The fateful day of 23rd March 1940 saw the passing of the Lahore resolution which was the foundation of a dormant seed which was to fructify into the weed of partition and the subsequent creation of Pakistan as a nation. Since Pakistan was created on the basis of the two- nation theory it was inevitable that India would be its all weather enemy and the best source of building a threat perception in order to keep the vested interests safe. The relations between the two nations got off to the worst possible start with the trauma of partition and an unprecedented displacement population in the form of refugees across the borders.
To this already gory scene was added the horrific confusion created by the Radcliffe line which furthered the madness which had already taken hold of many people on both sides of the border. Pakistan immediately played the Muslim card when in September 1947 it began harking back to the “Muslim ummah” notion and argued that Kashmir being a Muslim majority state shall cede to Pakistan. 80% population of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was Muslim but the ruler was from a Hindu Dogra dynasty and was in a fix as to whom he shall accede to. He signed a standstill agreement with Pakistan in August and so the telegraph service in the state for two months was run by Pakistan.
Jawahar Lal Nehru had a sense of foreboding of the Pakistani intent backed by some intelligence report as well and so on 27th September he penned down a letter to Sardar Patel stating that he anticipated an attack on Kashmir before winter sets in and asked him to get all arrangements ready in case of an exigency. His intuition proved correct when on 22nd October 1947 nearly 5000 pathan mercenaries trained by the Pakistani army and equipped with modern weaponry infiltrated into Kashmir and reached Baramulla by the 27th meanwhile bombarding the Mathua power station and darkness loomed large over the whole valley. Uri was the next target and the raiders came tantalizingly close to Srinagar which, if it had fallen in their hands would have meant the loss of Kashmir to India. The Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 26th October taking which V.P. Menon flew back to Delhi and the Indian army was para-trooped to Srinagar which was,thanks to the lure of looting of the raiders, still not taken. Colonel Ranjit Rai fought valiantly with his regiment and saved Budgam from falling to the marauders. Unfortunately, he died in the battle but gave two critical days of delay to the Indian army to increase its presence in the valley after which began the onslaught of raiders by the Indian army forcing them to run for their lives. When the war was stopped due to the harsh winters we had taken back Uri, Poonch, Rajaura, Baramulla but some of the portion was left with Pakistan including Gilgit-Baltistan which we today call PoK.
The next year Pakistan in the hope of taking Kashmir by force waged a war on us where we badly routed the Pakistan army finding many of our future army heroes but to mention one was Brigadier Usman gaining the sobriquet “Lion of Naushera” who fought valiantly to save Naushera and was a batchmate of Sam Manekshaw. A UN sponsored ceasefire was declared. On the new year’s day, we took the case to UN and deputed N. Gopalaswami Aiyyangar to represent our case but this proved to be a huge mistake as we were stabbed in the back by the British as also the poor representation by Aiyyangar because of which the heading of the issue changed from Pakistan aggression in Kashmir to India-Pakistan issue. After this both Nations agreed to a plebiscite in Kashmir provided Pakistan removes its army from the valley but because Pakistan declines to remove army from PoK, the plebiscite could not take place. A Nehru-Liaqat pact was signed in 1949 to safeguard minorities on both sides of the border, a pact opposed tooth and nail by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee but implemented through Patel’s efforts. Nehru offered Chaudhary Muhammad Ali to conduct an immediate plebiscite in April 1953 for the entire Kashmir but the haughty fellow proved to be a deaf ear to the sensible suggestion.
After this too, India extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan by showing great munificence in the form of Indus Water Treaty of 1960. Through the mediation of World Bank it was agreed that rivers Indus, Chenab and Jhelum shall be governed by Pakistan whereas Ravi, Beas and Sutlej by India. We are allowed the use of 20% water of Indus(19.48% to be precise) whereas the rest is for the use of Pakistan. A permanent Indus Water Commission to resolve water dispute was set up. Many believed the treaty to be much generous on the part of India and abused Nehru for his kind heartedness but the reality is entirely different because if we delve into the issue we will realize that we have under-utilized even the lesser share that we have got. Of the water for 1.332 million hectare for irrigation we irrigated merely 8 lakh hectare. It is one of the most successful water agreement in the world with great functions despite all the wars in between. It was in 2016 that the Indian Prime Minister said that blood and water cannot flow simultaneously, that we are thinking to revisit the treaty in terms of today’s needs.
