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India is the revisionist power
Implying that India can’t have peace until Pakistan accepts India’s diagnosis will not beget India a viable...
The writer was a Ford Scholar at the Programme in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at UIUC (1997) and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Studies Programme.
In his famous essay, What is a Nation, the French philosopher, Ernest Renan, argued that selective amnesia — “forgetting”, as he puts it — is an important part of modern nation-building. This is achieved in many ways, but most importantly by controlling the narrative. The narrative determines the core aspects of the identity of a state. It is successful when that identity is internalised by the peoples to a point where those core aspects are not disputed, and where any external challenges to them are simply not entertained.
Using this central benchmark — I make no attempt here to problematise this process — we have to concede that Pakistan lags far behind India in defining the core aspects of its nationhood. Not because India is not internally troubled, which it is, but because India has developed a centre that holds it together. The centre drives India and perpetuates the narrative, deflecting the world’s attention away from India’s musty underbelly: Abject poverty, very high levels of corruption, the near-absence of the state’s writ in the Red Corridor, terrible human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir, crimes against women and, yes, Taliban-style panchayats.
And while the media highlights internal troubles, it is largely pliant to the state when it comes to presenting the state to the outside world and is the most effective vehicle for the state narrative.
It is a common practice for states to sell the narrative internally. But it is a greater exercise in soft compellence to sell it to other collections also. An even greater success would be to make one’s narrative acceptable to sections of another collection with whom one is locked in conflict.
India has done this with Pakistan and, as a realist, I salute them for this success. Of course, India’s success in this regard is directly proportional to Pakistan’s failure to sell itself to its people. This, as I have noted on a number of occasions, is the biggest threat to Pakistan.
One consequence of this is a large number of us swallowing, hook, line and sinker, India’s narrative on its conflict with Pakistan. Here are some examples:
India is a status quo power while Pakistan is a revisionist state; India just wants to live in peace; there’s nothing about Pakistan that interests India; India, the Little Red Riding Hood, has to keep the world’s fourth largest military because Pakistan attacked it four times — ’47, ’65, ’71 and ’99. Let’s just take these up.
(NB: It’s quite another fact that every time Pakistan has tried to engage India on force rationalisation — nuclear and conventional — including as part of the 2004 dialogue framework, India shifts the goalpost by referring to China).
The term ‘status quo power’ is used cleverly in modern interstate relations. It ignores the direct and indirect influence — soft and hard power, and diplomacy — exerted by stronger states on the weaker ones in the former’s areas of concern by focusing instead on whether a state wants to capture another’s territory. Let there be no doubt, however, that rising powers are always revisionist states. They challenge an existing power configuration by spreading their influence and power. China is one; India is lagging far, far behind but following the same paradigm.
Pakistan is accused of being a revisionist state, primarily vis-a-vis Occupied Kashmir. And a part of our self-loathing intelligentsia has accepted this bunkum. Pakistan has no designs on India but Kashmir is not a part of India. It is a disputed area and that fact is also accepted by India. Because this will be deliberately twisted by the ‘what-abouters’, let me clarify that I am not advocating a war with India, merely stating a fact.
As for revisionism, Pakistan, within the region, is a status quo power because it checks India’s desire to project power in South, the West, and southern Asia. A neoliberal paradigm is possible if India is prepared to address the issue of Kashmir meaningfully. The last three years have clearly shown that the problem lies inside Occupied Kashmir. They have also shown that India remains singularly and callously unconcerned about the Kashmiris.
And what about the wars Pakistan is supposed to have thrust on India?
The 1947 war began as an indigenous uprising in different parts of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It is a matter of historical record that Pakistan had no clear state policy on how to use force against India’s illegal invasion of J&K. The ragtag Poonchis and other Kashmiri groups, with help from tribesmen and some elements of the Pakistani military, managed to capture the territory which now forms Azad Kashmir. If they hadn’t, Pakistan would have today needed just the present size of its army to defend the northern salient.
