[pm90]

> E.g. Pakistan separated from India over religion, and Bangladesh separated from Pakistan over language.

Minor nit, it was more "culture" or "ethnicity" than language, although language was perhaps the most defining feature. It seems that the Punjabi Pakistani's looked down upon their (then) countrymen of Bengali heritage.

[selimthegrim]

There's no seems about it. If you speak Urdu the following link will be instructive

https://youtu.be/J-7j6O_whYA?t=1m8s

I transcribe the key part here (1:08-1:48):

Nisar: We had a great bureaucrat, a senior intellectual, Qudratullah Shahab who has a book called Shahabnama (an autobiography). (he relates from the book) In the 1950s, the Americans had given, as was their custom, sanitary goods as charitable donations in bulk. In a few cabinet meetings, Bengali ministers said "Let us have a share from this." The potbellied, large mustachioed (this is a Punjabi stereotype) West Pakistani ministers made fun of them and said "What do you lot need a commode for, you can go behind a banana plant" This was the manner of dealing with them.

[aaron-lebo]

Come on! Isn't the defining separating feature that huge chunk of land called India? :p

[pm90]

I can't tell if you're insinuating that India split the country...yes, once the War started, India did help Bangladesh gain independence. Prior to that however, it was the West Pakistani's who were responsible for incredible atrocities against the Bengali people living in (now) Bangladesh[0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Blood#The_Blood_telegra...

[aaron-lebo]

Well, it was an admittedly lame joke about how the biggest division between Pakistan and Bangladesh is literally India.

Had India not been separating the two, it would have been much easier for West Pakistan to use repression or other means to hold down Bangladesh as long as they'd like.