Out here in the Indian Ocean, there is a lot of emptiness. But if you scan long enough….you will see something right here. Between The Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. You’ll see a cluster of incredibly remote bits of land, Hardly peeking out of the ocean. This is the Lakshadweep Archipelago, spread over 36 islands. Half a thousand kilometres from any landmass. And today this chain of archipelago belongs to The Republic of India. But in the year 1947, the newly created nation of Pakistan out of Indian Subcontinent tried to steal these tropical Islands from India.
Before we start Lets look in the history of the Indian Subcontinent. And how the Race to this archipelago began at first place. After WW2, the UN had been founded and one of the first things that it undertook. Was decolonizing the map basically getting all these empires to wind down their rule over their colonies. So the British started leaving much of its territory abroad downsizing its empire. So, when the British left India, British divided India into the dominion of India and a separate dominion of Pakistan for Muslims. But the British also created the third dominion, the dominion of 565 princely States. And these 565 princely states were given the option either to join the dominion of India or dominion of Pakistan. And these create a race between the two countries to merge these states,such as Jammu and Kashmir, Patiala, Jodhpur, kalad, Bhopal, Hyderabad so on. Such one of the state was the islands of Lakshadweep. And in between these races of annexation, The Lakshadweep Islands lies in the Arabian Sea just north of the Maldives. The History of the Lakshadweep and the ethnicity of its populace are closely linked to the neighboring regions of Kerala and the Maldives. This gives the Islands a unique character and according to two-nation theory, it had more likelyhood of becoming part of pakistan. Hence, the newly formed Government of Pakistan, the Liaquat Ali Khan administration did try to make this remote and tropical archipelago a southern extension of Pakistan in the Indian Ocean. The exact dates are not confirmed but sometimes at the end of August 1947, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan ordered the Royal Pakistan Navy to send a warship to Lakshadweep south from Karachi. The distance between Karachi and the islands are 1,726 kilometers, a couple of days’ sailing. And on reaching Lakshadweep, the Pakistan Navy would raise the Pakistani flag to annex the islands and set up an airport to establish a connection between Lakshadweep and Karachi. So, the Royal navy of Pakistan left the port of Karachi for The Islands of Lakshadweep. And in the mind of Pakistani leaders these will be a quick and easy victory.And New Delhi will not be able to do anything for these islands. Hence, the race for Lakshadweep began. Mean While in New Delhi. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Deputy Prime Minister of independent India in charge of Home as well as States Ministry. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who got the Intel regarding Pakistan Navy left Karachi Port and the warship was heading for South in the Indian Ocean.So on getting this information Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel got worried about these Pakistani warships. But Soon he Realized that they were heading for Lakshadweep islands. And because of the partition of India, The India army was not completely reorganized and the army was 2000 km north of the islands. Seeing the situation of gravity,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had sent an SOS message to Mudaliar brothers to convey the collector of Travancore (Today’s Kerala) to instruct the police officials and the employees to go to Lakshadweep with whatever arms were with them. His instruction was to take possession of the islands 500km west to the border and hoist the Indian national flag there. “If the police forces have no firearms with them, they can take lathis with them but somehow take possession of the area.” So once the information reached to Kochi, Kerala from New Delhi. The two Indian Policemen went on a boat to Lakshadweep, to complete their mission. They knew that they were going against an armed, Pakistani Warship and Pakistani navy was just a hundred kilometers away from Lakshadweep. Once, The two Indian Policemen reached the island's capital, they were looking for the Pakistani presence on the island, seeing no presence of Pakistani on the island of Kavaratti. The Indian policemen raced from the beaches to Kavaratti’s port to hoist the Indian tricolour. And the race to the archipelago was over! And India won the Race. But now the question was can these two Indian Policemen will be able to defend themselves against the armed Pakistani Warship over the horizon. Answer was NO! So how these two Indian policemen were able to save Lakshadweep from Pakistani navy? Soon after the flag-raising ceremony, they found a warship with Pakistan flag and Pakistani Marking sailing towards Lakshadweep with the intention to take over the Muslim majority the area in the Arabian Sea. But the Pakistani dream to capture Lakshadweep was shattered after they watch the Indian National Flag and as the Pakistani Captain of the warship feared the heavy presence of Indian Navy and Indian Army and in order to avoid an armed conflict. Pakistani Warship preferred to take a U-turn and sail back to Karachi home base empty-handed. And for the promptness in the action on the Indian side. Either wise the strategic area of Lakshadweep must have been part of Pakistan forever. And this was the story of how Pakistan tried to steal Indian Islands.
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