Guarded hopes: India and Pakistan move toward peace - international

0 Comments | Current Events, Feb 20, 2004

NEW DELHI, India -- As the brightly decorated ten-car diesel train rattled across the border from Pakistan to India, passengers cheered, "Long live Pakistan-India friendship!" Other travelers tossed rose petals at the border guards who for the past two years had prevented travel between the hostile countries.

The trip was a happy occasion for passenger Shamma Parveen. The 24-year-old Indian woman, who is married to a Pakistani, hadn't seen her mother in two years. "Right after I stepped into the train I felt as if I had hugged my mother," she said.

Najma Begum traveled in the opposite direction, from India to Pakistan. She was delighted to be able to attend a family wedding in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. "We hope this train will never stop. Let me call this a peace train!" she exclaimed.

For boys in Jalandhar, India, the "peace train" was more like a mainline to matrimony. Because few girls live in the border town, the boys will travel to Pakistan in search of brides. "It is a link to marriage and prosperity," said Ram Likhan, a Pakistani who recently made an Indian love connection.

The resumption of train travel between India and Pakistan is just one way the peace process is getting back on track. Most significantly, India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, agreed to hold talks earlier this month to discuss long-standing differences between the two countries. At the top of the agenda was the hotly disputed border territory of Kashmir, two-thirds of which is controlled by India, and about one-third by Pakistan. (China also claims a small portion.) A militarized line of control divides the region. (See the map on page 4.)

"We must make the bold transition from mistrust to trust, from discord to concord, and from tension to peace," stated Vajpayee.

"History has been made," Musharraf said.

A few weeks later, Musharraf reiterated his support for resolving the dispute, saying, "I strongly believe that we must not live perpetually in enmity."

A History of Hostility

In the weeks ahead, the challenge for both countries will be to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947. Two of those wars were over Kashmir. The history of bad blood began in 1947, when both countries were part of British-ruled India. Great Britain had laded most of India since the 1600s.

In the early 1900s, an Indian lawyer named Mohandas Gandhi emerged to lead India's fight for independence. Under Gandhi's leadership in the 1920s and '30s, Indians joined in peaceful resistance to British rule. The struggle for independence culminated in February 1947, when the British announced that they would leave India by June 1948.

Not all Indians were satisfied with the announcement. At that time, British India's population was made up primarily of two religious groups--Hindus (about 66 percent) and Muslims (about 24 percent). Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League, and other Muslims feared that an independent government would favor Hindus. Indian Muslims, Jinnah argued, would have no more freedom under such a government than they had had under British rule.

Muslim leaders urged that India be partitioned into two countries--one Muslim and one Hindu. The British government reluctantly agreed, and on Aug. 14, 1947, Pakistan (mostly Muslim) became an independent nation. The following day, the nation of India (mostly Hindu) was created.

Almost immediately, more than 10 million Muslims and Hindus fled to their preferred countries. Huge riots broke out, resulting in thousands of deaths. (See Time Trip.) The fighting quickly spread to the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, as the area is officially called. The conflict ended in January 1949, but the two countries' claims to Kashmir were never resolved. The nations went to war over Kashmir again in 1965. Since then, sporadic fighting between the two sides has resulted in thousands of deaths.

Tense Times

Indian-Pakistani relations most recently derailed in July 2001 after peace talks between Musharraf and Vajpayee failed. Six months later, Muslim terrorists attacked India's parliament. India claimed the militants were backed by the Pakistani government, a charge that Pakistan denies.

In January 2002, the two nations severed all land and air links and amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the 1,800-mile border separating the nuclear-armed neighbors. People around the world feared the worst--that South Asia would erupt into nuclear war.

Moving Forward

War was averted, but tensions remain high. Regardless, Indians and Pakistanis are optimistic about the countries' future. "There is hope.... People really do think something may happen," said K. Shankar Bajpai, a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan.

Salim, a cook in Lahore, Pakistan, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that it's time for the two countries to put their differences aside. "Where has [armed hostility] got us? Money that could be spent on improving our lot is wasted on arming our armies instead. The world is moving on--why should we be left behind?"