The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations

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The History of Perpetual War
Indo-Pak Relations

PARAMPARA
The History of Perpetual War
Indo-Pak Relations
Soumi Banerjee

THE HISTORY OF PERPETUAL WAR : INDO-PAK RELATIONS
By SOUMI BANERJEE
© Soumi Banerjee
First Published : January 2016
ISBN 978-93-80869-93-3
Cover Design : Soumya Dutta
Typeset : Perfect Lasergraphics
2 Champatala First Bye Lane, Kolkata 12
Publisher : Parampara Prakashan
20A Beniatola Lane, Kolkata 700 009, India
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Price : fi 200.00 (South Asia), £12 (UK),
=C
16 (EU Countries), $18 (Rest of the World)
To My Parents

Peer Reviewed

PREFACE
The main objective of this book is to study the
complex relationship between the two
neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan, who
once shared the same motherland, India, for
centuries. This book aims to enhance the
understanding of the changing dynamics of
relationship between the two over the years
since their inception as independent nations and
how over time situations grew so intense that
many on both sides of the border still believe
that it was next to impossible for the devotees
of both the religion to live together
harmoniously.
The book begins with the episode of
Partition and related holocaust that divided
British India into Hindu-majority India and
Muslim-majority Pakistan. It has also jotted the
stories of mutual genocide that broke out
between the two rival communities i.e., the
Hindus and the Sikhs on one hand and Muslims
on the other. Here the book dates back to 11th
(i)

century, discussing the rise of Islam in India
that resulted in an amalgam of Indo-Islamic
civilisation, and the rise of two big movements,
namely, Bhakti and Sufi. The book also focuses
on the British policy of Divide-and-Rule, which
is popularly believed to be the major reasons
behind the Hindu-Muslim split, along with the
revivalist attitude among the orthodox Hindus
who believe that the long history of Muslim
invasions and rule is actually responsible for
destruction of past glories of Hindu India. On
the other hand, the growing insecurities among
the Muslims too acted as a major hindrance
towards uniting the Hindus and the Muslims in
one fold. Mere issues like fighting over cow
protection, Hindi-Urdu language controversy,
and many more drew bloody border between
the duo and hence Riots were witnessed all
over the country, notable amongest them was
the Calcutta Killings of 1946 on 16th August,
which is popularly called as the ‘Direct Action
Day’ where approximately 6,000 people lost
lives in just 3 days and similar bloodsheds were
repeatedly noticed in the borders of Bengal and
Punjab, slaughtering thousands of innocent.
The chapter following this discusses
extensively the numerous territorial disputes,
mostly centring around Kashmir as ‘the bone of
contention’ between India and Pakistan which
resulted in four full-fledged wars till date
between the two and how contemporary
relations between the two are largely getting
affected by Cross-border terrorism. Kashmir
which has been described as the heaven with its
picturesque landscapes, mountains, gardens and
above all its real asset, the cultured, intellectual
and beautiful locals, has now been turned into a
valley that bleed blood by planting the seeds of
Islamic fundamentalism. The book has also
covered several other areas of territorial
disputes and matter of grievances between
Hindus and Muslims in India, namely, the Ram
Janmobhumi or Babri Masjid controversy, 1998
nuclear test in Pokhran, killing of Karsevaks
and resultant Gujarat Riot in 2002, 26/11
Mumbai attack and many others, largely
affecting the Indo-Pak relations.
The journey of writing this book has been
wonderful and in the process it has helped me
recognize the necessity to root out differences
in society to prevent conflict and restore peace
and harmony. In this world ruled by soft power,
India and Pakistan should both understand that
the possession of nuclear weapons is not at all
necessary to peace, to security, or to prosper is
any field as such, and only cooperation can
bring about positive changes for enhancing
quality of life of people living in the region.
(iii)
(ii)

I take this occasion to express my thanks
and gratitude to all those who have made the
publication of this book possible. The book
wouldn’t have seen the light without Orance
Mahaldar, Prof Dr. Tridib Chakraborty, Prof.
Dr. Mridul Bose, Sweta Basak, Ambar Ghosh
and few more who chose to remain nameless
here but whose critical appreciation of my work
and faith in me have enriched my vision during
this entire journey, providing me with an
inspiring platform towards development and
expression of my viewpoint.
This volume is dedicated to my parents, Mrs.
Dulu Banerjee and Mr. Achintya Kr. Banerjee
for their love, understanding, endless patience
and support. I finally invoke the blessings of
goddess Maa Kali, and release my book to be
a part of the academic family for consideration.
Soumi Banerjee
January 2016, Kolkata
(iv)
FOREWORD
It is a pleasure to forward this book of Soumi
Banerjee, who is highly interested in exploring
the burgeoning global problems and addressing
issues of Conflict Resolution. Her most recent
work pertaining to Conflict Zones in South Asia,
vis-à-vis India-Pakistan relations reflects her
zeal in the proposed area. In this book entitled,
The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak
Relations, she has offered a vibrant portrayal of
the India-Pakistan conflict and the changing
dynamics of relations between them over the
years. The book has not only discussed the
complex relational equation between India and
Pakistan, but has also highlighted the trajectory
of determining an effective solution to this
historical animosity, which exists between these
two, geographically-prominent South Asian
neighbours.
The book is informative, insightful and will
be useful for scholars and researchers of
(v)

Introduction.........................................................1
Partition of British India.......................................5
The Rise of Islam In India................................10
British Policy of “Divide And Rule” .................14
Hindu-Muslim Split & Hindu Revivalism........16
Formation of Muslim League............................21
Direct Action Day.............................................28
Indus Water Treaty...........................................30
Construction of Wullar Barrage.......................32
Territorial Disutes In The Rann of Kutch.........33
Kashmir.............................................................34
Indo-Pak War (1965)........................................44
The 1971 War...................................................45
Terrorism...........................................................48
Political Science, International Relations,
History and other related disciplines, more
particularly those interested in the intricacies of
India-Pakistan relations and related issues.
Soumi’s book is an important contribution to
the literature of India-Pakistan bilateral
discourse. Strikingly enough, historical images
constitute an important part of this book,
making it unique and more interesting for the
readers.
Prof. Dr. Tridib Chakraborti
Professor & Ex-Head
Department of International Relations
Jadavpur University
Kolkata-700032, India &
Former ICCR Chair Professor,
Dublin City University, Ireland.
(vi) (vii)

Killings of Kashmiri Pundits 1986.....................56
Dispute Over Line of Control..........................60
Hindutva Ideology and the Ayodhya Dispute..61
Nuclear Test (1998)..........................................65
Pakistan’s Respond..........................................66
Kargil War (1999)..............................................68
Terrorist Attacks (2001)...................................73
Gujarat Riot (2002)...........................................74
Samjhauta Express Bombing (2007)...............76
Attack on Mumbai (2008).................................78
Balancing with the Great Power.......................80
Conclusion........................................................98
Reference..............................................115
Suggested Readings...............................124
(viii)

INTRODUCTION
Indo-Pak relationship has always remained
complex due to a number of historical and
political events harvesting the seeds of
conflict between the duos. India is concerned
about Pakistan’s falling in the hand of
extremist elements and Pakistan has kept a
sharp eye on India’s foreign policy matters,
internal developments, discussions and other
homely affairs. India-Pakistan conflict has
become one of the lasting and unending
rivalries of the era, which has affected
bilateral relationship between the two
countries (Paul, 2005). No doubt, even after
six and a half decades of independence, the
1

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
antagonistic relationship between India and
Pakistan still continues and Pakistan remains
India’s biggest foreign policy challenge.
“India’s national security concerns have
mainly emanated from its neighbourhood”
(Mellor 1979; HM, 2011).
Since the inception of the two as
independent nations, their relationship is
marked by simmering hostility with
interludes of tranquillity but with no
consequential outcomes. Pakistan is now seen
as a key factor in figuring India’s national
security policy, where Budania sees Pakistan
not only as a strong security obligation what
has preoccupied the imagination of the policy
makers in India, but has grown up as the
biggest threat to India’s internal as well
external security (HM, 2010). Though both
India and Pakistan were colonies under the
British Rule, however, India adopted
democracy soon after its birth as an
independent nation, and Pakistan still
struggles between democratic rule and
military regime till date. Independence in
1947 made both India and Pakistan a
sovereign nation, however since then India
originated as a democratic nation, but in
Pakistan autocratic military regime is all the
more powerful (Tudor, 2013). Military and
Pakistan intelligence agency have a louder
say in the society and politics of the nation,
which runs on their whims creating a
constant war like atmosphere not only within
Pakistan, but also in the entire South Asia due
to persistent and unending hostility between
two South Asian giants, India and Pakistan.
South Asia is the poorest, but the most
militarized region in the world, and all credit
goes to India and Pakistan for this
development. While global expenditure on
military is declining and reduced by 37%
during the period 1987 to 1994, but in South
Asia military spending has increased by 12%
(Thomas, 1997; Hilali, 2005).
Thus, when the whole world is promoting
policies to harvest peace and bring harmony

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
among nation states, South Asia is advancing
towards a more uncertain future caused by
hostile neighbours placed in the region.
Scholars have often compared the
relationship of south Asian giant, India, with
its smaller neighbours, like, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (Mahbuba &
Rousseau, 2010). Thus, confidence building
measures are real necessary to maintain
trust and cooperation in the region. Unending
tensions and hostility in the region is
responsible for increasing poverty and
backwardness among the masses. Scholars
believe that post-conflict peace building
measures by India and Pakistan can surely
bring big changes in the region bettering life
of over one billion people living in South Asia
(Hilali, 2005).
Looking back at the trajectory of Indo-Pak
relations, our memories are permeated with
the episode of Partition.
PARTITION OF BRITISH INDIA
Partition of British India into two separate
province of India and Pakistan was a decision
made by lawmakers far from the borders
that unleashed the chapter of brutal
immorality witnessed by human history.
There has also been a widespread attempt to
record oral memories of Partition before the
dwindling generation that survived the
period takes its memories to the grave.
Partition divided British India into Hindu-
Image 1: Crossing border during Partition 1947

