The name of Pakistan means "Land of the Pure". It is composed of four provinces. Today we will visit the southern two, Sindh and Balochistan.
There have been two visits to Pakistan on this blog. " Where India Began", August 2022, was about the Indus River Valley civilizations in ancient times. Then there was "Lahore And The Mughals", November 2022.Early civilizations began in river valleys. There was the Nile River in Egypt and the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia. In the Far East there were civilizations around three rivers, all of which became part of China.
The Indus Valley might have hosted civilizations on a scale with Egypt and Mesopotamia, meaning the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. But the tectonic collision that formed the Himalaya Mountains is still ongoing. We can see how vulnerable the area is to natural forces by the Pakistani earthquake of 2005 and the flood of 2010. The Indus Valley did, however, produce the early civilizations of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
The area of the Indus River Valley, what is now Pakistan, was later part of Alexander the Great's conquests and was part of Hindu and Buddhist civilizations. It was conquered by the Muslims, the Umayyad Caliphate, in the Eighth Century.
The independent nation of Pakistan was proclaimed in 1947 but really goes back to the Muslim conquest of the area in the Eighth Century. It was part of other Muslim empires after that, particularly the Mughals as we saw in " Lahore And The Mughals".
The Mughals were linked to the Mongols and then the Timurids, as we saw in "Why We Should Understand The Mongols", May 2016.
Being the part of India that was closest to the Middle East, it made sense that the northwestern part of the country would have the highest concentration of Muslims. As the colonial era drew to a close, the All-India Muslim League formed with the goal of a homeland for Muslims, separate from the Hindu majority.
Muhammad Iqbal is regarded as the poet of an independent Pakistan while Muhammad Ali Jinnah is considered as the father of the country.
On the momentous day of August 14, 1947 both India and the new country of Pakistan became independent. Pakistan, at the time, consisted of two halves, East and West Pakistan, which were separated by about 1,600 km of Indian territory.
The division of what had been India into two countries is referred to as the Partition. Hindus left what was now Pakistan and Muslims left India for Pakistan. About eleven million people moved altogether.
I won't go into detail here but during the Partition of India Hindus and Muslims were not always very nice to each other.
But yet the two countries are forever linked. India is named for the Indus River Valley in what is now Pakistan. Urdu is the primary official language of Pakistan, even though it is the first language of less than ten percent of the population. Urdu is actually the same spoken language as India's Hindi. If the two languages are considered as one, called Hindustani, it is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin and English.
But Hindi and Urdu are different in script. Urdu is written in a variant of the Arabic alphabet, while the Hindi script is descended from Sanskrit.
Have you ever stopped to think that, since the natives of the western hemisphere are called Indians because Christopher Columbus mistakenly thought he had landed in India, and India is named for the Indus River in Pakistan, the river has given it's name to all of the natives of the western hemisphere?
All native Indians of the western hemisphere are ultimately named for the Indus River of Pakistan.
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This is why religion is so important to Pakistan. When the new nation of Pakistan was announced, possibly the majority of Muslims in what is now India chose to just stay where they were. Muslims in India today, about fourteen percent of the population, are actually the largest minority in the world. It was the most religious people among Muslims who chose to leave for Pakistan.
The vast majority of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims. But there are a significant number of Shiites. Remember, as we saw in our visit to Delhi, that the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah passed through what is now Pakistan on his way to Delhi. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was from a Shiite family, although there are reports that he later converted to Sunni Islam.
My explanation for why the Partition of Pakistan from India had to happen is seen in the posting on this blog, "Understanding The World In Terms Of The South And West And The North And East", April 2016.
Basically this is the primary division of the world. The North And East is where essentially the same nations have existed since ancient times and are based on the eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The South And West is where nations come into existence for new ideas and are based on the monotheistic ( one god ) religions, Christianity, Judaism and, Islam.
I see this as the primary boundary of the world and the border today between India and Pakistan is the most active frontier on this boundary. Pakistan, the South And West side, is a new nation that came into existence for an idea, and that idea is the monotheistic religion of Islam. India, the North And East side, is an ancient nation with the eastern religion of Hinduism.
This boundary, between the South And West and the North And East, I see as the most important boundary in the world. The Catholic-Orthodox split, and all of it's ramifications over the past thousand years, that we saw in the compound posting, "The House Of Holy Wisdom Where The Modern World Began", January 2016, and the Catholic-Protestant split, form sub-boundaries in the South And West, but this is the most important boundary.
Many Pakistanis live abroad, particularly in nearby countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. More than a million people in Britain, including the prime minister and current mayor of London, have roots in Pakistan.
Pakistan is a member of the Commonwealth. More than a quarter of the nation's of the world are members. Commonwealth nations do not exchange ambassadors between themselves because they are not really "foreign" to one another. Instead, each Commonwealth country appoints a "high commissioner" for each of the other Commonwealth countries.
Cricket is Pakistan's national sport. The country was so thrilled by it's victory in the 1992 World Cup final against England that the captain of the Pakistani team, Imran Khan, became the prime minister of the country.
