The Guardian has an 'explainer' about the India-Pakistan conflict that manages to avoid stating that the border between the countries was originally drawn by an Englishman who had never been to India and signed off on in a hurry by Lord Mountbatten because he had to get back to Britain for a party.
May 7, 2025 11:31The history of the British Empire, an explainer: Once they had extracted everything they could from their colonies, they set them free, but not before first drawing crude ill-considered boundaries that would ensure at least a century of bloodshed by 'those damned Paddies/wogs/whatever" would follow.
Thank you to everyone replying to this with jokes about Mountbatten being killed by the IRA because of his paedophile activities in Ireland, you make Bluesky the only social media site worth spending time on.
As a rule of thumb, when something goes shit outside Europe it is always some Englishman's fault (sometimes Frenchmen, Belgians, Italians or Germans may be involved, but putting the blame on the English is almost always right)
was it a children's birthday party
Oh very good, very dark and very good.
Brits, never not at it. My teenager was reading me out the list of where the Kneecap movie had distribution and it was very geographically widespread, I couldn't figure what niggling at me til I copped that everywhere on it had been colonised and then partitioned by the Brits.
I feel like pretty much every evil in the world can be attributed to either Reagan or the brits
Shit, America is also entirely the brits' fault
the Irish knew how to deal with people like Mountbatten
Lord Mountbatten AKA one of the IRA's sweetest victories
I’m sure there was a Mitchell and Webb /Armstrong and Miller sketch about the British empire dividing up countries using ‘nice straight lines’ and ‘a good ruler like at school, none of that following rivers or mapping ethnographic boundaries nonsense’
I’m no fan of the English, but it’s getting a bit old blaming something on them that concluded three generations ago. Also very belittling of the 2 states that are there, as if they are non-adults unable to talk, compromise and come to an agreement about those issues.
Shades of Palestine
Between this and the fact Lord Mountbatten was a pedo... not too sorry over the fact he got blown up by the IRA in 1979.
The British were certainly often up to no good in colonial India, however, it's more nuanced than your summary. Radcliffe does clearly shoulder some responsibility, however he himself objectived to the short timeframe for border drawing, which was pressured partly by Nehru and Jinnah
The Guardian has let me down with their reporting and opinions of late. They are really bootlicking the establishment including the royal family. It’s weird and disappointing.
Oh, well. Saving me money as I stopped contributing. I gave up the post and the times. They’ll be easy.
Monty was the quintessential aristocratic twit. Thanks to the 'RA, he received his due.
The British border in Ireland is similarly stupid.
and similarly has cost innocent lives for over a century now
This is why I read their shit for free and will never pay them.
Interesting isn't it that Britain's previous "divide and conquer" approach to exiting the Empire has presented us with the chaos we have today.
Of course, no doubt Reform will suggest a return to the days of Empire would be best approach as clearly "Johnny foreigner" can't cope running things.
"Hey Siri, what was the partitioning of India?"
Pretty much the story of the Middle East too.
Priorities, priorities...
Thats right 🌹
my explainer to people is to recall how 3 guys met two times in 1945 and made a map of the world with many imperfections. in spite of many years and elections we are still trying to improve on that agreement.
Lol
Ah, you say that like it was a bad thing man... parties matter.
Mountbatten certainly left a legacy, sigh
If you want a listenable explanation of partition and the characters involved give this a go
open.spotify.com/episode/2eFd...
Partition – Part One – Before Midnight
Origin Story · Episode
At the root of every problem in the world is the British Empire (and France, and USA).
Free Palestine
Africa for Africans
This user blocks the author of the focused post.
Strongly recommend a recent
@originstorypodcast.bsky.social pod on Partition. Incredibly insightful story about a bunch of different people all seeming to be doing their damnedest to make a hash of things
This user is blocked by the person they're replying to.
Yeah, made by the guys who were all in on preventing the UK from having a socialist PM a few years ago? Thank you but I will skip it.
Those pesky lines!
[This post was deleted]
The Old Sailor, as Private Eye used to call him, loved a party.
Especially if there were boys in short pants at it
