|
||
|
|
|
|
The Two Pakistans (and a bit more!)
Scarce pictorial tourist map of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, issued by the Pakistani Ministry of Commerce in 1966.
This is a German-language issue of a map that appeared two years earlier in English.
The map also said that it was published by Elite Publishers Ltd. of Karachi, based on maps from the Survey of Pakistan.
The inset maps are perhaps even more interesting than the general maps.
One inset, on the West Pakistan side, includes Manavadar State in Gujarat as a Pakistani territorial claim within India. In 1947, Manavadar acceded to the newly formed Pakistan, however, Indian troops entered the area and a plebiscite was held in 1948 reversing the previous decision. Pakistan still officially maintains a territorial claim to the area.
A further inset on the same side says much about South Asian geopolitics: Kashmir is indicated to be a contested territory; the borders between India and China are also shown to be contested; Junagadah & Manavader are labeled as Pakistani territory (though, curiously, "Manawader &" is clearly added in as a printed amendment to an earlier base map); Hyderabad is shown as a polity separate from India, which is called by its alternative name ("Baharat", which should instead be Bharata); additional printing has taken place to obscure Somaliland and recognize only the Somali Republic, with the whole area printed to obscure the previous border. The State of Somaliland (1960) officially existed for only 5 days before it was merged with the former Trust Territory of Somaliland to create the Somali Republic.
The map is a study in how seemingly trivial matters of toponymy and territoriality can be vitally important for mapmakers to get right, given the right geopolitical tensions and contexts.
East Pakistan would convert to Bangladesh in 1971.
![Tabula Asiae XI [Southeast Asia]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/95794.jpg)
![[ Postal Map of India ] India Shewing The Post Roads And Dawk Stations By James Wyld . . .](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/99685.jpg)
