The Making of South Asia's Minorities

In April 1950, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan met in Delhi to sign the landmark inter-dominion agreement known as the Nehru-Liaquat Pact, according to which India and Pakistan would be accountable to one another for the treatment of minorities in their countries. This agreement was the outcome of a mutual necessity for both governments to regulate the unchecked movement of minority population across the border, which led them into an unlikely--though nonetheless structurally integral--position of compromise and dialogue. In order to grapple with the phenomenon of cross-border movement of minorities, the two governments had to enter into a series of bilateral dialogues about how this could be regulated, and synchronised for both sides.