The 1965 war was a mistake. Much has been written about it inside Pakistan. But there is absolutely no reason to be apologetic about making an armed attempt to get back territory in occupation of an adversary. Pakistan never violated the Indian territory: It crossed what was then the CFL (ceasefire line). The fact is that it was India that aggressed against Pakistan directly when it attacked across, and violated, the international border.
As for India’s generosity, as mentioned by many Indian analysts, in returning to Pakistan the Haji Pir Pass, I have to give them full marks for dissembling! The Tashkent Agreement required the two sides to go back to status quo ante. India decided to keep Kargil because that secured its road to Leh, and return Haji Pir Pass to get back Chhamb and Jorrian because in that area we were dangerously close to the chicken neck. You cut off the chicken neck and you cut off India from Occupied Kashmir. But the problem is not Indian dissembling; it is our acceptance of this deceptive narrative.
And Pakistan attacked India in 1971!? This actually takes the cake. Ignore India’s full-fledged assault on then East Pakistan and trot out Pakistan’s attack in the west, an attack that came too late. That episode also opens the chapter in this region of covert war. Yes, it was introduced by India when it trained the Mukti Bahini; India repeated this exercise with Sri Lanka when it trained the LTTE. I don’t grudge India any of its actions. States do these things in their interests, perceived or real. But to present India as the babe in the wood? Nah; not happening.
Of course there is Kargil in 1999. More of us have blasted Kargil here, including this writer, than perhaps writers in India. It was a terrible operation at all levels. Worse, it came at a time when Pakistan and India were moving towards normalisation. That process should have been allowed to move forward and bear fruit. But let us not forget India’s occupation of the Saltoro Range, its violation of Pakistani posts along the LoC. In a conflictual model these things happen. Yet I will be the first to deduct marks from the Pakistani military on the Kargil operation. Still, the man who did it also became India’s best partner in peace.
Finally, implying that India can’t have peace until Pakistan accepts India’s diagnosis will not beget India a viable policy. Pakistan wants peace. But it doesn’t want to become a west Bangladesh, to use Stephen Cohen’s phrase. So, let’s get rid of the I-am-the-good-guy-here baloney and level with each other.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2011.
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Reader Comments (192)
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Mr.Haider, you raise what is called a strawman argument.
India has never ever claimed it needs an army of this size “because Pakistan attacked it etc”. For the length of our borders and the size of our country, bordering countries like China and Pakistan, it is well-justified to spend 3% of our GDP (yes, just 3%) on the army. The fact of the matter is that our armed forces are largely antiquated and desperately need modernizing.
Everything else in your article is written to support this claim above, which in itself is not a claim India has ever made.
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Pakistan’s nukes will make sure Indian trolls can only bark against Pakistan on the Internet.
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Mr. Haider only personifies the shark reality that their is a bit of Jihadiness in every Pakistani. Clearly, some of the recent commentary on Pakistan from the Indian side has gotten underneath his skin and this article is a
Mr.Haider even suggested in an article in the Indian Express that Indian Intelligence was responsible for the Mehran base attacks!! And not a peep since then and that an Indian newspaper gave him the opportunity to write such lies is beyond me.
When your country is floundering, the economy is in a free fall, the judiciary is at war with the executive, when their is no electricity in the major cities, when their is no hope on the horizon whatsoever, lashing out at the outside world seems to be the only option, Mr. Haider should wake up and smell the coffee. His cheerleaders on Twitter like Mosharraf Zaidi are beginning to do so.
