Chapter 2F: The period between the two World Wars is not when independence was won

Chapter 2F: The period between the two World Wars is not when independence was won. It is the period which made independence inevitable.

There were now three groups:

– BN and the Lahore Club. They rode traditional businesses from Kabul to Kanpur – extending to Calcutta and Dhaka in the east to Chennai and Cochin in the South. They were insiders in the British govt. They sought autonomy, unrestricted access to the Indian market and wanted to replace the European financiers. They were fascinated by this experiment called “democracy”. Their idea of keeping the British on a tight leash was to support the creation of a complete ecosystem that would eliminate the need for external funding of a new autonomous nation. They didn’t mind titular monarchs. Australia was born from that vision.

– Aga Khan and the Lutyen Club. They were not in business. They were supported and funded by the European financiers. They were no longer insiders. They sought the creation of a Muslim nation controlled by them. They had no interest in democracy. The members were educated in some of the finest academic institutions. Eaton. Cambridge. Oxford. Some like Aga Khan did nothing. Others like Jinnah practiced law. Their model was dictatorship. A small group using the army to keep control. As long as financiers were available, there was no need to build or run businesses. Pakistan is that vision in practice.

– Gandhi, Nehru and the Bombay Club. During the First World War, the British saw wisdom in distributed manufacturing. Opium traders like the Parsis and the Birlas were entering manufacturing. Their sole agenda was the removal of the British.

What they would do after that, they had no clue. We still don’t.

The creation of Pakistan is the failure of the Lahore Club. They lost all they had in the fight they could not win. The Lahore Club was about economic independence for a United India. One that would extend into Tibet in the north, Australia in the South, Singapore in the east and Afganistan in the west.

The Bombay Club was set up in 1830. It was a startup club based in Byculla Bombay, near the port. It helped young Britishers to set up and run businesses in the India UK corridor. By 1930, the Bombay Club had temporarily aligned with the Lahore Club. It was an alignment that did not last.

Two groups – both with common financiers from Europe – decided to share the loot. And keep one country each.

The Aga Khan cast the winning dice. Pakistan would be a pure Muslim nation. But the rest of India would not be a pure Hindu nation. The contours of this future play were becoming visible to the Lahore Club.

Aga Khans financiers were creating the League of Nations. Which then became the United Nations.

To counter this, the Lahore Club supported:

Lal Pal Bal

The Lion of Punjab. The Tiger of Bengal. With BN as the zoo keeper.

Bal died in 1920. Lahore Club lost its Bombay rep. It was a post they could not fill. And it was a death that led to the Partition.