Bilateral Relations Between India and Pakistan, 1947- 1957
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo THE FINALITY OF PARTITION: BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN, 1947- 1957 Pallavi Raghavan St. Johns College University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Faculty of History University of Cambridge September, 2012. 1 This dissertation is the result of my own work, includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration, and falls within the word limit granted by the Board of Graduate Studies, University of Cambridge. Pallavi Raghavan 2 ABSTRACT This dissertation will focus on the history of bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. It looks at how the process of dealing with issues thrown up in the aftermath of partition shaped relations between the two countries. I focus on the debates around the immediate aftermath of partition, evacuee property disputes, border and water disputes, minorities and migration, trade between the two countries, which shaped the canvas in which the India-Pakistan relationship took shape. This is an institution- focussed history to some extent, although I shall also argue that the foreign policy establishments of both countries were also responding to the compulsions of internal politics; and the policies they advocated were also shaped by domestic political positions of the day. In the immediate months and years following partition, the suggestions of a lastingly adversarial relationship were already visible. This could be seen from not only in the eruption of the Kashmir dispute, but also in often bitter wrangling over the division of assets, over water, numerous border disputes, as well as in accusations exchanged over migration of minorities. Much of the discussion on Indo- Pakistan relations was couched in adversarial and often vitriolic terms, both within the structures of government and in the press. Yet, given this context, there was also a substantial amount of space for cooperation between the two governments, and a closer scrutiny reveals that this space was explored by both sides. The logic of this cooperation was to find means of trying to ‘finalise’ the partition of India, and avoid prolonging its consequences. This deep seated drive to establish the legitimacy of both new state structures compelled a substantial degree of bilateral cooperation even in the face of daunting odds which favoured a violently hostile relationship. Thus, I argue that bilateral responses and mutually adversarial positions, were not inevitable or even unavoidable, but were in fact more contingent, and often taken despite the presence and articulation of a viable alternative. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS THE FINALITY OF PARTITION: BILATERAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN, 1947- 1957 ..................................................................... 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 8 NOTE ON SOURCES ............................................................................................................ 20 CHAPTERISATION ............................................................................................................... 22 THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH OF PARTITION ........................................ 25 AGENCIES OF THE PARTITION .......................................................................................... 28 ESTABLISHING TWO SEPARATE FOREIGN OFFICES ....................................................... 37 INDIA, PAKISTAN, AND THE WIDER WORLD ................................................................... 51 INTER-DOMINION APPROACHES TO MOVEMENT AND MINORITIES ...................................................................................................................................... 61 INTER-DOMINION DELIBERATIONS ................................................................................ 64 SETTING UP THE BILATERAL MACHINERY ...................................................................... 80 PROPAGANDA AND THE NO WAR PACT CORRESPONDENCE ....................................... 93 DEVELOPMENTS IN EAST PAKISTAN ............................................................................. 105 TRADE AND FINANCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN .............................................................................................................. 112 SHAPING TWO SELF SUFFICIENT ECONOMIES ............................................................. 113 STERLING BALANCE NEGOTIATIONS AND THE DEVALUATION CRISIS .................... 123 INTER-DOMINION TRADE ............................................................................................... 133 DELINEATING THE BOUNDARY LINE ........................................................ 147 CREATING A BOUNDARY ................................................................................................. 149 IMPLEMENTING THE BOUNDARY LINE .......................................................................... 162 THE INDUS WATER DISPUTE: A NEW INTERPRETATION ............................................ 170 BILATERAL NEGOTIATIONS ON EVACUEE PROPERTY ....................... 185 OFFICE OF THE CUSTODIAN OF EVACUEE PROPERTY .................................................. 191 EVACUEE PROPERTY CONFERENCES .............................................................................. 196 4 ROLE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONS ............................................................................... 212 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................... 230 PRIMARY SOURCES .................................................................................................... 230 SECONDARY LITERATURE ...................................................................................... 235 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 244 I. CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR AGREEMENTS IN INDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS, 1947- 1957 .......................................................................................................................... 245 II. TEXT OF APRIL 1950 INTER-DOMINION AGREEMENT ON MINORITIES ........... 248 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Joya Chatterji, without whose unwavering generosity and intellectual stimulation, the quality of this thesis would have been, quite simply, inferior. Dr. Chatterji’s unfailing discernment and immediate grasp of the possibilities in various half-formed threads of argument has enabled me to tackle this dissertation with a greater confidence as well as pleasure than would otherwise have been possible. Her supervision strengthened this dissertation greatly, and I have benefitted enormously from her guidance. I have been fortunate in receiving a great deal of extremely valuable feedback: I would like to thank Professors Indivar Kamtekar and Radhika Singha for their suggestions and encouragement for the development of this idea, initially in JNU, as well as later, while writing up. Professors Kanti Bajpai, Tan Tai Yong, and Gyanesh Kudaisya have offered a great deal of help on how I could tackle the various questions my dissertation raised. I would also like to thank Dr. Humeira Iqtidar for her patience and kindness in helping me navigate the first few terms in Cambridge, as well as for her encouragement in helping me to enlarge and develop the sets of questions that this thesis seeks to address. Finally, I would like to thank Professor Jayati Ghosh and my aunt Dr. Namita Ranganathan for their enormous patience, support and encouragement over the years: in the various ways, without their involvement, I could not have completed a PhD. A graduate student becomes familiarised with the workings of libraries and archives. She begins to get a sense of the routine and set of concerns that archivists and librarians have, and develops a fondness for the familiar faces she sees in the course of research. Andrew Jarvis, Newal Osman, Rohit De, and Tariq Omar Ali have provided much needed breaks from the archival grind with their companionship, intellectual stimulation, and the obscure—and yet penetrating—conversations that only fellow graduate students can have. I would also like to thank the staff of the various libraries and archives for showing me friendliness, and indulgence over those long days occupied with dusty files and fading handwriting, and for finally showing me the ‘shortcuts’ to the archival processes. This applies in particular, to Kevin Greenbank, in the Centre for South Asian Studies, and to Jaya ‘Ma’am’ in the National Archives of India. I would also like to thank Mr. A. S. Bhasin for his enormous help and generosity, in helping me navigate the Archives and Records management Section in the Ministry of External Affairs. The generosity of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the Cambridge Nehru Scholarship enabled my stay in Cambridge to be both happy and comfortable. I have also received funding from the Members Fund, Charles Wallace Trusts, Smuts Fund, Prince Consort Funds, and Members Funds and St. Johns College: this assistance has been hugely beneficial to the quality of the dissertation, and allowed me to pursue