India – Pakistan 2025: Challenges and Channels Of Unity
Hello Judges of The Lighthouse Project, as stated earlier my name is Clive Charles D’souza and I am a Peace Loving 21 Year Old Indian Citizen, I call myself this because I pride myself personally on being a calm mediator of situations, whether it be mediation of disputes between friends or family members, or whether it is just wondering why world governments could not just bother about their own affairs and welfare of their own people, which would avoid most of the world disputes that most of the time according to me, only manages to turn out to be a waste of time and money that could have put to use to the greater good of their respective countries resulting in the greater good of the planet. It is definitely quite shocking how governments blow simple issues out of proportion for nothing but greed which actually is just a feeling in the mind that would last until they die and repercussions of the greed cost the planet for an unprecedented amount of time. Nuclear Bombings can be definitely one of the greatest examples of how a show of power of one government can have long lasting implications on people who are directly affected.
So anyway, now I will get back to the point of this essay which is how to solve what seems to be the ever on-going crisis between India and Pakistan. But before I get to that I would like to give certain instances in my childhood itself which I would like to relate later on this essay as to why these instances were important to me and how they could be a solution to the crisis between our two nations.
Before I had come to India to pursue my higher education, I was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, The Capital City of The United Arab Emirates. The U.A.E is partially home to people from 205 countries living and working together mostly in hope for better pay, or better conditions of their families back in their home countries. The UAE comprises of approximately 9,000,000 people in the latest census, out of which approximately 2,600,000 people are Indians and approximately 1,500,000 people are Pakistani. So since there are so many of us living within the U.A.E, there should obviously be some measures taken to keep us from fighting right?
Like having a Line Of Control guarded by the police between our residential communities, a Line Of Control between workspace cabins and Restaurant Cabins, after all, these measures have to be taken to stop people of 2 countries, who have threatened to drop nuclear weapons on each other, right?
Well, guess what’s the reality? We co-exist PEACEFULLY?! How could this be possible? What is this unimaginable solution that seems to have people of two warring factions, eat together, pray together and love together. What is this incredible feat achieved by the government of the U.A.E to keep people of our nations at peace together?
To everyone who is reading this essay, I think that I will have all of you all intrigued by the simplicity of the issue that we have at hand, and how incompetent politicians who do not want to create peace between the 2 nations is the only reason why both our countries are not at peace with each other.
I will explain this simplicity with yet another story from my childhood itself. My neighbours were Pakistanis, and nope the corridor that were in between the entrances of our flats were not the Line Of Control imposed by the UAE, but rather, for me and the children of our neighbours Riaz, Yousuf and Waleed was a cricket pitch, no this was not ‘Cricket Diplomacy’ that was practised between both countries, it was just kids being kids playing a certain sport that they watched and liked.
Our parents too were pretty much the same, my mom was a housewife, their mom was a housewife, and my father was a man who worked hard through the day and night to ensure that his kids got a better future and their father as well did exactly the same.
We used to have Kheema Rotis for 1 Dirham (17 Rupees) from nearby ‘New Pakistan Bakery’ and they would sometimes have Dosas which both aunty and uncle loved from a nearby restaurant called ‘Sangeetha’ run by Tamilians.
In my house we had a basic television set that had only 2 channels since our financial condition was not good enough to afford more, one which was Channel V that actually played music at the time and the other was BBC News. Since these were the only channels that were free to air and within reach of our budget. I became an ardent lover of music and intrigued by what’s happening in the world at the meagre age of 5.
And this was the time where the Kargil War had began, and tensions between India and Pakistan arose again. This was when I first started to realise the gravity of the situation and hatred that existed between the two countries. It was very hard for me to fathom as to why this was happening.
What I see around me are Pakistanis and Indians getting along, going about their daily lives. And on the other hand the televisions sets show missiles being fired at each other.
Even when the Kargil War was going on, me, Riaz, Waleed and Yousuf did not stop playing cricket, we did not stop going to each others houses for dinner, we Indians did not stop going about our lives in Taxi Cabs that were driven mostly by Pakistanis, we did not stop eating at Pakistani Restaurants and the Pakistanis did not stop eating in Indian Restaurants.
When I grew older I had kept on wondering why is it that there seems to be hatred in our respective countries where we want to drop not just any bombs but nuclear bombs and completely debilitate and obliterate each other.
Yes I get it, Religion, want for Strategically Important Territory, but why is all of this happening? Is violence ever a solution? Why is it that these wars have taken place between 2 countries that have no reason to not get along?
The answer seems to be very simple it simply comes down to 2 entities that are creating the divide seem like it’s a real one, the governments and the media.
