The Idea of India and Pakistan

Foreign Country ~ what makes a foreign country ‘Foreign’? A laymen answer can be the measurement of the geographical distance that makes two countries foreign, instead a more strategic statement could be the measurement in terms of the bilateral relations both the nations enjoy. Going by the latter, it is not very difficult to guess the current relationship status between the two Asian Nuclear Powers – India and Pakistan. India is far more closer to North America as compared to its immediate neighbor Pakistan.

Hence, the statement by our PM Modi and I quote, “You can change your friends but you can definitely not change your neighbors” suddenly has become the talk of the town. 

Let me again frame a statement, ‘The idea of India is stronger than the Indian whereas the idea of Pakistan is weaker than the Pakistani.’ 

Now, what does that mean? Let me do the explanation part now, Pakistan was built on the notion that a religion/faith can be a sufficient basis for nationalism. The notion can be further weakened by the fact that there are multiple Arab nations which share a common faith and to an extent the linguistic similarities (which by any measure supersedes the faith as a basis of nationalism as was the case of Europe). Had the notion been of any mettle there should have been a giant of a country. Hence, faith cannot be the basis of nationalism; it can definitely form the basis of brotherhood.

Also, try to imagine what the forefathers of the two newly independent nations were analyzing about, the ‘Democratic’ form of governance. We have at our disposal 60+ years of experience to judge while their list of contemporaries had likes of Hitler was voted to power in Germany, followed by Mussolini in Italy. The rest need not be explained! I am pretty much sure of their dilemma about the animal called ‘Democracy’.

Whereas India was created on the notions of Modernity, briefly summed up as - Democracy, Right to expression; Right to Equality (of faith); Equality of Gender and finally the Economic Equality. Fair amount of progress has been made on the first three fronts but still a lot needs to be done for the economic equity.