>A lot of countries went right downhill after the British upped sticks. Although that was probably just because the British took everything of value with them when they left.



And sometimes that was nascent nationalism at work. At partition in 1947, My grandfather had worked his way up from being a guard to deputy traffic controller for what today would be the entire Pakistan Railway network. He was invited to stay on as a ticket collector. Similar stories abound, instances where the newly-minted nations felt the need to cut the umbilical too quickly and throw the baby out with the mixed metaphors.