India and Pakistan, 1946–1991

Because of the struggle after the First World War and the weakening effect of the Second, Britain decided to leave India. When no agreement was reached between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, British India was partitioned into two states: Pakistan became independent on 14 August 1947 and India on 15 August. Partition caused the movement of millions of people and mass violence (estimates of the dead range from hundreds of thousands to a few million); on 30 January 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. In India, under Jawaharlal Nehru, the constitution that came into force on 26 January 1950 created the basis of a parliamentary democracy and a secular state; in foreign policy Nehru followed non-alignment, at home industrialisation relied on the public sector, and in the 1960s–1970s the “green revolution” increased grain output. India and Pakistan fought wars in 1947–1948 and 1965, mainly over Kashmir, and in 1971 over the crisis in East Pakistan; in January 1966 the Tashkent Declaration was signed in Tashkent with Soviet mediation; after the war of 1971 East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh. Under Indira Gandhi (prime minister 1966–1977 and 1980–1984) a state of emergency was in force in 1975–1977. In Pakistan there were military coups in 1958 and 1977 (General Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq), and in 1988 Benazir Bhutto became the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world.