The Endless Saga
- Rumy Sen
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
India and Pakistan have been at odds from the moment the two countries were born 78 years ago. In a last act of vengeance on the subcontinent and aided by parties with vested interests, the British divided us on religious lines into two countries and created an enmity to last generations.
For all the infrastructure the British brought to India, deindustrialization and partition were curses they left us.
Before the British colonized India, 25-35% of global output consisted of Indian goods. By the time they left, the country’s share was 2%. Deindustrialization led to diversion of resources to Britain and helped it flourish economically - a typical colonial story. It took decades (arguably, two centuries) to recover from this mayhem. Only recently has India regained its economic dominance by leveraging enormous natural resources and a highly educated workforce.
To understand the division along religious lines, we have to look at a wide swath of history that has delivered us contemporary India.
The Early Years
In 2600 BCE on the western fringes of the subcontinent, lay the cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa offering early examples of prehistoric people moving from agriculture to urban living. These folks domesticated animals, invented the use of bronze, built ports and granaries, traded, worshipped and exhibited a mature sense of architecture and drainage.
The period between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE saw the arrival of the Indo-Aryans from the Central Asian Steppe (think Kazakhstan) and the development of the Vedic Age. Tribal kingdoms formed in a larger geography and the people transitioned from the highly organized urban centers of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa to distributed political systems. Hinduism as a religion formed during this time. The Mauryan Empire consolidated power at the end of the BCE era and became a political force to be reckoned with. They governed most of the subcontinent with a structured bureaucracy and a large army. Ashoka the Great was a shining example of the progressive nature of the house of Maurya. He fostered nation building through social welfare. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism flourished within and outside India at this time.
The Gupta Dynasty followed from about 300 to 500 CE. In this golden age, India thrived in science, literature, art astronomy and mathematics, including the invention of the decimal system. Even though successive Gupta rulers ensured political stability, the end of this reign saw the fragmentation of the subcontinent into smaller kingdoms which held their own for several hundred years.
The Mughals and British
Waves of upheaval occurred in the 1500s when the Mughals entered from the north and systematically dismantled the kingdoms by steamrolling with military might and cunning. They brought Islam to India along with new language, cuisine, music and architecture. There are many stories of benevolent Mughal rulers who fostered unity and malicious ones who ruled with such violence that our minds reel from the brutal historical accounts.
Then came the British in the 1600s in the form of the East India Company, traders with motives the country couldn’t fathom. By 1857, the Mughals were out and the British had a firm grasp on the entire subcontinent and its people.
The British fueled communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims with an infamous “divide-and-rule” philosophy just like the Dutch did in South Africa and the Belgians did in Rwanda. These colonists fostered identity-based laws to separated peaceful people and consolidate power. At this time, Muslims were concentrated in the west and the east of the subcontinent. Bengal was first to be divided on religious lines into to West Bengal and East Bengal. It’s no surprise this resulted in anti-colonial sentiments. Indians wanted to be one people, not divided.
Post Colonial
At midnight on August 14-15, 1947 unified India was split into the dominions of India and Pakistan, with East Bengal becoming a part of Pakistan. In effect, India was flanked by Pakistan on the west and the east - an absurd arrangement by any stretch of the imagination.
The partition of India resulted in the largest mass migration in the history of the world. Millions of Hindus living in Pakistan and their Muslim counterparts living in India migrated to a new homeland amidst unthinkable violence, crossing paths on foot and trains. It is estimated that 15-17 million people were displaced and up to a 1 million people were killed in the Hindu-Muslim riots that ensued. Some say the numbers are as high as 20M and 2M. Trains were burned, men, women and children were slaughtered indiscriminately, towns were set on fire in one of the most brutal events in human history.
There are people still alive who suffered in the hellfires of partition. Their children and grandchildren have heard the horrific stories and their context is painted by their family’s history. The antagonism in which the two countries were born is hard to ignore.
Contemporary India
In the decades that followed, vested interests on both sides have continued reinforcing differences, particularly focused on the bone of contention: the state of Kashmir, the crown jewel of the subcontinent. It sits in the Himalayas with natural beauty that rivals that of the Alps.