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan,
followed by the greatest migrations in human
history, with millions of Muslims trekking
towards West and East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh), while millions of Hindus and
Sikhs heading in the opposite direction
Where many hundreds of thousands could
never make it happen till their destination.
Across the Indian subcontinent, communities
who had coexisted for almost a millennium all
of a sudden started killing each other with
just an order from the government in hand ,
an order to create new borders separating
Hindus and Muslims. Unexpectedly, a
terrifying war, a mutual genocide broke out
between Hindus and Sikhs on one side and
Muslims on the other. The land where they
grew up suddenly became so much
unfamiliar as people got killed across borders
even before realizing which way they need to
proceed or what path to follow.
Image 2 : Train carrying refugees from Pakistan
occupied Punjab to India
Punjab and Bengal were the worst
sufferers dividing borders with West and
East Pakistan respectively with severe
massacres, arson, forced conversions, mass
abductions, and savage sexual violence
against women folk, gang-rape and murders
became common. These killings largely
occurred in Punjab and Bengal and involved
venal criminality on the part of all parties
concerned: Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Villages were set on fire and women of all
ages, ethnic groups and social classes were
persecuted, agonized and raped. A girl once
raped, loses her value and place in society —
she becomes unwanted even by her own
family. Reporters have witnessed that some
of them were even stripped naked and
paraded down streets deepening their
trauma and humiliation. There were also
even more tragic episodes, where women
voluntarily killed themselves, as well as their
female children, often by self-immolation, or
by having poison, or by throwing themselves
into wells. Where fathers fearing that their
daughters would soon be raped (and
converted to another faith), preferred to
compel their daughters to commit suicide lest
such an event spoil their family’s honour.
Image 3 : Killing during Riot (Calcutta)
Apart from the sheer terror of sexual
violation, women who survived these
atrocities had to literally carry with them
physical signs of their shame, where rapists
frequently mutilated and marked the girls’
skins with scratch and graffiti that reflected
the violators’ political or religious affinities,
including tattooed phrases like “Pakistan
Zindabad” (Long Live Pakistan) or “Jai

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Hind” (Long Live India) or symbols of Hindu
trident or Islamic crescent moon. Many
women had their breasts chopped off, babies
were hacked out of the bellies of pregnant
women and others suffered severe abuse and
torture of their genitals — in most cases
leading to death. The Indian government
reports estimates that 83,000 women and
girls were abducted and raped during
Partition, but other sources believe that the
numbers were even more.
THE RISE OF ISLAM IN INDIA
Now, the question is how Hindus and
Muslims who had lived together for
centuries, who left imprints of their own
culture on the other, who fought together
holding hands to achieve freedom from the
British actually ended up slaughtering each
other in the name of religion? Islam was
certainly not a new name or something very
much alien to the land and the rise of Islam
started with its conquests of West Asia and
Iran. In India, the same happened in the
eleventh century, with its expansion till
Lahore, in 1021. Delhi was seized in 1192
from its Hindu emperors by the Turks who
came down from a place now called central
Afghanistan. By 1206, the time of death of
Sultan Muizzuddin Muhammad, the Turks
had extended their kingdom from Lakhnauti
in Bengal, Ajmer and Ranthambor in
Rajasthan, up to the boundaries of Ujjain in
the south and Uchch and Multan in Sindh
(Chandra, 2004).
Today, these invasions are usually
recognised as having been done by
“Muslims,” but such religious terms weren’t
popular during the medieval times proven
from the Sanskrit inscriptions which don’t
identify the Central Asian aggressors by that
term. Instead, they were identified by their
linguistic and ethnic affiliation, most typically
as ‘Turushka’. Moreover, although the
conquests were marked by bloodbath, loot

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
and destruction of Hindu and Buddhist sites,
India had the huge heart to embrace people
of alien origin, making them a part of the holy
land. Within a few centuries, a hybrid Indo-
Islamic civilization appeared, evident in art
forms, architecture, crafts, along with hybrid
languages, notably Urdu—which is an
amalgam of the Sanskrit with Turkish,
Persian, and Arabic words.
The 9th and 10th century saw the rise of
two big movements- one Sufi and the other
Bhakti. Both the movements were concerned
with the nature of God, relationship between
the man and the God, stressing on realization
of God within oneself and hence acted as a
bridge towards Hindu-Muslim unity. Thus
cultural inter-mixing started taking place
throughout the subcontinent. In South
Indian medieval Hindu texts, the Sultan of
Delhi is sometimes referred to as the
incarnation of the God Vishnu. Great Mughal
emperor, Jallaluddin Muhammad Akbar had
a Hindu wife, named Jodha and was very
much tolerant towards other faiths. He
withdrew the illegitimate taxes imposed
upon the Hindus and also voluntarily
participated in Hindu festivals. In the
seventeenth century, the Mughal crown
prince Dara Shikoh had the Bhagavad Gita
(the most holy text of Hindus) translated into
Persian, and he also did an extensive study
Image 4 : Taj Mahal, a masterpiece of Indo-Islamic
architecture

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
of Hinduism and Islam, and wrote “The
Mingling of Two Oceans,” which stressed on
the affinities of the two faiths. However, not
all Mughal rulers were so much kind and
open-hearted. During the reign of Mughal
ruler, Aurangzeb, there was large-scale
conversion of people of different faiths
(especially Hindus and Sikhs) into Islam.
Despite of such atrocities India was a land
which cuts across religious groupings and
identify itself as a land where there is unity
without uniformity and diversity without
fragmentation.
BRITISH POLICY OF “DIVIDE AND
RULE”
Today many scholars argue and blame the
British rule for harvesting differences
between the Hindus and Muslims while
others assess the British Policy of ‘Divide-
and-Rule’ as responsible for the Partition of
India. After the Second World War, Britain
had no resource to effectively control the
lands it had earlier colonized and hence it had
to let go its greatest imperial asset, and its
exit from India was chaotic, hasty, and
awkwardly improvised. However from the
point of view of the colonizers, who were
losing ground in their colonies, it was the one
and only fair way of handing over the
colonies to the natives. But surprisingly the
British, who had ruled over India for
centuries, oppressed and tortured people of
this land irrespective of any community
divide, could actually march out of this
country without much ferocity or bloodshed.
The Colonial rulers perceived India as the
land of Hindus. It is also through the Colonial
census that the ethnographic details and
theories on religion evolved. Recent
researches have pointed out the role of
colonial rule in the split up of religions. Not
only did the colonial rule through a process of
enumeration and ethnographic surveys

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
raised consciousness about religion, but they
also produced the conditions where religion
became a single entity capable of expressing,
organising, and above all synthesizing India’s
diverse forms of social identity, community,
and organisation. To the colonial
administrators, India was a land of Hinduism,
and scholars identify certain Brahmanical
scriptures as colonial texts for understanding
Indian tradition. This Indological book view
thus continued to be a reference point for
acquiring knowledge about the native.
HINDU-MUSLIM SPLIT & HINDU
REVIVALISM
Scholars argue that the split between
Hindus and Muslims occurred mostly
during the first half of the 20th Century, but
by the middle of the century it became so
intense that many on both sides still believe
that it was next to impossible for followers of
the two religions to live together peacefully.
It all started roughly during the rule of the
moderates in the Indian National Congress,
which was represented by approximately 90
percent Hindus and about 7 percent Muslims.
Thus, prominent Muslim leaders like Sir
Sayyid Ahmed Khan strongly argued that
Muslims in India were not properly
represented and the Congress too didn’t
show great endeavour to bring the Muslims
back in the sphere. This period was also the
era of Hindu revivalism, where India was
largely seen as a Hindu nation with people
talking much about the history of glorious
Hindu civilisation in the past and with deep
belief that the Muslim aggression was what
actually caused for destruction of the glories
of Hindu India. Gradually the revivalist
forces became stronger reaching out to more
number of common mass, spreading the
ideas and ideology of Hindutva.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
The Ramkrishna-Vivekananda movement
was an effort towards revivalism per se,
however, it was seen as projecting the basic
essence of Hinduism. Vivekananda and his
disciple claimed superiority of Hinduism over
all other religions, calling Hinduism as the
‘mother of religions’. Moreover, popular
theories on ‘Hindutva’ by Sir Savarkar, and
various other sabhas, prominent among them
was Bharatvarshiya Arya Dharma Procharini
Sabha, cropped up aiming at reviving the
Aryan Religion, its identity, and in the
process creating a bridge between Hindus
and Muslims, making the Hindus realise
every moment that they had been oppressed
by the Muslims in past and it is the time now
to get back their lost prestige, identity and
glory. They strongly believed that nothing
good can happen to India until the revivalism
of Hindu religion and hence started to preach
the supremacy of Aryan race, their blood,
their dharma (religion), bhasa (language),
and sanskriti (culture). Next the Hindus
started protesting against Muslim festival of
Bakr-id, which involves slaughter of cow.
Soon cow was given the status of God (gau
mata) and Gaurakshini Sabhas (cow
protection societies) were formed in Hindu
dominated provinces. However, the cow
protection movement later lost its impetus
Image 5 : Swami Vivekananda

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
and in the year 1893 there started the well
known cow killing riots as by then for the
Muslims cow slaughter was not only a part of
their ritual but it became more popular as an
act that denotes going against the popular
Hindu sentiments. Thus this showed how thin
the layer of trust and respect was left
between the devotees of the two religious
communities that a mere issue of cow
protection could draw a blooded border
between the duos. Gradually, language
controversy also became prominent that led
to a fight between Hindi, which came to be
identified as the language of the Hindus and
Urdu was identified as the tongue of the
Muslims. Religion was no longer seen as a set
of ideas or values, instead individuals had
been virtually turned into the epitomes of
the religion of their birth-denying the
multiple identities that every individual
perforce carries.
FORMATION OF MUSLIM LEAGUE
The individual authority of the Indian
National Congress was first challenged in
December, 1906 with the formation of
Muslim League under the leadership of Aga
Khan, and Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk to fight
for the interests of the Muslims. There is a
substantial background behind the formation
of the League which was mainly to establish
a counter political platform against the
National Congress, to bring educational and
economic reform within the Muslim
community, as an impact of Hindi- Urdu
language controversy and so on. However,
the coming of Morley-Minto Reform of 1909,
which talked of constitutional reforms, can be
called as an immediate cause that triggered
the formation of the League. At that time the
Muslims did not have any separate political
association and they feared on missing out on
their political share and hence the All India
Muslim League was created which no doubt
strengthened the views of Sir Syed Ahmed

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
who once said that the Hindus and the
Muslims are two different nations with
varied ideologies. Scholars from Pakistan see
him as a very significant person providing the
concept of the ‘two nation theory’. He is also
known for his disagreements with the Indian
National Congress. In most of his writings,
Syed Ahmed stands out as a very principled
individual who characterizes both the
promise and hazards of the colonial
modernity. His goal was to make the Muslims
realise their role in radical social
transformation in the foreseeable future. The
Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College Fund
Committee was founded by him in 1872 to
spread education among the Muslims as he
believed that the masses should first acquire
education first in order to become civilised
and honoured. He saw education as the
prerequisite for attaining self realisation and
hence he emphasized on good upbringing of
children so that they become humane, just,
honest, and dutiful. He had great faith on
western education, modern scientific values
and hence believed that Muslims should gain
as much as possible from the West by
cooperating with the imperial powers, rather
than getting into conflict with the Raj like the
Hindus and this was the reason why he
supported the British government during the
first so-called war of independence, the
revolt of 1857. He condemned the revolt and
preached unity of the Crescent and the Cross
to strengthen mutual understanding,
cooperation and over all development of the
two communities, namely, the Muslims and
the Christians.
Image 6 : Muslim League Formation

