The question that haunts India’s policy makers and Indians alike is, can India and Pakistan ever live in peace? Here are some reasons that make it difficult.
1. The partition of India has its roots in Islamic ethos. It goes back to the Prophets journey from Mecca to Madina in 622 A.D. in the face of persecution and harassment known as Hezira. This concept is acknowledged as a norm, to the effect that Muslims do not live in tyranny or oppression from peoples of other faiths. Where Islam is not dominant, Dar-ul-Harb must be created. The Muslim ethos does not seem to accept being part of a pluralistic, multi-dimensional where they are not dominant elements.
Sir Muhammad Iqbal said, “I would like to see Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single state. Formation of a consolidated Muslim state appears to be the final destiny of the Muslims at least of North-West India.”
The demand for Pakistan came from areas where there were sizeable minorities wanting to escape from anticipated Hindu domination. The concept of Hezira got translated into sub-continental politics.
2. According to Dr Ambedkar, the Muslim leadership of India desired a separate country because of social stagnation, communal aggression and frustration of the Muslim masses. Thought the desire was met it was flaunted.
3.Not getting the whole of Punjab and Bengal, Jinnah talked about having got a moth eaten Pakistan. Muslim ruled states of Junagarh, Hyderabad and Bhopal became parts of India. This generated bitterness. Sardar Patel’s success in integration of the Princely States compounded the frustration.
4. After Partition, while India got involved in the process of nation building Pakistan floundered with the death of Jinnah and the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan. The country was taken over by bureaucrats, military dictatorships and political parties. Since nearly one third of the Muslims stayed back in India, the social, cultural connections with the overall sub-continental phenomena could not be obliterated. Pakistan had no option but to continuously harp on its Islamic identity. India’s psedo secular experiment had to be prevented, made to fail.
5. The 1971 defeat with the breaking away of East Pakistan only aggravated the problem. The fear of Hindu domination came alive. This is what goaded Pakistan to break Punjab from the Indian union.
6. Inspite of all its problems, India was nudging along at a leisurely pace, the performance of Pakistan power structure only increased the hostility. The failure in organizing a political system that was responsive to the needs of the Pakistani people,the nexus between the army, the landed elite and the business class made the average Pakistani frustrated. The only way of diverting public attention was the real or imagined threat from India.
7.Another contributing factor was the attitude of resentment of Zulfikar Bhutto. His mother was a Hindu converted to Islam. Married into a Sindhi Vadhera family, she and her son were never allowed to forget their infidel origins and lesser social background. Bhutto had many rejections in India on the social and sports fields (he stayed on in India till 1951-52). This generated bitterness in him and got reflected in his hatred for India.
8. Another reason was the political, economic and military support by Western nations notably the U.S.
9. China believes that the best way to contain India is by supporting Pakistan. It has consistently supported it with arms and nuclear technology.
10. The base of the education system there is frighteningly fundamentalist thereby poisoning the minds of young students against India. Read article titled ‘Pakistani Studies Textbooks Can Cause Cognitive Dissonance in Students’ by Yvette Rosier Click here.
11. The problem is that Pakistan continues to equate itself with India overlooking the size of her economy, growth, population and defence needs for e.g. when India tested the bomb in 1998 it responded with its own tests in months. Desire for parity comes at a huge economic cost that Pakistan can ill-afford. It was also very visible in Indo Pak cricket matches when winning against India was paramount. India’s scorching economic growth and her recent record of beating the Pakis regularly no longer generates such passion in India.
12. K P S Gill wrote “The conflict over Kashmir is not, as is widely believed, a quarrel over territory; it is, rather, an irreducible conflict between two fundamentally incompatible ideologies - a pluralistic democratic ideology, on India's part; and an authoritarian-fundamentalist-exclusionary Islamist ideology that asserts that different belief systems cannot coexist within the same political order. A permanent peace in South Asia will only result after one or the other of these ideologies succumbs - and these are crucial to national identity, consciousness, and even the existence of these two nation states”.
13. India’s economic growth in this decade, rise of a reputed I.T. industry, investment by foreign companies in India, success of democratic model etc makes Pakistan envy us. India’s rise has to be thwarted because her success would imply failure of the concept of Pakistan.
14. All this has made the average Paki realize that his country is left behind. In order to control the fall out, the Pakistani govt ups the anti-India phobia. Liberation of Kashmir-Islam is in danger.
15. Pakistan was not formed out of love for itself but out of hatred for Bharat. The day it decides to love Bharat, there would be little reason for it to exist as a separate nation.
How can India live in peace?
Option one she is ruled by a PM who belongs to the post independence generation, someone who takes the battle into the enemy camp and realizes that China is India’s principal adversary OR let the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent rule India again.
The choice is clear for those who wish to see it!
The word Paki’ is used as a short form of ‘Pakistani’. No offense meant.