Partition

The partition of India into the two independent states of India and Pakistan created strategic anomalies. India lost the advantage of its own geographic position, which had placed it across the Arabian Sea close to the sea lanes leading to the Persian Gulf in the west and astride the Bay of Bengal adjacent to Southeast Asia on the east. Pakistan, divided by one thousand miles of Indian territory, was considered virtually indefensible without a powerful ally—most obviously, the United States. As the Cold War took hold, India’s potential as a great power counted for less than Pakistan’s strategic location close to the oil fields of the Middle East. Nehru believed India’s decision to join the British Commonwealth protected India from sloping too much toward the United States.