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Much like Iqbal and Jinnah, Sir Syed
initially considered Hindus and Muslims as
one Nation. He believed that it actually
doesn’t matter what are the religious views
of some community, but, if they had lived
together, sharing same land, same history,
whether a Muslim, or a Hindu, or even
Christians constitute one nation. He once
compared India with a beautiful bride, who is
gifted with two very attractive eyes, one the
Hindus, other the Muslims. However, a
feeling of enmity or hatred between the two
could make the bride look one eyed and
hence they should harvest peace and let go
all ill feelings. However, earlier in 1867, when
the demand was made in favour of replacing
Urdu by Hindi at the lower administrative
levels in North Western Provinces, Sir Syed
in an interview for the first time called
Hindus and Muslims as ‘two nation’. Jinnah
since the formation of the league had
propagated the idea of Hindu Muslim Unity,
earning the famous title of ‘Ambassador of
Hindu-Muslim Unity’ from Miss Sarojini
Naidu. However, the Lucknow pact of 1916
first carried the Muslim demand for a
separate electorate, but Jinnah’s nationalism
didn’t yet show signs of ugly communism by
then and soon such demands lost momentum
with the coming of Gandhi, popularly known
as ‘Mahatma’, the leader of the leaders who
played a great role in mobilizing the masses
both Hindus and Muslims and took active
part in Khilafat Movement of 1919. However
by mid 1920s, Jinnah’s Muslim League was
build up fully upon safeguarding the interests
and rights of the Muslims, but he never
stressed on building individual identity on
the basis of religion. In March 1936 at
Lahore, Jinnah said “Whatever I have done,
let me assure you there has been no change
in me, not the slightest, since the day I
joined the Indian National Congress. It may
be I have been wrong on some occasions.
But it has never been done in a partisan
spirit. My soul and only object has been the
welfare of my country. I assure you that
India’s interest is and will be sacred to me

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
and nothing will make me budge an inch
from that position”. He asked the Muslims to
arrange themselves separately and at the
same time asked them to “prove that their
patriotism is unsullied and that their love of
India and her progress is no less than that of
any other community in the country”
(Chandra, 1989). Thus, the only demand of
the league is to improve the overall condition
of the Muslim and protection and promotion
of the language of their communication,
Urdu. However, the year 1937 brought about
drastic change not only in the policy actions
of the league, but also in the Jinnah’s
personality. The failure of the league against
congress in 1937 election made Jinnah opt a
new political theme based on horror and
hatred. He started to inject in the mind of
Muslims that the Congress did not want
Independence from the Raj, but on the
contrary they want to make India a Hindu
dominated society, where Muslims would find
no air to breathe. He also criticized Gandhi
and alleged him to try to subdue Muslims
under Hindu dominance. In March 1941 at
Aligarh, Jinnah said, “Pakistan is not only a
practicable goal but the only goal if you want
to save Islam from complete annihilation in
this country” (Chandra, 1989). Further in
1946 elections, he asked the Muslims to vote
for the league and realize this as their duty
and failing of which would mean annihilation
of Islam forever from India. Hindu extremist
groups like RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh) were also not lagging behind but
propagating ideas of Hindu superiority. They
asked Indians (by the term ‘Indian’ they
meant everything which is Hindu) not to
believe Muslims as old friends, but they are
in reality ‘bitter enemies’ who have since
ages tried to dominate Hindus and now it is
the time to give them back the answer to all
the torture that they had once executed upon
the Hindus. Furthermore the coming of the
Cabinet Mission to India in 1946 and its
decision to transfer power in the hands of
Indian leaders feared the Muslim League
that the power transfer might lead to Hindu
dominance over the Muslims in India.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
DIRECT ACTION DAY bloodbaths in the borders of Bengal and
Punjab were particularly worse, slaughtering
thousands of innocents and sowing the seeds
of partition which divided the Bengal
province of British India into two separate
lands, creating East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
and West Bengal (India), and a similar
partition took place in the Punjab province
breaking it into West Pakistan (with parts of
Punjab) and Punjab (India), creating two
independent nations: India and Pakistan.
Pakistan during its independence had a
unique historical and multilingual backdrop.
Researchers after doing an extensive case
study on languages practiced in Pakistan
discovered that most of its population can
neither read nor can they write. Literacy
rates were extremely low, about 38% in 1995
(Amara, 2004).
Image 7 : Calcutta Killings: The Direct Action Day (1946)
All these feelings of hatred, fear and mistrust
that had been harvested by leaders and
influential groups from both the communities
showed its real face on 16th August 1946 in
Calcutta where approximately 6,000 people
lost lives in just 3 days in a riot popularly
known as ‘Calcutta Killing’ or the ‘Direct
Action Day’ and similar such riots were
witnessed all over the country , however the

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
INDUS WATER TREATY
Separation from India was the biggest
priority to Pakistan, where partition not only
separated people, lands, but also demarcated
the flow of river in the territory. The
problem regarding sharing the Indus water
intensified just after the partition of British
India, as since that day both India and
Pakistan started recognizing themselves as
two separate nations, and hence demand was
raised to separate the Indus: life-line of the
region. People residing in Pakistan who had
survived beside the Indus for centuries,
suddenly found the water sources originating
in an alien country, named India, with whom
their geopolitical relations were getting worse
day-by-day. Soon it became a matter of great
concern for both India and Pakistan when
their respective governments decided to
arrive at an agreement to solve the issue
avoiding much hostility. The two sides came
up with their plans to share the Indus,
however again their respective versions
pictured the inner differences between the
two. The modified Indian plan called for all
of the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej)
and 7% of the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum
and Chenab) to be allocated to India, while
Pakistan would be allocated the rest, i.e.,
about 93% of the western rivers. The
modified Pakistani plan called for 30% of the
eastern rivers to be allocated to India, while
70% of the eastern rivers and all of the
western rivers would go to Pakistan.
The international community feared that
if such situation continues then the stalemate
is likely to persist even further and hence it
decided to interfere in the problem and made
World Bank funds available. The Bank
proposed for the entire flow of the eastern
rivers to be allocated to India, and all of the
western rivers, with the exception of a small
amount from the Jhelum, to be allocated to
Pakistan. Finally, the Indus Water Treaty
was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960
and the two countries were asked to set up a

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
joint body to carry out the treaty and to
handle disagreements. Since then the Indus
Water Treaty has been working quite well,
and is a winning instance of conflict-
resolution which enabled both the countries
to peacefully share water from the Indus and
its tributaries, though differences do arise
from time to time, but they usually get
resolved within the framework of the Treaty
and in the face of the strained political
relationship between India and Pakistan, the
treaty continued to be honoured even during
wars between the two countries.
CONSTRUCTION OF WULLAR
BARRAGE
Dispute also aroused between the two over
the construction of Wullar Barrage by India
on the River Jhelum in 1985. Pakistan
opined that, storing of Jhelum water by
India, that had been assigned to Pakistan is a
violation of the Indus Water Treaty (1960).
However, India argued that the barrage was
to be made for hydroelectric power
generation and hence the flow of water to
Pakistan will not be hampered. After rounds
of talks, the two countries reached an
agreement with certain conditions, following
of what would allow India to build the
barrage on Jhelum.
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES IN THE
RANN OF KUTCH
The Rann of Kutch , that separates the
Gujarat state of India from Pakistan, was
first known to the world when a boundary
dispute arose over the region between
Pakistan and India which led to serious
turmoil, however unlike the Kashmir
problem, it didn’t persist for long and soon
the British intervention led to signing of an
agreement between the two nations on June
30, 1965.
Salt-marsh area in Rann forms two
shallow lakes namely, the Great Rann and
the Little Rann in the wet season, and in the

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
dry season it is a bare salt-covered desert.
The international tribunal appointed by the
International Court of Justice (IJC)
pronounced its verdict in 1968 demarcating
the marshes. The tribunal awarded 90 per
cent of the Rann of Kutch to India and about
10 per cent (approximately 800sq km) of
superior area which stays above water all the
year was allocated to Pakistan. Both the
governments accepted this decision and thus
the territorial dispute was finally settled.
Kashmir :
Kashmir can be referred to as the most
beautiful yet treacherous place on earth. It
shares its border with both India and
Pakistan and takes a good amount of space in
any discourse on Indo-Pak relations. During
the time of partition of India and Pakistan as
independent nations, Pakistan used to view
Kashmir from an ideological perception,
claiming Kashmir on the basis of majority
Muslim population living in J&K. But, now
the interests of Pakistan have turned more
economic, rather than ideological, however to
India, Kashmir has always been ‘the symbol
of secularism and unity’ (Rashdi, 1988).
Kashmir valley is known for its beauty
recorded in the Rajatarangini (Chronicle of
Kings), written in 12th century by the poet
Kalhana. It describes how the valley formed
a significant part of the ancient Indian empire
and its first imperial history probably began
in 3rd century BC during the rule of Ashoka.
Kashmir was also a part of Kushan Empire,
they who invaded northern India from
north-west China and King Kanishka, an
Image 8 : Kashmir valley

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
aficionado of art, architecture and learning
had his court in the valley. Kashmir had also
been a favourite destination to the later
Muslim rulers of Delhi Sultanate and the
Mughals, who had built beautiful gardens,
palaces, aimed at beautification of Kashmir
and all these era can be termed as a ‘golden
age’ in the civilisation of Kashmir. Kashmiris
became famous throughout Asia as scholarly,
cultured, sophisticated and humane and the
contribution of writers, poets, musicians,
scientists in their own unique ways to the
rest of India was often compared by many to
that of ancient Greece to European
civilisation.
Since ages however in spite of being ruled
by various rulers of diverse communities,
Kashmiris have always retained their
identity as Kashmiriyats, nourishing pride in
their own culture and their part of
civilisation. Jammu and Kashmir comprises of
three regions with diverse socio political
background, one is Jammu, other Kashmir,
and another one is Ladakh. People residing
are mostly Kashmiri speaking with a majority
of Muslims and minority of Hindu population.
Jammu region is comparatively more diverse
than Kashmir, in terms of religion with
Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs all residing
together. Ladakh region is mountainous
where lives a majority of Buddhist
population.
The course of politics in Jammu and
Kashmir has been shaped by its accession to
India and consequential violent warfare by
Pakistan claiming Kashmir (Swami, 2006).
Kashmir is now the most disturbed province
in India, making lives of the residents worse
since its inception in 1947, which all started
after the partition of British India into India
and Pakistan. At that time there were
approximately 565 princely states under
British India and Kashmir was one of them.
All the states were at liberty to join either the
Indian union or Pakistan or stay
independent, and hence the Kashmir issue is

