Blaming India where it is due

Wanting to give peace a chance, Pakistan took 10 steps forward for peace — only to find India taking 10 steps back

A recently published article in Foreign Policy, “Why Is Pakistan such a mess? Blame India” by Nisid Hajari, lives up to its title by simply blaming the actions of Congress during Partition for the mess Pakistan is in today. A journalist’s attempt at writing a historical analysis of one of the most complicated regions of the world at the end of centuries of colonial rule is predictably reductionist. In fact, it is this very reductionism itself, convoluted with an orientalist understanding of the region by the British Empire, which propped up Partition in the first place.

The author states: “Jinnah also correctly predicted that a too-weak Pakistan, stripped of the great port and industrial center of Calcutta, would be deeply insecure.” He also talks about the Nehru-Patel nexus of creating Pakistan as a weak state. Whether these assertions are true or not, the argument Hajari makes still doesn’t add up.

The fact is that Pakistan hasn’t always been the mess that Hajari has projected it to be. If anything, the initial years of Pakistan saw an unprecedented economic growth, it became an excellent sporting nation and produced top economists and advisers not just for the World Bank but many developing countries. Pakistan, in the 1960s, was a responsible international player that built up modern South-East Asia — a credit which is duly given by the South-East Asian countries. And lest we forget, long before the British and Americans started pouring into the Emirates to make it a modern mirage, the educated and professional lot from Pakistan formed the core rank of advisers of the ruling Arab elite, helping the Emirates become what it is today. The fact that Hajari’s article makes no mention of Pakistan’s era of growth raises serious concerns.

Today, the mess that is Pakistan is a result of the country’s involvement in Cold War politics, and fighting proxy wars of neo-imperial agendas, coupled with being hostage internally, to its elite and its misplaced policies. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s failed nationalisation, Ziaul Haq’s confused Islamisation, the troubled 1990s, and Pervez Musharraf’s minimal action on the development front are all responsible for the mess. While our neighbours may enjoy and prop up the mess, they haven’t created one for us. The mess was created internally for outside forces to play with.

If one has to blame India, it should be for its arrogance towards Pakistan. As much as the Indian establishment may say otherwise, its policies and media jingoism all reflect a reluctance towards fostering peace with Pakistan. Moreover, If India has to be blamed, it should be for mixing politics with sports, entertainment, and isolating Pakistan on all fronts, destroying people to people ties. Incidences like banning Pakistani players from the IPL leaves one without an argument against the hawks in Pakistan who claim that the Indian establishment is waging an all-spectrum war against the country. With the Indian military establishment now exerting control, the hawkish foreign and defence policy is of little surprise. On the flip side, in Pakistan, there is an awareness within the military that the civil-military imbalance needs to be fixed, and that democracy has to be maintained.

Interestingly, while the Pakistan military may have an anti-India narrative on its cover, on the negotiating table it has taken more compromising positions than India. Every recent proposal of the military to bilaterally remove forces and artillery from the border has been shot down by India, with diplomatic negotiations going nowhere. Despite the military’s stiff stance on India, Nawaz Sharif, wanting to give peace a chance, took ten steps forward for peace with India — only to find India taking ten steps back. Pakistan’s efforts were not been reciprocated – a sentiment felt by the PML-N government that stood embarrassed in front of its own military at India’s cold response.

With leadership on both sides unable to make a breakthrough, the incentive to try anything serious is absent once again. However, to remotely blame the Indian National Congress for the mess that is Pakistan today may be, at best, delusional. Blaming India for blocking rapprochement would be far more fitting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th,  2015.

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