At the time of Partition, it was that both India and Pakistan would break up into ‘congeries of states’. The basis of this prediction was inability of the new republics to deal with myriad centrifugal forces gnawing into the body politic. Only countries with a stable equilibrium between its centrifugal and centripetal forces stay afloat in comity of nations. In post-independence period, India was fortunate to have visionary leaders who tactfully muzzled centrifugal forces like insurgencies in East Punjab and eastern states, besides the Dravidian and Naxal Bari movements. Indian Union bowed to insurgents’ demands for creation of new states. Insurgency leaders burning to ashes copies of Indian constitution, uprooting rail tracks, immobilizing everyday life, became chief ministers. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and the East Punjab appeared to secede from the Union. While India stayed united because of its resilience, we disintegrated. 

We learnt nothing from East Pakistan debacle. India is now engaged in What Kautlia calls maya yuddha (war of tricks) or koota yuddha (all-out warfare). She is out to isolate Pakistan, get it dubbed as a terrorist state, and corner it by presence in Chahbahar and some Central Asian airbases. Ibn-e-Khaldun says that it is asabia (nationalism) that enables a country to withstand challenges. Toynbee’s Challenge and Response Theory also reminds that if challenges are too heavy, a nation becomes apathetic. 

Our leaders, including prime-ministers-were and prime-ministers-to-be should take off their blinkers and try to understand how India, hands in glove with likeminded countries, is trying to wreck our economy and country. 

DEEBA,  

Islamabad, March 1.