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
not just a zone of dispute between India and
Pakistan, but it also involves the question of
Kashmiri identity and regional aspirations of
the people of Kashmir. It is popularly
believed that the delay in deciding future of
Kashmir by its maharaja Hari Singh is one of
the major causes of Kashmir problem. He had
always wanted to negotiate with both India
and Pakistan to get Kashmir an independent
status. Soon there took place a popular revolt
by Sheikh Abdullah of the National
Conference, who wanted to get rid of the
Maharaja, but wasn’t in favour of joining
Pakistan. Pakistan on the other hand, has
always demanded Kashmir as it has a Muslim
majority population. In October 1947, tribal
infiltrators were sent backed by Pakistan
making the Maharaja feel insecure and hence
seeking military help from India. India’s
viceroy Mountbatten promised extension of
military support only after the Maharaja had
signed an ‘Instrument of Accession’ with the
Govt. of India, which stays controversial ever
since. Indian army could successfully drive
the infiltrators back from the valley of
Kashmir, and since then the Kashmir dispute
has stared into the faces of the two nuclear
neighbours for more than six decades now.
The continued rivalry between India and
Pakistan over Kashmir have been
extraordinarily expensive, due to high
spending on military, affecting economy of
both the countries, along with huge loss of life
and property during wars (Saideman, 2005).
Image 9 : Terrorists in Kashmir

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
India’s first Prime Minister Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru on 2nd November, 1947
announced in All India Radio that only
Kashmir will be given the right to decide its
future by the means of plebiscite, however
such promise of a plebiscite is still pending.
Indian government claims that the image of
people’s participation in elections clearly
shows that people are happy being a part of
India and that there hasn’t been any demand
for plebiscite. Pakistan and other groups
opposing this point of view on the other hand
say that the elections have never been free
and fair in Kashmir.
A reference was soon made by India under
United Nation in January 1948 to seek
attention of the Security Council regarding
Kashmir issue between two neighbours
equally equipped with nuclear power, having
the capacity to endanger world peace and
security. On August 13, 1948, United Nations
Commission in India and Pakistan (UNCIP)
passed a resolution asking Pakistan to
withdraw its troops and tribes from Jammu
and Kashmir. India also declared that once
Pakistan withdraws them, India will also
reduce its troops to a minimum number and
then a plebiscite will be held as per the
wishes of the people of the state. The cease-
fire went into effect on January 1, 1949, and
Image 10 : Nehru with Mahatma

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
the cease-fire line became the Line of Control
(LOC). However, India claims Pakistan to
have never been able to fulfil the
preconditions required for a peaceful
plebiscite. India further believed that a
plebiscite today can harm the integrity of
Indian Union and encourage more
secessionist movements demanding
secession from the union. Kashmir conflict
constitutes multiple warfare, and crisis
generating between India and Pakistan over
years now, and only the end to jihad and
cross-border terrorism can actually welcome
a day when there will be an end to the
conflict related to Kashmir (Swami, 2006).
India waited long for Pakistan to abide by
the resolutions made by UNCIP, failing of
what compelled India to finalise a
constitution for the state of Jammu and
Kashmir, which confirms that Jammu and
Kashmir is a part of the Indian Union.
By signing the Instrument of Accession,
Maharaja Hari Singh had made J&K an
integral part of India; however Pandit Nehru
only internationalized the issue by taking the
matter to U.N. and made Pakistan a party in
the issue. The Indian Independence Act of
1947 assigned sovereignty to the state of
Kashmir after the fall of British
Paramountcy. Moreover the act never
contained a provision that talks about a
compulsory plebiscite to ascertain the wish of
the people of any princely state. Warren
Austin, representative of U.S. once said in
the Security Council that with signing of the
treaty of accession by Jammu and Kashmir
to India, its ‘foreign sovereignty’ is now
under the control of India. Thus Kashmir is
nothing but an integral part of India and
taking care of the aspirations and identity of
the local people falls under the responsibility
of Indian government and hence, Pakistan
had violated the international law by
intruding into J&K territory. Many scholars
criticize Nehru for agreeing to a plebiscite in
a territory which is a legal part of India, and
thus, no other country having any right to
interfere in the home affairs of India,

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
infiltrate inside one’s territory or to claim
plebiscite. Nevertheless, the plebiscite was
conditional upon Pakistan withdrawing its
troops and tribesmen from the state of J&K
and restoration of administration to the local
authorities, however still many hold
Pakistan’s failure to fulfil none of the
conditions is responsible for the stalemate.
India and Pakistan have fought three full-
scale wars till date— one in 1947-48, another
in 1965, then in 1971 and finally in 1999 and
three out of four wars were over Kashmir.
INDO-PAK WAR 1965
Under the Bakshi regime Pakistan advanced
politically, and hospitals, roads, and schools
were made in good numbers what apparently
seemed to take Pakistan high in the path of
progress. However, soon the democratic
government was toppled down by a military
regime under General Ayub Khan, who in
order to gain mass support in Pakistan,
promised them to bring Kashmir under the
control of Pakistan and hence attacked
Indian Kashmir in 1965, trying to capture it
by force. In this war even the Kashmiri
population supported the Indian army and
helped repel the Pakistani attack and soon
Pakistan was heavily defeated in the war
against India. In the 1965 war, the military
expenditures of Pakistan increased from Rs.
1262 million to Rs. 2855 million in just one
year, which consequently affected its GDP,
and almost similar situation occurred during
the other two wars with India in 1971 and
1999 (Jalil, Abbasi, & Bibi, 2015).
THE 1971 WAR
The war erupted due to large scale refugee
crisis that hovered over India due to
enormous influx of East Pakistani population
in India due to Pakistan government’s
repressive and brutal torture and genocide
inflicted upon the Muslim Bengali speaking
population of East Pakistan. Indian force
under the leadership of Mrs. Indira Gandhi,

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
fought in the war against Pakistan to save
the east Pakistani population and the
Pakistani forces were easily routed out by
India, splitting Pakistan into halves. East
Pakistan achieved independence and was
named as ‘Bangladesh’ and was freed from
the control of Pakistan.
through interference of other third parties
(even the United Nations). In 1972, Chief
Minister of Kashmir, Mr. Sheikh Abdullah
announced “our dispute with Government of
India is not about accession but is about the
quantum of autonomy” (Dasgupta, 2002).
The signing of Kashmir accord in 1975,
between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and
Abdullah further strengthened India’s
control over Kashmir, however Article 370
still stay in force.
Pakistan after being left red faced in the
battlefields, decided to bleed India by ‘other
means’. So, from 1980s onward the Pakistani
regime started to support finance and train
Islamic Militants to conduct terrorist
operations within India and inflicted upon
India death ‘by a thousand cuts’. Pakistan
however finally succeeded in its intensions of
defeating India as no doubt India is a
materially stronger power as compared to
Image 11 : Instrument of Surrender (Indo-Pak war, 1971)
After this war in 1972, the Simla
Agreement was signed between the duo
which stated that India and Pakistan would
resolve their differences bilaterally, and not

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Pakistan, however the former often seems
helpless to jihadist challenges by a
comparatively weaker state of Pakistan
(Paul, T. V. 2005).
TERRORISM
Image 12 : Islamic-State militants
Military-Jihad nexus is alleged to be
highly responsible for countless terrorist
attacks in India (Routray, 2014). The
mainstream Radical Islam has now taken
control over the rest of the Islamic world in
recent century. India has long been a victim
of ‘cross-border terrorism’, which is believed
to be sponsored by the Pakistani militants
and intelligence agents (Mukherjee &
Malone, 2011). Kashmir had always been a
place noted for its devotion to the gentle Sufi
form of Islam which was secular, democratic
and very liberal in thought. Some scholars
see the peace loving nature of the Kashmiris
stemming from the fact that most of the
Kashmiri Muslims were once Hindu, who
have been converted into Islam during the
reign of Slave dynasty and later during
Mughal Rule. All other places in India
witnessed mass killing and riots during
Partition of India except Kashmir, which was
the only place where no communal riots and
killing took place during the partition.
However constant defeat in all the wars
against India and failure to take control over
Kashmir soon made it clear in their mind
that Pakistan would never be able to defeat
India in direct war and hence they resorted

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
to use Pakistan-sponsored terrorism not only
in Kashmir but the whole of India to bleed.
The terrorist organisations, their leaders
started manipulating the Kashmir youths,
making them realise that they have always
been suppressed by India and now that they
are being victimised, they should revolt
against Indians in order to achieve their own
sovereignty. Soon in 1989, The publication
of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
who was a Kashmiri Muslim, residing in
Britain was heavily protested in Kashmir by
Imam Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran,
who banned the book claiming it as offensive
and against Islam. Kashmiri people felt it was
their moral duty to protest against the book
and most of them were protesters who
haven’t even read the book. Ayatollah during
the Iran Revolution of 1979, had talked of the
necessity to organize Islamic Revolutions in
all the countries of the world in order to free
the Muslim population from the clutches of
slavery. Researches reveal that Terrorist
attacks not only take away innocent lives,
but it also causes serious post-traumatic
stress, fear of death, anxiety, insecurity
among the masses (Peus, 2011; Bader &
Schuster, 2015). More than 10,000 terrorist
attacks took place all over the world,
affecting nearly 45,000 victims in 70
countries in the year 2011 resulting in about
12,500 deaths (Nakata & Sivakumar, 1997;
London & Hart, 2004; National
Counterterrorism Center, 2012; Bader &
Schuster, 2015). Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the
most influential Islamist organisations,
started taking about the ancestors of
Ayatollah who are believed to have come
from Kashmir, thus making him relate to the
Kashmiri Muslims, as one of them, who could
feel their plight, in spite of the fact that he
was a Shia and most of them were Sunni. The
jamaaties believe in the modern
revolutionary concept of Islam and directed
the masses of Kashmir to abandon all
materialistic pleasures of life for the sake of

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Islam and supplied them weapons to start
jihad against India. Terror architecture in
South Asia has undergone a shift in tactics
from ‘suicide bombs’ to a ‘commando-style
military assault’ with highly trained and
largely armed small team of militants
launching attack against some establishment
(Rath, 2010). Women were reported to have
sold their ornaments in order to help their
male counterparts to afford weapons.
Kashmir which has been described as
heaven on Earth with its picturesque
landscapes, mountains, gardens and above all
its real asset, the cultured, intellectual and
beautiful locals, soon became a valley that
bleed blood of death, and terror. Since, early
1980s, large number of Madrassahs cropped
up throughout the Kashmir valley with the
help of Saudi money flowing over Pakistan,
planting the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism
by training youth to battle for Islam from the
very early age.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF), a local outfit, was founded which
receives support from Pakistan. It is still
very unclear about how the rumour was
spread about the non-Muslim locals in
Kashmir as being involved as agents or spies
of the Indian Government and soon in mid
1980s till mid 1990s there was wide spread
killing of minority Kashmiri Pundits by the
Muslim fundamentalists, compelling the
former to flee from their homeland. The
history of conflict in Kashmir has undergone
several stages since 1989 and the prominent
development during this phase was a violent
Image 13 : ISIS militants on march

