356 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
India. Consequently, the attempt to shift boundaries merely to include more of one’s fellow members is, I think, utterly misdirected.
Defence
Secondly, the problem would have been local, if Pakistan and India were not two Sovereign Independent States. The fact, however, is that they are, and each will have to defend itself against encroachment or invasion, should an occasion arise.
In this view of the matter, the partition of the Punjab and Bengal is not a local problem but an all-India problem, for it involes the fixation of the frontiers of Pakistan and India and must be determined primarily by considerations of facility of defence and administration.
In the light of these considerations, the Government of Pakistan and that of India would not only be the proper parties before the Boundary Commission, but they will be the necessary parties. The boundaries between Pakistan and India being the frontiers of India, it was for the Defence Department of the Government of India to have insisted that the Boundary Commission should have military officers asassessors which is always done in the settlement of frontiers between two States.
Not only has the Defence Department of the Government of India failed to do so, it has not even cared to appear before the Boundary Commission to present the case from defence and administration points of view. It seems to have forgotten that the maintenance of the frontier will not be the responsibility of the East Punjab or West Bengal. From first to last, it will be the responsibility of the Government of India and it was, therefore, the primary concern of the Defence Department to have its say in the fixation of the frontiers.
Natural Boundaries
No one can deny that from the point of view of defence and administration, boundaries between Pakistan and India must be natural boundaries, i.e. they must run along a river or a