India, Pakistan and Kashmir

Syed Mansoor Hussain

After having lived in the US for decades and having worked with many Indian Americans, as far as I am concerned, Indians and Pakistanis are no different from each other in what they want from life

When it comes to Kashmir, India is like the alcoholic who refuses to accept that he has a drinking problem. Pakistan on the other hand is like the lover who lost his beloved a long time ago to a stronger and richer man and has tried often enough to get her back without any success.

Before any progress can be made as far as relations between India and Pakistan are concerned, India has to accept that Kashmir is a problem and the problem is not all Pakistan's doing. And Pakistan has to accept the bitter fact that it is not going to get Kashmir back, however much in its mind Kashmir still loves it more than its present cohabitant.

But the animosity between these two countries has a history that cannot be swept under the rug or a jute mat. And Kashmir, though an important part, is still just a part of it. My generation, and that includes most people in positions of power and authority, at least in Punjab, was brought up on the horrible stories of 'partition'. Most of us were born after the creation of Pakistan but that is what we grew up with.

There were the stories of the massacres of Muslim families like mine, fleeing from that part of Punjab that was suddenly and 'perfidiously' awarded to India by that arch devil Radcliffe to ensure that India had access to Kashmir. Mountbatten, on being refused the Governor-Generalship of Pakistan, colluded with Radcliffe. And then Nehru refused to give the money Pakistan was supposed to get from the official funds.

Nehru of course hoped that this would drive Pakistan to bankruptcy and undo partition, and he almost succeeded. If Gandhi had not gone on a 'fast unto death', Nehru would never have given Pakistan its share of British India's money. In the interim, the Nizam of Hyderabad put money at the disposal of the government of Pakistan that allowed Pakistan to survive. And he did pay a price for having done that.

My first memory of a public demonstration that goes back more than fifty years ago is of a bunch of people running down the street in front of my house in Lahore shouting "Nehru kutta hai hai, aloo shora hai hai" (Down with Nehru dog, Down with Potato curry - sorry for the mangled translation!). The Nehru part seems self explanatory, but combined with the potato thing it became a political mystery that took me many decades to solve.

Since no official history explains what the 'aloo shora' thing was all about, I had to consult the oral history and memories of the generation before me to figure it out. It seems to be connected to the Nehru-Liaquat Pact and transfer of Muslim refugees from India to Pakistan through the Lahore border at Wahgah.

These refugees were evidently the 'Urdu speaking' residents of northern India who initially came to Punjab until the 'Khokhrapar' entry point was opened for them to come directly to Sindh and Karachi. 'Aloo shora' was a derogatory term used by Punjabis for the Urdu speaking 'mohajirs' from India! The Punjabi-Mohajir antipathy is a story for another day. But today it is about India and Pakistan.

After partition came the 1965 war between these two countries and then the 1971 debacle for Pakistan. Three decades later, after 9/11, a bunch of Pakistani Americans in my state had a meeting with our US Senator. While trying to tell us about t how the US had supported Pakistan for all the years gone by, he told us that in 1971, if President Nixon hadn't called up Leonid Brezhnev to tell Indira Gandhi that the US would not accept India's takeover of 'Azad' Kashmir, today Pakistan would have no Kashmir at all.

As long as the Nehru family ran India, relations between India and Pakistan were never cordial. The best of times were when the Punjabi-born IK Gujral of the 'Gujral Doctrine' and the Gwalior-born Atal Biharee Vajpayee ran India. Both of them were willing to talk 'real' peace with Pakistan since neither had any emotional attachment to Kashmir.

Now that the Nehru surrogates are firmly in control of India once again, any peace of a reasonable sort between India and Pakistan is going to become more difficult but perhaps not impossible. The Congress party is a prisoner and victim of history, as much as we on this side of the border might ever be. The Congress government will talk of everything and anything but never of India's problem with or in Kashmir.

After having lived in the US for decades and having worked with many Indian Americans, as far as I am concerned, Indians and Pakistanis are no different from each other in what they want from life, except of course for the irritating Indian habit of calling a ghazal a gajal. The same I am sure is true in the home countries.

More than anything, the first step towards peaceful co-existence has to be for both to stop obsessing about each other. To do that, it is important for people on both sides to accept the fact that the partition of India, right or wrong, is now an unalterable reality. Pakistan has to accept that it is not going to get Kashmir; India must also accept that Kashmir is a problem and it must make a genuine effort to pacify the Kashmiris.

Once this happens, the rest becomes much easier. Cross-border terrorism will then slowly but surely give way to cross-border trade and these two countries then can then go on to become good neighbours.

As far as 'real friendship' between India and Pakistan is concerned, I don't think that is going to happen any time soon.

Syed Mansoor Hussain has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at