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
insurgency movement, which not only
resulted in loss of life and livelihood, but also
led to loss of trust and understanding that
are most essential for the very survival of
any community (Khan, 2009). Report says
that Kashmir became a ground for religious
sermons fused together with flaming political
speeches taking place in Mosques, often on
Friday (holy) nights and delivered by trained
mullahs who had been brought to Kashmir
from Pakistan. These speeches were highly
motivating and could fairly mould the
innocent minds of the locals, and the virus of
Islamic fundamentalism turned the innocent
Kashmiris into violent man eating zombies.
India has successfully initiated measures
to counter terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir,
however, Pakistan funded jihad, still acts as
an instrument in its foreign policy in order to
forcefully bring India on table to discuss
Kashmir (Misra, 2010). There seems to be
no end to this process of bloodbath where
people are getting indoctrinated to kill other
fellow human beings in the name of ‘jihad’.
The Pakistani military bears a negative
image of India and its intelligence wing, ISI,
has always carried out terrorist activities
against India (Routray, 2014).
It is popularly believed that this all started
after the defeat of a superpower, the
U.S.S.R., by Afghan Mujahideens. Pakistani
after being rooted out by Indian force in all
the full scale wars now decided to play the
same kind of low-cost war by sending trained
Islamic militants into Kashmir in the late
1980s to bleed India. Furthermore,
introduction of Kashmir with a new gadget
called television in the late 1980s gave the
Kashmiris the needed exposure to watch the
indigenous Afghans rise and the defeat the
Soviet superpower. The impact of this
television coverage later proved to be real
serious, motivating them towards jihad and
as a consequence, government sources say
that orders were issued to Indian T.V. not to
show these scenes in Kashmir. Islamic

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
fundamentalists trained in Afghanistan’s
terrorist universities started infiltrating the
valley with the help of Pakistan’s Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI) and they started
killing local Kashmiris. Pakistan’s strong
position on Kashmir is evident from its
powerful military dictatorship, where even
the nation’s nuclear program are under firm
hold of its military and intelligence agencies
(ISI) (Misra, 2010). According to American
officials, the ISI even used al-Qaeda camps
in Afghanistan to train covert operatives for
use in a war of terror against India.
Kashmiris who weren’t ready to submit
themselves in the name of religion were being
killed ruthlessly.
KILLING OF KASHMIRI
PUNDITS 1986
One may say that because a majority of
Kashmiris are Muslims and Pakistan is also
an Islamic country so it can be the best
solution for Kashmir to join Pakistan.
However this solution is not as simple as it
seems and it has its own serious implications.
My only question here is, if Pakistan being an
Islamic country has so much affection for
their fellow Muslims living in Kashmir, then
why approximately more than one lakh
people have been killed in Indian
administered Kashmir till date by infiltrators
from Pakistan? ISI chief General Hamid
Gul’s once commented that US wants
Kashmir to be separated among India and
Pakistan, so that US could use one of the side
as a military base against China. However,
Prof. Kumar argued that the state of Kashmir
would never accept such divide as it has
always wanted a sovereign Kashmir, that
again seems to be unacceptable to both India
and Pakistan (Anonymous, 2001). Moreover,
Kashmir has been a place of cultural
diversity where Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and
Buddhist had lived since ages with full
harmony, love and brotherhood. It had never

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
before witnessed any riot, not even during
the partition of British India, except for the
first time probably in 1986 when the
Muslims residing there had been mind-
washed by Islamic Fundamentalists.
Therefore is it feasible on the part of
Kashmir to trust Pakistan anymore? No!
Because nobody paid heed to what the
Kashmiris want, they have always wanted
themselves to be free as an independent
country rather than joining any union or
power block. They were forced to sign the
instrument of accession with India because of
the attack meted out on them by tribes from
Pakistan who wanted to acquire Kashmir by
force. Kashmiri people are peace loving
people and there has been no single riot
between Hindus and Muslims in the recent
history of Kashmir, except in 1980s, in which
many Hindu pundits fled away from the
valley, because they were forced to accept
Islam and the refusal would result in torture
and killing.
This inhumane, barbaric incident got them
in fear of extinction by Pakistan-sponsored
militants and hence there was massive
immigration of Hindu from Kashmir to other
parts of India.
Image 14 : Kashmir Pandits

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
DISPUTE OVER LINE OF
CONTROL (LOC)
Another dispute with Pakistan arouse when
the Indian army discovered the Siachen
glacier and established a stable military base
at the terminal point of the Line of Control
(LoC) in 1984. The Siachen conflict between
India and Pakistan is referred to as the
‘coldest war’ atop the roof of the world. The
positions occupied by the soldiers in the
Siachen glacier were at heights up to 6700m,
where temperature drops down even below
minus 50 degree Celsius (Baghel & Nüsser,
2015).
India and Pakistan are since then fighting
over the demarcation of the line of control on
the icy Siachen Glacier. The Siachen conflict
between India and Pakistan can be rightly
termed as endless or unending conflict
between the two which happens to be more
than thirty years old now. The ‘Operation
Meghdoot’ was launched by India in 1984 to
drop soldiers via helicopter onto the snowy
Siachen glacier to prevent its occupation by
Pakistan (Baghel & Nüsser, 2015). Till now it
is said that the forces in the area have died
more from ice bite than firing of guns. All
sorts of peace talks between the rival duos
have come to zilch.
HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY AND
THE AYODHYA DISPUTE
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the present
ruling party in power in India, has always
stressed on the idea of ‘Hinduness’ or
‘Hindutva’. The term ‘Hindutva’ as defined
by its originator V.D. Savarkar, the leader of
Hindu Mahasabha, as the basis of Indian
Nationhood. Hindutva is a neo-Sanskrit term
which has been popularised in Bengal in
1890s by Chandranath Basu, and later by a
big national figure, Tilak, however, Savarkar
could successfully politicize the term
‘Hindutva’, differentiating it from the term
‘Hinduism’ which is purely a religious and

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
philosophical idea. He through his concept of
Hinduness not only aimed at defining his idea
of Hindu identity, but also preached the
gospel of Two-Nation Theory, much before
Iqbal and Jinnah. Savarkar believed that
there are three core values of Hinduism:
first, citizenship by paternal descent within
the boundaries of Indian territory; second,
‘the bond of a common blood’. He believes
that the Hindus are not only a nation, but
also a race, with the common blood of their
Vedic fathers flowing through their veins;
third, common culture and civilisation,
irrespective of caste, class and sectarian
religious beliefs bound all the Hindus
together.
BJP’s love for Hinduness became a matter
of discomfort for the Muslims and it became
more intensified with Supreme Courts
interference in Muslim Personal Law in the
Shah Bano Case (1985). Shan Bano was 60
years old divorced Muslim women who filed
a case of her maintenance from her former
husband. The Supreme Court passed the
decision in her favour which became
unacceptable to some orthodox Muslims as
they saw the act as a violation of their
personal law. The very next year, the
Faizabad district court in Uttar Pradesh
ordered to open the Babri Masjid (built by
emperor Babur’s general, Mir Baqi) premises
to the Hindus to offer prayer as they believe
the mosque is located in the area which
happens to be the birth place of Lord Rama.
In the month of December 1992, members of
RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), and
the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), along with
BJP, organised supporters called Karsevaks
(devotees hired for voluntary service) for
building the Ram temple.
This intensified the situation all over the
country and especially at Ayodhya. Though
the Supreme Court ordered the state
government to prevent the Karsevaks from
entering the Masjid premises, but the
government failed to manage the situation
when on 6th December, the same year,
thousands of people from all over the
country gathered at Ayodhya and

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
demolished the mosque. Riots broke out all
over India between Hindus and Muslims
which continued for weeks, often with harsh
communal intentions of showing India solely
as a Hindu nation, thus, rotting the relationship
between the two communities even further.
NUCLEAR TESTS 1998
Soon in the month of May, 1998, the locals
residing in Pokhran, a desert spot located in
the state of Rajasthan, heard a huge noise
like a blast, followed by a gigantic cloud of
dust floating in the sky. However, what the
local villagers mistook as just a blast left the
whole world in shock as they realised that
India had just joined the former five nuclear
countries (USA, UK, FRANCE, RUSSIA,
CHINA) by successfully exploding three
atomic devices.
However, though it might be a good news
for India who in large numbers praised the
act of the government to go nuclear and
hence benefited the Vajpayee government to
held his chair safe, but, India faced huge
criticism from everywhere in the world with
U.S. President Clinton ordering the IMF
Image 15 : Karsevaks demolishing Babri Masjid

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
(International Monetary Fund) and the
World Bank to cancel all new loans sanctioned
to India. Most of the industrial nations who
were in trade relations with India soon
followed U.S. and froze all on-going projects
in India. India felt the pressure from various
corners of the globe to sign the Nuclear non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the former
five nuclear powers who are also five
permanent members of United Nations
started discussing upon further ways to
punish India for the explosion. Richard
Weixing argues, that the real reason for
India’s nuclear test in 1998 can be its
growing insecurity regarding the position of
China as a world power and hence by
bombing the test, India actually wanted to sit
in the same chair with China, by declaring
itself to be a new member in the Nuclear
family (Hu, 1999).
PAKISTAN’S RESPONSE :
At this juncture when the whole world went
against India, when it was just too alone to
resist the harsh talks from the big powers,
one old friend came and stood by its side, and
that was Pakistan. Yes! You read that right.
It was Pakistan who directly or indirectly is
still a matter of controversy, but surely
helped divert the focus of the world from
India by drawing attention to herself,
exploding five nuclear weapons on 28th May,
under the Prime Ministership of Nawaz
Sharif, the same year. Soon the act of
Pakistan was condemned all over the world,
with U.S., Japan, Britain, and Germany
freezing their aid to Pakistan.
A week after India conducted nuclear test,
the foreign minister of Pakistan had travelled
to China, the closest ally of Pakistan not only
in South Asia, but also in this entire world.
Within ten days after his visit Pakistan
conducted the nuclear test which though
faced huge criticism from big powers and
other industrial countries, but wasn’t much
condemned by China. However, Pakistan
suffered in deterioration of currency value,

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
increase in debt and resultant poverty, far
more than India due to cancellation of all
economic sanctions by the world community.
KARGIL WAR IN KASHMIR 1999
After 16 years from the Kargil war,
Pakistan’s former military chief, General
Pervez Musharraf while recalling the conflict
commented that the Indians cannot forget
the days of Kargil war, because he feels that
in Kargil, Pakistani soldiers “grabbed India
by the throat”. Prof. Parthasarthy, while
commenting on Pakistan’s attitude towards
India, said, “Pakistan was a victim of its own
rhetoric”. He further added, that, the
Pakistani people had been brain washed by
their government, that Indian army has
miserably lost the battle of Kargil against
Pakistan and hence they still see the hope or
courage to claim Kashmir (Anonymous,
2001).
Indians celebrated the 16th anniversary of
the Kargil War on 26th July, 2015, which
was both a moment of pride to them as they
witnessed victory in the conflict, and at the
same time the day carried with it the air of
Image 16 : Soldiers celebrating victory at Kargil