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I loved the article after a long time some have really been able to speak truth keep it up
@Nathu Lal: Please tell me truly …… are you an Indian if you are then God bless you for your courage
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@narayana murthy:
dear if we accept Pakistan committed a so called genocide in 71 then what gave india authority to invade another country …………. so if u all indians consider it to be a standard repose then we reserve the right on muslim massacre in kashmir gujrat and other places
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@Kafka: You ve hit the bull …….. this is very problem with indian commentators here and in indians in general that they portray indian as a piece of heaven without any troubles and problems …………. a land where lions and goats drinks at the same bank of river. they consider them self holiest of the holy unable to commit any bad deed
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Indo-Pak relations are complex and neither side can claim the high moral ground. The author has been meticulous in stating facts but cleverly forgets to mention Gen. Zia’s policy of ” Bleeding India through a thousand cut” and not to forget Bhutto’s slogan of fighting a 1000 year war with India over Kashmir. The author has hits the bulls eye when he describes India’s narrative but what is Pakistan’s narrative? Is it merely anti-India or is it something more than that. To me Pakistan’s narrative is medieval mind set of Arab-Turko Islamic fighters who came to loot and plunder the sub-continent and Pakistan’s ruling elite is still nurturing this narrative Bhutto and Zia’s statements are evident to that. It is this narrative that has caused the Kashmir obsession and led its elite to build a national security state rather than a social security state with people at its center. The author rightly lists many of the problems being faced by India currently but the author like most Pakistanis see the India story with all its short comings as glass half empty on the other hand the people of India and the world (including china) sees the India story has half full and this is the narrative that currently separates the two states.
Yes India does have problem but which country in the world doesn’t have? Has their existed a perfect society free of problems that India should follow as benchmark?
Indians today are more sanguine about their future unlike Pakistanis, Indians trust their government with all its short comings unlike Pakistanis, Democracy is taking roots and strengthening the federation and giving more power to its people unlike in Pakistan. All this facts makes India better placed to address its problems unlike Pakistan which finds itself at cross roads every decade.
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I was walking down the road one day and saw a house on fire. Strangely enough, the owner of that house was sitting on his rocking chair outside and did not seem at all concerned. I pointed out to him that his house was ablaze and asked why he wasn’t doing something about it? He pointed to the house next door and said with a smile “You see that house. Look at how its paint is peeling and all of its windows are cracked”.
Such is the world we live in.
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By the way folks, lets assume for arguments sake that Pakistani side is correct in saying that India has occupied Kashmir, alright. But at least in this case, Indias went to Kashmir when asked to come by the then King, what about Pakistanis, who one fine morning just landed in Baluchistan, knowing it is full of minerals and energy resources. Look who is talking?? Pakistan?? an occupying force of Baluchistan? huh . Go and see yourself in mirror before talking about India.
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This is same Ejaz in 2004, while the overall mood was to tone the violence, articulated that Pakistan should keep Kashmir Pot boiling with terrorists.
Hence it is unrealistic for Tharoor to expect him as a liberal. I am not sure he has changed his stance.
While someone is driving in a slope, you do not realize the angle of the slope, you get that while you look at the slope from a tangential distance.
Likewise Pakistanis may not realize trajectory of their plight as they are currnetly driving in a downward slope.
Hence my sincere advise to the so called ‘Liverals’ is Pakistan is – Keep the route to nearest Western consulate or nearest Indian border post handy.
A day will come when this will be useful.
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Ejaz Haider reserves the right to set the record straight as he does so brilliantly in this article.
I find it hard to understand why Indians are so hesitant to accept that they too have been fed half-truths like people in every other country. Yet Indians, particularly those commenting here, continue to insist that their half-truths are truths beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I find this childish behaviour rather disturbing, especially when many Pakistani’s have matured enough to understand that not all is as they have been told.
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@mahesh:
The Nawab of Kalat signed the instrument of accession to Pakistan in march 1948, thats how Pakistan landed in Kalat.
However Kalat only formed 30% of the territory of what today is the province of Balochistan. The rest of the areas like the Quetta municipality voted to join Pakistan.
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Who gives a damn about what Indians think. Indians should be more concerned about their own problems instead of trying to annex other territories.
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Very well-written article. A sane response to Indian ramblings in the media.
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@narayana murthy:
Slow down buddy, don’t let your low IQ get the best of you.
“LOL. This is absolutely hilarious, hahaha! You are actually thinking that Pakistan should have attacked Afghanistan“
I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the word sarcasm? Read my comment again. This time carefully.
