Neither country inherited a monarchy or ruling family. Both countries were rural and primarily agrarian-based. Neither region was rich in any natural resource and neither country had any history of any type of democratic process. Both countries had poor literacy rates and a large majority religion: Islam and Hinduism, respectively. India was made up of over fifteen disparate regions. Both countries were a combination of princely states and semi-autonomous regions with a multitude of spoken languages. Pakistan was made up of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Bangladesh, and the Northwest Frontier Provinces. The more I thought about it, the more commonalities I came up with. Both countries had a strong political class borne out of the struggle for independence from Great Britain, and both countries had identified a charismatic leader with strong credentials and the public support of their respective constituencies (Jawaharlal Nehru and Ali Jinnah). Both countries inherited a British civil service architecture, an intact local government system, and an intact British railroad system for communication and transportation infra-structure.

Both countries started off at the exact same time, August 14-15, 1947. For many weeks, the question bothered me. My friend then asked a simple question: If India and Pakistan were cut from the same geographic and ethnic cloth, and since both countries started off at the same time with the same parliamentary-style system, why is India a vibrant democracy today and Pakistan a political basket case?Īt the time, I did not have a good answer.

We talked for a while about the history of the region and the cultural differences of the two countries.

Thus, my friend assumed that I should be knowledgeable about both sides. I am a Punjabi Sikh born and raised in the US, and all of my family is originally from what is now current day Pakistan, but moved to what is current-day India as a consequence of Partition (the splitting of India by the British at the time of Independence). I was having dinner with a friend of mine, and he asked me what were the key differences between Indians and Pakistanis.

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