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Kashmir - There Could Be Solutions! Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Nihshanka Debroy, India Apr 15, 2002
Peace & Conflict   Opinions

  

Recently, I read an article in the Journal Journal that held the opinion that peace between India and Pakistan can never be. However, I disagree with this and wish to offer a different analysis.

It is true that India and Pakistan have been hostile neighbors for a long time now and have fought several wars. It is also true that the likelihood of another war is definitely there. However, this is not a good enough a reason to believe that there will never be peace between India and Pakistan. In the 19th century, when the revolt of 1857 in India against the British failed, there must have been some anxious Indians who would have doubted that India would ever gain independence. However, India did become independent. This is just one example that clearly illustrates that if a situation is presently terrible, it does not mean that it will always be terrible.

The saddest and most unfortunate thing about the India-Pakistan situation is that India and Pakistan were once the same country. However, the British rulers destroyed our unity so completely that the rift between Hindus and Muslims just kept getting bigger and bigger. And as a result, so many innocent Hindus and Muslims have lost their precious lives. It is time to rectify this situation. Someone has to stand up and say that enough is enough! Only then can something be done to better the scenario. How is it going to help us all if people keep believing that there is no solution? Only if we look for a solution will we find it.

The important question really is that who deserves Kashmir? I don’t think either India or Pakistan will agree if it is handed over to the other country. I can think of two realistic solutions: either India and Pakistan reunite and share Kashmir, or Kashmir is made independent.
Anyone who reads this might cry out that neither of these is possible. However, anything is possible if one can imagine it. If India and Pakistan could be part of the same country fifty-five years ago, why can’t they be part of the same country now, fifty-years later? After all, people from India and Pakistan have so much in common even today. Compare the 55 years that they have been separate, to the colossal time period for which they were the same!

Even if one does not like this idea, how about the idea of making Kashmir independent? I am sure that the innocent civilians in Kashmir are just fed up of the terrible situation out there. They all probably want some workable situation, whatever it is: something that will end the tension and violence completely. Some people might say that Kashmir cannot survive as an independent country, but I think it can! India and Pakistan can always provide Kashmir with financial aid initially, till its economy becomes self-sufficient.

I am not saying that these solutions are the only ones, or that these are the best. I am merely trying to indicate that there are solutions to the problem, if we all take the time to imagine them! After all, isn’t that the first step to actually making the solution materialize?





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Comments


fire meets water ??
ahmed | Feb 7th, 2004
your article i don;t wat i can say but its just a arlicle which is full of mere words only, nothing really stuffed in this. your optimisticism is nice but your idea are of innocent that i can't help laughing,epecially the 1st one of the re-union of Pak-Ind............. & secondly that kashmir can live as punjab & bungal, divided kashmir but the real thing is how our leader take it serious of resolving this despute & when ?? & i think the same point you tried to tell in this article but .........



Optimistic but is it realisitc?
Gaurav Gupta | Jul 14th, 2006
I don't think India and Pakistan reuniting is a feasible solution. The other suggested solution of Kashmir letting be made independent does not hold water in my opinion as it ignores the realities on the ground. Recognizing that there is a relatively large faction of people in Kashmir who are pro-independence, there is an equally important faction who is pro India and another equally important faction which is pro pakistan. The main problem is that monarchic rule in Kashmir signed the treaty to become a part of India at the time with the condition that India would hold a plebiscite in Kashmir to allow Kashmiris to self determine thier destiny, but one of the other stipulations was also that Pakistan would retreat to the status quo of before signing the treaty. Pakistan refuses to retreat and India sites this as the technical reason for not being able to hold the plebiscite as all the preconditions for holding the plebiscite are not met. What can be done to solve this issue??

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