“Okay, then arming the refugees in our own land is also not an act of war, by all international standards. Afterall, no Indian attacked pakistan army in Bangladesh. It was Mukthi Bahini. Completely Bangladeshi.“
First of all, no indian attacked Pakistan army? I wonder then what the whole Indian army was doing in East Pakistan? Out on a fishing trip?
Secondly, training and arming militants, and sending them over the border into a neighbouring country is ‘cross-border terrrorism’. Don’t you think?
Get out of your denial. India regularly indulges in much of the policies it accuses Pakistan of carrying out. Yet only Pakistan gets blamed. Wondering why? Read Ejaz Haiders articulate article again.
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@Bangash
Pakistan’s nukes will make sure Indian trolls can only bark against Pakistan on the Internet.
Pakistani nukes coupled with the strategic assets of LeT,TTP et al will make sure Pakistan goes back to the stone age. GHQ and Mahran incidents are only the starters.Watch this space.
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As a Pakistani, I have to say I’m embarrassing by the chest thumping of my countrymen. Indians are engaged on this site because ET is one of the few places that accepts comments and promotes discussion and debate.
Sadly, many of my countrymen have been fed half truths.
Let’s get it straight – India has plenty of problems. What happened in Gujurat is unacceptable and India has a lot of issues on its plate. However, I find that most Indians in the US by and large want to engage positively with Pakistan yet find many of us to be completely one dimensional.
Countrymen – Indians are no smarter than us or better than us but they haven’t been raised on a steady diet of lies. They are not blind in following their military. Read their newspapers online and you will see that they are exposing corruption on a daily basis.
We as a people are destined to get the government we deserve. If we do not question the Armed Forces and ISI for their follies, we are destined to be a failed state driven by our maniacal obsession with India which is too busy making economic progress. Why can’t we take our heads out of the sand? Let’s be honest with ourselves. Our military has never won a war. Our military is not brave and gallant. We are taught these lies yet we never question why our military can’t establish a writ within the borders of Pakistan?
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noor
Punjabi Muslims inhabit the districts of Muzzafrabad, Poonch and Mirpur in AJK and the districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Indian occupied J & K. These are four huge districts. These Punjabi Musilms are the second largest ethnicity in J & K after the Kashmiris. They overthrew the Dogra ‘king’ within a week of the departure his British patrons and sponsors. Moreover, these people also played a big part in organizing the rebellion in Gilgit-Balistan. So this was not some small insurrection. Northern Poonch and the whole Rajouri are still under Indian occupation. These two districts belong to West Punjab and therefore Pakistan has a stake in Indian occupied J & K even if the Kashmiris want independence rather than accession to Pakistan.
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Anyone who believes that India won four wars lives in fool’s paradise. In the first war, Pakistan got almost a half of Kashmir. In the second war, nothing happened actually. Third war resulted in the loss of East Pakistan but that was due to internal differences between east and west Pakistan. The fourth war, was fought in India. India started crying and complained to its brother the US who forced Pakistan to retreat.
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@Moi:
Exactly. But they are living in a world of bollywood, soon Mollywood, and upper caste hindus projection of them self. This Kashmir we need to solve ourself, it will take decades and decades before majority hindustanis get knowledgeable enough, so we can talk sense for a solution. Pak zindabad
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@Frank
Your comment means that so called azad kashmir is actually part of Punjab. Then why are you calling it as kashmir? To get international support?Recommend
@My Name Is Khan:
I whole-heartedly agree with you that we should start being honest with ourselves. But not with the notion that we throw our military out of the window.
Bringing our military under effective civilian control and defenestrating it are two completely different issues. The latter is unimaginable. India should stop dreaming about it.