But if I see the name of Pakistan the first thing that I think of is chapati. If I had to choose a food, and it would be the only food that I could have for the rest of my life, it would be an easy choice. I have referred to chapati here before. Chapati and tea is life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapati#/media/File:2_Chapati_warm_and_ready_to_be_eaten.jpg
Pakistan was founded in 1947. But it really goes back to when the Umayyad Caliphate conquered the area in the Eighth Century. The Umayyads built the two mosques that stand today on the Temple Mount, as we saw in the posting on this blog, "Esau And The Temple Mount", February 2016. Mansura was the Umayyad capital of Sindh, which is today one of the provinces of Pakistan.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow before you can move onto the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you so wish.
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.8815738,68.7760197,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNdbXCFDBBrXSYYawIQ4KwchKxLXs_p_5NAowQN!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNdbXCFDBBrXSYYawIQ4KwchKxLXs_p_5NAowQN%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya324.5728-ro-0-fo100!7i5472!8i2736
Karachi is Pakistan's largest city. It was founded in the Eighteenth Century as a city and is today one of the few largest cities in the world.
Mechanization made agricultural more efficient people migrated to growing cities like Karachi to work in industry. The disruption in the cotton supply caused by the U.S. Civil War led to it being shipped from Karachi, which is a port on the Arabian Sea. Karachi, like Mumbai, benefited from the opening of the Suez Canal.
Karachi grew because of conflict elsewhere. When Muslims from across India poured into Pakistan after the Partition, a logical destination was the country's largest city. Many more refugees came because of the conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.
The first of the following scenes of Karachi is at the mausoleum of the founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.8750958,67.041,3a,75y,263.48h,94.91t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNv0OACFiNV9XOaGgjjz2yNuHBRg5zwO34hnOBI!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNv0OACFiNV9XOaGgjjz2yNuHBRg5zwO34hnOBI%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya211.30338-ro0-fo100!7i4608!8i1666
This is central Karachi.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.8458558,66.9913794,3a,75y,180h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNrrK9AYJipqtrhbr-Xvhsw4iOXBnsDz9Rh2hwt!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNrrK9AYJipqtrhbr-Xvhsw4iOXBnsDz9Rh2hwt%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya284-ro-0-fo100!7i4096!8i2048
Here is more of Karachi.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.8471438,67.0516651,3a,75y,40h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO99A02pumztLvtldD4QsYu2SfB0v3Y_NRW10wL!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO99A02pumztLvtldD4QsYu2SfB0v3Y_NRW10wL%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-9.734807-ya349.3864-ro-1.4182079-fo100!7i5760!8i2880
Frere Hall is a well-known building of Karachi.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.8471513,67.0328702,3a,75y,276.4h,120t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPPZq4iZErhVMzjZVSfLGjAarmn9XDqVk76tRyi!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPPZq4iZErhVMzjZVSfLGjAarmn9XDqVk76tRyi%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-30.000002-ya211.5882-ro-0-fo100!7i7260!8i3630
Clifton is a neighborhood of Karachi.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.8336674,67.0320766,3a,75y,60h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMBvvOsTiBS16JmB08pYkOPRNgV415RXO8c9tSM!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMBvvOsTiBS16JmB08pYkOPRNgV415RXO8c9tSM%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya310-ro0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120
This is the Lucky One Mall.
https://www.google.com/maps/@24.9321896,67.0872167,3a,75y,253.98h,89.34t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMOfzwSJvXRDaJYkrtd7TZJ9twYLVhlA-2PGWP0!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMOfzwSJvXRDaJYkrtd7TZJ9twYLVhlA-2PGWP0%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya298.8051-ro-0-fo100!7i5660!8i2830
Hyderabad is another city of Sindh Province that was founded in the Eighteenth Century. There is also a city in India named Hyderabad, which we have already visited.
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.3847294,68.3648911,3a,75y,40h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN5b3Sp5xYEHj7FwOg4BAd7CJFsOsPwyuMLzU4Z!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN5b3Sp5xYEHj7FwOg4BAd7CJFsOsPwyuMLzU4Z%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya359-ro-0-fo100!7i7070!8i3535
Here is more of Hyderabad.
https://www.google.com/maps/@25.3857053,68.3396401,3a,75y,340h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPPHaFQeBum3fixIwg58JPGI7wzBTDtLGxzDxcJ!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPPHaFQeBum3fixIwg58JPGI7wzBTDtLGxzDxcJ%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya340-ro-0-fo100!7i5472!8i2736
Quetta is the major city in Pakistan's province of Balochistan. This is the province in the west of Pakistan that is vast but sparsely populated.
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2043028,67.0122137,3a,75y,90h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNQKP7elWBEQvl2VN7-HYFTqsf192TinTKgMYm_!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNQKP7elWBEQvl2VN7-HYFTqsf192TinTKgMYm_%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya330-ro-0-fo100!7i8224!8i4112
This is more of Quetta.
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1926008,67.007708,3a,75y,20h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOIq8Zt1hob8Ttgegxyfw1cJVy5MBm5TmmRnP-E!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOIq8Zt1hob8Ttgegxyfw1cJVy5MBm5TmmRnP-E%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya104.00001-ro-0-fo100!7i6144!8i3072
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