History
Introduction
Pakistan emerged on the world map as an independent sovereign state in August 1947, as a result of the division of the British Indian Empire. With a land area of 796,095 sq. km. [including FATA (Federal Administered Tribal Areas) and FANA (Federal Administered Northern Areas)], its population stands at nearly 130.60 million, according to the 1998 Census. Historically, this is one of the most ancient lands known to man. Its cities flourished before Babylon was built; its people practiced the art of good living and citizenship before the celebrated ancient Greeks.
The region traces its history back to at least 2,500 years before Christ, when a highly developed civilization flourished in the Indus Valley. Excavations at Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kot Diji have brought to light evidence of an advanced civilization flourishing here even in most ancient times. Around 1,500 B.C. the Aryans conquered this region and slowly pushed the Hindu inhabitants further east, towards the Ganges Valley. Later, the Persians occupied the northern regions in 5th century B.C. The Greeks came in 327 B.C., under Alexander of Macedonia, and ran through the region like a meteor. In 712 A.D. the Arabs, led by Mohammed Bin Qasim, landed somewhere near what is now Karachi, and ruled the lower half of Pakistan for two hundred years. During this time Islam took root and influenced the life, culture and traditions of the inhabitants of the region.
From 10th century A.D. onwards, a systematic conquest of Indo-Pakistan by the Muslims from Central Asia began and lasted up to 18th century A.D., when the British colonized the Sub-continent and ruled for nearly 200 years (for 100 years over what is now Pakistan). The Muslim revival began towards the end of the last century when Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, a renowned leader and educationist, launched a movement for intellectual renaissance of the Indian Muslims. In 1930, the well-known poet/philosopher, Dr. Mohammed Iqbal conceived the idea of a separate state for the Muslims of the Sub-continent, and in 1940, the All-India Muslim League adopted the famous Pakistan Resolution.
After seven years of untiring struggle, under the brilliant leadership of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan emerged on the world map as a sovereign state on August 14, 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent states – India and Pakistan.
Ancient Civilizations
Modern Pakistanis are a blend of their Harappan, Indo-Aryan, Indo-Iranian, Saka, Parthian, Kushan, White Hun, Afghan, Arab, Turkic, and Mughal heritage. Waves of invaders and migrants settled down in Pakistan through out the centuries, influencing the locals and being absorbed among them. Thus the region encompassed by modern-day Pakistan is home to the oldest Asian civlization (and one of the oldest in the world after Mesopotamia and Egypt), Indus Valley Civilization (2500 BC – 1500 BC).
The modern state of Pakistan was established on 14 August 1947, but the region it encompasses has an extensive history that overlaps with the histories of Ancient India, Iran and Afghanistan. The region was a crossroads of historic trade routes, including the Silk Road, and was settled over thousands of years by many groups, including Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Scythians, Parthians Kushans, White Huns, Afghans, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols; the region is often referred to as “a museum of races.”
Historian and geographer de Blij Muller characterized the historical embodiment of the land when he said, “If, as is so often said, Egypt is the gift of the Nile, then Pakistan is the gift of the Indus.” The earliest evidence of humans are pebble tools from the Soan Culture in the province of Punjab, dated from 100,000 to 500,000 years ago. The Indus region was the site of several ancient cultures including Mehrgarh, one of the world’s earliest known towns, and the Indus Valley Civilisation at Harrappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
The Indus Valley Civilisation collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilisation, which extended over much of northern India and Pakistan. Successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region from the Achaemenid Persian empire around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great in 326 BCE and the Mauryan empire. The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE, and reached its greatest extent under Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture. The city of Taxila (Takshashila) became a major centre of learning in ancient times – the remains of the city, located to the west of Islamabad, are one of the country’s major archaeological sites.
Birth of Pakistan
The first proposal for a totally separate Muslim homeland was made in 1930 by the Punjabi philosopher-poet Dr Alama Mohammad Iqbal. Simultaneously a group of Muslim exiles at Cambridge University led by Chaudhri Rahmat Ali coined the name Pakistan, meaning ‘Land of the Pure, and supposedly an acronym of Punjab, Afghan, Kashmir, Sind and –Stan meaning ‘land’.
Britain in 1935 declared that provincial governments should be chosen by Indian voters, and Congress (headed by Jawaharlal Nehru) did well in the elections. By the time WW II ended India independence looked inevitable, though Muslims, ignored by the Congress, began to wonder if they could possibly get a fair deal, British proposal for autonomous Muslim regions were rejected by Jinnah, who persuaded the League in 1940 to pass the so-called Lahore or Pakistan Resolution, in essence demanding a separate Muslim State.
Subsequent elections showed the Country splitting along religious line. Dialogue grew strident and Hindu-Muslim violence began to escalate. The League called a Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946 but a massive show of Muslim solidarity degenerated in Calcutta into riots in which some 4000 people died. Britain, unable to bring the two side together and desperate to avoid a slid into civil war, Proposed an interim non-British government but Jinnah refused to serve alongside Nehru. And the killings spread. In February 1947 the British appointed a new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and announced that independence would come by June 1948.
Mountbatten, reluctantly concluding that a separate Muslim state was unavoidable, secured agreement for a patchwork of elections and legislative agreements in which all provinces and princely states would choose to join India or Pakistan. The Punjab and Bengal, with large population of both Muslims and Hindus, also had to decide whether to split in two (which they did). Mountbatten also moved the hand-over date forward 14 August 1947, leaving just 10 weeks. Events went into overdrive.