I was eight years old when I visited Kashmir with my family. I was immediately smitten. The air was crystal clear, the snow-capped views were spectacular, the weather was cool even in June, the gardens were pristine, the houses were beautifully nestled in the hills, the fancifully decorated houseboats bobbed on Dal Lake in breathtaking ways and the see-through waters allowed a glimpse into the reeds below. Despite my mother’s warnings, I kept grabbing the reeds when we were in a boat causing it to lurch and irritating the oarsman. A tight slap on my back from Ma solved that problem quickly. I petted a horse standing too close to its hind legs and was kicked so hard that I have a permanent scar to show for it. These are the memories of Kashmir I carry close to my heart, memories that get sweeter with the passage of time.
Sadly, the politics of Kashmir shatter the beauty and peace into a zillion pieces.
During the partition of the subcontinent, Kashmir was not assigned to India or Pakistan. The Hindu ruler of Kashmir wanted to remain independent but after incursions from Pakistani raiders, he decided to join India with autonomy on all matters except, defense, currency and foreign affairs. The UN intervened in the early Kashmiri skirmishes and drew the line of control which they continue to monitor.
Three wars later (1947-48, 1965, 1971), India and Pakistan have still not figured out how to get along. Kashmir is divided into multiple parts: India occupied Kashmir (IoK), Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and a third area under Chinese control.
In grade school, we were not taught that Kashmir was disputed territory. It is only after I came to the US and saw maps of India with dotted lines around Kashmir and some maps that didn’t even show Kashmir as part of India that I began to understand the nature of the beast.
Kashmir is home to Hindus (28%) and Muslims (68%). Some want the status quo of IoK and PoK to continue. Others are split on religious lines between being part of Pakistan or India. Add militant and terrorist groups to the mix and you have a fiery geopolitical hotspot.
Multiple parties regularly collide in Kashmir. There are groups fighting for azad or independent Kashmir. Groups based in Pakistan fight to gain full control of Kashmir. Plus, the Indian armed forces have a huge presence in the state. India believes that cross-border militants and terrorists are a mix of state and non-state actors fomenting dissent and violence.
India has retaliated in measured ways or not retaliated at all when attacked. The fear of a conflict escalating into a full blown nuclear war looms large over the subcontinent’s conscience.
The tensions came to a head last month when terrorists massacred 26 tourists in Kashmir after the victims self-identified as Hindus or couldn’t recite a particular prayer from the Quran. The retaliation from India was swift and significant. In the back and forth, each country inflicted damage on the other. India bombed the Nur Khan Air Force base in Pakistan near the headquarters of the body that oversees Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and close to where nukes are stored. This is alleged to be the “alarming” intelligence that forced a ceasefire. If true, the escalation came dangerously close to catastrophe.
The question on our minds is this: can this end well?
In the time since independence, India has moved ahead of Pakistan in GDP (4.9T vs 373B), manufacturing (456B vs 41B), literacy (77% vs. 58%), space race (India landed on the moon and sent an orbiter to Mars) and IT (254B vs. 3.2B). India is now the fourth largest economy in the world.
Pakistan is yet to find its way out of the havoc of deindustrialization of the colonial era. Until that happens, the chance of lasting peace is questionable at best.
Granted, India’s population is six times that of Pakistan and its landmass three times larger, but war is war isn’t going to bridge the gaps between the countries. Only economic growth will bring Pakistan into the fold of the global growth story and refocus the subcontinent’s energies from political tensions to beneficial partnerships.
We pray that both sides will continue to show restraint, that Pakistan will move up on the economic curve and that on a one-on one basis, the citizens of both countries will continue to foster our oneness and kick our differences in the shin.
The other alternative is annihilation by nukes.
Even though the choice seems pretty clear, we find ourselves on the brink repeatedly. May the ancestors from Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Maurya and Gupta eras bless both countries with patience, serenity and wisdom for ending this saga that seems endless at the moment.
Commentaires