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@My Name is Khan:
I always appreciate your comments on ET. I agree with you that what happened in Gujarat in 2002 was a big blow to India’s secular image which we Indians value and are also proud of. However, not trying to justify, it was predominently a very violent reaction after 50 Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive in a railway bogey allegedly by some Muslim miscreants. Though most Pakistanis never miss the opportunity to remind the Indians of this unfortunate episode but tend to ignore the fact that no such incident has happened in India after 2002 till date since lessons were learnt by this political party and others too as it was thrown out of power by the secular minded Indian people.
I also agree with you that Pakistanis are no less than their Indian counter-parts but some drastic changes are required to be made in the Pak education system curriculam in school and colleges which mostly includes distorted history.Recommend
@Paras Vikmani: why are so interested in reading our papers. You just be interested in reading yours and commenting there. Savvy???Recommend
@rgg:
Hahaha ..Ejaz is Not torementing with anger , You are. Because If It did not matter to you what he wrote You won’t be here. It shows You really got disturbed by Ejaz’s turth-telling. I think his Truth has taken toll on you all Indians. Finally, let me show you all who is obsessed with who? Whose News paper is this ? And all those come running to write here are all Obsessed. Period. No IFs or Buts, No other arguuments. Chapter Closed!!
@Arun:
Narrative is Close enough to the truth. I haven’t heard anything More insane than this.
@Rock:
Largest Democratic State? Hahahaha ..Yeh Goli Kisi aur Ko dena.
@Paras Vikmani:
Don’t take the article On your Little heart,,
@Abhi:
How about Red Corridor? Who You going to blame that for? Naw.. It doesn’t work both ways. Do me a favr, Sart speaking truth.Recommend
@M. I. Aslam:
India’s involvement in supporting Bangladesh was simpy a payback for Paksitan’s mischief in 1965. If Pakistan had not invaded India in 1965, India would not have had any reasons to help BD freedom fighters. In case you don’t know, for every action there will be a reaction.
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@Tony Singh: Mr. Ejaz your article is precisely – A “Pavlovian” response. (remember?)
Tony, I am so Glad that you are here again and are referring to Pavlovian response. It was my Statistics after which that article came out. I don’t know what to say to you because its so hilarious that you refer to Ejaz Haider as The object while you yourself are that Object.along with all your countrymen . They are presenting a perfect example of Pavlovian conditioning or conditioned Reflex. Whereas Mr. Haider’s Article is serving as that typical bell as stimulus. The question is ” Who wrote this article”? And Who came here running to respond ? LOL..
Just Count how many your countrymen came running to the stimulus, regardless of if they read the full article or not : A typical characteristic of the Pavlovian Dog who merely reacts to a situation rather than using critical thinking. I think EXPERIMENT IS A HIT HERE ONCE MORE. CONGRATLATIONS!!!!!!!!!!
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@R S JOHAR:
What about Orissa in 2008?
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I think Shashi Tharoor’s observation that Pakistani liberals are Pakistani before they are liberals is a correct assessment. True, there may be genuine liberals in Pakistan. They do not hold any sway over the decision making of the country, which is primarily controlled by the Army and it’s intelligence agencies.
Generally, whenever an organ of the state of Pakistan decides to attack India, they do so firmly and professionally, with intent to cause as much as damage as possible and prevent payback as much as possible. Part of this process entails using the liberal peace brigade from Pakistan, who would have established firm ties with their numerically superior counterparts across the border. This process is approved by the Government of Pakistan since it allows Pakistan to continually hurt India while not getting hit back. India’s policy therefore, is to constantly get “sucker punched” by Pakistan. Pakistan has a firm anti India policy in place. India lacks a policy towards responding to Pakistan’s use of asymmetric warfare. Therefore, it can be adequately assessed that Pakistan’s policy is to do the punching, and India’s policy is to constantly get punched – that is, the liberals of Pakistan talk of peace right after a major attack and prevent India’s policy makers from taking any action negative to Pakistan by using the leverage afforded to them by Indian peace activists. This is where the “liberal peace loving” elite of Pakistan nicely fit into Pakistan’s grand strategy of changing the status of J&K to its own favor.
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We are sick and tired of these Indian right-wingers playing havoc on the net. But then they get easily hurt.
