Partition of India: Did India pay the amount promised to Pakistan? Answer: No!

Recently I was viewing a video of Dr Shashi Tharoor's speech in 2017 at Edinburgh University to celebrate India Day where during the Q&A he was asked by a student whether or not India had paid the full amount promised to Pakistan government after the partition of the country. Dr Tharoor is a Congress politician who is well liked as an acclaimed writer by many people - both inside and outside India. I have been also one of his fans since his days in the UN. (I am a fan of his son Ishan's writings on world affairs that appears in the Washington Post.)
However, when asked to comment on the contentious issue about Pakistan, like most Indian politicians, he was not truthful and misspoke. He said that the entire amount was paid to Pakistan after Gandhi's hunger strike. He lied. The correct information is provided below, which is an Internet posting from a Hindu Indian on the subject of interest here.
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It is interesting to note that a sum of Rs 75 crores was set aside for the newly formed Pakistan as part of the compensation to be paid by Indian Government. The first installment of Rs. 20 crores had been paid; but then, the  Pakistani army invaded Kashmir which had acceded to India at the time,  and the Indian government refused to hand over the balance of Rs. 55  crores, asking for the Kashmir issue to be resolved first, since any  money given to Pakistan would probably be used for military purchases  and used against India. Gandhi was against this decision and argued that  this meant going back on an agreement made in earnest and not a good  beginning for relations between two newborn countries, and undertook a  fast to insist on paying the agreed upon money.
  • Of all monetary and liquid assets, Pakistan got 17.5% while India’s  share was 82.5%. Liquid assets included printed currency stocks, coins,  postal and revenue stamps, gold reserves and assets of the Reserve Bank  of India. This was accounted for so meticulously that there is even a  record of proportional division of Rs 75 – petty cash from a district  commissioner in an inaccessible part of Nagaland!
  • Of all movable and non-liquid assets, there was to be a division in the  ratio 80-20 between India and Pakistan. These assets included items  like all the contents inside government premises  – down to tables,  chairs, stationery, even stocks of light bulbs, ink pots, brooms and  blotting paper. Even books in government libraries were divided between  the 2 countries.
  • Railway rolling stock and government vehicles were divided in proportion  to the rail track and roadway mileage inherited by each country.
  • There are some interesting divisions that took place along with government property! Some quirky divisions are given below!
  • The Police Superintendent in Lahore divided everything equally between a Hindu deputy and a Muslim deputy – leggings, turbans, lathis,  rifles etc. The last items were the instruments of the police band.  These were split up too – a flute for Pakistan, a drum for India, a  trumpet for Pakistan, cymbals for India, till there was only 1 item left  – a trombone. Before his eyes, the deputies, who had been comrades for  years and devoted to each other, got into a fist fight to gain the  trombone for his country.
  • Sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica in the Punjab Government  library were religiously divided, alternate volumes going to each  dominion. Dictionaries were ripped apart, A-K going to India while the  rest went to Pakistan. Where only 1 copy was available for any book,  librarians were supposed to allot that book based on which country had a  greater interest in it. As a result, librarians actually came to blows  over which country had a greater interest in Alice in Wonderland  or Withering Heights.
  • Wine cellars would stay with India, as Pakistan would be an Islamic state where alcohol was haraam. However, Pakistan was to be monetarily compensated for its share of the value of the wine.
  • There was only one government press that printed currency notes and  India refused to hand that over. So Pakistan began its existence with  Indian currency notes rubber stamped "Pakistan" over "India".
  • All the money and government property that were divided were used by Pakistan government to kick start their economy and to pay salaries of government officials. The military officials had their own expenditure and was handled separately by the union of Pakistan. 
Source - Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lappiere and Larry Collins

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