Sajjad Azhar
Dear Mr. Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
Dear Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India,
Happy Independence Day to you both, and to the 1.5 billion people living in our two countries.
When Pakistan and India emerged on the world map on August 14 and 15, 1947, no one knew how these two peoples—who had lived together for centuries and millennia—would establish themselves as separate nations and how they would progress alongside the other nations of the world.
When Paul Alling, the American ambassador to Pakistan, met Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and asked him what kind of relations he would like Pakistan to have with India in the future, Jinnah reportedly replied: “Like those between the United States and Canada.”
Eighty years have now passed, but Jinnah’s dream has yet to become a reality. Why has it not happened? Volumes could be written on the subject. But in simple terms, the answer is that there has been a lack of trust on both sides.
Once, the people whose courtyards were shared were separated by walls. Those walls became so high that people forgot ancestral bonds and became thirsty for each other’s blood.
Much blood was shed when we separated. And much blood continues to be shed today, when we seem unwilling to maintain any relationship with each other except one defined by hostility.
Mr. Shehbaz Sharif and Mr. Modi,
Is it not true that there are few regions in the world where two countries share as much as Pakistan and India do?
We share languages and history. We share ancestry. For thousands—and indeed hundreds of thousands—of years, our ancestors have lived together in the same geographical region.
Our ancestors opened their eyes millions of years ago in the caves of the Soan Valley. Eight thousand years ago, they reached new heights of civilization at Mehrgarh. Six thousand years ago, they established urban settlements such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Three thousand years ago, they had developed an advanced political and state structure stretching from Peshawar to Ayodhya.
Twenty-three centuries ago, they stopped Alexander the Great on the banks of the River Jhelum—the same Alexander who had defeated Darius III, the ruler of the Persian superpower of his time. This is perhaps the ultimate expression of the power of this land: whoever came here from elsewhere eventually absorbed the colours and character of India. Some of its rulers were of Aryan, Greek or Central Asian origin, but the cultural colours of India transformed them so profoundly that, by the seventeenth century, they had helped make India one of the world’s great economic powers.
During the reign of Akbar, India is estimated to have accounted for around 27 percent of global GDP. Today, the United States accounts for roughly 24 percent of global GDP. In relative terms, Akbar’s India was therefore a larger economy than today’s United States.
India’s pluralistic society was celebrated across the world. People were drawn to it from far and wide. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains lived together in relative harmony.
Then the British arrived.
Under the principle of “divide and rule,” they sowed seeds of hatred that divided us along the lines of caste, religion and sect. The British eventually left, but generations on both sides continue to suffer from the fire of hatred that was left behind.
The horrific violence surrounding Partition, followed by disputes over borders and territory, has since pushed our two countries into several wars.
Today, our arsenals contain enough weapons that if they were all unleashed together, one can only imagine the catastrophic consequences for humanity itself.
Mr. Shehbaz Sharif and Mr. Modi,
Eighty years have passed.
The generation of Quaid-e-Azam and Jawaharlal Nehru is gone. Even many of their successors are approaching the end of their lives.
The third generation is ours—the generation that was repeatedly treated as fuel for wars.
But now a fourth generation has arrived. It grew up in the age of globalization. Generation Z on both sides is increasingly willing to challenge the old order. This generation has inherited little from us except our old rivalries.
We must now ask ourselves: Do we want to continue feeding our arsenals with the fuel of hatred, or do we want to leave future generations a bright and prosperous future?
The world is changing.
Last May, we both witnessed a brief glimpse of what a military confrontation between Pakistan and India can look like. Imagine if that conflict had continued for weeks or months. What would have remained for either country?
Can a clash between two modern armies equipped with some of the world’s most sophisticated and destructive weapons really solve any problem?
In our neighbourhood, the world is already trapped in major conflicts. The Middle East has become a volcano. The heat of the Russia-Ukraine war is being felt across the globe. New military alliances are emerging.
Pakistan and India have much to learn from this changing world.
An old conflict in the Middle East has produced so many new conflicts that what was once one dispute has now become several. Something similar is happening with Kashmir, and this is the scenario confronting both of us.
There may be few civilizations in the world as ancient as ours, carrying with them the accumulated wisdom of thousands of years.
Doesn’t that wisdom impose a greater responsibility upon its inheritors?
Shouldn’t we learn from history and, for the sake of a better future, sacrifice our egos? Shouldn’t we show flexibility in our respective positions and reach out to embrace each other?
Believe me, when Shehbaz Sharif and Narendra Modi embrace, it will not simply be two prime ministers embracing each other.
It will be 1.5 billion people of the subcontinent embracing one another.
Mr. Shehbaz Sharif and Mr. Modi,
Bridging eight decades of hatred in a single moment is not an easy task.
But it is certainly easier than the battlefield that can emerge within days, with fire raining down on both sides. Before one battlefield is over, calls for another confrontation begin.
Somewhere, sometime, this cycle has to stop. Somewhere, someone has to transform confrontation into reconciliation.
If someone else can do it tomorrow, why can’t you do it today?
Believe me, the people of both countries want peace. They want the walls of hatred along their borders to come crashing down.
If anyone hesitates, it is largely the elites on both sides who have lost trust in one another.
But you are representatives of ordinary people. And it is the interests of those ordinary people that must come first. Think about what the economics of peace could do for both countries if you were to embrace one another.
The World Bank has suggested that bilateral trade between the two countries could potentially increase by around $35 billion annually.
Pakistan could become India’s gateway to Central Asia and the Middle East. Trade that currently travels by sea could increasingly move through roads, railways and pipelines.
One in every six poor people in the world lives either in India or Pakistan. Imagine how much faster we could lift people out of poverty if peace were established and meaningful bilateral trade resumed.
For you, the doors of Katas Raj would open. For us, Ajmer Sharif and the Delhi of Nizamuddin Auliya would open once again.
When we travel to Lahore, we could have dinner in Amritsar.
And when you travel towards Kabul or Tehran, Islamabad and Lahore could welcome you as hosts.
Mr. Shehbaz Sharif and Mr. Modi,
No problem is inherently too big to solve. Sometimes, it is our thinking that becomes too small to find the solution.
History tells us that there are two kinds of rulers.
There are those who build towers of skulls to satisfy their egos.
And there are those who dream of peace, prosperity and human welfare.
History remembers the first as tyrants and oppressors. It remembers the second as compassionate and humane leaders.
Now it is up to you both to decide alongside whom you want your names to be written in the pages of history.
The eyes of 1.5 billion people of the subcontinent are upon you.
Happy 80th Independence Day once again.
