Critical Triangle continues......

The very first commentary that TIME magazine ran post independence of the two new states, India and Pakistan, was to claim that the people of Karachi “did not welcome Pakistan with the wild enthusiasm that swept the new dominion of India. After all, Pakistan was the creation of one clever man, Jinnah; the difference between a slick political trick and a mass movement was apparent in the contrast between Karachi and New Delhi.”Perhaps the template of what was to follow was predicted in the memoirs of William Phillips, a US diplomat who was Roosevelt’s personal representative to India, that “to break India into two separate nations would weaken both and might open Pakistan, at
least, to the designs of ambitious neighbours.” Almost immediately after independence, Pakistan would seek external balancing in one form or the other.

Pakistan hit upon one of the tactics it used to steer the relationship since then, very early on, prior, in fact, to independence. M.A.H Ispahani, a businessman from Calcutta who would go on to become Pakistan’s first ambassador to the US, advised Jinnah, “I have learnt that sweet words and first impressions count a lot with Americans. They are inclined to quickly like or dislike any individual or organisation.

Perhaps taking this advice to heart, Jinnah, in an exchange with US diplomat Raymond Hare on 1 May 1947, promptly started the conflation of interests. Talking about Pakistan’s orientation, he said that Pakistan would orient itself towards Muslim West Asia, claiming that “Muslim countries would stand together against possible Russian aggression and would look to the US for assistance.” For a US dealing with the emergent Soviet threat this played into their world view neatly. For Pakistan, this marked the beginning of, what it believed would be, its assumption of leadership in a then weak Muslim world—against a phantom Soviet “threat” to the region. In fact, the US embassy found the claim rather surprising since they were seen as opposing the demand for Pakistan, and this was an impression compounded by US support for the Jewish position on Palestine.

To be continued......