Post-colonial Relations of Britain with India and Pakistan, 1947–71

Abstract The decolonization process of Britain in India was completed with the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Because of the long colonial history in that area, it was natural that creating bilateral relations between Britain and the two former colonized parties (India and Pakistan) would be challenging and not free of issues. Furthermore, the two colonized parties were in a bitter relationship with each other. The major concern of this paper is to present the post-colonial bilateral relations of Britain with each country, India and Pakistan, between 1947 and 1971. It argues that multiple factors led Britain to maintain a balanced relationship with its former colony. These are: 1) British trade interests, 2) cold war relations, 3) wars between India and Pakistan, 4) Commonwealth issues, and above all, 5) British national interests in that region.