SOUTHASIA Online

Reversing the trust deficit

More than anything else, mutual trust can make all the difference in relations between two countries. This is perhaps more evident in South Asia than anywhere else. The region is home to one-fifth of all humanity and comprises on the one hand a nation as huge as India and, on the other, a country as tiny as Bhutan. The dynamics of such huge contrasts in physical sizes and populations have created various pushes and pulls over the past six decades, leading to a deterioration of trust in bilateral relations between neighbors in the region.

 The most prominent and open-ended absence of trust exists between the two largest nations, namely India and Pakistan - a gap that has eluded all efforts to bridge it. While Kashmir continues to be the core cause for this lack of trust, there are other bilateral issues such as Siachen, Sir Creek, terrorism and sharing of waters, that simply do not seem to find solutions. There have been repeated initiatives by both nations to engage with each other in view of poor economic conditions on both sides and various external challenges, but nothing seems to work. Every time leaders of the two countries or their senior aides meet, hopes are raised of thawing of relations but the ‘trust deficit' factor somehow creeps in and it's back to square one.

 Relations between India and Bangladesh have not been very constructive in recent years. New Delhi has had concerns over militants infiltrating into Bangladesh while the latter has complaints about India's policies, especially over trade-related issues and sharing of river water. There is a general impression in Dhaka that India demands too much from it and is prepared to give too little in return.  The trust equation between India and Sri Lanka has also flip-flopped over the years. In the post-LTTE era particularly, despite its physical proximity to India and its ethnic affinity with India's south, Sri Lanka has become closer to China and Pakistan as a result of their political and military support to Colombo during the war. For various reasons, this has not reflected on India-Sri Lanka relations very well and the trust level between the two neighbors has taken a negative hit.

Since the immediate threat to any country arises in its neighborhood, it is important to work on the building blocks of peace, stability and friendship with neighboring states - and reverse the trust deficit in the process.

So many accounts live on our bookshelves about the partition of India that there really is no space left for more. This ‘Partition' while separating left deep imprints on our sensibilities and on the memory templates of several generations, which is why it has become such a defining event.  When language, cultural similarities, common social observances conjoined us; ‘faith', it was asserted, divided, and so it had to be. The tectonic plates of our existence, our collective identities and our geo-political unities then got fractured; this break even the plaster of time has not been able to repair.

Pakistan and India both achieved independence in 1947. At that time there was a great deal of skepticism about Pakistan's economic future. India was much advanced on all indicators of economic sustenance, resource endowment, potential output and growth. LIFE magazine of January 5, 1948 had predicted almost an economic collapse of Pakistan.

From such a shaky start Pakistan today is 34th largest economy in the world with per capita income in U.S. $ 1050. India is 10th largest economy in the world with per capita income of about U.S. dollars 1100. How have the two countries fared economically between 1947 and 2007?

Stanley Wolpert is an American historian. Currently he is the Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He specializes in the modern political history of India and Pakistan. His well-known books include Morley and India, A New History of India, Roots of Confrontation in South Asia, Jinnah of Pakistan, Nehru:A Tryst with Destiny, etc. In an exclusive interview with SouthAsia, Stanley Wolpert talks about Indo-Pak relations and how he sees their future.

The Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008 once again brought to the fore the fragility of India-Pakistan relations and shattered prospects of peace in the region. In fact the terrorist could claim a strategic victory as India blamed Pakistan for the incident, suspended dialogue and put the peace process in a freeze. No doubt, the last two years of the peace process had already lost momentum as India remained deeply pre-occupied embracing U.S. in a strategic partnership and Pakistan was in a state of anarchy as Musharraf's military rule kept unraveling.  

Whereas the future of Pakistan will become its history, the future of Pakistan-India relations lies buried deep inside a thousand years of history already lived.

When we generally refer to history there is an assumption of finality, of certainty, even of unanimity. Some historic facts are indisputable. The dates on which leaders like Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mohandas Gandhi passed away. The dates on which both countries almost simultaneously became independent nation-states.