What India should do

THE terrorist attacks in Mumbai have reignited a tiresome and dangerous blame game in India. Opinion leaders are having a field day making Pakistan look bad and India look good.

The terrorists have tarnished Pakistan's image and the Indians can exult in their Mumbai moment if they wish. But if that is all that they do, they will be doing a grave disservice to the scores of people who lost their lives and were wounded.

In Pavlovian fashion, Pakistan's opinion leaders continue to disavow any involvement in terrorism. However, international observers are convinced that the terrorists had Pakistani ties. Indeed, many suspect that their handlers were directly or indirectly connected with Pakistan's intelligence agencies which have long been fighting a proxy war with India.

There is little doubt that if Pakistan is to survive as a nation-state, it needs to expunge terrorism from its strategic culture. But what is equally true is that India, if it is to attain greatness in the decades to come, needs to rethink its strategic culture. India's leaders should see the Mumbai attack as a wake-up call. They are heirs to a long intellectual tradition of introspection. One hopes they will engage in a meaningful debate on the assumptions that gird their nation's domestic and international policies.

But will India's leaders engage in what is likely to be a painful process? It is hard to say. Since it gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, India has related to its smaller neighbours with magnanimity at certain times and with stinginess at others. The face of India which the world sees oscillates between generosity and hubris. Its diplomatic history is coloured by the contradictory comments of leadership and hegemony.

What are the false assumptions in India's policies that need revisiting? First, that Indians can prevail in a limited war with Pakistan. Between two nuclear powers, a limited war is inherently limitless.

Second, that it can continue to be an economic powerhouse without resolving its congenital dispute with Pakistan. The dispute has led to a costly diversion of resources from productive to unproductive sectors in both countries. While keeping its economy on a war footing has devastated Pakistan, it has also held India back from realising its true potential. Foreign investment will not flow to India under the shadow of a nuclear war.

Third, that the dispute with Pakistan can be resolved bilaterally and does not require international mediation. Given the imbalance in political and military power between the two countries, the problem has defied a solution for six long decades. It is time to involve another power, one that both countries can trust. The US, now under a new president who brings no historical baggage to his role, is best suited to this task and should be invited in. The creation of the Taliban was linked to Pakistan's desire to create strategic depth for itself in the event of an Indian invasion. The war against terror in Afghanistan, which largely revolves around the Taliban, cannot be won without resolving the Indo-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir.

Fourth, that India has well-trained security forces that can thwart a future terrorist attack. The sophistication of the terrorists in Mumbai was matched by the ineptness of India's security forces. New Delhi's weaknesses in this regard are the focus of a new report from the RAND Corporation which recommends numerous improvements.

Fifth, that there is no political or human rights problem in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi continues to argue that the state is an integral part of India and that it is governed democratically. So why is it that even the casual visitor to Kashmir finds himself or herself stranded in a garrison state? While estimates vary, the combination of military, paramilitary and police forces deployed in that state is probably in excess of half a million. The figure would dwarf the population which lives there, estimated at less than one per cent of India's population.

Sixth, that India is a secular democracy where minorities are treated equally with the majority community. In this regard, the Rajindar Sachar Committee report on the status of Indian Muslims prepared in 2006 on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a must read. But it is not just the Muslims who get the raw end of the deal in India. There have been many instances of Christians being treated poorly and of Catholic missionaries being burned alive. It is time for India to rein in the fascist influence of those who espouse Hindutva.

Seventh, that for India to be viewed as a great power, it also needs to become a military power with an ability to shoot ballistic missiles across the seven seas. Such power play hearkens back to the past. It does not beckon to the future. It is sad to see yesterday's philosophy trumping tomorrow's, as those who voice a view of greatness premised on hard power appear to have prevailed over those who propose a view based on soft power.

Eighth, that India has purged its polity of all economic and social ills and that it is a rising and shining power, an "Incredible India". Just witness the howls of protest that were reported in the Indian media when the film, Slumdog Millionaire, got global recognition.

The story, seen through the eyes of a Muslim child who was orphaned when murderous Hindu gangs went on a rampage in the slums of Mumbai, was a timeless tribute to the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. It could have been written by Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo. Instead of absorbing the film's lessons, a segment of the Indian elite expressed their contempt for the film's raw depiction of the squalor and misery in India's slums where millions eke out an existence. If they had their way, films would put the spotlight on India's new economy, its Silicon Valley and its lunar rocket program. If India's leaders revisit these eight assumptions, they can ensure that one day in the future India will be recognized as a great power. And if they don't, India will continue to be, as only Nirad C. Chaudhuri could have put it, a "Continent of Circe", the Greek goddess who used a magical potion to transform her enemies into pigs.

The author is an associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at the University of Bradford.

By Ahmad Faruqui

faruqui@pacbell.net