paper

= **Decision Process Analysis** = The place called Hindustan was one of the first places colonized by early humans as they migrated out of Africa. Those early migrants found a wide variety of biomes in which to live and prosper--coastal mangroves, dense rain forests, open arid lands, and fertile river valleys. Advancing and retreating monsoons brought life giving rainfall to Hindustan twice a year. The sheltering Himalayan mountains provided a barrier against sever winters and captured snowfall to feed two massive river systems all year long. These two river valleys were colonized by ancient civilizations for thousands of years. Over the millennia, as the climate evolved, the civilizations both prospered and failed. They were invaded from the west, the north, and the east, enriched, devastated, and rebuilt over and over again. The layering of these invasions created a patchwork of communities across the continent, organized by a panoply of religious views. Dominant among the religions were Hinduism and Islam.

During the imperial expansion of the rich and well armed nation-states of Europe in 1500s, pockets of Hindustan were colonized by the Dutch, the Danish, the Portugese, and the French. By the mid 1800s, Britain East India Company had gain control over much of India, gaining power by pitting religious sectors against one another. By 1920s, the ideological clash between Islam and Hindu was intense. The prophet of Islam sought to organize governance based upon monotheistic religious statehood. The multiplicity of Hindu gods were not connected to statehood. The British took advantage of the inherent tension between these two groups to gain power by providing a cruel but stable peace. As the idea of democracy spread across Europe and America, the devil on the shoulder of colonial rule stiffened its resolve with violent repression of native uprisings. The angle on the shoulder of the democratic despot, however, willingly educated the sons of the colonized's elite on the principles and processes of democratic rule at Cambridge and Oxford. Three of these sons returned to Hindustan and began cultivating the democratic ideals they had learned abroad. Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah brought a deep comprehension of democratic governance home to India. In short order, an all indian national congress was organized to help the Viceroy rule over India.

After the turn of the 20th century, the shifts in the geopolitics of the world triggered two world wars. During this reorganization of world power, huge holes were ripped in the stronghold of colonia rule, the seeds of of self rule sprouted and leapt toward the light. In the desperation wrought by the second war, Indian democracy was strong enough to bargain with the British Raj--the Indian army would fight for Britain in exchange for independence at the end of the war. With a clearly defined enemy outside of India, the multi-ethnic Indian army was united. Muslim, Hindus, and Sikhs fought side by side. When the Allies accepted the surrender by the German and Japanese armies in 1945, Britain was forced to fulfill her pledge of independence. In the rush to fill the power gap left by the British, communal violence erupted all over India. Muslims, under represented in the Indian National Congress, used violence to demand a larger piece of the power pie. The King sent Lord and Lady Mountbatten to begin the transition toward Indian independence in February, 1947.

1. India was crackling with instability in 1947. Gandhi was internationally known for having shamed the most powerful empire in the world to leave willingly and peacefully leave Hindustan. Jinnah was congealing power for a separate state for the underrepresented Muslim population in India. Nehru and Patel were struggling to prepare for a peaceful transfer of complete and total self rule. Violence between Muslims and Hindus was erupting in the power shift in which hundreds of people were killed. The Mountbattens wanted to make the end of British rule as clean and just as possible.

2. In order to quell the communal violence AND grant independence, several alternatives were on the table. Jinnah was insistent that a separate Muslim state be created along with Independence. Nehru and Patel were intent on ruling over a united India. Churchill advocated Britain hold on for an indefinite period in order to keep her influence and maintain peace. Mountbatten suggested Hindustan be divided into a coalition of self ruled by federated states. Gandhi advocated giving all control over Hindustan to the least powerful Jinnah.

3. The written, signed and sealed documents specified independence with Nehru as prime minister of an Indian state and Jinnah prime minister of a Pakistani state. All national assets were to be divided between India and Pakistan 80%-20%. The boundary between the two countries was to be divided by a British civil servant using a 1941 census.

4. In the first implementation of the decision, "t he territories were provisionally divided by "notional division" based on simple district majorities. In both the Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary Commission consisted of two Muslim and two non-Muslim judges with Sir Cyril as a common chairman. " Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and a total of 14 million people were uprooted from their homes and wealth as a result.

5. In a un-claimed tribal attack of Kashmir, the boundary between Pakistan and India was disputed. The line between the two countries has yet to be decided and has been the cause of continued bloodshed, violence and fear for 60 years.

6. The gains: A Muslim state was created in between Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The losses: In an effort to quell violence on a scale of hundreds of people, violence was visited on hundreds of thousands of people and 14 million people were turned into homeless refugees, overwhelming the major cities in both India and Pakistan.