It is not so much a crisis of foreign policy as it is a crisis of human psychology. The failure of the general public to comprehend the difference between patriotism and jingoism, and their propensity to rate the loyalty of fellow countrymen on the basis of the xenophobic vitriol being spewed by them; how may one define it but as a bankruptcy of the common conscience?
Never have two people so similar in outlook been so cast away. Never have they had to accentuate personal differences to this magnitude to allay enquiries on national and personal identity.
As soon as the enigma of peace becomes manifest, the domino effect begins, propelling the two countries to the same dark nights of 1947.
Clenched fists and foaming mouths – that is the colonial inheritance of these poor begotten countries.
Why dwell on the June 3 Plan and the unnecessary haste of the Lords and the Viceroys now though, when all we have to show for ourselves in the last 70 years is a game of chasing the tail? Round and round we go in circles; none the wiser, none the prudent.
As the story of Hindu-Muslim unity, weaved a century ago in the Lucknow Pact, culminated with the failure of the Khilafat Movement, and right about the same time when the Shuddi (forceful conversion of Muslims) and Sangathan (training of irregular militia to intimidate the Muslims) campaigns of the Hindus were matched by the Tabligh and Tanzeem of the Muslims, Gandhi had observed:
“I simply nowadays … content myself by saying that someday or other we Hindus and Muslims would have to come together, if we want the deliverance of our country. And if it is to be our lot that, before we can come together, we shed one another’s blood, then I say, the sooner we do so, the better it is for us!”
Gandhi's logic has not been lost on the two countries even today. They must fight; it is contended, for the peace to prevail. Parallels are drawn; the Franco-German enmity and the two World Wars; the American-Japanese hostility and the two atomic bombs – war for peace, the elixir that is presented!
Though, why should we have to wait for millions to become necessary fodder to the deadly toys of the two armies before the human ego may become overburdened by the tragedy of war?
Why should the losses have to be our own before we can grasp the magnitude of folly that we are diving head first into?
Why couldn’t the lessons be ours, from the experiences of others? Why mustn't it be that Indo-Pak antagonism be assuaged by two diplomats, bilateral peace talks or maybe two sports tournaments?
As the two countries pique, let the stronger one show more restraint. Let it be so that the trust deficit may be chiseled away by the forces of benevolence; for thousand year wars are appealing in illusion alone.
Call him what you may, Zia did guide us to the avenue of Cricket diplomacy. What have these gurus of democracy to show, but cowardly submission to the public sentiment? “Patriotism”, Samuel Johnson had remarked, “is the last refuge of the scoundrel”.
India wanted focus away from Kashmir, Pakistan from Panama. Given the convenient timing of the whole agitation, one falls under the impression of the old trick of the neo-conservatism being heeded.
Leo Strauss had famously suggested that the ideal method to divert public focus away from domestic failures is to create tension in foreign affairs; fear of an actual or imagined external enemy would make the public forget their own plight.
The abundance of self-serving demagogues in the subcontinent makes the exercise of reaching at peaceful ends that much more difficult.
Amelioration or even conciliation, however, would require statesmanship – sacrifice of personal popularity for the sake of collective good, in order that one day the public may follow the creed of peace. It would test leadership skills, for leading a heady crowd would be no mean feat.
The duo of Modi and Nawaz would have to prove that there is more to their persona than just incredible luck and some cunning. If we cannot be idealistic, let us at least be pragmatic.
But don’t, for the sake of all that is holy, be led by the basal instincts into yet another internecine conflict which would push the two nations back by decades.