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
pain and helplessness that was felt by
millions of Indians for the loss of soldiers who
died fighting for their nation.
The Kargil war and the ‘Operation Vijay’
started by India on May 1999, after the
infiltrators from Pakistan and few Kashmiri
militants entered into the Kargil district of
Jammu and Kashmir along the Line of
Control (LoC), leaving India in absolute
shock.
Pervez Musharraf, the Army General of
Pakistan, is believed to be the mastermind
behind the attack, who had made all the
plans of intrusion, and cleverly executed his
arrangements while Indian Prime Minister,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif were
busy signing the Lahore declaration,
without even letting Mr. Nawaz Sharif, the
Prime minister of Pakistan know anything
about his preparations.
However, one of the notable aspects of this
war was that despite the fact that both the
nations are possessing nuclear weapons, they
fought the war in a conventional manner, and
this shows that they understand the
destructions that the world would face when
exposed to a harsh nuclear battle.
After the Kargil war, India looks down
upon Pakistan’s behaviour as the most
irrational, untrustworthy and strategic, and
hence the former is now all the more
determined to resolve Kashmir issue (Tellis,
Fair, & Medby, 2002).
Image 17 : Kargil War

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Soon the operation was joined by the
Indian Air Force (IAF) which launched bomb
attacks on the infiltrators within the
boundary of India. The focal point during the
war was the Tiger hill, one of the highest
peaks in the Drass-Kargil area. The war
lasted for about two months and finally with
the support of the International Community,
India could successfully route the Pakistani
forces out of its border by recapturing the
Tiger Hills. Pakistan faced criticism by many
countries for its habit of illegal infiltration
across the borders, and for disturbing the
peace process of another country. The Kargil
war being the last conflict between India and
Pakistan till date has shaped their conception
of future choices and Pakistan lately
recognized the vast sum spent on Kargil
which made Pakistan economically feeble,
politically imbalanced and isolated it from the
rest of the world, as a growing Islamic state
(Tellis, Fair, & Medby, 2002). In the midst of
growing pressure from the International
community to withdraw its force from India;
Pakistan finally agreed that the incident was
shameful and it was made clear by Nawaz
Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan who
confessed about eight years after the Kargil
conflict that he is ashamed for the reason
that he wasn’t aware that Musharraf, the
army general had planned an attack against
India. With the end of Kargil war, Indians
understood that they can no further trust
Pakistan and that India has to be very alert
every moment it deals with Pakistan (Dixit,
2003).
TERRORIST ATTACKS 2001
The September 11 terrorist attacks on U.S.
opened up new avenues to both Pakistan and
India. Pakistan was left in a tussle whether to
side U.S. and become its adversary or to
back its own radical Islamic fundamentalist
allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan
cleverly chose to stand by U.S. and its efforts
to invade Afghanistan and flush out the
terror elements.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
India during this period vehemently
wanted the U.S. to label all Islamist
confrontation to Indian military forces in
Kashmir as terrorism, and wanted to get
support from U.S. in crushing the Islamic
militants, which U.S. did support to a large
extent, though not fully matching the
expectations of India. Prof Kalim Bahadur
believes that though lately, but Pakistan has
then started losing its support base from the
Islamic world in the Kashmir issue. Indian
Prime Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Indonesia, and Malaysia, justifies this
understanding (Anonymous, 2001).
GUJARAT RIOT 2002
The Gujarat Riot in February-March 2002 is
also known by the name of Godhra killing. It
all started with an incident that took place in
a station called Godhra, where a bogey of a
train was set on fire, which was carrying
Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya. This
inhumane act killed more than 60 Hindu
Karsevaks and the riot between Hindu and
Muslim started suspecting the hand of
Muslims in setting the bogey at fire. Soon
large-scale violence started everywhere in
Gujarat against the Muslims, which
continued for almost one whole month killing
more than thousands of Muslims. The
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) declared state
wide bandh on Thursday, 28th of February,
2002, protesting the killing of Karsevaks.
Many Muslim slum dwellers were burnt alive
along with the former congress MP Ehsan
Image 18 : Gujarat riot 2002

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Jaffrey and his family who died during the
bloodshed when their building was set on fire
by some activists in Meghaninagar. The
National Human Rights council criticised the
Gujarat government after this tragic
bloodbath for not being able to take effective
measures to provide security to the Muslims
during the riot.
SAMJHAUTA EXPRESS BOMBINGS 2007
New Delhi, India to Lahore, Pakistan,
crossing the India-Pakistan border. The
2007 Samjhauta Express bombings occurred
around midnight on 18 February, 2007 in the
Samjhauta Express, where bombs were set
off in two carriages both filled with
passengers just after the train passed Diwana
station, Haryana, about 80 kilometres north
of New Delhi. This terrible incident killed
about 70 people; most of them were
Pakistani civilians and some Indian security
personnel and civilians. Some alleged
Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu fundamentalist
group behind this attack, while others
stressed on the involvement of Lashkar-e-
Taiba, the Islamic fundamentalist linked with
this bombing. Nobody has yet taken charge of
the crime; however, the bombing was enough
to spoil the gradually improving relationship
between the duos. Continued tensions
between India and Pakistan are causing
serious problems of economic
mismanagement, social chaos and political
instability in both the nations (Ahmed, 1998).
Image 19 : Samjhauta Express Bombed
Another issue of mistrust in the Indo-Pak
relations was The Samjhauta bombimg, an
international express train that runs from

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
ATTACK ON MUMBAI 2008
26/11 attack on Mumbai in 2008 is yet
another most recent, tragic and shameful act
carried out by the terrorists from Lashkar-e-
Taiba, and supported by Pakistan
intelligence agency, ISI, who entered India
via sea from Karachi in Pakistan. “Mumbai
attacks remain a mystery for long despite
the capture of a ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba’ terrorist
on the night of 26 November 2008. Pakistan
took 77 days to admit its citizen’s
involvement, Mumbai police consumed 90
days to file the chargesheet and Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spent a year to
arrest a couple of conspirators.” (Rath,
2010).
That day, I believe, the Indians weren’t
only feeling helpless, but the whole world
was, when 10 young boys crippled Mumbai
for three days taking away 170 innocent
lives. Chris Ogden in his article ‘Tracing the
Pakistan Terrorism Nexus in Indian Security
Perspectives: From 1947 to 26/11’, has
investigated the origin of the nexus between
Pakistan and Terrorism, which he believes
has initially started with infiltrations by
Pakistani tribes into the India territory,
followed by the use of conventional army in
the wars of 1947, 1965 and 1999 (Ogden,
2013).
Image 20 : Taj on fire

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
BALANCING WITH
THE GREAT POWER
Balancing with the Great Power:
Changing Nature of Sino-Pak Rela-
tions and Challenges for India
21st century is deemed an Asian century.
The rise of China has altered the United
States led unipolar world order in the post-
cold war era and this emergence has a wide
impact on the balance of power system glo-
bally specially on the countries of South Asia.
China’s ‘all weather’ friendship with Pakistan
which is constantly growing and it now seems
to be sweeter than the sugar or deeper than
the oceans, has turned not so sweet for India.
Sino-Pak growing military, nuclear, geo-stra-
tegic and geo-political alliance as well as eco-
nomic interactions has altered strategic
equations among India, China, and Pakistan
affecting the regional balance of power sys-
tem in the entire South Asia.
There is a famous proverb by former
French President Charles de Gaulle to high-
light diverse nature of international rela-
tions- ‘There is no permanent friend or per-
manent enemy in international politics but
permanent interests, a friend of today may
be the enemy of tomorrow and enemy of
today may be the friend of tomorrow’.
Hence it is necessary to reach a proper an-
swer to the question- if in the name of coop-
eration there are possibilities of future con-
flict or competition which can actually ham-
per the balance of power system in South
Asia? Thus balance of power being the fun-
damental concept in international relations is
80

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
imperative and is everywhere, be it
Kautiya’s Mandala theory or Thucydides and
Machiavelli’s analysis, and South Asia is the
most important part of the Asia continent
because of its dynamic balance of power.
South Asia is geopolitically and geo strategi-
cally important due to its unique location, its
natural resources, population and diverse
cultural identities and also due to the pres-
ence of four big powerhouses (Russia , China,
India and Pakistan) all armed with deadly
nuclear weapons. Hence, no doubt Security is
an utterly sensitive issue in South Asian poli-
tics. As scholars rightly said that any event
can bring India-Pakistan at the edge of a
nuclear war (Naseer & Amin, 2011). India,
China and Pakistan thus form a major strate-
gic triangle in the geopolitics of Asia and the
salient features of this triangle are striking.
To begin with India, it is the most influential
developing country in contemporary world
politics; China is the most formidable com-
munist power in the existing hierarchy of
major powers; and Pakistan is the mightiest
among the countries of the Islamic world. All
these countries maintain arsenals of nuclear
weapons and missiles, India and Pakistan be-
ing the de facto nuclear weapon powers while
China is a recognized one with a permanent
seat in the UN Security Council. Moreover,
each country of this triangle shares mutual
borders, segments of which are disputed and
in some cases the disputed areas are large
enough to be considered just a territorial dis-
pute. Though all three consider themselves
as the members of the developing world,
China and India are the world’s fastest grow-
ing economies, while Pakistan still remains in
the economic backwater of Asia, however,
two sides of this triangle, i.e., China and Pa-
kistan, share a history of hostility with the
third side which is India and such
longstanding animosities with one another
are further initiating armed conflict.
In this situation, the major question is how
to do away with conflict by maintaining the
balance of power system in the entire South

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Asia? But before that we need to understand
the factors which became the foundational
stones of Sino-Pak relations. How the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan and the Peoples Repub-
lic of China despite having vast ideological
differences turned “iron brothers”?
Sino-Pak Relations during the Cold
War Period: An Analysis
On 20 and 21 April 2015, for the first time
Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed a
joint session of the Pakistani National Assem-
bly and the Senate. He received an imperial
welcome on his visit by Pakistan where the
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
claimed that the two countries are ‘truly iron
brothers’ and that ‘Pakistan considers
China’s security as important as its own se-
curity’, while Pakistani National Assembly
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq termed Xi Jinping’s visit
‘a brother’s homecoming’.
In spite of having vast ideological differ-
ence and differences in size and develop-
ment, Pakistan has always been a precious
alley to China. The People’s Republic of China
(PRC) and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
have enjoyed a strong friendship since Paki-
stan recognised the PRC in 1950 and strate-
gically located position of Pakistan has no
doubt provided China with the possibility to
nearly ‘encircle’ India geographically. In-
stances of Pakistan and China support sys-
tem are many- Islamabad backed Beijing’s
membership to the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), to which
China has been an observer since 2006, and
China on the other hand, has endorsed
Pakistan’s bid to join the Shanghai Coopera-
tion Organisation (SCO), which focuses on se-
curity, economic and cultural cooperation.
The security pillar of the SCO encompasses
military cooperation, intelligence exchanges
and particularly – joint counterterrorism ef-
forts. Pakistan was the first Islamic country
and third non-communist state to accord rec-
ognition to the People’s Republic of China.
Although Pakistan established diplomatic re-

