August 15 is India’s Independence Day.  Pakistan, the little country that thought
it could but couldn’t, pipped it by one day and celebrates on August 14.  It is now
63 years since Independence, so what have these countries achieved aside
from destructive wars within and against each other and a standard of living that
is by any measure about the worst in the world with the exception of certain
blighted regions of Africa.

To make a point, on Pakistan’s Independence Day, Balochis attacked and killed a
dozen and more non-Balochis in Balochistan province.  It is both a spillover
effect from the war in Afghanistan and the resentment they feel in the use of
their own resources — natural gas and minerals — by the rest of the country
while development in Balochistan is neglected.  Continuing along the border
with Afghanistan, the Pashtuns’ sympathy lies with their brethren on the other
side.  And as the Pakistan military tries vainly to assert control, attacks and
bombings in major population centers have mushroomed.

India fares little better.  Far from celebrating Independence Day, the Kashmiri
Moslems were out demonstrating in tens of thousands despite recent killings of
protesters.  It’s nothing new as estimates of civilians killed since the troubles
began range from 40,000 to 100,000.  Things are quieter on the Pakistani side as
those residents do not feel discriminated against.  But quite probably, the
Kashmiris would rather be rid of both and have an autonomous State of their
own.

Kashmir is not the only insurrection India faces.  What started forty-three years
ago as a peasant rebellion in Naxalbari, West Bengal is now a full-fledged
guerrilla war led by the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of India.  It affects
twenty of India’s twenty-eight States though the worst killings — by government
supported militias and Naxalites (Maoists) of local farmers caught in between —
have been occurring in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.  The cause?  Quite simply a
land grab by powerful industrial corporations who claim they will bring
development and jobs.

Tell that to a farmer in a land with rich soil earning twice the national average.  
Now his own master, uneducated but with knowledge of farming in his bones
and love of his land, he would be exchanging this freedom for life as a lowly
servant subject to the whims of his masters.  He has chosen to fight … and die if
need be; not unlike the Kashmiris, the Balochis, the Pushtoons and others
across the Subcontinent.  Is Nepal a harbinger in this context?

The stupidity and ridiculous nature of the India-Pakistan conflict is highlighted
by a current simple fact.  The present Prime Ministers of both countries are
ethnic Punjabis.  It means they can speak to each other in their mother tongue.  
However, the people from other provinces in their respective countries would
not be able to understand them.  As Punjab constitutes a large part of Pakistan,
Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, is understood by a vastly larger
proportion of Pakistanis than Indians!  The problem, the countries face, is a
religious sectarianism encouraged by the British in India similar to the French
“solution” in Lebanon and what we have recently done in Iraq.

The economic picture for either country is also not particularly rosy, especially in
comparison with neighbors other than Bangladesh and, of course, Afghanistan.  
India has the lowest life expectancy; Pakistan only slightly better.  Their similar
GNI per capita is roughly half that of Bhutan or Sri Lanka and one seventh of
Malaysia, also a former British colony;  it is also a third that of China (perhaps
even less as the Chinese currency is undervalued).  What is more significant is
the virtually new infrastructure in China, the trains, roads, ports, etc. —
interesting to observe also that while India is becoming a call-center hub
offering relatively low-skilled jobs, China is already the world’s factory
generating well-paid manufacturing jobs for its people.

Whereas the Olympic Games hosted by China demonstrated the nation’s
emergence as a superpower-to-be, the almost farcical preparation for the
Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, coming this Oct. 3rd, is in stark contrast.  
The enterprise is beset by corruption scandals, cost overruns of an order of
magnitude, inefficiency, incompetence and burreaucratic infighting.  It is sad
and painful to watch.  Of course, Pakistan would not have fared any better — just
look at the response to the floods.

These floods in Pakistan, devastating as they have been, do offer an opportunity
for India to extend a helping hand.  The $5 million contribution to the relief fund
is a good start.  But it is an intangible swamped in the pool of aid from other
countries.  Imagine India providing direct and immediate relief in the form of
food, tents, helicopters to ferry sorely needed supplies, and volunteers, even
the military, who will be seen by Pakistanis as helpers in this catastrophe rather
than in the familiar role of enemy.  It would dramatically alter the Pakistani mind-
set, and assuage the anger at the treatment of their Kashmiri brethren.  Of
course it is going to take many more confidence building measures by both
sides before the nukes no longer stand ready for mutual annihilation.