Pakistan has been creating a lot of hue and cry about our dam construction activities like Kishenganga dam on Jhelum and Ratle hydroelectric project on Chenab and the case was taken to an arbitrary tribunal in Hague but the judgement came in India’s favour. Following this the Kishenganga project was inaugurated in May 2018 and the foundation stone of the Pakal Dul power project (1000MW) was also laid. Two more projects Miyar( 120 MW) and Lower Kalani(48MW) are to commence on Indus. Kishenganga hydroelectric project on the Marusadar river will provide 12% free power to the state alongside employment generation.
The Indus Water Treaty was followed by the Pakistani side gifting nearly 65000 sq km area of the disputed PoK region to the Chinese. After the debacle of 1962 followed by the death of Nehru, Pakistan thought that India had weakened to such an extent that it would crush India within one week. An overconfident Ayyub Khan claimed to have his morning tea for the next Monday at the Red fort in Delhi. Thus began operation Gibraltar (codenamed after the strait leading to Spain conquered by a Muslim commander named Tariq) and operation Grand Slam in Western and North western parts of India. The haughty general was to get the shock of his life as the Indian troops not only routed the Pakistan army but the Indian troops reached within touching distance of Lahore after which came the comment which always thrills people to bits and is a historical statement affirming India’s moral authority. Lal Bahadur Shastri, our short in height but grand and eloquent in stature prime minister remarked that – “President Ayyub Sahab is a big personality so we thought why to bother him and thus, we came forward to greet him in Lahore.”
The 1965 war was followed by the Tashkent agreement signed on 10th January 1966 by Lal Bahadur Shastri and General Ayyub Khan and sponsored by Russia. According to it a status quo was ordered to be maintained and the LOC( line of control) came into being as a temporary arrangement but not an international border between the two nations. After this the next breaking point came after the East Pakistan crisis. Yahya Khan confident of seeing the formation of government by a West Pakistan leader called for elections but the results gave him a horrific bolt as the Awami League party headed by Mujib ur Rehman got the majority of the votes. This being not acceptable to the interest of West Pakistan, Yahya Khan started suppressing the Awami party following which there were protests in East Pakistan. The military establishment came down heavily on the protesters and not even the students were spared who were killed in plenty during March 1971. Years of inferior treatment meted out to East Pakistan suddenly found an utterance and there were huge refugee surge to India.
America and China warned India of not acting against Pakistan or be ready for the repercussions. At this point Russia backed us fully and told America to be careful or else their naval bases may come under threat. China withdrew once Russia came into the picture. After this it was the uprising of the Mukti Bahini of East Pakistan supported by Indian army which took the front against the Pakistan army. Again the Pakistan army tried their airforce, navy and army in the western sector in Punjab, in South in Karachi-kutch area and in northwest in Kashmir respectively but all in vain as the Indian army proved superior and with Sam Manekshaw and JRF Jacob fully in command badly defeated the Pakistan army. The biggest surrender of the modern age with 93000 soldiers under A A K Niazi took place on 16th December 1971 to Lieutenant General JS Aurora of India. Thus, Bangladesh was created and the following year the two nations signed upon the Shimla agreement in which it was agreed to resolve both countries’ issues bilaterally through dialogue.