Ejaz rocksRecommend
We Have more Indians here than Pakis ;) WOW Pakistan, a big concerned in our neighnourhood :D
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@My Name is Khan:
My Dear Countrymen, If Pakistan never Won or Succeed in the War, then why not these peoples occupy us like some part of kashmir? Think my friend before mouth firing…Pak Army is not a joke to fun around and this not need to prove, all these Indians knows it very well…
Our Politicians are dumpheads, those are pulling us to stoneage….we need to reveal them, and through out all the garbage…
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@JAck
What about Orissa in 2008?
The same as Ahmadias and the Baloch since forever.
P.S. Mr Ejaz was discussing Indo-Pakistan relations which is distinct from Hindu/Muslim/Christian/Sikh/Ahmadi relations. I hope the distinction is not completely lost on you.
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Media on both sides have their arguments which do-not help matters, but confuse the people. Much can be said on this article. Considering India is the villain and Pakistan the poor innocent sufferer. None will shift their stand on Kashmir . Assuming Pakistan has more destructive toys and is more powerful than India and capable of destroying whole of India. Will Pakistan be 100% safe ? High time writers take a constructive approach and suggest solutions, rather than racking up old happenings of zero value.
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To all Pakistanis who wonder why Indians are so obsessed with Pakistan:
Our generation was probably too young or unborn to rejoice the 1971 victory.
We are now savouring our victory by watching Pakistan self destruct..
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@Concerned
“I find it hard to understand why Indians are so hesitant to accept that they too have been fed half-truths like people in every other country. Yet Indians, particularly those commenting here, continue to insist that their half-truths are truths beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
So you think that people in every country have been fed half truths?
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Surprise….Surprise…Surprise…when will Pakistan’s obsession with India end.
Guys – get a grip and sort your addiction out. Time to look inwards at your state of affairs. Aren’t you tired of pointing fingers. Get over India and do something for the poor divided Pakistanis on the street. It is so easy to always use India when things are tough internally. Let us alone….please!!
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It’s quite another fact that every time Pakistan has tried to engage India on force rationalisation — nuclear and conventional — including as part of the 2004 dialogue framework, India shifts the goalpost by referring to China.
This is what India has been doing for past so six decades. They are making big claims of democracy and doesn’t know Kashmiri people were sold to India like a toaster, which is never accepted in any modern democracy. Till India occupation continues in Kashmir, South Asia will remain disturbed. Hats off to You AIjaz for this brilliant peaces. Don’t worry abt the criticism, India is the nation of journalists like Arnab Goswami, Ravi Shankar, who are selling lies. Even you can’t believe ask any common Indian about Kashmir. He will say does Kashmir have roads, how you move out when militants are always hurling grenades on you, which is never a case
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religions can never be the basis of carving out a nation.there are more than 22 muslim countries who do not see eye to eye with each other.india ia secular country with 20 crore muslims living peacefully.it is pakistan which has waged four wars on india and proxy war of terror for the last 22 years.hatered brings destruction and peace brings progress and prosperity for all.pakistan must shun the expanist policy and work for integrity and progress of pakistan.peace has no alternative other than peacfull co-existance.life is only once there is no second chance.nature is supreem.immaginary god in heaven has proved to be a curse on humanity.in the name of god several crimes,wars,convertions anihilation of oposit faiths and exploitation of innocent, ignorent,poor and illetrate people have been going on since centuries.immaginary god in heavon and seral mythological gods have been commercialised by so called god men of all religions in the world. why we can not be simple straitforward and true to ourselves and shun all kinds of rituals, superstition,fanatism and blind faith. service of humanity is a universal relegion. preserve nature nature is supreem.
RecommendKnowledge cannot not uplift everyone… especially those who don’t want to …. lol
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@Salman Arshad,
Salute to you bro, well written. I am glad there are sane people like you, who give hope to a new and peaceful Pakistan, which will also be prosperous. Good luck bro.
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Is Pakistan sleep walking to self destruction?
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