Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
leadership qualities and lack the moral authority to place their country on a solid
footing.
Many Hindu Indians believe that Pakistanis are insecure because most were
converts to Islam from Hinduism, and their new faith creates additional problems
for India because Islam is seen as a religion that is notably illiberal.
16
A former
Director of Military Intelligence of the Indian army has written at length on how
the 'psychological' origins of the India-Pakistan dispute are entirely the
responsibility of Pakistan's leaders: they carved Pakistan out of India, their
hatred of India has permitted them to become 'the plaything of external forces',
and they are content to be dominated by the military. Concluding, General
Kathpalia sums up: 'There is no doubt that the troubles of India and Pakistan are
basically of the making of the leadership. In the last 41 years the leadership of
one country has consistently fanned popular hatred and suspicion and pursued it
as an instrument of policy'.
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Today, Indian diplomats despair of negotiating
with Pakistan, a chronically weak state under the control of the most anti-Indian
elements, such as the military, the intelligence services, and the Maulvis.
Pakistan's image of the Indian leadership is no less hostile. An important
component of Pakistan's founding ideology was that Muslims could not trust the
'crafty' Hindus, who still suffered from an inferiority complex.
18
While Gandhi
and Jinnah were once respected rivals, their successors in both states lacked even
professional respect for each other.
Assimilation
The opposite of fleeing a relationship is assimilation, and one of the fundamental
differences between India and Pakistan is the expectation by some Indians that
Pakistan might rejoin India. Assimilation has never been contemplated by
Pakistan's leaders, although there are important linguistic and ethnic minorities
who would have accepted a place in the Indian Union. In the last elections before
independence, the dominant political party in the Punjab was the Unionist Party,
an alliance of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, and both the Northwest Frontier
Province and Sind had Congress governments. As for India, most of its leaders
assumed that the Pakistan experiment would fail and Pakistan would come back
to the fold.
Indians no longer talk of the reintegration of Pakistan into India, but there are
widespread (if generally private) discussions of how India might establish
friendly relations with successor states to present-day Pakistan. Many Indians
regard Bangladesh as an acceptable neighbor, and believe that they could
develop a similar relationship with a Sindhu Desh, Baluchistan, Northwest
Frontier, and even a militarily diminished West Punjab. Bangladeshis may not
like or love India, but they fear and respect Indian power, and would not dream of
challenging New Delhi the way that Pakistan has.
