Nearly six and a half decades after independence and Partition, Pakistan remains Indias biggest

foreign policy challenge.

Pakistan was hacked off the stooped shoulders of India by the departing British in 1!" as a
homeland for Indias #uslims, but $at least until %ery recently, if one can extrapolate from the two
countries population growth trends& more #uslims ha%e remained in India than li%e in Pakistan.
Pakistans relations with India ha%e e%er since been bede%illed by a festering dispute o%er the
di%ided territory of 'ashmir, Indias only #uslim(ma)ority state. *ecades of open conflict and
simmering hostility, punctuated by spasms of bonhomie that always seem to sputter out into
recrimination, ha%e characteri+ed a relationship that has circumscribed Indias options and affected
its strategic choices. ,he knowledge that our nearest neighbour, populated as it is by a people of a
broadly similar ethnic mix and cultural heritage, defines itself in opposition to India and exercises
its diplomatic and military energies principally to thwart and undermine us has ine%itably coloured
Indias actions and calculations on the regional and global stage. ,he resort by Pakistan to the
sponsorship of militancy and terrorism within India as an instrument of state policy since the 1-.s
has made relations nearly as bad as in the immediate aftermath of independence.
/hen Pakistan was created in the Partition of 1!", the 0!! 1princely states $nominally ruled by
assorted potentates but owing allegiance to the British 2a)& were re3uired to accede to either of the
two new states. ,he mahara)a of 4ammu and 'ashmir5a #uslim(ma)ority state with a 6indu ruler
5dithered o%er which of the two to )oin, and flirted optimistically with the idea of remaining
independent. Pakistan, determined to wrest the territory, sent in a band of irregulars, who made
considerable inroads before being distracted by the attractions of rapine and pillage. ,he panicked
mahara)a, fearing his state would fall to the marauders, acceded to India, which promptly
paradropped troops who stopped the in%aders $by now augmented by the Pakistani 7rmy& in their
tracks. India took Pakistans aggression to the 8N as an international issue and declared a ceasefire
that left it in possession of roughly two(thirds of the state.
,o ascertain the wishes of the 'ashmiri people, the 8N mandated a plebiscite, to be conducted after
the Pakistani troops had withdrawn from the territory they had captured. India had insisted on a
popular %ote, since the 'ashmiri democratic mo%ement, led by the fiery and hugely popular 9heikh
7bdullah, was a pluralist mo%ement associated with Indias :ongress party $7bdullah was president
of the Indian 9tates Peoples :ongress, a body set up by the :ongress party to represent
independence(minded people in the princely states& rather than with the #uslim ;eague that had
demanded the creation of Pakistan, and New *elhi had no doubt that India would win a plebiscite.
<or the same reason, conscious of 7bdullahs popularity, Pakistan refused to withdraw, and the
plebiscite was ne%er conducted. ,he dispute has festered e%er since.
<our wars $in 1!"=!-, 1>0, 1"1 and 1&, all initiated by Pakistan, ha%e been fought across the
ceasefire line, now dubbed the ;ine of :ontrol $;o:&, without materially altering the situation. In
the late 1-.s, a Pakistan(backed insurrection by some 'ashmiri #uslims, augmented by militants
infiltrated across the ;o: and supplied with arms and money by Pakistan, began. Both the militancy
and the response to it by Indian security forces ha%e caused great loss of life, damaged property and
all but wrecked a 'ashmiri economy