Was Pakistan better than India before 1971 war?
Not only 1971 but till late 80s the people of Pakistan were living a better life than average Indian. Their economy was strong because they were getting billions of dollars from USA in aid. The Aid was not only in military but in other fields too. Every years 4–5 billion dollars were coming from USA alone. Then there was Saudi Arabia which on the name of Islam was providing economic aid to Pakistan.
The Pakistani Government could spend on infrastructure because its defence and education expenditure was taken care of by USA and Saudi Arabia. They have also annexed Balochistan, so their minerals requirements were fulfilled from that region.
India on the other hand was trying to come out of poverty. There were not enough resources or raw material, so ration, permit, quota etc were introduced. At the same time Pakistan and China were eyeing our land because they thought we were poor and weak. So we had to maintain high Defence expenditure and fight 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars.
USSR was big help. The technology was not that modern. It was heavy, power consuming, and big. But we could pay in Rupees or in kind. The trade payment was all on paper. It means instead of paying for every import deal in cash, it was settled against the export deals from India. At the end of the year the accounts were settle and forwarded to next year. The USSR was more important to our survival then many could visualize now.
But from late 80s when Rajiv Gandhi became PM, the situation changed. Rajiv was more western looking. He embraced technology. Indians proved to be more tech savvy then world could believe. Subsequent Govt were short lived so we suffered again. But then year 2000 onward our economy improved and we surpassed Pakistan.
What was the one main reason ?
Ans: India stopped helping terrorism on its land, and Pakistan started supporting it. Indian governments in the past supported Saint Bhindrawala and Prabhakaran. We lost one PM each for these stupidity. So India decided to harbor no more training ground to such separatists.
On the other hand after 1971 was Pakistan realized that they cannot win against India in conventional war. 1974 saw India becoming nuclear state. so they were further demotivated to fight a conventional war. So they tried the policy of “bleed India through thousand cuts” and started supporting terrorist activities in India. They started terrorist camps inside Pakistan. Initially they were supported by USA as an ally in Afghanistan. Pakistan raised and supported Talibani fighters with the help of USA. But then USA got fed up with Afghanistan and had no use for Pak terrorists.
The Pakistani scientists were smuggling technology and equipment all over the world to fulfill their nuclear dream. Till this time USA was not very much affected by terrorism so they were only paying lip service to Indian concerns.
But then 9/11 happened. And Pakistan got alienated. India on the other hand was a rising economy willing to befriend USA. This changed the equation. The US aid stopped and as a result the Pakistani economy collapsed as it was based on foreign aid.
This is the story in nutshell.
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