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
lations with China in 1951, the actual consoli-
dation of relations started in the early 1960s,
when Pakistan changed its previous stance
and supported China’s seating in the UN in
1961. In the 1962 Sino-Indian border war,
United States rushed military assistance to
India, which Pakistan being an alley of the
West considered detrimental to its security
concerns and moved out of the Western orbit
(SEATO and CENTO). At this juncture, a
commonality of interests seemed to be
emerging between Pakistan and China, and
the sense of an evolving geostrategic envi-
ronment led the two countries amicably ne-
gotiate and they signed an agreement on the
demarcation of their common border in
March 1963.
In the early 1970s, Pakistan wisely played
an important role in facilitating secret com-
munications between the US and China that
resulted in Henry Kissinger’s secret visit to
China followed by President Richard Nixon’s
historic visit. Sino-US ‘rapprochement’ was
perceived in Indian strategic thinking as the
emergence of a US-Pakistan-China strategic
triangle, which prompted India to sign a
treaty of peace, friendship and cooperation
with the Soviet Union. This development in-
troduced a new dimension to the region, es-
pecially if seen in the context of the Cold War,
and also created more space for further con-
solidation of Pak-China relations. The other
development, which had profoundly influ-
enced Sino-Pak relations, was the Indo-Paki-
stan war in 1971, followed by the Chinese
military and economic assistance to Pakistan
and later, on the issue of Bangladesh’s appli-
cation for membership to the United Nations,
on Pakistan’s request, China exercised its
veto power for the first time to stall the move
that helped Pakistan to secure in a bargain
the release of its POWs and the return of
troops to their pre-war positions. The Indian
nuclear explosion of 1974 introduced yet an-
other new dimension to the strategic balance
in the region and gave fresh impetus to ex-
panding Pak-China defence cooperation,
where between 1971 and 1978, China as-

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
sisted Pakistan in building two defence-re-
lated mega projects, first, the Heavy Rebuild
Factory for T–59 tanks, and second, the F–6
Aircraft Rebuild Factory.
The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet
Union created a situation of two hostile fronts
for Pakistan—India and Afghanistan—threat-
ening peace and stability in the region. At
this crucial juncture, China stood firmly by
Pakistan and condemned the invasion of Af-
ghanistan as a “hegemonic action” that posed
a threat to peace and stability not only for
that particular region but for the entire
world. Pakistan too has always supported
China on issues important to Chinese na-
tional interests such as, sovereignty over
Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet and issues re-
lating to human rights and democracy. China
has forever appreciated and counted on
Pakistan’s strong support as a trusted friend
over all these issues at international fora.
Throughout the 1990s, Pakistan remained
under US sanctions and China was the pri-
mary source of Pakistan’s military hardware
procurements and China’s support for
Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes
remain a constant irritant in Sino-US and
Sino-Indian relations.
Economic Engagements: The political inti-
macy of China and Pakistan has translated
into other areas of cooperation too, primarily
economics. The two states concluded free
trade agreement in the year 2006 and en-
tered into effect in July 2007, where trade
volume between the two states increased
from $13 billion in 2013 to $20 billion in
2015 due to signing of 51 agreements and
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for
cooperation in different fields. China had
been contributing significantly to Pakistan’s
imports even before the FTA was signed and
has seen considerable improvement in its
ranking after the FTA was implemented in
2007. By 2012, it was the source for 15% of
Pakistan’s overall imports from the world as
compared to 9.8% in 2006 (The Express Tri-
bune Pakistan, 2015).

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Another important feature of Sino-Pak re-
lationship is the China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC). Though envisaged as early
as 1959, CPEC in its present form was first
proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and
Nawaz Sharif on 22 May 2013 in Islamabad.
CPEC is a conglomeration of infrastructure
projects under construction which are pro-
jected to upgrade and expand Pakistani infra-
structure at a cost of $46 billion (Aneja,
2015). CPEC belongs to the Silk Road Eco-
nomic Belt/Maritime Silk Road which Beijing
has begun to build across South Asia to the
Indian Ocean, and across central Asia to Eu-
rope. The CPEC is a project for a network of
railways, roads and pipelines connecting
Pakistan’s port city of Gwadar in the prov-
ince of Balochistan with the Chinese city of
Kashgar in the landlocked XUAR.
New Century, Old Ties: India in Sino-
Pak Relations
In May 1998, Pakistan argues that Indian
nuclear tests destabilized the strategic bal-
ance in South Asia and in a letter to the U.S.
President Bill Clinton that was leaked to the
New York Times, Indian prime minister and
defence minister called her ‘northern
neighbour’ as a long-term security threat and
therefore raison d’etre for the atomic tests.
Following this disclosure, Sino-Indian rela-
tions suffered a major setback and this dete-
rioration in Sino-Indian relations reinforced
Pakistan’s position in China’s South Asian
policy. China endorsed Pakistan’s compulsion
to go nuclear and it boosted Pakistan’s confi-
dence to re-establish the strategic balance of
the region by conducting its own nuclear
tests. The depth of Pakistan-China relations
can be gauged from the fact that only after
Pakistan had acquired demonstrable nuclear
weapons capability that the Chinese assured
US in June1998 of cooperating on the issue of

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
nuclear proliferation. In 1999 Kargil conflict
between India and Pakistan, China adhered
to strict neutrality. China was concerned
over the possibility of escalation of the con-
flict, and asked both countries to defuse ten-
sions. The Chinese position of neutrality was
duly acknowledged by India, and China’s role
to pacify the situation was considered more
favourably by the Pakistani authorities and
people. The Chinese leadership also stated
that it took the stand of neutrality in favour
of both India and Pakistan and that the inter-
national community expects them to main-
tain peace and stability in South Asia. China’s
proactive diplomacy to engage the US and
India in the volatile South Asian situation
was received well in Pakistan and indeed
helped to ease tensions. President
Musharraf, in his December 2001 visit to
China, explicitly expressed support of the
Chinese campaign against Muslim separatists
in Xinjiang. He further urged the Chinese
Muslims to be very patriotic and to work for
the betterment of their country and declared
that Pakistan would extend full support to
China to fight against East Turkestan terror-
ist forces. This was indeed the first time that
a Pakistani leader went public in support of
Chinese policies to curtail Muslim separatists
in Xinjiang, in view of Chinese concerns that
there is a link between the separatist forces
in Xinjiang and the jihad organizations in Pa-
kistan and Afghanistan (Rahman, 2007). Pa-
kistan kept its promise and soon in Decem-
ber 2003 the Pakistan Army in a military
operation near the Pak-Afghan border killed
Hahsan Mahsum, the leader of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement, while extra-
diting a number of alleged terrorists to China.
In recent years, antiterrorism-related coop-
eration between the two countries has con-
stantly been expanding and on August 6,
2004, China and Pakistan conducted their
first joint antiterrorism military exercise
named ‘Friendship 2004,’ in Xinjiang.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Cooperation between ‘Iron Brothers’:
Challenge for India?
‘Strings of Pearls’: This term which was first
used by defence consultant Booz Allen
Hamilton in a 2005 report titled “Energy Fu-
tures in Asia”, prepared for the then US De-
fence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has
gained much currency in contemporary times
and scholars allege that encirclement of India
is a well-planned strategy of Chinese and it
keeps creating glitches across the two Hima-
layan neighbours.
Today, China is the second largest con-
sumer and third largest importer of oil and
nearly 80 per cent of which passes through
Strait of Malacca. The US domination of the
Indian Ocean region, especially in the South
East Asia and Asia Pacific region, along with
rising Indian influence in contemporary era
has threatened China’s vital energy trade
routes. Hence, critics suggest that to
neutralise such a scenario, China has devel-
oped a series of ports encircling India that
would ensure flow of oil to China in the event
of blocking up of Malacca Straits: Gwadar
port (handed over to Chinese Overseas Port
Holdings Ltd. on February 18, 2013),
Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Chittagong in
Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar, and re-
cipient of series of facilities in Somalia,
Yemen and Djibouti.
However, one should not undermine
India’s preparedness to tackle these perils of
proximity. Indian is aware of this policy and
has taken several steps to strengthen her
maritime security and these include:
strengthening its Tri Service Strategic Com-
mand situated at Andaman & Nicobar Islands
with main objective to keep an eye on trade
route through Malacca Strait by already de-
ployed Sukhoi aircraft and building of several
airfields across the Andaman & Nicobar Is-
lands. India has strengthened her radar sys-
tem, and is setting up listening posts (receiv-
ers) at Maldives and Mauritius. Recently,
Mauritius has offered two of its islands in
North of Mauritius to India, however the

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
later is yet to take decision on it. Further,
India is significantly improving her commer-
cial contacts with ASEAN region via India-
ASEAN trilateral highway (Guwahati-
Mandalay-Ho Chi Minh City), Mekong India
Economic Cooperation, BIMSTEC, Kaladan
Multi Modal project, and so forth. In order to
counter China’s Maritime Silk Road project,
India started reaching out to its maritime
neighbours in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)
region with the proposal of enhanced eco-
nomic and security cooperation which was
readily accepted by her maritime neighbours
and with this, India projected its strategic
supremacy over the Indian Ocean Region
(IOR) and suggested that India’s relations
with her maritime neighbours are much cor-
dial than that with China’s, particularly with
reference to the South China Sea. India has
also launched ‘Project Mausam’ (Project
Weather) to rival China’s Maritime Silk Road
(MSR) advantage. This project is aimed at
deepening cultural relations in the region as
in ancient times maritime trade used to de-
pend on seasonal monsoon winds. This
project is being worked in association with
Ministry of Culture and will focus on ancient
trade and cultural linkages and emphasise on
future maritime cooperation in the IOR.
However, in last couple of years especially
after Premier Wen Jibabao’s 2010 and Li
Keqiang 2013 visit to India, China has at-
tempted to balance her relations with India
and today, the relationship between India
and China is mostly trade driven. China is
India’s largest trading partner and India also
ranks 10th in the list of China’s largest trad-
ing partners. India needs to dehyphenate
Sino-Pakistan relations and Sino-India rela-
tions. It is a reality that China is closer to her
‘all-weather friend’ Pakistan and the latter is
their irreplaceable alley in the current geopo-
litical setup of this region. Now the focus
should be to resolve bilateral disputes peace-
fully.

