The Operating Mindset in Pakistan and India

January 21, 2000

During all of seven years that I spent studying and working in the United States, I have never once come across a Pakistani who hated me because I am an Indian. On the contrary we were good friends. Even within India especially in the south where I am from, a Muslim enjoys equal respect with his neighbor. Dividing India and Pakistan was a big mistake. The erstwhile politicians on the side of Pakistan, only to put pressure on the then Congress, asked for a separate country. It was a big mistake for the Congress to have conceded. Polarization of the nation into Hindus and Muslims was and is not the answer. On the one hand it had left secular India in the lurch, giving rise to Hindutva political forces that has sharply undermined the status of not only the remaining Muslims who never left for Pakistan after the partition, but also of the Christians as well. The Hindutva forces are using state run machinery by proxy to thump down other religions. Religious issues rather than economic issues are figuring in the election manifestos of power hungry politicians. At the same time on the side of Pakistan too, I believe people had their share of bad politics giving rise to dictator after dictator.

Today, if the Kashmiris are suffering without democracy in the hands of so called secular Indian forces, Pakistan has to take equal blame for it. Pakistanis chose the route of partition at the time of independence from the British, leaving behind their Muslim brothers in India at the mercy of the majority Hindus who were against the partition. The answer to Kashmir as well as many other political problems faced by India and Pakistan is not a plebiscite in Kashmir or in any other part of India or Pakistan, which will give rise to other problems, but reunification of Pakistan and India into a secular United India. There is nothing lost so far -- each side has organized itself into distinct states after independence and now it is time to reunite. This will be good for everyone concerned, which will bring lasting peace in the region and also boost the economy. Then it would suffice for the center to hold only limited powers and the individual states to have more freedom and identity to participate in world economics. The world has to reckon with a United States of India rather than two warring and therefore mutually canceling countries. There are only merits that United States of India has to look forward to.

This is not only the answer, but the status quo dictates it. A mindset that is contrary to what is aforementioned has no good motive for all concerned.

Caleb Suresh Motupalli

Cc: Leading national newspapers in India, Pakistan and abroad.