Can India and Pakistan ever reconcile and move towards peace? The author has tried to answer this intractable conflict which he maintains is almost as bad as the Israel-Palestine issue!
Why in his opinion in our communications age of almost transparent people to people contact is the hate not disappearing? It could only mean that the people of both countries are susceptible to their respective countless propaganda which is stopping the relations from getting better.
He starts by establishing the context of the conflict. There were three forces vying for power in pre-partition India, the nationalist Congress, nationalist Muslim League and the separatist leaning Independent states, who never wanted to merge either with India or Pakistan. Cohen makes an important observation which as a Pakistani I can vouch for, 'important stories (of the great Partition) of members of both communities who helped and rescued members of different faiths are mostly undocumented. The great authors and cultural figures who recognised and opposed Partition to unmentioned. Even official history projects in both countries pay little attention to these stories and are devoted mainly to building national solidarity around negative distrust or hatred of another religious or ethnic community.' This atmosphere of mutual hate has created a strong prejudice against one another. Cohen makes very astute observations, India has taken the mantle of the Raj dominance, while Pakistan has adopted a defensive Israel like stance. While India shuns outside interference in this regards, Pakistan cultivates it actively. In fact Pakistan is expert in lobbying its defensive position, constantly reminding anyone who listens of its vulnerability and strategic position.
Cohen cites three major reasons for the animosity between India and Pakistan, water, Kashmir and Siachin, with no real tangible progress being made on either of the three issues. The only resolution achieved was on Rann of Kutch.
So what prevents India and Pakistan from peace? Cohen presents six reasons:-
Insecure and distrustful relationship.
Both sides threatened for their identities.
Time, both are sure that in time other will collapse.
Both act as victims.
Both feel morally superior to the other.
Inability to rely on outsiders to solve the impasse.
Overall Cohen is pretty pessimistic that any normalisation of relations can happen by 2047, but his last chapter is an appeal to the US government to be more proactive about initiating some meaningful dialogue between the two archaic enemies.
Why in his opinion in our communications age of almost transparent people to people contact is the hate not disappearing? It could only mean that the people of both countries are susceptible to their respective countless propaganda which is stopping the relations from getting better.
He starts by establishing the context of the conflict. There were three forces vying for power in pre-partition India, the nationalist Congress, nationalist Muslim League and the separatist leaning Independent states, who never wanted to merge either with India or Pakistan. Cohen makes an important observation which as a Pakistani I can vouch for, 'important stories (of the great Partition) of members of both communities who helped and rescued members of different faiths are mostly undocumented. The great authors and cultural figures who recognised and opposed Partition to unmentioned. Even official history projects in both countries pay little attention to these stories and are devoted mainly to building national solidarity around negative distrust or hatred of another religious or ethnic community.' This atmosphere of mutual hate has created a strong prejudice against one another. Cohen makes very astute observations, India has taken the mantle of the Raj dominance, while Pakistan has adopted a defensive Israel like stance. While India shuns outside interference in this regards, Pakistan cultivates it actively. In fact Pakistan is expert in lobbying its defensive position, constantly reminding anyone who listens of its vulnerability and strategic position.
Cohen cites three major reasons for the animosity between India and Pakistan, water, Kashmir and Siachin, with no real tangible progress being made on either of the three issues. The only resolution achieved was on Rann of Kutch.
So what prevents India and Pakistan from peace? Cohen presents six reasons:-
Insecure and distrustful relationship.
Both sides threatened for their identities.
Time, both are sure that in time other will collapse.
Both act as victims.
Both feel morally superior to the other.
Inability to rely on outsiders to solve the impasse.
Overall Cohen is pretty pessimistic that any normalisation of relations can happen by 2047, but his last chapter is an appeal to the US government to be more proactive about initiating some meaningful dialogue between the two archaic enemies.
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