One of my friends who was like me born and raised in Abu Dhabi who went to study in Karachi, told me that he is unable to get water in his college accommodation 24 x 7 and this despite studying at a prestigious university which I will not name, he said he has to wake up everyday at 5 am in order to go and fill water which will be required for the day. This seemed to be unbelievable to me that such a basic necessity is not being met in one of the biggest cities in Pakistan that too to my friend who is far from belonging to the underpriveleged class of society financially. Many parts of India too including our capital city of Delhi have a middle class that faces shortages of electricity and water in the summer months.
India and Pakistan are countries which suffer from all kinds of societal inequalities financially and otherwise. People are frustrated with the vast political incompetency that is seen in both nations leading to a rise in frustration.
People are suffering from the lack of will on the part of the administration of the country to provide for the welfare of people. When I ask Pakistanis as to what are the issues that they see in their country, they would say, bad roads, lack of water, lack of electricity, lack of education, rise in religious fanaticism leading to intolerance etc. the one problem I heard no one state is, India!
If you ask the average Indian, what would an Indian say? Would it sound pretty much the same? Yes it would, nobody would say that a problem that they face in their daily lives is Pakistan.
Many Indians would say that terrorism sponsored by Pakistan is definitely a huge issue, whether it is actually state sponsored or not, I do not know and I would not want to discuss because the point of this essay is to find a solution to the problem that both of our countries face. But terrorism from across the border has definitely taken place and that’s for sure, and also terrorism has also taken place from Indians toward Pakistanis in the Samjhauta Train Blasts in 2007.
But honestly what is terrorism? Why is it a growing issue? Again the answer is the same? It is seen that a rise in terrorism and youth who are joining terrorist organisations happens only due to a lack of opportunity given to the youth, when there is no electricity, no work, no education, when it seems like there is simply a lack of opportunity, it is very difficult to think that there will exist a bright future, and when there is a death of ambition, there will also come, a death of the sense of belonging, and when that occurs is when it is easy to manipulate people into doing what you want exactly out of them, take Ajmal Kasab for example, a young boy involved in a terrorist attack on India, what reason did he have to want to get on a boat with a bunch of other people to want to kill people in India, he himself stated that it was the pathetic and hopeless financial situation of his family when he was a young boy that got him frustrated, and in the end vulnerable to any manipulation and anyone else who gave him a sense of belonging and a way to empty his frustration and also to bid adieu to the world, being recognised, so again we see that the incompetence of the government toward the welfare of the people is the reason for the frustration.
The other reason is the propaganda by the media, fights always get ratings, whether it be WWE, emotional fights seen in T.V Serials, Sports which is always a competitive fight between 2 or more groups, when you can bring up controversial issues about a rival country whether true or not people will watch it, therefore the media in both countries bring up information against the other, this also serves the purpose of the governments of both the countries in having to offer sufficient distraction to the masses who because of the media saying that India or Pakistan is the biggest problem all day and night do not pay heed to the issues that the country is actually facing, thereby instilling hatred in most citizens of the country and plotting the citizens of both the countries against each other.
The only reason why the U.A.E or other countries where Indians and Pakistanis do not see hatred toward each other is because all the needs of the people are met, people are working toward providing better lives for their family and themselves, people have sufficient food to provide, people are able to have an ambition and people also have access to media that provide information that is neutral to the problems in India and in Pakistan, after all people are also able to connect to each other on a personal level share their culture, eat each other’s food and watch each other’s serials and movies, play cricket together, talk to each other, most of the time the same language, eat similar foods and have a great life.
I’m no major policy maker, but I can say this, any policy that India and Pakistan make for solving their issues with each other, whether such policy will be effective by 2025 or not, need to work together or separately for the welfare of its citizens, all of the billions spent on war mutually should have been put to use in building infrastructure, education, healthcare, scientific research and everything else that is necessary for people in both countries to have hope and ambition, when people are able to see that there is something to work for, an ambition that will see the safety and security of their families, there is no need to fight with anybody but themselves.
The more the self development that people will be able to see, the lesser that people would be able to see each other through the goggles provided by anger, but the more they will be able to see through the goggles provided by happiness.
What’s the proof? A few recent studies conducted show that 85% positive approval rate of Japanese towards the U.S.A and an 87% approval rate of Americans toward Japan. Wow! Hard to believe used to bomb each other and one even dropped 2 nuclear bombs on the other, huh?
How did this happen? Japan and the U.S became each other’s biggest trade partners, they shared each others’ culture and popularised it amongst the citizens of both countries, and promoted peace and made sure that they took care of the welfare of their people as their first priority.
India and Pakistan were once part of the same nation, unlike the U.S and Japan, we share cultural similarities probably more than any other 2 rival nations on the planet, if the U.S and Japan despite all of their differences could do it, So can we, Insha-Allah, Insha-Ganesha, Insha-Guru Nanak, Insha-Jesus, Insha-Our Respective Governments.