Memories of the bloody partition of India and Pakistan are surfacing as both countries celebrate 70 years of independence on the 14/15th of this month. The end of British colonial rule in 1947, as in Palestine, was a botched, rushed affair with a poorly thought out decision to separate the sub-continent into a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India. 15 million felt the need to relocate in haste as ethnic-cleansing violence was spread by militia groups, creating overwhelming refugee crises with over a million dead – and leaving a legacy of bitterness and hostility that plagues Indo-Pakistan relations today.
Prior to Britain’s empire-building takeover for commercial gain from the 18th Century onwards, there had been an Indo-Islamic world that hosted a fusion of influences from central Asia and local cultures. That was dismantled under the Brits and totally destroyed by partition.
Queen Victoria declared herself Empress of all India on 1 January 1877. That chart has a money-oriented, brutal and determined Mars in Scorpio in the 2nd opposition a controlling Pluto in the 8th squaring onto Uranus; and as an echo of the UK chart has a Capricorn Sun on the IC and a Cancer Moon in the 10th.
In 1947 tr Neptune was moving to square the 1877 Sun and conjunct the Ascendant and square the MC, hinting at the widespread chaos that followed the dissolution of colonial rule. Tr Uranus was just over the sudden-separation square to the Solar Arc MC and Solar Arc Sun; with a panicky Solar Arc Mars square the 7th house Neptune, creating massive suspicion of neighbours. The Solar Arc North Node had moved to oppose the 1877 Mars and conjunct Pluto in the three years prior as pressure mounted for independence; and was heading to square the 1877 Uranus. With tr Jupiter also moving to conjunct Mars, oppose Pluto and square Uranus. So a definite change of destiny, some elation at the separation but more fear and confusion. With the Solar Arc Venus also impacting on the Mars opposition Pluto square Uranus, ramping up the emotional heat.
Pakistan declared independence on 14th August at 9.30am putting a volatile Uranus Mars on the midheaven. While India took independence at midnight into the 15th, giving it an inward-looking, lower-hemisphere chart, ambitious for money, but lacking a strong sense of identity with Node on the Ascendant. Both charts have a stellium in Leo of Mercury, Venus, Sun, sitting amidst the challenging Saturn Pluto conjunction which Liz Green describes as the struggle to overcome. Saturn Pluto is tough, enduring, resistant to change, defensive, obsessive, with a self-destructive streak, prone to dramatic life events. Israel born nine months later also has Saturn Pluto even more highlighted sitting in their 10th, along with Mars and Moon in Leo. Burma also gained independence around the same time in January 1948. All four countries also have the North Node in Taurus which tends to be over-reactive to the slightest threat. So all have similar traits and have faced in different ways a long and difficult struggle to find stability.
Is it really possible to set an auspicious date or chart? There are always difficult influences in every moment, in very person and countries have their own personalities, dont they?
Certainly it’s more than possible though it is tricky setting an auspicious chart. As soon as you get one or two planets in the right place, others aren’t where you want them. I’ve done it sometimes for babies where there’s an elective caesarean. It can get rid of what might problematic house positions vis a vis health etc.
Setting for a project or a country is marginally different. But you’re always working within the parameters of a few days when the planet positions bar the Moon are what they are. People aren’t normally pleased to be told to delay for several months.
This is fascinating. Given the fact that India has a strong and long history of Vedic astrology, it is odd that a more favorable time wasn’t chosen for the beginning of the post-colonial era.
Burma was supposedly launched at 4.20am in 1948 set by an astrologer which given its subsequent trajectory suggests a not v good stargazer.