Many events throughout history have been preserved in Ramadan’s chronicle over the years. Al-Hal Net tracks them for you and highlights the most notable events associated with Ramadan’s historical memory.
In today’s installment of the “Happened in Ramadan” series, Al-Hal Net recalls the most important events of 27 Ramadan that took place in the region and around the world, whether in modern history or in earlier decades and centuries.
Pakistan’s separation from India
On the 27th of Ramadan in 1947, Pakistan separated from India, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah was appointed to lead it.
The reasons behind Pakistan’s separation from India are many and complex. The two countries fought several wars that left thousands dead and wounded, and tensions between them persist to this day.
More than 70 years ago, Britain’s withdrawal from India signaled the end of the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent.
Britain withdrew from a region that was then considered the most important jewel in its imperial crown, but it left behind two independent countries, and that partition process resulted in one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century.
The demographic makeup of India before the separation was different. In earlier times, the Indian subcontinent was divided into two major geographical parts: Sindh and Punjab on the one hand, and India on the other. Sindh is the area surrounding the Indus River, which was known as the “Mehran River,” and it rises in Kashmir.
The term “Partition of India” does not cover Bangladesh’s separation from Pakistan in 1971, nor the earlier separation of Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from British Indian administration. The term also does not include the political integration of the princely states into the new sovereign entities, nor the annexation or partition disputes that arose in the princely states of Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Jammu and Kashmir. Nor does it cover the integration of the enclaves of French India into India during 1947–1954, or India’s annexation of Goa and other districts of Portuguese India in 1961. Other political entities in the region in 1947, such as the Kingdom of Sikkim, the Kingdom of Bhutan, the Kingdom of Nepal, and the Maldives, were not affected by the partition.
Agreement between Abdul Salam Arif and Mustafa Barzani
On the 27th of Ramadan in 1964, an agreement was signed between Iraqi leader Abdul Salam Arif and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani to stop the fighting between the two sides.
More than 57 years have passed since what is known as the “10 February Agreement,” which provided for a ceasefire between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces and for granting the Kurds self-rule in northern Iraq.
The agreement came after fierce fighting between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces led by Mustafa Barzani, following a military campaign launched in 1961 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim against Barzani’s strongholds after the latter insisted on self-rule.
The Iraqi government and the Kurdish movement signed the 10 February 1964 agreement after the Baathists overthrew Qasim in 1963 and appointed Abdul Salam Arif as the new president of the Iraqi Republic. It included several clauses, most notably the Iraqi government’s recognition of the Kurds’ national rights in the country’s proposed constitution.
It also included the release of detainees and those held over the northern incidents, the issuance of a general amnesty law, the lifting of seizure orders on movable and immovable property, the restoration of local administrations to the northern regions, the reinstatement of Kurdish employees and workers to their jobs, the lifting of restrictions on the sale of basic commodities, the immediate start of reconstruction in the northern region, and compensation for landowners whose lands were flooded.
The agreement stipulated that all relevant ministries would issue the decrees, orders, and instructions necessary to implement its provisions. Meanwhile, on 14 February 1963, the Iraqi government released members of the Kurdish delegation whom it had detained in Baghdad since 9 June 1963.
But the agreement was not implemented at the time because of international interference and splits within the Kurdish movement, and fundamental disagreements began to emerge between Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani and his supporters on one side, and Ibrahim Ahmad and Jalal Talabani on the other. The latter two then split from the Kurdistan Democratic Party to form the party’s Political Bureau.
On 11 March 1970, the Kurdish autonomy agreement was signed between the Iraqi government and Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani. The Iraqi government recognized the Kurds’ national rights and provided guarantees for their participation in the Iraqi government and the use of the Kurdish language in educational institutions. Since then, no decisive solution has been reached regarding the issue of Kirkuk, which remained unresolved pending census results to determine the proportions of the different ethnic groups in the city.
