Partition: Good or Bad

Growing up I always felt that the partition of India and Pakistan was a huge mistake, the and the ill-effects of it are visible to this day. And especially the constant wars with pakistan made me feel that if we were one But looking at the mess in Iraq, I was forced to reconsider my thoughts. I now think, was it really a mistake? would things have been worse otherwise?
The situation in Iraq is such that the two major Islamic sects, (which are almost equal in number) at this time cannot exist together. Under the Sunni Saddam Regime, there was order in the country bcoz the shia's were always oppressed, and had no say in the government. But now it is a power struggle, and neither sect would want to give away even a part of the power. And it makes me think that since they cannot exist together it is better they live seperately in their own different countries.
Could the partition situation in our country been handled better? What if the country was not split? Would it have been a better place to live in or would we have had an Iraq like situation?