Watch: Implementing the Indo-Pak Partition

Happymon Jacob is in conversation with Pallavi Raghavan, Assistant Professor at Ashoka University. They discuss the unique arguments she makes in her new book Animosity at Bay: An Alternative History of the India-Pakistan Relationship.

The conversation focuses on how the newly-created India and Pakistan, despite a great deal of animosity, decided to cooperate with each other. The discussion evaluates whether it was the common cultural and institutional affinity that prompted cooperation between the two adversaries in the 1950s or whether it was due to their 'shared faith in the creation of Westphalian states’.

The discussion also revolves around the significance of the Nehru-Liaquat pact, its provisions for flexible sovereignty and the remarkable collaboration to reassure minorities on both sides.

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