On this day in 1947, the British colonial power decided to grant independence to India after having ruled it for a hundred and ninety years. The grant of independence was not of the kind that would satisfy all people across the country, for it came through a slicing of the country into two. The creation of Pakistan on the basis of a so-called two-nation theory caused a division that would leave no fewer than two million people dead and fifteen million others uprooted from their ancestral homes.
Seventy years after the partition of India, the scars have remained. And indeed those scars have not only festered but have led to the opening of fresh wounds. Within the first twenty four years of its existence as an independent country, Pakistan saw its eastern wing wage a war for freedom, ultimately emerging successful. Between India and Pakistan, there have been three wars, two over Kashmir and one over Bangladesh. If one adds to that the Kargil crisis of the 1990s, one could say the number of wars has been four. Military conflict apart, the partition of 1947 was to spawn conditions that would leave the people of both India and Pakistan locked in hate, a reality which goes on to undermine any effort at a normalisation of ties between the two countries.
The growth of religious fanaticism since the departure of the British colonial power has been pretty unstoppable. Today, conditions have come to such a pass where communalism always underscores Pakistani politics. And that is not all. In recent years the rise of Hindu fanaticism in India has been quite pronounced. At the level of the state, mutual mistrust between Islamabad and Delhi has continued, with consequences that hardly need any recapitulation. The worst victim of the division has been history.
Children in both countries have grown up with limited understanding of each other's history, of why the vivisection of India took place seven decades ago. All these years after the division, it is a pity that wariness, mutual suspicion and downright hostility continue to mar ties between India and Pakistan. That calls for a change in attitude, among the leadership as well as among the people of the two nations. The next seventy years must be a story of constructive engagement.
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