US-South Asian relations, 1940-47 : American attitudes toward the Pakistan movement

## PreJace The State Department, shunning its routine correspondence with its representatives in the subcontinent, became slightly more active in 1946-7, when it began to support the cabinet mission plan for a single federal India. Subsequently, however, Pakistan was accepted as a sovereign Muslim state. The limited and partisan information on the subcontinent, further handicapped by the Gandhi-Gunga Din syndrome, caused an enigmatic attitude toward Pakistan. Jinnah (calIed the Quaid-i-Azam by his followers) was frequently discussed in the American press but conscious efforts to find another Gandhi in hirn confused the American media. The necessary result: Jinnah, to them, looked more like 'us' (Americans) and less like 'them' (Indians). Similarly, the United States Congress never went out of its way to discuss or take adefinite stance on South Asia -and the few solitary voices such as Emmanuel Celler of Brooklyn were pro-INC. Nevertheless, the American factor encouraged the South Asians throughout their political struggle. The decade before independence seems to be the threshold in the US-South Asian bilateral contacts that began in 1784, with the arrival of the first American ship, Uni ted States, at Calcutta. US-South Asia Relations, 1784-1940: A Historical Perspective, (Islamabad 1987) takes into account the commercial, diplomatie, political, intellectual, migrational, religious and media aspects of that bilateralism. The present study is an effort to study in depth the personalities, events, and institutions at the time when the Indian Muslims were pursuing their struggle for Pakistan -a country that was to enjoy a doser relationship with the USA in the subsequent decades. It is almost impossible to acknowledge the assistance and contributions of all the individuals and institutions in the preparation of this book. Colleagues at the Quaid-i- Front Matter....Pages i-xi The Pakistan Movement: A Prologue....Pages 1-7 The Second World War and the Britain-USA-Subcontinent Axis....Pages 8-27 America Encounters the Subcontinent: Bilateralism and Tripolar Diplomacy....Pages 28-60 From Pearl Harbor to the Cripps Mission....Pages 61-80 Missions At the Crossroads....Pages 81-107 The Congress ‘Revolt’ and American Concern....Pages 108-139 William Phillips’ Sojourn in the Subcontinent....Pages 140-169 Checkmated Bilateralism: Efforts Towards an Apolitical Relationship....Pages 170-195 End of the Raj — End of an Era?....Pages 196-221 The US Congress and the Subcontinent....Pages 222-237 The American Press and the Pakistan Movement....Pages 238-257 Epilogue or Prologue?....Pages 258-264 Back Matter....Pages 265-322 Based on archival material in the United States, United Kingdom and Pakistan, this book focuses on the foundations of patterns in international relations between the US and Pakistan which came to pervade post-1947 United States-Pakistan bilateralism.