In the summer of 2009 my family was in Boston attending my daughter's graduation from Law School. One day we were taking a cab from her apartment to the hotel and started chatting with the driver who looked like he was from the sub-continent. I told him that we were from India . His response was "I am your enemy". This took us completely by surprise.
This was the first time ever that we got such a response from someone from Pakistan and it shocked me. My family are Sikhs originally from Gujarkhan near Rawalpindi in Pakistan. I have had friends, colleagues at school and work from Pakistan and have encountered nothing but warmth and support . I visited Pakistan on business and there again was welcomed by my colleagues. I regarded this was a one off thing and I forgot about it.
In the last few years since the 26/11 incident there has been a lot of hostility between India and Pakistan which saddens most of the population except those with vested interests, as to how one country with the same culture , same history, same food, common languages, have fought a number of wars and spend billions of dollars which could be better spent on alleviating poverty and improving education.
India and Pakistan are not the only such examples.Sudan is now the latest example of a country being split into two .
In a lot of cases it is the colonial masters who are to blame, as they encouraged divisiveness and created a elite class of the minorities who were resented by the majority of the population and when the time came , wreaked vengeance eventually leading to civil war or to countries being split up.
The separation of India into two countries was encouraged by the British and the arbitrary borders which affected the lives of millions of people was drawn up in a matter of weeks. The state of Pakistan was unviable from the start when they were separated not just by thousands of miles, but culturally and linguistically. This eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh.
In Rwanda the German and the Belgian colonial masters favored the minority Tutsis over the majority Hutus and lead to one of the worst massacres in history, when between half to a million people were killed in the space of a hundred days.
Similarly on the Korean Peninsula you have North and South Korea separated initially by political ideology but now by a family with dynastic ambitions , refusing to give up control in the North.Once the "wall"comes down which in my opinion is a matter of time, we will see one Korea which will be a world economic powerhouse.
On the positive side look at Germany which after the war was separated by the Allies and the Russians and now re-united and living peacefully . The separation will eventually be a tiny footnote in history. Since the mid nineties Rwanda has enjoyed social and political stability.
One hopes that this will also be the case with India and Pakistan but that is wishful thinking . The country would be unmanageable and we will eventually see the balkanization into smaller states. If we could just live peacefully as neighbors and divert the funding used for the army to increasing interaction in the form of trade and culture between the two countries it would be a dream come true for the majority of the population on both sides.
This was the first time ever that we got such a response from someone from Pakistan and it shocked me. My family are Sikhs originally from Gujarkhan near Rawalpindi in Pakistan. I have had friends, colleagues at school and work from Pakistan and have encountered nothing but warmth and support . I visited Pakistan on business and there again was welcomed by my colleagues. I regarded this was a one off thing and I forgot about it.
In the last few years since the 26/11 incident there has been a lot of hostility between India and Pakistan which saddens most of the population except those with vested interests, as to how one country with the same culture , same history, same food, common languages, have fought a number of wars and spend billions of dollars which could be better spent on alleviating poverty and improving education.
India and Pakistan are not the only such examples.Sudan is now the latest example of a country being split into two .
In a lot of cases it is the colonial masters who are to blame, as they encouraged divisiveness and created a elite class of the minorities who were resented by the majority of the population and when the time came , wreaked vengeance eventually leading to civil war or to countries being split up.
The separation of India into two countries was encouraged by the British and the arbitrary borders which affected the lives of millions of people was drawn up in a matter of weeks. The state of Pakistan was unviable from the start when they were separated not just by thousands of miles, but culturally and linguistically. This eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh.
In Rwanda the German and the Belgian colonial masters favored the minority Tutsis over the majority Hutus and lead to one of the worst massacres in history, when between half to a million people were killed in the space of a hundred days.
Similarly on the Korean Peninsula you have North and South Korea separated initially by political ideology but now by a family with dynastic ambitions , refusing to give up control in the North.Once the "wall"comes down which in my opinion is a matter of time, we will see one Korea which will be a world economic powerhouse.
On the positive side look at Germany which after the war was separated by the Allies and the Russians and now re-united and living peacefully . The separation will eventually be a tiny footnote in history. Since the mid nineties Rwanda has enjoyed social and political stability.
One hopes that this will also be the case with India and Pakistan but that is wishful thinking . The country would be unmanageable and we will eventually see the balkanization into smaller states. If we could just live peacefully as neighbors and divert the funding used for the army to increasing interaction in the form of trade and culture between the two countries it would be a dream come true for the majority of the population on both sides.
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