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
CONCLUSION
India and Pakistan are now among the list of
some worst enemies in the world and this
process has eventually made them more
aware and concerned about each other. No
other country on earth except Pakistan cares
so much about India: her socio-political
behaviour, strategic ties, developments, dis-
cussions, and debates. The level of their con-
cern towards one another is most evident
from the very sporty Cricket World Cup
match between India and Pakistan which is
nothing less than an undeclared national holi-
day to the masses- who abandon all their
work and sit in front of their television
screens to watch the game. Is it just a game?
Actually, India Pakistan matches are more
like mini-warfare to the citizens of both the
nations who desperately wants to defeat the
other team and where the ‘Sportspersons’
are largely seen as ‘Armies’ fighting a battle
in the play ground.
Stephen Cohen has termed the hostile
relationship between India and Pakistan as
“hard to manage and even impossible to
resolve” (Cohen & Sandhu, 2010). Thus in
near future, one cannot actually expect a
scenario of full conflict resolution or
permanent peace to persist between the rival
neighbours. Due to the fact that both India
and Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons, it
restrains them from getting involved in any
full-fledged war or hot war, however there
are no signs of long-lasting engagement,
without interruptions. Scholars like Sanjeeb
Kumar Mohanty and Jinendra Nath
Mohanty, views the military-madrasa-
mullah complex in Pakistan since 1970s has
actually transformed Islam into a
fundamentalist creed which has given birth
to a militant brand of Islam to fight its so-
98

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
believed enemies. They in the process has
confused religiosity with religion, and are
thus using region (Islam) in the name of jihad
to take innocent lives in the form of
terrorism (Mohanty & Mahanty, 2010).
Terrorists, I believe do-not have any
particular religion, because no religion asks
one individual to kill another fellow being of
another faith. God has made us tolerant and
given us the rational faculty to judge things
on the basis of reason and hence, if someone
claims his/her religion to be supreme, they
must act supreme by showing love and
respect to all fellow humans, irrespective of
the religion they profess.
Pakistan’s real objective has always been
to destabilize India. Pakistan’s military,
intelligence agencies, jihadists have all given
ground to the terrorists who are repeatedly
planning attacks and training militants in the
soil of Pakistan, who is financing such
activities against India. India being a peace-
loving nation has never responded such
brutally against Pakistan, however, all its
peace appeal to Pakistan and to the
International Community has remained
ineffective till date (Thakur, 2011).
In the entire process of writing this book,
I understood the necessity to root out
differences in a society to prevent conflict
and restore peace. A standard view of Indo-
Pak relationship describes their antagonistic
relations with tit-for-tat nuclear tests,
allegations of spying on each other, all have
contributed enough in making the situation
worse (Mitra, 2001).
Our world is constantly growing from
primitive to modern and in this process it
gets exposed to new and alien civilisations:
their culture, ideas, approach to life, which
has created an amalgam of ancient and
modern, war and peace.
Indian society has achieved the glory of
being a successful democratic nation since its
journey as an independent country. Having a
long history of being a colonised nation in the
past, India has now emerged as a multi-
cultural society. Individuals have grasped
more than one culture that most likely has

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
happened due to cultural intermixing with
people from other imperial lands. The
importance of culture has evolved in the
sphere of politics significantly after the
Second World War, where in a world
surrounded by deadly nuclear weapons, one
cannot think of extending its control over
other nations through military power. The
possession of Nuclear weapons by both India
and Pakistan have made ‘balance of power’
irrelevant (Basrur, 2009). In this world ruled
by soft power, India and Pakistan both
should understand that the possession of
nuclear weapons is not at all necessary to
peace, to security, or to prosper is any field
as such. While addressing a Women’s
delegation in Islamabad, General Pervez
Musharraf expressed his desire to give a new
status for the whole of Jammu and Kashmir
under Indian occupation. When asked for his
comment, if the Kashmir valley being given
to Pakistan, and the rest stays with India,
Musharraf insisted on the presence of large
number of Muslims in Jammu and Ladakh,
and hence the entire state of Jammu and
Kashmir has to be perhaps de-linked from
India for the sake of harvesting peace in both
the nations (Dixit, J. N. 2001). This sort of
approach towards claiming Kashmir out of
India is dangerous because it can further
initiate the risk of war between the duos
which would never turn out to be peaceful for
either of the two.
Scholars have noticed surprising
behaviour among the Pakistani leaders, who
brings up Kashmir issue every time when a
peace talk is initiated between the two rival
nations (Routray, 2014).
Pakistan still believes that its threat of
using nuclear weapon prevents India from
getting into a full-fledged war with Pakistan.
According to Mr. A. Z. Hilali, the continued
tensions and misunderstanding between
India and Pakistan, and misinterpretation of
each other’s behaviour will only lead to
increase in poverty and backwardness, and
hence only cooperation can bring about
positive changes in the life of the people
living in the region (Hilali, 2005).

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
International peace and security has always
remained the primary concern of nation-
states, with an aim to provide a secure and
stable lifestyle to their residents. As
Ambassador Mr. Grover said, that the Indian
government and its leaders are trying to
better the relationship with Pakistan since
the last five decades, however, all efforts till
date hasn’t turned out as effective, may be
because Pakistan’s sole objective has always
been to destabilize and destroy India
(Grover, 2001). The concern of security had
led to war and peace in the past, and would
continue to promote these in future.
European Union on 2003, declared the
possession of weapons of mass destruction as
the greatest threat to world security, and
hence called for immediate vigilance on
nuclear proliferation, which has to be
managed within its preferred multilateral
security governance framework (Hassan,
2013). A peaceful international order is
always linked to the notion of International
security that includes, among other factors,
non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. These weapons have the
capacity to destroy the very existence of life
on earth and hence their control is necessary
in reduction of tension among states.
Empirical investigations based on time series
econometrics from 1950 till 2005, have
proposed that reduction in bilateral trade,
more expenditure on military capabilities,
lesser investment on developmental projects,
unstable democracy, lower level of growth
rates, all acts as catalyst in creating war-like
situations. Globalisation is thus seen as a tool
to bring in peace, and cooperation through
open trade relations among nations and
hence focusing more on development, than
on conflicts (Mamoon & Murshed, 2010). In
today’s date the only possible way to spread
one’s hegemony worldwide is through
cultural and ideological fields, rather than
military or economic grounds. Indo-Pak
relationship sometimes seem to be heading
towards a more promising future with the
launching of ‘Composite Dialogue’ between

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The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
the two on issues related to peace, security,
confidence building measures, and other
serious territorial disputes, even after its
long history of hostility, cross-border
conflict, leading to four full-fledged war
(Wolf, 2012). India and Pakistan can never
make progress until they are called
separately as rivals, increasing further
antagonism and hatred between the two, and
hence further confidence building measures
can only accelerate situations of peace and
cooperation.
Confidence building is an old phenomenon
in the Indo-Pak relations, since the
departure of British from the Indian
subcontinent and the partition of British
India into two separate province of India and
Pakistan, the duo has signed numerous peace
building agreements to reduce tensions of
conflict, notable among them are Liaquat-
Nehru Pact (1951), Indus Waters Treaty
(1960), Tashkent Agreement (1966), Rann of
Kutch Agreement (1968), Shimla Accord
(1972), Salal Dam Agreement (1978), and the
establishment of the Joint Commission
(1983) (Cheema, 2006). Thus, even though
India is a rising Asian power with global
ambitions, its foreign policy is still dominated
by policies concerning her relationship with
Pakistan.
Few months before May 2013 election
campaign in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif
expressed his willingness to make a new start
with India after he stood victorious in the
election. Soon he got congratulatory message
from the office of the then Indian Prime
Minister, for his very thought of beginning a
peaceful bilateral relation between the two.
However, it became visible shortly, that even
after an impressive electoral victory; a
democratic government in Pakistan is much
weak as compared to its powerful military,
who considers India to be its worst foe
(Routray, 2014).
However, India’s soft power still remains
one of its biggest strength, whether it is the
popularity of Bollywood films, music, TV soap
oversees, sports, or popular Indian culture
and cuisine, all have made their own definite

108 109
The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
contribution to India’s soft power. Both
Bollywood stars and Indian cricketers are
pretty popular in Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Arab countries and hence have strong
influence on the youth population. The iconic
Indian movie Sholay was released in
Pakistan almost 40 years after its release in
India, by an initiative of Nadeem
Mandviwalla, who termed Indian movie
‘Sholay’ as the most unique movie of all times
and initiated its screening on the other side of
Wagah border as he felt that the Pakistanis
were deprived from experiencing Sholay in
big theatre screen. The similar craze is
noticed among the people in these two
nations during a Cricket match, where
players from both the countries are equally
loved across borders.
Cricket, the best played sport in South
Asia however still it plays an important role
in the Indo-Pak relations. Cricket thus has
the capacity to unite as well as fragment
politics between nations, with special
reference to India and Pakistan relations.
When the diplomatic relations between the
two were at their lowest, the test series
were brought at the close, while at times
when the bilateral relations are good enough
for sports to be played, cricket is played in
cheerful manner throughout the countries in
good spirit (Crick, 2009). This shows that
there are still enough possibilities of
bettering the relationship between India and
Pakistan by nourishing the aspects concerned
with harvesting soft power. As Pakistan’s
renounced player cum ex-captain Wasim
said,
“We are going there to better the
relations between the two countries, and I
hope the Indian Government will not allow
a handful of people to deprive cricket lovers
of some action and tension packed cricket.”
–Wasim Akram. (Bandyopadhyay, 2008).

110 111
The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
Similar are the views of Indian Cricket ex-
captain, Kapil Dev, who said:
“There’s no place for sentiment when
India meets Pakistan in cricket. My very
first experience in Pakistan makes it amply
clear that the political differences between
these two countries get translated into this
game. If you are batting, you feel that even
the fielders are hostile. I wish they played
more with a spirit of competition than
hostility. I must have played about 20
matches against them. It’s the spectators
who make it so electrifying because people
are so tense. No politician can understand
the level of this hostility until and unless
they go and play on the ground.”
– Kapil Dev. (Bandyopadhyay, 2008).
Focusing on these cultural strengths which
are common to both the nations can help in
bettering bilateral ties though slowly but
surely, as soft power in this 21st century not
only has the ability to win over hard powers,
but also can win the consent of the other
dominated classes, and make them view the
world in a manner favourable to the
ascendency of the dominant class.
Five decades have passed now, but India
and Pakistan are still fighting over Kashmir,
either on ground or at table; with both the
countries desperately trying to end the issue,
however none has succeeded till date
(Schofield, 2000). However, there are
Image 21 : India-Pakistan Cricketers shaking hands
during a match

112 113
The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
growing signs of a bettering relationship
between the two in recent past with Pakistan
granting India the status of the ‘Most
Favoured Nation’ in late 2011. Scholars view
this development as an unexpected gesture
on the part of Pakistan, and no doubt that it
is a good sign in the improvement of
relationship between the duos which can also
boost trade relations between them that
have been considerably low, despite both
being members of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) (Gopalan, Malik, &
Reinert, 2013). Improving relationship
between India and Pakistan could create a
more favourable environment for both the
nations to reduce the threat posed by
terrorism. Open and informal dialogue
between the Prime Ministers, followed by a
sudden visit of Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi at Pakistani Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif’s ancestral home in Lahore on
Christmas, 2015, was a welcoming step
towards recovering bond between India and
Pakistan.
Image 22 : PM Modi’s surprise visit at Lahore, Pakistan
on Christmas, 2015

114 115
The History of Perpetual War: Indo-Pak Relations Soumi Banerjee
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