands died in Sikh-Muslim attacks and then Hindu-Muslim conflict in the Punjab.