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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