India & Pakistan
Posted by abyjain on July 29, 2007
In spite of the fact that we share so much with each other, India and Pakistan have always been at loggerheads. Unlike the siblings who grow up to love and help each other through troubling times, we’re the estranged half-siblings who gloat at each stumble the other one takes. What we fail to realise is that each of these stumbles hurts the oneself as much as the other one. A weak or unhappy Pakistan is always going to be a problem for India and vice versa. Political instability, especially, is one of the biggest drivers of cross-border unhappiness. The reason is not difficult to spot – A weak government’s only hope of keeping itself alive is to divert attention to international issues (even when they may be non-existent) and then to either go to war or just generally raise the ante in the int’l arena.
Musharraf, has possibly, done his share of good work for the uplift of Pakistan. I am not a very enlightened person on whether this is all for good or not, but is it not strange that a Pakistan-born top man in India’s establishment and an India-born top man in Pakistan’s establishment can not bring India and Pakistan closer to each other.
In expat communities, it’s the Pakistanis who give company to the Indians and vice versa. We’re the same at heart, and we go back such a long way. A lot of us think how it would be if we had a single cricket team, or a single hockey team.
Distrust can only take you so far. For the amount of money we would have spent on the military, India and Pakistan could have been two very different nations if the same money had gone to development of the masses. We could be two different countries if politicians did not have the neighbour-bashing opportunity to divert our attention from the real issues that face both these countries internally. A lot of our people actually do believe in the evil-ness across the border, but then most others realise we are all humans, and India and Pakistan have too much in common for us to be too different from them. I think we should leave the past behind and move on to bigger issues. A strong and safe neighbour is good for both of us. Imagine, if a lot of the citizens are happy and content and building their own live with their families, then why would be have terrorism and fighting and finger-pointing. These are all gifts of unhappiness and illiteracy. Lets point our magic wands at them.
Couple of good articles:
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abyjain said
Disclaimer – Of course, much of the sentiment about Musharraf might have changed over the past few months since this blog entry… as it is, I cannot claim to know whether what he did was good or bad…