Comment on Facebook | Michael Yon "Bad Idea"

Facebook | Links on "Michael Yon"

This is an ugly situation. Sometimes everyone is wrong.

Under the original (undemocratic) rules of partition the Hindu Maharaja of the majority Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir was allowed to accede to either India or Pakistan, or choose neither. He choose India.

The legitimacy of India's claim was compromised by two events in 1948.
1. India seized the majority Hindu state of Hyderabad against the wishes of
     the Muslim Nizam.
2. India did not cooperate in providing an agreed upon referendum in
     Kashmir.

The Pakistani claim is compromised by three factors.
1. The initial aggression by Pakistan in 1947.
2. The undemocratic nature of the Pakistani state for most of the last 62
     years.
3. Continued subversion and terrorism supported by the Pakistani ISI.

Pakistan remains an artificial construct that never has attained the cohesion and stability of a proper nation-state. While India may not lavish Pakistan with the same goodwill the US shows to Canada it is not the source of her smaller neighbors problems. Most of these problems come from three sources.
1. The method by which Pakistan was originally carved out of British India
     from disparate elements, even including modern Bangladesh, under
     the leadership and personality of Muhammed Ali Jinnah.
2. The persistently feudal nature of the agrarian society.
3. The nature of Islamic culture that impedes economic, social and political
     development.

While India has faced similar problems it has proven over time to be more tolerant, more creative, and more adaptable. Given that it would be a mistake to assist Pakistan in adding more to its dysfunctional polity.