EXPLAINING THE CURRENT INDIA-PAKISTAN STALEMATE: HOW CAN THEY MOVE AHEAD (original) (raw)

The Pakistan-India Conundrum: A Historical Survey

The current research presents an overview of history of bilateral relations between Pakistan and India that have been adversarial since their inception in 1947. The study has also analyzed initiatives such as The Indus Waters Treaty (1960), the Tashkent Agreement (1966), The Simla Accord (1972) and the Lahore Declaration (1999) taken by Pakistan and India to build confidence and lower the intensity of the conflict. However, Pakistan and India have still to do concrete efforts to make their relations as durable and have ability to absorb political shocks like 2008 Mumbai incident. The study portrays Pakistan-India bilateral relationship as pendulum like movement. If they have taken one step forward they have moved two steps backward. However, Pakistan-India relations are moving towards maturity. And, peace overtures like the Composite Dialogue (2004) may have significant impact upon Pakistan-India relations provided that the negotiation process is not disrupted and disconnected. The primary objective of this research is to present an overall view of Pakistan-India relations in the backdrop of irritants that have made Pakistan-India normalization process as hostage to them.

Changing Equations of India-Pakistan Relations: Unresolved Kashmir Dispute as a Decider Factor

Since the independence and violent partition of two South Asian countries India and Pakistan in 1947, relations between these two have been inflexible, conflictual, distrustful and very risky political stand off in global context in general and in South Asia particular. Moreover, both are closest and bordering neighbors with close literary, social and cultural bonds but remained at great distance from each other. It is doubtless that there are many reasons and factors behind such turbulence situations and unstabilized political environment but Kashmir issue remains the primary factor and problematic for the development of two nations. However, India and Pakistan have always been caught in enduring conflicts, but in recent time, there are certain changes took place due to the change in the leadership and misadventures/infiltration/proxy war in Kashmir valley as their relations seem to be bitterer than ever before which give the space to international organizations to intervene in their disputes and state of affairs. In such situation, Kashmir is being seen as decider factor to Indo-Pak relations. In such context, this paper is an attempt to touch various issues especially Kashmir dispute between these two nations including the understanding of changing nature of their relations for many years while highlighting the role of external powers which would contribute to the transitory nature of their dynamic relations to draw analytical inferences. It also tries to explore the future of Indo-Pak relations while examining attempts made in the direction to normalize their relations.

Indo-Pak conflict in South Asia: dynamics of Kashmir issue and the way forward for peace

2024

India and Pakistan have experienced various military conflicts since their inception in 1947. The Kashmir issue is one of the most pertinent causes of conflict between both nations as they have gone to war in 1948, 1965 and 1999 on the issue of Kashmir. This matter was also brought to the United Nations Security Council for resolution. However, India has categorically refused to seek any international mediation over this issue by terming it as an internal issue of India. Both countries officially joined the nuclear club in May 1998, which posed a severe threat to the security of the South Asian region as it enabled them to use the nuclear option in future. After acquiring atomic status, both countries came close to war in 2001 when armies were deployed on forward positions on international borders and in 2019 when Pakistan shot down the Indian Air Force fighter jet in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Since 2019, especially after India revoked Article 370, relations between the two countries have been dismal. The paper contemplates the background of this conflict and the resultant wars between India and Pakistan and presents confidence-building measures for the pursuit of peace-making in South Asia.

'Kashmir and the abrogation of Article 370: Can peace be possible, or stalemate continue to hamper India and Pakistan's relations in the future?'

FOCUS South Asia Democratic Forum SADF, 2019

India’s abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A in Kashmir has led to a series of developments that have changed the nature of relations between India and Pakistan. On 5th August India belligerently took over the disputed and autonomous region of Kashmir stripping off its autonomy by merging with the Union Territory. The legal fraternity in India called it extra constitutional, fraudulent and illegal barring the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly rather making it entirely dysfunctional and abrogating it all together. Experts believe that the move by the BJP Government as catastrophic. P Chidambaram, a senior leader in the opposition Congress Party described the decision as a "catastrophic step" and warned in parliament that it could have serious consequences. "You may think you have scored a victory, but you are wrong and history will prove you to be wrong. Future generations will realize what a grave mistake this house is making today." Second, in light of the above point and rele-vant sections the Jammu and Kashmir constitution (allegedly, as author reserves the right to disa-gree with any Indian laws), a central government (in blatant violation of the Instrument of Ac-cession (or Indian Constitution) cannot arbitrarily “downgrade” the status of the “State” to “Un-ion Territory”. This is a violation of the fundamental right of the state and its people. This act, without justification of any legal, economic or political grounds, alone attracts violation of the constitutional rights and invites judicial review of the Supreme Court. The President has only powers to amend or modify, not do away with it (as suggested by the Indian Supreme Court in Sampat Prakash vs State of J&K 1970). This article discusses the ramifications of the Indian move in Kashmir on India along with its impact on India- Pakistan relations. It also covers an international angle of the Kashmir dispute along with the role of United Nation as well as of the global powers responses to the tensions in Kashmir.

Peace Process with India: A Challenge for Pakistan

South Asian Studies, 2016

IntroductionIn international system, some states opt to resolve their conflicts and issues through peaceful means while others find the ways of resolution of issues by using violent acts. Also the states make relations for the attainment of their national interests in order to achieve their goals and sometimes the countries do have nemesis either on the basis of economic matters, political or military concerns.Pakistan and India are the most vital and rivalry states in South Asian region. As right from the initial stage both are said to be the hostile states, with opposite ideas, different economic perspectives, resistant political directions, different sense of perception about the matters and situations, opposed in language, tradition, culture and religion.Apart from this, the similarity that exists is that both Pakistan and India are greater nuclear power actors in this competitive world politics. Geographical connotation which is considered as the most crucial in the study of in...

Getting to Yes in the India-Pakistan Conflict: Addressing Indian concerns on a possible compromise with Pakistan

Journal of Peace, Conflict & Development, 2015

Even after 65 years of their independence, India and Pakistan are locked in a deadly territorial conflict over Kashmir. Despite several mediation attempts and many rounds of bilateral negotiations, Kashmir still defies a solution. Fisher and Ury’s win-win solution in Getting to Yes is applied on India-Pakistan conflict to understand the nature of conflict and see how their four suggested methods can help addressing the deadlock in the peace process between India and Pakistan. In the second part of the paper Fisher and Ury’s method, “focus on interests not positions” is used to understand the Indian fears and concerns behind India’s declared policy of calling Kashmir as their “integral part”. It is despite the fact that the first Indian Prime Minister, Nehru had made solid pledges in UN and on other forums of holding a plebiscite in Kashmir to determine the right of self determination of the people of Kashmir. An attempt is made to look at Indian concerns more deeply and find out the possible ways of addressing them.