History of Pakistan

One of the world's four earliest civilisations (alongside Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China). It stretched from present-day Pakistan into northwestern India, covering over 1.25 million km². Its two largest cities — Mohenjo-daro (Sindh) and Harappa (Punjab) — had advanced urban planning with brick streets, drainage systems, and granaries.

After the IVC's decline, waves of migrations and invasions shaped the subcontinent. The Aryans introduced Sanskrit and early Vedic religion. Persia's Achaemenid Empire extended into the Indus region (Gandhara province). Alexander the Great crossed the Hindu Kush and reached the Jhelum River in 326 BC — the easternmost point of his empire.

The arrival of Islam in the subcontinent is traditionally dated to 712 AD, when the 17-year-old Umayyad general Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir of Sindh at the Battle of Aror. This is considered a turning point — Islam was established in Sindh and parts of Punjab, laying the cultural foundation for what would become Pakistan.

After Mahmud of Ghazni's raids (1000–1027) opened the northwest and Muhammad Ghori's conquest (1192), the Delhi Sultanate emerged as the first major Islamic empire in the subcontinent. It comprised five successive dynasties and ruled much of northern India and modern Pakistan for over 300 years.

The Mughal Empire at its peak (under Aurangzeb, d.1707) controlled about 25% of global GDP — the largest economy in the world. The empire gave the subcontinent its most iconic architecture, a unified legal system, and Persian as the court language, all of which shaped the cultural identity of Pakistan.

After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the empire rapidly fragmented. Weak successors, internal rebellions (Marathas, Sikhs, Rajputs), Nadir Shah's devastating 1739 sack of Delhi, and the rising power of the British East India Company all combined to hollow out Mughal authority. By 1803, the Mughals were British pensioners in Delhi.

The British East India Company (EIC), chartered in 1600, transformed from a trading company into a colonial power after the Battle of Plassey (1757), where Robert Clive defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula of Bengal. By 1849, after defeating the Sikh Empire at the Battle of Gujrat, the British had annexed all of modern Pakistan.

Called the "War of Independence" by Pakistan/India and the "Sepoy Mutiny" or "Indian Rebellion" by British historians, the 1857 uprising was sparked by the introduction of greased cartridges (rumoured to use pig and cow fat) — deeply offensive to Muslim and Hindu soldiers. It spread across northern India but was crushed within a year. Its aftermath fundamentally changed the subcontinent.

After 1857, Muslims were economically and politically marginalised. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan recognised that the only path forward was modern Western education combined with loyalty to Britain. He believed Muslims and Hindus were two separate nations — a seed of the Two-Nation Theory. His Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh (1875) became the intellectual cradle of Pakistan.

The partition of Bengal (1905) by Lord Curzon galvanised Muslim political consciousness. The Simla Deputation of 1906 — 35 Muslim leaders led by Aga Khan III — met Viceroy Lord Minto to demand separate Muslim electorates. This led directly to the founding of the All-India Muslim League in Dhaka on 30 December 1906 under Nawab Salimullah Khan.

Allama Iqbal — Pakistan's national poet — gave the idea of a separate Muslim homeland its first clear political articulation. In his 1930 Allahabad Address as ML president, he envisioned a consolidated Muslim state in northwest India. Though he did not use the word "Pakistan," his vision directly inspired the Lahore Resolution of 1940.

The Lahore Resolution, passed at the ML's annual session at Minto Park (now Iqbal Park), Lahore, on 23 March 1940, formally demanded independent states for Muslim-majority regions in northwest and northeast India. Presented by A.K. Fazlul Haq (CM of Bengal), it did not use the word "Pakistan" but its demand was clear. It is why 23 March is observed as Pakistan Day.

The Indian Independence Act (18 July 1947) partitioned British India into two dominions: India (15 August) and Pakistan (14 August). Pakistan was born as a geographically divided nation — West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bengal) separated by 1,600 km of Indian territory. The Radcliffe Line, drawn in just five weeks, caused the largest mass migration in history.

Pakistan faced enormous challenges at birth: millions of refugees, disputed borders (Kashmir, Junagadh, Hyderabad), no functioning capital, and an undivided colonial administrative apparatus to split. The deaths of Jinnah (1948) and Liaquat Ali Khan (1951) removed both pillars of leadership, leaving a weak political system that enabled bureaucratic and military dominance.