Can There Be a Union (of Pakistan) With India

8/8/2019 Can There Be a Union (of Pakistan) With India

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CAN THERE BE A UNION (OFPAKISTAN) WITH INDIA?

Introduction:

If partition hadn't happened it would have been the best

thing. We were living like brothers and there was a lot of

love between us - everyone was doing well."

Said by Raghbir Singh, a citizen of India and eyewitness of partition.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6945626.stm)

If we refer to the relations among India and Pakistan the allusion might be

of 1947 but if the reference is towards the relations among the people across the

borders, history might elude, because we have spent thousands of years as

brethren and decades as separate nations. Can history repeat itself? Can both

the brothers prefer their ethnicity to their religion? Can there be union/reunion

of India and Pakistan?

The history of relations among the countries:India and Pakistan, both the countries are known as arch rivals with a

history full of wars and bloodshed, they can be called as the only countries with

such a large number of direct or indirect wars on their credits. Both the countries

at the time of formation witnessed killings (of migrants) in millions, after a year

they fought their first war, then they had three more wars on their boundaries,

within six decades.

Trials for building peace within the area are also held as Dr. Mubashir

Hassan says in his article for Dawn news, 11 September, 2005:

Peace activism in the subcontinent touched

unprecedented heights in the 90s. According to

documents consulted at the Ford Foundation offices in

New Delhi, the new non-governmental initiatives

launched, and institutions created, exclusively to

promote peace between India and Pakistan numbered

one in 1987, one in 1989, two each from 1991-1993,

eight in 1994, one in 1995 and one in 1996, the last

entry in the inventory. One can say with a degree of

certainty that the activism shown by the people and the

elite began to have the desired favourable impact on the

governments of India and Pakistan by the mid-90s.

Before that, the governments had remained unmoved.
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This writer is personally aware that when, in his first

term, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was keen to open a

dialogue with India, he did not receive a positive

response from Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. When

Benazir Bhutto took over as prime minister, Mr

Narasimha Rao was now keen to open negotiations, butthe Pakistani side would not relent. (Hassan, 11 Sept.,

2005)

Farhan Bukhari says about the failed peace treaties that Kashmir being the major problem betweenthese two, several peace movements were their like one in 2004 ( which was suspended aftermumbai blast in july) and the agreement to convene a joint anti-terrorism panel but every time the lackof trust and lack of progress results in suspension of the treaties. (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008)

All these observations show the hostile relations among these countries fromdecades, but the current issues seem to be pointed towards a new direction, Musharraf isnow seen keen to keep negotiations with India and according to y M B Naqvi in his article inThe News ( 1,24,2007) has said that Musharraf has shown his consent to every demand of India on

the Kashmir dispute but India ( for the time being) is reluctant and according to him, its not easy for

India to settle the oldest dispute with its arch nuclear rival.

So the winds are changing, pointing towards a peaceful South Asia if the current policies of

the government might find a consent from both the sides and are acted upon.

Origin of the idea (of union):

The present-day international politics is also demanding a strong regionalstate from both the countries if they want a better representation in the world,

and as both the countries had a glorious past when united, some of the folks

across both the borders are trying to see a glorious future, yet with a united

South Asia.

Comparisons of major fields of both the countries:ADULT

LITERACY

RATE

YOUTH

LITERACY

RATE

PER

CAPITA

INCOME

FOREIGN

EXCHANGE

RESERVE

PPP MILITARY

COUP

PAKISTAN 41.5 53.9 $2942 $169 mill. $475.4

bill.

4 TIMES.

INDIA 61.3 73.3 $3600 $275 bill. 4.164

trillion

Tried

once in

time of

Indira

Gandhi

Why now?The reasons for the softer relations between these countries if analyzed

individually can be stated as:
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For Pakistan:

Several reasons Pakistan for makepeace with India: Pakistans realization if it does not end its

support for the militants operating inKashmir,Indiais going to by confronting Pakistan and isolating

it.Pakistans realization if it wants to be considered a responsible nation, it must distant itself from

the cloud of militants that currently spawn all over there. Pakistans realization that economy is whatdecides if a country fails or succeeds rather than war.

Several reasons forIndia to makepeacewithPakistan:Indias realization that if it does not settle its

differences with Pakistan, especiallyKashmir, its economywould never be on par withChina, and

thus precluding it from becoming a major player in Asia. Mr. Vajpayees desire to be seen as a

visionary leader, to distant himself from previous Indian leaders, who were unable to resolve disputes

between the two countries. Indianeconomy itself because if countries like Pakistan dont trade with

India, it hurts Indiamore than it does other countries, as it cant be as sufficient as it could with their

participation.

Except Indias size, education, of itscitizens, and absence of amilitarykeen on coups, the difference

between the success ofIndia and Pakistan is instability.

(http://www.chowk.com/articles/6970)

What type of union it might be?A senior bureaucrat was consulted for this question and a brief interview

was encountered, the conclusion is listed below.

The union must in a form ofConfederation with a common federalassembly constituting members from all communities and controlling matters

related to defence, economy, foreign policy, education, currency and

infrastructure, the power of legislation must rest with the provincial assemblies

as they might be assembled by the people chosen by the majority of the region.

The Federation must act as a secular entity. Every person must have a right of

polling two votes, one for provincial assembly and other for the federal

parliament. The movement of people must be free across the country which

should be monitored on provincial level (inter-provincial movements).

If Berlin could unite after three decades of separation, we can make a

federation. The complete union might not be feasible because of the difference

of cause of division in both the areas. But still the time and distance can be

covered by peace and love.

