The India-Pakistan Crisis

This past Monday marked the 70th Anniversary of India’s independence from British rule. On August 14th, 1947, the region known as the Indian subcontinent was divided into two countries: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Tragically, given rampant religious differences within the formerly united colony, the split did not come without grave cost.

Budding independence unleashed a wave of mass-migration, hazardously converging the paths of religious rivals heading in opposite directions. Muslims (as well as Sikhs) and Hindus, which had lived peacefully for centuries prior, ruthlessly assaulted each other in the name of their distinctive ideologies. The nascent days of independence were defined by death and violent savagery: over one million dead of the 15 million displaced. Following the bloody split, the two nations sought to forge diplomatic ties, but their differences proved insurmountable. Over the past 70 years, the two have engaged in three major wars and even today have yet to relinquish their religiously-garnered bickering, as they remain locked up in a bitter arms race.

In January, Pakistan tested both a submarine-launched cruise missile and a medium-range ballistic missile, becoming the fourth country to have “multiple independently launched vehicles,” The Express Tribune reports. At the same time, with the assistance of the United States, India has been expanding its missile capability; its BrahMos cruise missile can now travel 600 kilometres. As of August, each country has accumulated a stockpile of over 100 missiles. To make matters worse, both leaders have been vocal in defending his country’s actions while stridently condemning the other’s.

During an Independence Day speech Monday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi criticized India for its “expansionist designs” in South Asia, claiming it to be the culprit of the rocky relations between the two neighbours: “Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard. It is incumbent upon the international community to play its role in the resolution of the regional conflicts, particularly the Kashmir dispute in conformity with the UN Resolutions on the subject with a view to ensuring durable peace in the region.” Abbasi’s hostility toward Pakistan’s neighbour somewhat stems from Indian “surgical strikes” against Pakistan last September.

India, however, accuses Pakistan of sending terrorists across the border, due to an incident in which a group of radicals killed 18 soldiers at an army base on the Indian side of the Kashmir border. Unsurprisingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the importance of the country’s defence in his Independence Day speech. “Security is our top priority,” Modi said, “Be it the sea or the borders, cyber or space – in all spheres, India is capable and we are strong enough to overcome those who try to act against our country.” The Indian leader then went on to directly mention the strike against their neighbour: “When the surgical strike was carried out, the world came to know about the power that India possesses.” He added that “bullets and abuses” cannot bring peace in Kashmir – where there are an estimated 500,000 Indian troops – but also accused Kashmiri separatists of “scheming.”

At this point, given the consistent and mutually aggressive behaviour of the two nations, it appears as if the Indian-Pakistani relationship is beyond repair. Simply put, if each country continues doing what it is doing, a resolution will not occur. Mani Shankar Aiyar, an outspoken former Indian minister, expresses this idea through the lens of ideological polarization, saying, “So long as there is a Hindu India that acts like a mirror to a Muslim Pakistan I don’t see any chance of a reconciliation.” Prominent Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari echoed the sentiment, declaring that current relations cannot get much worse. “The present tension between India and Pakistan is unnatural. Therefore I don’t expect this to stay as it is for all the time to come,” he told AFP, “As no dialogue is taking place, this relationship is really bad.”

Last week, in light of the Indian and Pakistani Independence Days, NPR published an article entitled “Giving Voice To Memories From 1947 Partition And The Birth Of India And Pakistan.” The article discusses how very few witnesses of the iconic history remain. And as the last of those who remember perish, a heightened concern for preserving the gravitas of their memories has taken root.

The fate of these memories now depends on people like Guneeta Singh Bhalla, the founder of the 1947 Partition Archive, an organization committed to documenting the experiences of those who survived the Partition. To this point, little has been recorded of the tragedy due to the survivors’ inability to share memories outside of their immediate family. And according to Bhalla, this has progressively compromised the poignancy of the event for each subsequent generation. “You know, with Partition, we’ve been hearing these stories from our grandparents, but it’s not even covered in the history books,” Bhalla says. “Basically, the thing that really hit me was the disconnect between the folk history I’d grown up hearing versus the lack of it in our textbooks.”

How does Bhalla’s organization relate to the most recent quarrels between India and Pakistan? After all, the events are separated by 70 years of continuous conflict. Yet the true triumph of Bhalla’s commentary is its hypothesis that these countries have failed to reconcile 70-year-old plights. The Partition was a critical moment in the annals of both India and Pakistan, yet it is shunned from public discussion as an obsolete triviality of history.

Bhalla articulates how the “us” versus “them” mentality still persists between the countries today. And it’s that kind of thinking that leads to sectarian violence. “It’s very easy to dehumanize the other side,” she says. “And I think that’s the key. It allows us to do horrific things.” Likewise, when the salience of a tragedy is lost, it allows that tragedy to be re-enacted. Restoring a meaningful remembrance of the Partition is thus vital.

Bhalla’s organization is not alone. Numerous others now exist in the two neighbouring nations, gathering recollections from unique perspectives—perspectives, which, most importantly, come from both religious backgrounds. Ultimately, this is the mission of Bhalla’s organization: building communal bridges. “I think being outside of South Asia, having a team of such diverse backgrounds, we were able to create something that catered to sort of everybody,” Bhalla says. “The narratives are different across the borders, the official narratives, and I think what the stories do is they bridge that gap.”

If these vastly different religious sectors can somehow understand each other’s experiences through this event, long lasting and peaceful syncretism can be achieved.

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