PTI photo
By
Javed Majeedano
India and Pakistan were born at the same time when, after the second world war, Britain decided to leave the Indian subcontinent in August 1947. But two countries celebrate their independent days on different dates with Pakistan on August 14, and India the next day.
The rivalry between the two nations started in the very beginning of their inception in the map of the world. Muslim majority areas came in part of Pakistan while Hindu dominated regions were made part of India. There were some 565 princely states in the subcontinent during the British rule. Princely states were given freedom to either join Pakistan or India. All states decided to be part of either country except three, i.e. Hyderabad, Junagadh and Jammu & Kashmir. Hyderabad and Junagadh were Hindu dominated regions but their rulers were Muslims. Rulers called Maharajas were in favour of joining Pakistan but the two princely states geographically were falling deep in India. Soon after the partition, India annexed the two states. But the state of affairs were different in the third state, i.e. Kashmir, where Muslims were in the majority but the Maharaja was a Hindu. Both India and Pakistan wanted Kashmir to be part of theirs. At the time of its creation, Pakistan did not have a professional army, therefore Pakistan sent the Tribal Lashkars to capture Kashmir but India dispatched its Army and occupied most of the Kashmir valley. Pakistan, with the help of Tribal Lashkar, managed to achieve a small part of Kashmir.
Since that day, two countries have claimed the whole of Kashmir and repeatedly raise voices against one another. Two nations fought a bloody war in 1965 on the Kashmir issue in which thousands of lives were lost from both sides. Instead of resolving the Kashmir issue, the two developed nuclear weapons.
Kashmir remains the bone of contention between Pakistan and India to date. Many times forces of two countries have come to the border. But every time a standstill comes at the end of international mediation.
Today no region in the world is under the shadow of nuclear war other than South Asia. And the main reason behind this is the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan and India had held talks on the issue many times but every time talks end with no conclusion. The role of spoilers in the failure of the talks cannot be ruled out because there is no dearth of hawks on both sides.
The dialogue between the two was suspended in the wake of Mumbai attacks in 2008. India blamed a Pakistani-based group for the attack, a charge Pakistan denies. Pakistan accuses India of its security agency RAW’s involvement in the restive Balochistan province.
Accusations and counter accusation are never useful for the millions of poor people living on both sides of the border. Instead of consuming major junks of their resources on defence, the two should sit at the table and resolve all outstanding disputes so that this poverty hit region can think about prosperity and a better life.
As long as the Kashmir problem is solved there will be problems between the two countries. India & Pakistan must agree for the UN monitored referendum for the Kashmir people to decide their future. Until then the problem will create enmity between the two countries. This is the fact,