Is India Pakistan’s nemesis?

How do we define relations between India and Pakistan today? While the two states have seen ups and downs in their political and diplomatic ties, one area that has shown noticeable progress is the change of mindsets of the people on both sides of the border. This is in sharp contrast to the situation, say, about two decades back when India was seen as the sworn enemy of Pakistan, not just by the Pakistan government but also by the common man. Perhaps it was not very different in India too. I remember that ‘Kashmir’ is one of the earliest few words that found room in my memory as a growing boy in the 1980s. International and regional political dimensions have worked to change perceptions. But it can be said that India and Pakistan still have to learn a lot — this time from their future. How? If they do not tread cautiously the future will be difficult to accept and live for a major portion of the population that resides in the subcontinent.
Since India is emerging as an economic power in the region and is spreading its tentacles of hegemonic designs on its smaller neighbours, which often give out a squeak of protest every now and then, it is pertinent to see if India will opt for peaceful co-existence or will prefer to throw its weight around. While the smaller neighbours of India, such as Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh may or may not have issues with the Indian domination, Pakistan definitely does not fit into a picture where India plays the lead role. On more than one occasion, it has said no to Indian supremacy.
In this backdrop, can India realise its dreams of grandeur while one of the most serious issues between India and Pakistan remain unresolved? Will India and Pakistan always have uneasy relations, if not hostile? This is not easy to answer since that depends on the two countries’ just internal political dynamics as well as the role of international actors, especially the US whose possible nuclear deal with India has upset the entire Indian political spectrum, besides cautioning Pakistan.
The fact remains that there seems to be willingness — more in the Indian people than in the Indian government — to stick out the hand of friendship towards Pakistani people. When I visited India a couple of years ago, I found people more friendly than I thought they might turn out to be. Wherever I went I found the Indians, most of them strangers to me and vice versa, welcoming the Pakistanis with open arms. Here, we should look into whether we have the composite dialogue overarching the warmth among people on both sides of the border, or is the passion for friendship independent of whatever is happening at the state level.
Most of the misconceptions of Indians about Pakistanis, and vice versa, stem from their not being able to mingle with each other and the fact that the two people have been brought up on a hate diet. Thus, there is the belief that the Indian state machinery has kept the people hostage to their agendas that do not go with the people’s desire to end hostilities.
Despite all this, there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel as far as the relations between the two once arch-enemies are concerned. We have the composite dialogue surviving the hiccups here and there as the blame game between the two countries has stopped for the moment. And there is nothing new in that. One of the changes that 9/11 brought in the geo-political scenario of South Asia is Pakistan shifting all its military and political energies to the fight against the elusive genie of terrorism on its Western border. That was followed by more confidence building measures (CBMs), including the people-to-people contacts.
Pakistan and India have been on a collision course since their emergence on the map of this world. There are a number of reasons that go back to the early history of the two countries, perhaps even before that. How the Muslim minority was being treated by the Hindu majority at the time of Pakistan’s independence is another debate altogether. Then there is the issue of whether Pakistan is an ideological state or was created to serve the economic interests of the Muslims of the subcontinent. Staying away from these controversial and highly explosive questions, the issue today is whether India, with a massive population and mammoth economy, is prepared to accept Pakistan as an equal neighbour, especially in the context of its apparent designs as an economic and military force in South Asia?
To start with, the partition that came about after the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s principled and eventful duel with the shrewd Congressmen saw one of the worst riots that erupted because Hindus and Sikhs were not ready to accept a separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. There is no denying that at one level, the hair-raising stories of murders, abductions, and rape were etched deep on the minds of the migrants from India. The two wars, one in 1965 and the other in 1971, set the tone of the future of Indo-Pak relations.
The brief period of democracy in Pakistan was not enough to bring about permanent peace between the two nations. Ziaul Haq was the right man to wage jihad against the Soviet Union and not to resolve issues with India.
Whatever the history; the requirement of today demands a fresh approach to resolve issues that have kept the two nations from making real progress that benefits the millions of poverty-stricken people. Also, an unstable Pakistan is always not in the interest of India.
The fact that both states are nuclear powers doubles the responsibility of the two countries. If India and Pakistan do not capitalise on the willingness of the people on both sides to turn over a new leaf in the otherwise antagonistic relations between the two countries, the future of our young generations will be ruined. That said; caution and patience are the two words that the people should keep in mind. There are going to be no quick results.