The paradox that Pakistan is (Part 3)

Ironically, Muslims from Muslim-minority provinces of British India were the most vociferous supporters of the idea of Pakistan. And, they were the ones who were left out of its orbit, eventually. That is why Maulana Abul Kalam Azad remarked with a tinge of sadness, immediately after partition, "The creation of Pakistan has reduced Indian Muslims to the status of outsiders in their own land!" That was how tragic the creation of Pakistan was even for the Muslims themselves.

The last 60 years of continual strife with Pakistan—we have fought four wars—has benefitted neither country. They are uncomfortable with a big, united, militarily powerful, secular India. We are uncomfortable with an increasingly strident, radicalised, disunited, nuclear-armed Pakistan that sees India as its enemy number 1. If partition had not occurred, or India and Pakistan had learned to co-exist peacefully like the US and Canada, just imagine the extent of economic benefits both countries could have reaped.

Kashmir contines to remain a festering wound. But then, Pakistan will never give up its claim on Kashmir. It is the lone Muslim-majority state in India. So, according to the logic of partition, it ought to belong to Pakistan. That is their contention any way. Kashmir figures in the very name of Pakistan. The idea of Pakistan was first mooted by a young student at Cambridge University called Rehmat Ali who distributed some pamphlets to popularise his ideas in Britain. At that time, even Jinnah dismissed his suggestions as "an impracticable students' scheme".

Rehmat Ali coined the name of what he hoped would be a new, sovereign, Islamic state that would be carved out of British India as 'PAKSTAN'. Note that the name is without the letter 'i', which was added later. P stood for Punjab, A for the Afghan province (Northwest Frontier Province), K stood for Kashmir! Yes. S stood for Sindh and 'tan' was taken from Baluchistan. So, Kashmir is tied into the very idea of Pakistan, its very identity. They have fought four wars with India over Kashmir, and continue to bleed us "through a 1,000 cuts" through terrorism, as one of their military strategists had glibly remarked.

Is there a way out? It's not at all easy given the complexity of the problem. People have come up with a variety of ideas as possible solutions to the Kashmir imbroglio. Well-meaning individuals have hoped that resolving the issue will dramatically improve Indo-Pak relations. Sad to say, I am not all that optimistic. Let's see. Time will tell. I would be really glad to be wrong on this one.