Indians and Pakistanis Must Start Anew

What has just happened in Pyongyong thrills not just the 70 million Koreans but the entire humanity. Whether something substantial will come out of this summit meeting, how the sensitive security issues will be tackled, and what will the reunified Korea look like are some of the many questions that are being speculated right now. However, the most important thing this surprising

and exhilarating meeting demonstrates is both the Koreas' desire and willingness to engage each other in a constructive dialogue.

East Germany and West Germany have reunified, North Yemen and South Yemen are united, and now North Koreans and South Koreans are going forward putting the past fifty years back. However, we, Indians and Pakistanis, are stuck in the 1940s. Leave alone reunification, we cannot even talk to each other seriously and meaningfully. When something like the "Lahore spirit" does bring us together occasionally, it is sabotaged and derailed by vested interests who seem to be afraid of changes and new beginnings.

South Asia's predominant sociocultural characteristic has been resisting alien things and refusing to be blown off the feet by changing times. Centuries of Mughal rule could not subdue South Asia completely and even the converted Muslims have lived within the purview of local cultures rather than the invading ones. Almost 200 years of British rule barely touched the inner core of the South Asian spirit. Although women, Dalits, minorities and other weaker sections of our societies have paid a huge cost for such stubbornness, there is indeed a positive side to it. We, South Asians, are not simple pushovers. We know who we are.

But the very 'strength' becomes a hopeless weakness when it is not kept up with the varying demands of changing times. This knowing too much of who we are resulted in Hindu-Muslim animosity, kept our forebears divided, dissipated their energies, made them vulnerable to the colonial exploiters, and brought them death and destruction. It still keeps us divided, illiterate, poor and sick. The post-independence history of South Asia makes it very clear that our identitarian 'strengths' and accompanying packages have become rather liabilities beyond a particular point. Consequently, we have lost the courage to confront our pasts and the wisdom to envision alternative futures.

South Asians need to accept the facts that we committed a mistake in 1947 and that we ought to have taken one of the other roads that were open for us. We have learned a bitter lesson the hard way. Things are not completely out of hands yet. Feeling gratified by the fact that we have managed to incorporate hundreds of princely states into more or less orderly states based on language, culture and ethnic identity, we should seriously consider reverting the fatal trends that plague our socioeconomic-political affairs.

Building up from the scratch of 1947 scenario, we should do serious national and regional brainstorming on the Kashmir issue. Who dare say that we cannot work out a meaningful solution when we realize that this crisis has an awful bearing on the lives of not just Indians and Pakistanis but all South Asians and threaten all our very existence.

Imagine the political road that would take us all to a "Union of South Asian States" where Assam, Baluchistan, Punjab, Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and all other states become autonomous and manage their own affairs under a broad regional umbrella. A one-state/one-vote South Asian confederal body may manage the foreign affairs, currency matters, environmental issues, and other common concerns on the basis of collective bargaining and consensus. A regional peacekeeping force can maintain inter-state law and order, police the borders, and carry out emergency operations.

This decentralized confederation will result in administrative ease, better focus and faster growth all over our vast region. This could also facilitate a better sense of responsibility among our peoples, and invigorate their participation in democratic exercises and development activities.

The autonomous states could divide the costs and benefits of the South Asian confederal body on the basis of population-based proportional sharing.

The richest resource on the earth can only be human resources. If South Asians utilize this fully to correct our thinking and connect our lives, to mend our actions and merge our interests, a great life is certainly assured for all of us.

Failing to learn from one's mistakes results in condemnation; failing to change with the times results in stagnation. Present-day South Asia is suffering from both. South Asians have only two choices: courage and progress, or cowardice and regress. The world is watching keenly which road we will take.