People-to-people contact is all very well. Cultural exchanges and sporting encounters are fine. But, expecting them to improve ties in a major way would be downright naive. All these measures have been tried a number of times. They have at best created fleeting bonhomie between the peoples of both countries given our shared history and culture. However, they have invariably been held hostage to political developments on the ground.
The former national security adviser, J.N. Dixit, had an interesting story to tell once on a TV channel. He narrated an incident that occurred when he was India's ambassador to Pakistan. Dixit said he was once invited to dinner by a Pakistani diplomat who picked him up and drove him to his house. Upon arrival, they were greeted by the aging diplomat's granddaughter who was just about three or fours old at the time. When Dixit's Pakistani host told his grandchild he had brought along with him an Indian guest, the child ran into the house shouting, “Hindustani kutta, Hindustani kutta”.
Children imitate their elders. They are privy to many a conversation by adults at home. Their impressionable minds are moulded by the prejudices of family members whom they live and interact with. Hence, what the little girl said cannot be taken at its face value and dismissed as the innocent banter of a child. It reflected just how Pakistanis thought and spoke of Indians. When this was the case in a diplomat's home that supposedly had educated people living in it, what can we expect from large multitudes of ill-informed masses who are easily swayed by anti-India religious and political propaganda?
The idea is not to demonise the people of Pakistan. To be fair, Pakistani diplomats may have a similar tale or two to tell after a stint in India. The point I am trying to make is that mutual prejudice and suspicion run deep in the psyche of the two ill-fated peoples. Consider the recent spot fixing controversy three Pakistani cricketers find themselves in. The Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK, no less, openly claimed it was a frame-up and hinted at an Indian hand, when all the available evidence seemed to indicate otherwise. It is another matter that the man mellowed soon afterwards and began to sound more like a diplomat that is he supposed to be, as evidence mounted, and more skeletons tumbled out of the closets of Pakistani cricketers.
The problem is quite simply this: the core of the ideology that gave birth to Pakistan represents everything that is the complete antithesis of what India is and stands for. A theocratic nation state carved out for the Muslim community in the subcontinent is the very opposite of a secular and democratic India that has more Muslims in it than the entire population of Pakistan put together. Add to that the evil agenda of anti-India terror groups that operate from Pakistani soil whose avowed purpose is to fight the idol-worshipping kafirs of India to defeat and subjugate them.
What we have is an extremely complex situation from which there is no easy way out. In view of everything I have stated in this nine-part article, I am sorry to say, at least I for one am not very optimistic about the future of Indo-Pak relations. But then, this is one thing about which I would be glad to be proved wrong. Whether that happens or not, only time will tell.
* Concluded...
No comments:
Post a Comment