Understanding India–Pakistan Relations: Memory Keeps Getting in the Way of History

Manzoor Ahmad

Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 2019, vol. 23, issue 1, 69-80

Abstract: Abstract This article aims to highlight the reasons behind the historical animosity between India and Pakistan, and its continuation for last seven decades by examining the role of ideologues who shaped the national identity discourse of two communities—Hindus and Muslims—before and after the Partition. To understand the present protracted conflict, probing the pre-Partition clash of narratives is indispensable. The Islamic imagery and Hindu symbolism used by the two communities were exclusionary and based on ‘othering’ which not only thwarted the vision of inclusive nationalism but also generated more animosity and distrust, and severely antagonized the relationship in the post-Partition period. However, this article argues that despite the deep-rooted animosity and distrust there is still scope for re-imagination and reconciliation. For that, both the countries need to transcend the sediments of the past memories and adopt a more pragmatic approach to resolve the long-standing issues that have been weighing them down for decades.

Keywords: National identity; India; Pakistan; Kashmir; conflict; the Partition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973598418804289 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jadint:v:23:y:2019:i:1:p:69-80

DOI: 10.1177/0973598418804289

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Jadavpur Journal of International Relations
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().