flamming_python Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:25 pm
Sujoy wrote: flamming_python wrote:In Pakistan it seems the army chief was calling for diplomacy with India over issues.
So in practice both sides of the political divide are sending feelers to India and rummaging around for possible support.
There is a theory in India that New Delhi itself doesn't want the destruction of Pakistan because the North Indian & Western Indian leadership may need to leverage Pakistan to deal with Indian states in the East and South at some point of time.
Minus the religion, North Indians and Gujaratis share almost the same culture with Pakistan. And traditionally much like the Brits the North Indian leadership considers Hindus from eastern & Southern India as rivals. Since 1947 India has had just two Prime Ministers from Southern India (just one of them was allowed to complete his term) and none from the East.
Therefore, New Delhi interfered in Bangladesh in 1971 to save 90,000 Pakistani soldiers from Hindu mobs, allowed Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons (so that this development can be used as an alibi for not invading Pakistan) and now is allowing Pakistan to acquire submarine based second strike capability.
The Delhi, Mumbai leadership survives by cornering resources from other parts of the country. Ergo, they will do whatever it takes to maintain stability in Pakistan.
Before the British came, India was dominated by the Mughals, who were Muslims from the east of the Indian subcontinent, and in a sense its where Pakistan's identity derives from. Pakistan is the expression of the Indian subcontinent's Muslims wanting to dominate the economy and trade of greater India's population, as they once did. And hence why Pakistan's policy towards India is essentially expansionist, standing as the guarantor of the Kashmiris, and with further ambitions to win the support of India's wider Muslim population.
Pakistan's relation to India is much like the Ukraine's to Russia - it's a sort of anti-India, that was in the past supported by the West, and recently has been more supported by China, and from that Pakistan traditionally gets its benefits.
Russia failed unfortunately to pull the Ukraine away from the West, and then to attempt to solve the issue in a different way other than militarily - and will pay the price for it. But it's not too late for India.
Like with the Ukraine, it's important to note that Pakistan's identity is not purely artificial, it does have history behind it like I mentioned, and it has a mandate from its own people to exist, it didn't get declared by accident.
Hence Pakistan is not going away and shouldn't. However what India needs, is a Pakistan that is not some puppet of either the West or China, but one that in fact, is as close politically and economically as possible - to India itself. If it's not possible to pull Pakistan into India's orbit, then it should at least be supported as an independent country, with which areas of mutual collaboration are possible, and with whom trust can be built gradually. Eventually, you can have something like a South Asian EU - with the relationship between Pakistan and India being like the one between France and Germany, and with other regional states such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan - pulled into their mutual orbit.