PAKISTAN
The Country, The Acronym
“Pakistan,” in Urdu, means “Land of the Pure” (“Pak”
means “pure” and “-stan,” of course, means “land”).
Modern Pakistan formed on August 14, 1947,
following the partitioning of India. However, the first
use of the word “Pakistan” comes a decade earlier,
from Choudhy Ramat Ali, a Muslim nationalist
who advocated a separate Muslim state in the
subcontinent.
Ali published his “Now or Never” pamphlet on January
28, 1933 as an appeal to the British government,
writing of how 30 million Muslims wished for
independence. These citizens were from the following
regions: Punjab, Afghan Province, Kashmir, Sind,
and Baluchistan. Combining their letters gives the
acronym “PAKSTAN.”
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
The Hyphen War
feeling it diminished their importance.
They wanted a hyphen added, as it would
symbolize a connection.
A hilarious dispute arose after the fall
of Communism in Eastern Europe. The
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ruled
by the Communist regime for the last 30
years, had fallen in “The Velvet Revolution,”
a bloodless coup. Local politicians set to
work on what the new democracy should
be called.
The new proposal calling the country
the “Czecho-Slovak Republic” did not
sit well with the Czechs, who hated it.
Even Winston Churchill himself disliked its
usage, saying that “one must regard the
hyphen as a blemish to be avoided
whenever possible.”
The first idea was to drop the word
“Socialist.” The new nation would be
known as the “Czechoslovak Republic,”
which had been one of its older names.
But Slovak politicians did not like the idea,
The citizens returned to the drawing
board, with the Czechs and Slovacs now
each using their own name. In Czech,
the country was the “Czeskoslovenska
federativni republika,” without a hyphen.
In Slovak, it was “Czesko-slovenska
federativna republica,” with a hyphen. A
month later, it was changed to “Czech
and Slovak Federative Republic”—this,
too, was not satisfactory.
This Hyphen War only truly was settled on
January 1, 1993. Facing conflicts on how
to run the country, politicians just gave
up and decided it would be in everyone’s
best interest for the two nations to split up.
Everyone was finally happy. Just as the
area had peacefully become democratic
due to the Velvet Revolution, this peaceful
split became known as The Velvet
Divorce, creating the Czech Republic
and Slovakia.