After Sheikh Abdullah died, Pakistan was quick to seize on the opportunity to foment anger in Kashmir. They started arranging training camps for militants from across the border in PoK where they trained the militants and at the same time brainwashed them into hating India ardently. The migration of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir was also largely because of the Pakistani propaganda of Islam in danger and Islamic brotherhood. They heavily radicalized the youth and instead of a pen gave a Kalashnikov (AK-47) in their hands. Then after Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister in a coalition government in 1998-99 he extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan by starting the Lahore bus service and resuming the Samjhauta express. To let the feeling of friendship percolate down to the heart of each person on both sides of the border he himself took a ride to Lahore in the bus but Nawaz Sharif was true to the chameleon nature of Pakistan when after just ten days of this confidence building measure they attacked India in Kargil and Dras in Kashmir.
Not having learnt a lesson even after suffering embarrassing defeats in the previous three wars, India again taught a hard lesson to Pakistan by crushing them in Kargil war. Parvez Musharraf was the first leader of Pakistan who in February 2003 admitted to have supported terrorism and assured that he would not allow Pakistani land to be used for terrorist activities any further. He also devised a plan for Kashmir which was going on well and was acceptable to India as it was on the lines of Insaniyat, Jamhuriat and Kashmiriyat advocated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But Vajpayee lost the general elections here and Musharraf was sentenced in Pakistan in relation to certain human rights violations during his tenure as army head. It was the closest both nations came to find a solution to the Kashmir issue after 1964 when a comprehensive plan about to be agreed upon was stalled midway after the demise of Nehru. India-Pakistan got on well for the trade which boomed from 344 million US$ to 2.3 billion US $. The 26/11 attack in Mumbai again worsened the relations after which there was no normalcy till 2012.
Again incidents like Uri and Pathankot have not let the relations flourish. Trade across LOC has dwindled which not only was economically beneficial but also provided a meeting ground to the divided families on the two sides of Kashmir. We usually refrain from talking about Balochistan but the current prime minister has on several occasions referred to Balochistan’s Independence movement which gained momentum after the killing of Shah Nawaz Khan Bugti, a leader of Balochi movement by the Pakistan army in 2006. It is to act as a counterweight to the Pakistani argument of human rights violations in Kashmir by India. India also attended a Permanent Indus Commission meeting in 2017 to show signs of normalizing relations, a deed which only the acumen of late Mrs. Sushma Swaraj could’ve achieved. The Baglihar dam and the Tulbul dam to be constructed on Jhelum can also be approved after engaging in dialogues. Sir Creeks is a waterbody of a stretch of 96 kms in the Gujarat province of India and Sindh province of Pakistan which can very easily be solved if we try to and it will save several fishermen from execution as they get caught being unable to identify the border. The CPEC has strengthened Pakistan but is a source of concern for India.
A recent diplomatic war over Kulbhushan Jadhav case was won by India again due to the acumen of late Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and advocate Harish Salve. India and Pakistan also jointly established a commission to look into prisoners’ and civil prisoners’ conditions with judges from both nations through which India has rescued nearly 3000+ fishermen and 122 civil prisoners from Pakistan. We need to continue upon this. The Siachen glacier is also a major issue between India and Pakistan because of which Indian soldiers are posted in such harsh conditions and often lose their lives because of the vagaries of the weather due to climate change. We need to quickly resolve this issue and establish a tranquility zone there. If we can maintain good relations with Pakistan our trade with Afghanistan would not be via Iran but directly through Pakistan which will help us reduce the cost of transportation. Also the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline to supply gas and petroleum to India from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan can be of immense benefit. Also if peace prevails the two nations can prosper rapidly and make it truly an “Asian century.”
The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was thought to be a good in fact a great step which was thought to be kept up in good spirit by both nations. However, that was not to be because from Pulwama to Pahalgam, cross-border terrorism hasn’t been abetted till now. The Champions Trophy hosted by Pakistan and won by India had offered a way out for the bilateral relations through cricket diplomacy but things could not fruitify. The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam has once again brought the situation to an all time low with visas for Pakistani nationals having been cancelled. Pakistan should combat terrorism, perception of the enemy against India and not support Khalistan demand so that India can extend a friendly hand towards it. But both nations do seriously need to stop their media from the continuous war-mongering which impacts the people negatively.
Bhavuk is a PhD Candidate at The Department of History, AMU
