NOVEMBER 2019 27
except that the agreement contained a
ticking time bomb. Notice that I said
“all parties” in that first sentence,
something to pay attention to both
then and now in anything concerning
India, which despite its Hindu majority
contains many religious minorities,
and in that year the largest, Muslim,
constituted 25% of the population.
The foundation of the independence
agreement was actually the partition
of India into two states, India and
Pakistan, which might sound nice,
except that Muhammad Ali Jinna,
who convinced Lord Mountbatten of
the reasonableness of this move and
became the first Governor-General of
the new majority Muslim country, was