Turning 60

Courtesy BBC News

"There can be no question of coercing any large areas in which one community has a majority to live against their will under a government in which another community has a majority. And the only alternative to coercion is partition."

--Viceroy of British India, Lord Mountbatten

National newspapers' across Pakistan paint a rather depressing picture.

THE NEWS

Though a solid 60 years old today, many of its citizens would say unequivocally that the country has not been able to achieve what its founders had in mind for it. Issues of identity, religion and faith have yet to be settled, and have probably only been made worse by a spate of rulers who tried to push religion and ideology in order to legitimise their own illegal rule.

THE NATION

The anniversary reminds one that the country has failed to achieve any of the ideals enunciated by its founding fathers. Quaid-e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah wanted the new country to be a modern and pluralist Islamic democratic welfare state.

NAWA-I-WAQT

Today on the 60th Independence Day of the country we should seriously analyse why we failed to achieve the targets set for us by Quaid-e Azam and Allama Iqbal. Today we should all have to carry out self-accountability and compensate for our mistakes. Otherwise, we will lose our real goal forever.

THE DAWN

To say that we have achieved nothing over these six decades is to deny the truth. True, we have made blunder after blunder, committed terrible crimes against our own people, and in the process lost half the country in 1971. Yet the record is not all that bleak. When all is said and done, there has been progress, though, admittedly, the rate could have been faster.

ISLAM

We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of independence at a time when the country is passing through political uncertainty and a chaotic situation. Unfortunately, we are still indecisive about the system and goals of our country. The need of the hour is that we... transform the country into a real Islamic and welfare state.

DAILY TIMES

What is worrying is the pattern of instability that Pakistan has followed since its creation. The 60 years we have lived give evidence of the fact that governments have lacked legitimacy one way or another and the army has dictated terms on "national issues" it didn't want the politicians to touch.

AUSAF

If we look back at the past 60 years, we will see the instability of the democratic system as our major failure. This is the root cause of the tough challenges we are facing today... The time has come for our rulers to think maturely and take decisions for the betterment of the country and nation. Remember that no person is indispensable.

JANG

On this historically important day we demand that all the politicians, religious scholars and technocrats sit together and steer the country out of these complicated crises... All Pakistanis should unite over the common interests of Pakistan.

From BBC: Indian Independence Pictures



As partition looms, illustrator EH Shepard (of Winnie the Pooh fame) depicts the mainly Hindu Congress organisation and the Muslim League as two elephants ignoring each other in a 1946 cartoon for Punch. All images courtesy of the British Library.

This 1928 poster condemns the Simon Commission sent by London to look at India's future because it had no Indian members.

This poster shows non-cooperating Indians sitting in a tree as a soldier tries to shake them out and Mahatma Gandhi sits by serenely.

From the 1920s, Congress advocated the boycotting of British goods and the embrace of Swadeshi - the promotion of Indian products and traditional technologies.

This Congress poster depicts India as an old man having to choose from three paths: co-operation with the imperial government, violence and peaceful non-cooperation.