ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Reading between the Lines of the Concerned Citizens’ Group Report on Jammu and Kashmir

Examining the situation on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir, the article argues that while the Concerned Citizens’ Group Report harbours a few blind spots in defining communalism and separatism, its contribution to comparing the situation in Jammu vis-à-vis Kashmir cannot be discounted.

India-Pakistan: Friendship as Enmity

While one can barely deny the importance of the episode of Noor Fatima from Pakistan receiving medical treatment in Bangalore, an excavation into our mass psyche would perhaps reveal something extremely disturbing. Treating Fatima was not a usual apolitical medical practice. It is rather an unusual political gesture of benevolence arising out of a profound sense of otherness based on a clash of national identities, Indian versus Pakistani. In the otherwise spontaneous gesture to negate the otherness of her there is simultaneously an unconscious affirmation of her otherness premised on national identity.

India-Pakistan:The Enduring Stalemate

In the final analysis we need a political culture in both India and Pakistan that understands that sometimes nationalism is the enemy of the national interest; we need a political culture that is prepared to pay a short-run price for imagining a new architecture for the subcontinent; and we need a political culture that will allow both countries to transcend the sediments of history that are weighing them down. Unless all this changes we will remain trapped in current paradigms and assumptions which are such that only one side can claim victory, even as both have the power to destroy each other.

Indo-Pak Brinkmanship

The ringmaster's leash is tightening on both India and Pakistan. While the US military presence has become overt in Pakistan, in India its covert hand is looming large. Instead of resisting these pressures, the two countries persist in their obduracy, refusing to follow the dictates of common sense by beginning a process of ending the 50-year old bloody dispute over Kashmir.

Western Alarmism and Indo-Pak Tensions

Orientalist hallucinations do not fully explain the psychological war that the western establishment and media have unleashed as India-Pakistan tensions have risen. Two calculated motives come across as important causes for the 'nuclear war' bogey.

India and Pakistan,1947-2002

The self-conception of India and Pakistan in 1947, when they gained independence, and a half century later. What are the terms of the discourse on 'religious conflict' and violence in the subcontinent and what are our criteria for classifying particular events as 'historical' and consequential?

From Ideology-to-Territory-Based Nation

General Musharraf's declared resolve to make Pakistan a nontheocratic state is a step towards Pakistan's transformation from an ideology-based to a territory-based nation. Unfortunately there is a growing trend among some sections in India to give a Pakistan-type ideological orientation to India's nationhood. But the tendency to purify Indian culture from 'alien' accretions poses a threat to the security of the country by weakening national unity and the unique civilisational experiment that is India.

Kashmir: The Discourse in Pakistan

For a majority of Pakistanis, Kashmir remains the unfinished agenda of the partition although there exist a plurality of views on the issue which has created complications for successive Pakistani regimes. Aware of these differing views and sensitivities, the Musharraf regime has been reluctant to make a marked departure from its declared policy on the Kashmir issue. But the success of the moderate approach is closely linked to the response of the Indian government.

Kashmir: Putting Politics in Command

For all the opprobrium that the All Party Hurriyat Conference has earned for its lack of action on many counts, it is a valuable platform. This is why its recent announcement that it would hold three-stage elections under a people’s election commission needs to be appreciated and supported. The move is the strongest evidence of change at the ground level placing politics over the gun and selfdetermination over the moth-eaten autonomy/plebiscite paradigm.

India-Pakistan Relations

The suicidal attack on the Indian parliament building on December 13 merits condemnation in the strongest terms.

India, Kashmir and War against Terrorism

India's positions and postures in the post-September 11 period have neither promoted the national interest nor raised the country's moral and political stature in the world.

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