As a Friend

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis, "New Détente as Pakistani President States India ‘Not a Threat’?" - 2point6billion - Beijing, China
Monday, May 11, 2009

After decades of mistrust, violence and three wars; is it possible that the threat of Taliban extremists is bringing Pakistan and India closer together?

In signs that increasing cooperation, greater tolerance and better communications are having an effect, Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, has publicly stated that “India is not a threat” and has highlighted internal terrorism and Muslim fanaticism as the main dangers his country now faces.

The shift in policy, if extended to the military, would allow Pakistan to redeploy the massive armed forces on its eastern frontier and move them to deal with insurgents and reestablish control in parts of the country gradually being taken over by radicals.

Zardari held a series of high-level meetings in the United States last week – including meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and, in what is being classified as a rare admission by the India press, stated that he did not believe India was a “threat” to Pakistan.

“Well, I am already on record. I have never considered India a threat,” Zardari said on Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

“I have always considered India a neighbor, which we want to improve our relationship with. We’ve had some cold times and we’ve had some hard times with them. We have gone to war thrice, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships.”

The key to Zardari’s shift in position is how the Pakistan military will view it. Much of their strategic planning and training has traditionally been geared towards dealing with the perceived India threat, and not dealing with Taliban issues. The latter also, causes serious dynamics for Pakistan; the Taliban are Pashtuns, an ethic group historically divided by the original, British-drawn border drawn between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With one line on a map, Pashtun tribal areas that had been interlinked for centuries found themselves having separate nationalities. The situation is similar historically to the China-India border conflicts yet far more difficult to assert sovereignty over.

Pashtuns generally are highly nationalistic, and have caused problems for foreign invaders since time immemorial. On the Afghan side, some 13 million are Pashtuns, on the Pakistan side, some 28 million, while descendants of Pashtun soldiers married into Muslim families in India number about 500,000, mainly in Northeast India – the Jammu and Kashmir region.

The regional Pashtun Diaspora therefore, split by the dividing, British-designed “Durand Line” may be separated by modern borders, but ethnically and crucially, linguistic, religious and long standing family ties keep them united. Hence the difficulties of the Pakistan military in fighting a people many would consider brothers.

At core here therefore is not the Pashtuns themselves, but rather the radicalization of the Pashtuns into the Taliban ideology. With a leadership well used to subverting the rule of Islam for its own purposes, and being swift to mete out severe punishments to those who do not follow their creed, the Taliban has successfully bullied its way progressively into regions of Pakistan previously considered moderate.

The sacking and destruction of Sufi Temples in the recently occupied Swat Valley is just one example - Pakistan itself has a long history of the far more tolerant Sufi brand of Islam, a movement considered by many to represent Islam at its most benign, scientifically progressive and culturally creative and peaceful. Taliban forces destroying such shrines as “un-Islamic” are seen as having gone too far.

Solving the radicalization of the Pashtuns will not be easy, and will take decades of aid and education to resolve. However, if Pakistan is serious about the issue, seeing India as a friend, rather than as an enemy, will go a long way to free up resources that Pakistan must utilize if the Taliban are not to make further inroads into the nation.

[Picture: A. A. Zardari, President of Pakistan. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asif_Ali_Zardari]