283. Partition: East Pakistan Becomes Bangladesh (Part 6)

Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnhem. And me, William DeRimple. Today we're going to do a bit of the part. Story that's probably the least familiar to many listeners. I think it's true to say that when people think of the map of South Asia being formed, they think of 1947, 1948, all the different tumultuous events that led to the creation of India and Pakistan.

But what we often forget is that the actual map on the map today, the lines which are drawn demarcating territories today, was formed as recently as 1971. Sam, do you want to open by giving us a a brief picture of what has happened since we left the last episode with the accession of Kashmir to India? So let's begin in 1950. A UN brokered ceasefire has left Kashmir divided informally between India and Pakistan, with both countries claiming the entire territory. but only being in control of half of it.

And suddenly there are two nation states where once there was one British India and 565 princely states. And I think we tend to imagine this as, you know, two nations born from blood, each hating their sibling. But actually, one of the surprising things I think to come out of the research that I did on this is quite how much both sides move to reconcile. After the UN brokered ceasefire. So there's a lot of newly declassified intelligence files that have suddenly become available in the last couple of years.

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