Alluding towards the Berlin wall and the continuing trials of Korea for

unification, that bureaucrat gave quite a fine picture ofUnited States of India

and Pakistan (as suggested on an online polling on www.orkut.com)
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Hurdles:According to Shahid M. Amin ( Pakistans foreign policy, a Reappraisal, pg.

24 ) the main reason of misunderstandings and accusing the other as hate-

lobby are the ruling classes of both Pakistan and India. The Kashmir dispute and

Indias efforts to undo Pakistan played the major role in the increased hatred on

the side of Pakistan, not only this but the hatred increased to a peak when India

played major role in tearing apart the East Pakistan from West Pakistan.

An online polling encountered in two communities in a site for the social

activities ( www.orkut.com) gave two different results about the question, Can

there be a union of India and Pakistan? The results are:

- Polling held in India Pakistan friendship club were quite favourable, with a

majority of Indian community, most of the Indians consented for the union/

reunion as they called it, referring to the past thousands of years spent

together, some Indians refused due to the instability of Pakistan. Therewere even extremists who said that Islam is the main reason for tearing

apart our mother land, Purab being one of them said that Muslim invasion

was the reason that we brothers are not only torn apart but have even

developed the so-called different ideologies .The statistics are:

Should therebe union ofIndia-Pakistan?

Yes, thereshould.

No, never. We are ok asfriends.

Cant say.

138 90 33 9

One other poll was started at the same community with the results:

Should there befriendship between India-Pakistan?

Yes, of course No.

173 26

- These results startle the observer, it seems quite a smooth road to

formation of federation but the same question asked at a community

purely for Pakistanis, the results were not only 100% in negative but after

some hours, the thread was deleted too, reporting that it was creating

chaos in the community. Some of the voters in reason said that they how

can we forget the basic reason for struggle of Pakistan, while others

alluded to the sacrifices given for Pakistan, some of them said very clearly

that after 1971, Kashmir and Gujarat incidents they simply cannot trust

Hindus.

Compromises:

Assuming that all the hurdles are stepped for the national interest, stillcompromises are to be made on both the sides, Pakistan has to compromise
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more because Pakistan being a smaller state as compared to India is considered

more flexible too so it has to make changes in most of its administrative

departments and many others too. India has to compromise too, in a way that

Pakistan has a lagging economy and unstable defence, its image in the world is

not good too, as Henry Bernard Levy call it the most delinquent of all nations,

while India has an image of growing economy, safe borders and stable country.Itis true that on both sides of the border extremists are found but Pakistans

image is distorted more on this behalf as compared to Indias.

Future prospects:Now if a desired federation do take place and a state is formed

comprising the two major countries of South Asia (it can be estimated that

Bangladesh might join the federation too), a strong regional state can be

envisioned and in that case the future aspects that can be considered are listed

below:

Economic prospects:Economy of both the countries will boom, because in

the amount of GDP used for the military back up in both the countries can then

be used for the development of the lagging projects of both like trying to tackle

the poverty, illiteracy and low health condition of the inhabitants, not only this

but the domestic trade can then allow to decrease the import and can highly

increase the export of the states. Trade link if formed both the states can

prosper more than can be imagined. If Pakistan is provided with Indias wheat, it

can avoid the the payments to USA or Australia, same goes for India as its sugarneeds can be satisfied by Pakistan.


The tourism industry that is flourishing in India can be benefited by the

federation too, as the worlds oldest civilizations remains still lie across our

side of border. Many other industries might get a chance to flourish one of which

might be the entertainment industry too.

Defensive prospects:

Only in the month of February (2008) both the countriesplayed a show of power with a high cost, more than a couple of nuclear

experiments were held in Pakistan to answer the nuclear experiments of India. If

the amount of money used over these experiments was used for some

developmental projects, the countries might have got very positive results of it.

Pakistan use approximately half of its income over defensive projects, if its

secured on its eastern border less than half of the present budget will be used

for the defence and India if relieved about Kashmir (which it naturally will be, in

case of a federation) can concentrate over more important projects.

Social prospects:The result that can be achieved before any other is in social

prospect, because if on both sides trust is build, the social activities will be first
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to be observed being flourished, these six decades passed separate will be tried

to be compensated. The culture will all be reviewed. In short it might be a

reappraisal of South Asian subcontinent.

The negative effect can be counted in form of lost of the religious

identities, the intermingling over the centuries has already had some negativeeffects on Islamic culture, and it can again be threatening in that aspect.

Is it feasible/ viable?All this study shows something very significant that the question of the topic that

CAN THERE BE A UNION OF PAKISTAN WITH INDIA?

It has a simple answer NO.But if the question is a bit modified to

SHOULD THERE BE A FEDERATION OF PAKISTAN AND INDIA?

The only reasonable answer is YES.The difference of both questions lies in the feelings of people across the borders. Indians without a

hesitation may say YES to it (ignoring the developing insecurity resulted after the Talibanization ofWaziristan.) those who are saying NO across the border in the east can be changed easily ascompared to the NO of the people on the west, they have deep rooted belief that Pakistan is related totheir religion.

Now the basic conclusion is that Indian population is ready for the Federation (union/reunion is not

feasible) and government seems a bit reluctant, while in Pakistan the government seems to be ready

for it, but the mass population look at the mention of the step as treachery with the country. So even

now on both sides a lot of trust building is needed with negotiation and discussion of practical ideas

and trial to make them popular among the general public because in case of Pakistan, it seems

impossible even to discuss it.

References:(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6945626.stm

Dr. Mubashir Hassan (11 Sept. 2005) Peace is the way. Dawn News.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6945626.stmhttp://www.chowk.com/articles/6970http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6945626.stmhttp://www.chowk.com/articles/6970

Can There Be a Union (of Pakistan) With India

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