India Needs New Goals as the Global Order Resets

It was May 12, 1947, a day characterized by hectic parleys in hushed tones in the corridors of power in London; newly elected Prime Minister Clement Atlee was meeting military commanders at his official residence at 10, Downing Street.

- Shashi Shekhar

Along with all three chiefs of services, the legendary World War II hero, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, was also present, as were some foreign policy experts. They were there to discuss India's independence and its eventual partition.

These men thought that India as a nation had socialistic impulses. If it were to be given independence in the undivided form, chances were that the storm of Communism that began in Moscow may end up on the shores of the Indian Ocean. They considered it a mortal threat to British interests. They wanted to create a buffer state between the Soviet Union and India, which could do their bidding in the region. Pakistan was created on August 14, 1947, and became a Western puppet. India, meanwhile, took the path of non-alignment on August 15, 1947.