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On the 14th and 15th of August, 1947, British India gave
rise to new independent Dominions of Pakistan and India respectively, with
both dominions joining the British Commonwealth. However, the ill conceived
and controversial decision to division of Punjab and Bengal, two of the
biggest provinces, between India and Pakistan had disastrous consequences.
This division created inter-religious violence of such magnitude that
exchange of population along religious lines became a necessity in these
provinces. More than two million people migrated across the new borders and
more than one hundred thousand died in the spate of communal violence, that
spread even beyond these provinces. The independence also resulted in
tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The
post-independence political history of Pakistan has been characterised by
several periods of authoritarian military rule and continuing territorial
disputes with India over the status of Kashmir, and with Afghanistan over
the Pashtunistan issue.
In 1948, Jinnah declared in Dhaka that Urdu would be the only state language
of Pakistan. This sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan),
where Bengali was spoken by most of the population. The Bengali Language
Movement reached its peak on 21 February 1952, when police and soldiers
opened fired near the Dhaka Medical College on students protesting for
Bengali to receive equal status with Urdu. Several protesters were killed,
and the movement gained further support throughout East Pakistan. Later, the
Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as a state language of
Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution.
In 1953 at the instigation of religious parties, anti-Ahmadiyya riots
erupted, killing scores of Ahmadi Muslims and destroying their
properties.[57] The riots were investigated by a two-member court of inquiry
in 1954, which was criticised by the Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the parties
accused of inciting the riots.[59] This event led to the first instance of
martial law in the country and began the inroad of military intervention in
the politics and civilian affairs of the country, something that remains to
this day. |
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