Factors Pushing Pakistan into a Federalist State: Mapping the Pre and Post-Partition History

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ID: 336305
2026
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Abstract
The British was the only power that maintained effective control and unity over the entire subcontinent, but instead of establishing a single national government at all-India level, the British government preferred to rule over various provinces of India in isolation to each other owing to the socio-political, economic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversification present in length and breadth of this vast territorial region hence Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru believed that the unity infused by the British was only an administrative unity to maintain effective control over the territory and the region lacked true political unity. Mr. Jinnah too believed that India was never a country or a nation but a subcontinent of different nationalities hence diverse affiliations must be acknowledged and handled by all sides as a reality. Alongside, among the five provinces which constituted Pakistan in 1947, only Bengal was a Regulation Province and the rest were Non Regulation Provinces whereas Balochistan was not even a province but comprised of different types of territories, including a Chief Commissioner's Province. Other than having a common colonial ruler, these provinces did not have any common identity, except religion, and lacked an experience of living together which could be helpful in the process of nation building in the sovereign independent state of Pakistan. In the absence of such qualifications for nation building, it seemed desirable that the federal solution could be the best to create these with a passage of time hence the state moved forward accordingly, nevertheless, the separation of East Pakistan in 1971, and the resentment and unrest in the smaller provinces of the present day Pakistan, is viewed from the perspective of the problem of federalism. Based on this background, the instant study revisits the circumstances which were inherited by the state of Pakistan in 1947 and which necessitated that Pakistan ought to opt the federal form of government. It concludes that the failure to apply a well-designed and effective federal mechanism in the multiethnic state of Pakistan was responsible for many of the political upheavals and the ever-persistent problem of national integration in Pakistan.
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Authors Hira Arshad
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Journal Pakistan Social Sciences Review
Year 2026
DOI
10.35484/pssr.2026(10-II)10
URL
https://ojs.pssr.org.pk/journal/article/view/1267
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