India and Pakistan Conflict: A Way towards Resolution

Conflict between India and Pakistan is one of the major conflicts in the world today. The conflict has been continued since the creation of Pakistan out of India in 1947 and turned into several wars during the last century. At the time of partition of India, the native states (also called princely states) were left with choices, to join either India or Pakistan or to remain an independent state. Almost all states joined either India or Pakistan and the accession process was mostly peaceful. But the cases of few states like Jammu and Kashmir were not as uncomplicated as other states. Initially the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir opted for independence. Then he decided to accede to India following an invasion by Pakistan-based forces. Indian troops stopped Pakistani invasion and pushed them back in 1947. At present India controls roughly two-third of the state and Pakistan controls one-third of the state. There were subsequent wars in 1965, 1971 and 1999. Experiences of those wars were not pleasant for Pakistan. Possibly this is one of the reasons why they started harbouring terrorism to indulge in proxy war against India. It is not known exactly when the country started nurturing terrorism. It is believed that the government of Pakistan had "created and nurtured" terrorist groups in the 1980’s. Pakistan has been more engaged in anti-India rhetoric than economic development. In doing so, the country is approaching more and more economic collapse and remains in the grey list of FATF. Then what is the way out of this unwanted situation? India-Pakistan conflict has to be resolved for the peace and development of this region (South Asia). Feasibility of conflict resolution may be possible if costs of such conflict and strategies to minimise them could be identified. The present paper is such an attempt. (Revised version: Das, Tuhin K., Asian Journal of Peacebuilding; Seoul Vol. 8, Iss. 2, (Nov 2020): 223-240. DOI:10.18588/202011.00a114)