Pakistan-India Relations from Partition to 1971

The Pakistan-India relationship is, in many ways, the defining bilateral relationship in South Asia. Born of a violent partition in 1947, it has shaped both countries' foreign policy, military doctrine, economy and politics for over seventy-five years. This lesson covers the formative period — from Partition to the 1971 war that created Bangladesh.

The painful birth, August 1947

Partition under the Indian Independence Act 1947 divided British India into the new Dominions of India and Pakistan on 14 August 1947. The Radcliffe Award — drawn by Sir Cyril Radcliffe in five frantic weeks — separated Bengal and Punjab along communal lines.

The human toll was staggering:

The Kashmir war, 1947-48

The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir signed the Instrument of Accession to India on 26 October 1947, following the tribal entry from Pakistan. Indian troops were airlifted to Srinagar on 27 October, and the first Indo-Pak war lasted until the UN-brokered ceasefire of 1 January 1949.

This conflict — covered in detail under the Kashmir topic — fixed the central territorial dispute between the two states and created the Line of Control that still divides Jammu and Kashmir today.

Canal water dispute and the Indus Waters Treaty

Partition cut across the rivers of Punjab. Pakistan's irrigation depended on the Indus and its five tributaries — the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — but the headworks of the eastern rivers were on the Indian side. India briefly stopped water flow in 1948, demonstrating that physical control gave it leverage.

After nine years of World Bank-mediated negotiations, President Ayub Khan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru signed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in Karachi on 19 September 1960.

• Eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) allocated to India.
• Western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) allocated to Pakistan, with limited Indian rights for non-consumptive uses.
• Permanent Indus Commission established to handle technical disputes.
• Neutral expert and Court of Arbitration procedures for disputes.

The IWT is remarkable for having survived three wars (1965, 1971, 1999) and remains in force, although Indian threats to suspend it after the 2016 Uri attack — and again after the 2025 Pahalgam attack — have raised concerns in Pakistan.

The 1965 war

Tensions over Kashmir, the Rann of Kutch dispute (April 1965) and Pakistan's perception of an opportunity created by India's 1962 defeat against China combined to produce the second Indo-Pak war in August-September 1965.

• Operation Gibraltar — Pakistani irregulars infiltrated Indian-administered Kashmir in August.
• Operation Grand Slam — armoured push toward Akhnur to cut the Jammu-Srinagar highway.
• Indian response opened the international border across Punjab, attacking toward Lahore and Sialkot. Major tank battles fought at Chawinda and Asal Uttar.
• Ceasefire on 23 September 1965 under UN Resolution 211.

The war was a stalemate militarily, but politically devastating for Pakistan because:

1. The hoped-for uprising in Kashmir did not materialise.
2. The US arms embargo on both belligerents hurt Pakistan disproportionately, as Pakistan's military was more US-equipped.
3. Pakistan accepted the Tashkent Declaration (10 January 1966) restoring the pre-war status quo, perceived domestically as failure to translate battlefield resilience into political gain.

The Tashkent Declaration

Brokered by Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at Tashkent on 10 January 1966, the declaration:

• Restored pre-war territorial positions.
• Committed both sides to "peaceful coexistence" and non-use of force.
• Established consultative mechanisms for dispute resolution.

PM Lal Bahadur Shastri died of a heart attack in Tashkent the same night. Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto publicly broke with Ayub Khan over Tashkent and resigned in 1966 — beginning the political agitation that ended Ayub's rule.

The 1971 war and the creation of Bangladesh

The most consequential of the three wars. The roots lay not in Kashmir but in the internal politics of Pakistan:

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won 160 of 162 East Pakistan seats in December 1970 — an absolute National Assembly majority.
• Yahya Khan and Z.A. Bhutto delayed transfer of power; negotiations failed in March 1971.
• Operation Searchlight (25 March 1971) — military crackdown in East Pakistan triggered civil war and refugee flow into India.
• Indian intervention began with covert support for the Mukti Bahini, then formal military action from 3 December 1971.
• Fall of Dhaka, 16 December 1971 — surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers and creation of Bangladesh.

Dhaka is now the free capital of a free country. We rejoice in their freedom.

The Simla Agreement, 1972

After eight months of POW captivity and tense diplomacy, Z.A. Bhutto and Indira Gandhi signed the Simla Agreement on 2 July 1972.

Key provisions:

• Resolution of disputes through bilateral negotiations — Pakistan accepted, India argued this superseded the UN framework for Kashmir.
• Line of Control — the 1949 ceasefire line, slightly modified, was formalised.
• Repatriation of POWs and recovery of territory lost in the war.
• Pending the final settlement, neither side shall unilaterally alter the situation.

The Simla framework — bilateralism, LoC respect, non-unilateral change — remained the operational diplomatic frame between the two countries for the next four decades, although both sides have repeatedly tested its limits.

The cumulative effect

By 1972, the Pakistan-India relationship had crystallised around:

1. Territorial disputes — Kashmir, Sir Creek, Siachen.
2. Strategic competition — military doctrines built primarily against each other.
3. Adversarial identities — partition memory and post-1971 trauma reinforcing distrust.
4. Bilateral frameworks (Simla, IWT) without trust to give them content.

The next lesson covers the nuclear era (1974-98), the Kargil and 2008 Mumbai crises, the brief 2003-07 thaw and the 2019 Pulwama-Balakot episode that defines the current frozen relationship.