December 08, 2013

Relation Between India And Pakistan

Essay : [Relation Between India And Pakistan]

English Essay on "Relation Between India And Pakistan"


Relation Between India And Pakistan

There are long-standing territorial and religious differences between South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan that have existed since 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned and the two countries became independent of Great Britain. Violent outbreaks occurred in 1947-48, 1965 and 1971 when the two nations went to war. Relations with Pakistan have demanded a high proportion of India’s international energies and undoubtedly will continue to do so. India and Pakistan have divergent national ideologies and have been unable to establish a mutually acceptable power equation in South Asia.


Much of South Asia came under direct control of Great Britain in the late 18th century. The British Raj over the Indian subcontinent lasted for almost two centuries. Ninety-five percent of the people living in South Asia practiced either Islam or Hinduism. The Muslim League headed by Jinnah, proposed the Two Nation Theory in the early 20th century. According to the theory, Muslim and others shared little in common, and British India should be divided into two separate countries, one for the Muslims and other for the Hindu majority which he feared would suppress the Muslim minority. The campaign gained momentum in early 1940s and by the end of World War II, British India’s partition looked inevitable. The Partition of India in 1947 created two large countries independent from Britain; Pakistan as two wings in the East and West separated by India in the middle. Soon after independence India and Pakistan established diplomatic relations. Subsequent years were marked by bitter periodic conflict, and the nations went to war four times. The war in 1971 ended in defeat and another partition of Pakistan. The eastern wing split off as a new country named Bangladesh, while the western wing continued as Pakistan.


In July 1999, India and Pakistan came to the brink of another war over the disputed Kashmir region. Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals rose sharply again after terrorist attacks at the Kashmir Assembly in Oct 2001 and the Indian Parliament in Dec 2001.Indiablamed Kashmiri militants based in Pakistan for the attacks by Jan 2002, nearly one million troops from both countries were massed along their 1800 mile common border and many feared that any minor cross-border skirmish could spark a major conflict.(4essay.blogspot.com) International diplomatic intervention helped to diffuse the situation and since then though the underlying tensions remain close to the surface, relations have definitely improved.


The Mumbai attacks damage the improving relations between India and Pakistan. The 2008 Mumbai attacks by ten Pakistani terrorists killed over 160.Indiablamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan based militant group for planning and executing the attacks. Islamabad resisted the claims and demanded evidence India provided evidence in the form of interrogations, weapons and telephone call data. Indian officials demanded Pakistan extradite suspects for trial. They also said that given the sophistication of the attacks, the perpetrators must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan. Thus far, there is no evidence presented to accuse the Islamic Republic of Pakistan of the sophisticated and well-coordinated Mumbai attacks, although in the informal court of public opinion, Pakistan has been named as the usual suspect.


With passions and recriminations running exceedingly high, let us hope for a diplomatic effort, and for Indian moderation in the coming days in terms of a military response on its borders. The Bush and incoming Obama administration should do all they can to make sure that cooler heads prevail in New Delhi and Islamabad at this dangerous time. There is an opportunity here for India to engage Pakistan to root out terrorist havens and training camps on Pakistani soil and for the US to serve as a partner and honest broker between the two. If this does not happen, and India-Pakistan relations deteriorate further, the terrorists will have achieved one of their key goals.


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