Editing Great Game (section)

== Effect of the Great Game on contemporary political boundaries ==

=== On India ===
Narendra Singh Sarila, aide-de-camp to Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last [[Viceroy of British India]], in 1948 describes in his book ''The Shadow of the Great Game'' that based on his research in The Oriental and India Collection of [[British Library]] that the partition of India was partially connected to the Great Game between Britain and the USSR. He stated the following in his book:<blockquote>Once the British realized that the [[Indian nationalist movement|Indian nationalists]] who would rule India after its independence would deny them military cooperation under a British Commonwealth defence umbrella, they settled for those willing to do so by using religion for the purpose. Their problem could be solved if Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League Party, would succeed in his plan to detach the northwest of India abutting Iran, Afghanistan and Sinkiang and establish a separate state there – Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sarila |first=Narendra Singh |title=The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India's Partition |publisher=[[Constable]] |year=2005 |isbn=978147212822-5 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=8–9 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

Lawyer and mediator in Supreme Court of India, Aman M. Hingorani in his book ''Unravelling the Kashmir Knot'' that Winston Churchill directed [[War cabinet|War Cabinet]] to assess 'the long-term policy required to safeguard the strategic interests of the British Empire in India and the Indian Ocean', the report in respect of which was submitted on 19 May 1945. He states in the book:<blockquote>The report emphasized that 'Britain must retain its military connection with the subcontinent so as to ward off the Soviet Union's threat to the area', citing four reasons for the 'strategic importance of India to Britain'—India's 'value as a base from which forces could be suitably deployed within the Indian Ocean area, in the Middle East and the Far East'; it serving as 'a transit point for air and sea communications'; it being 'a large reserve of manpower of good fighting quality'; and the strategic importance of the northwest region to threaten the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hingorani |first=Aman M. |title=Unravelling the Kashmir Knot |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]] |year=2017 |isbn=9789351509714 |edition=2nd |location=New Delhi |pages=57–58 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>