Pakistan’s oldest rival, India, conducts firing on the LoC (Line of Control) over and over, which always ends up suffering persecution and death of our young soldiers. This was not enough, and India began a zero-sum game over Kashmir by taking it under threat and brutally attacking the unarmed Kashmiris. These merciless strikes and direct firings against the country, which earlier remained a part of the subcontinent and where Hindus and Muslims were a union before the British conquest, are somewhat not new but part of Indians and Pakistanis daily lives. These hostilities are the result of untouched wounds originated after the redrawing of boundaries between the two regions—India and Pakistan.
If we go into a little history, it helps in understanding the roots of contentions. In the earlier centuries, when the subcontinent was free from foreign interference, the shape of the social and economic system was different in its own way. There were social and economic fabrics under the subcontinent region that crafted linkages between the diverse cultures. But, after an imperial consolidation, everything faced a sudden change. Although the linkages survived even during the British Raj, they instilled in Muslims that they were a separate nation. This awakened the Muslims, and their quest for national identity started, which brought tremors around the whole region.
Both regions have been bloodthirsty of each other since then, and many times heated arguments have been exchanged between the two, but the flout of ascendancy has never been marked in history. Kashmir has always been the most wanted land stuck between the two nations.
The strokes separation brought to the region still hasn’t been blurred.
In February, the Indian Air Force carried out an aerial strike at Balakot, claimed as non-military in nature, but it was a direct attack on the state’s sovereignty. This move shook the whole region as Pakistan declared it would retaliate.
The current situation between the two states is considered critical because of Kashmir; both are fighting over the third territory, which is the centre of attention and now a battleground for these two states. The curfew and communications blackout in Kashmir have already entered the fourth week of the month; thousands of Kashmiri citizens continue to be detained by Indian forces, and several have been injured.
India’s inhuman acts in Kashmir, direct firings on the LoC, and so-called surgical strike against its opponent neighbour have left some possible reasons behind to critically analyse the moves in the form no one shed light on.
First could be that India wants to delineate that it is not weak and to establish its hegemony over the South Asian region, which would be so advantageous for a poor country like India, having no proper facilities for its masses. It is to be noted that India is already the strongest power in the South Asian region, thought of as the 6th largest economic power in the global world order.
A second possible reason could be to exhibit that it is ready at every hour to attack its combatant if it doesn’t comply with its demands.
The third point is that Pakistan is already a threat to India and is regarded as an irritant because it is a defiant country in the region that dauntlessly challenges India’s hegemony. To destabilise Pakistan will be economically beneficial for the Indians, as Pakistan’s economy would be crippled, the system would immediately collapse, investors would stop investing, and its defiant nature would automatically phase out.
India is feeling extremely frustrated over the growing role of Pakistan to facilitate the talks between the US and the Taliban. The US has a lukewarm reaction, but Pakistan is helping it out in this drastic setting, which will improve its relations with the superpower of the globe.
At this stage, Modi’s party sees itself going underground because of the bold steps it has taken and needs to defend, as Pakistan is not in a state to compromise at any cost.
Last but not least, Pakistan tries to undermine the image of India (diplomatically), which India takes into account as a threat to its national security.
The security dilemma of the state continues because military power always appears offensive to others.
If Pakistan had stopped its wreaking vengeance, then the scuttlebutt about the drastic war would have gridlocked. Pakistan displayed deterrence, but India turned out to be the very first country to negate the very logic of nuclear deterrence.
If you challenge the norm, you are committing suicide; it is quite abnormal.
India seemed like an irrational actor, but it is not. It is very much rational. They constructed the term New-Normal and yearned to make it a norm in the system to often violate the state’s prepotency and open fires on LoC.
Both states will remain on the brink of war until and unless one decides to give up. Pakistan will never let the Indians breach the predominance of the country and take control over the Kashmir’s terrain, so the direct and indirect war will continue for long.
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