For someone who is in a hurry to learn about the evolution of Pakistan as an Islamic state, its contentious bilateral issues with India and its nuclear programme, A State in Denial by B G Verghese is a useful read. Pakistan, according to him, continues to deny that it inherited inclusive, democratic and secular ethos from India at the time of Partition and has instead positioned itself as a narrow, fundamentalist and Wahabi Islamic state. It defines its history as an extension of 800 years of Muslim dynasties, and its existence only in relation to Hindus. No wonder, schoolchildren are taught to see non-Muslim Indians as enemies of Islam and a threat to their security. While on the subject, Verghese lets his political preference slip down. He finds Narendra Modi’s India emerging as ‘a place for Hindu chauvinism’ in which ‘young children are being transformed into bigoted morons in the garb of instilling in them patriotism’.
The author also discusses the duplicity of Pakistan in integrating Bahawalpur and Kalat, seizing Gilgit-Baltistan and encouraging Junagarh and Hyderabad to secede from India. He graphically mentions the circumstances that led to Kashmir’s accession to India, active role played by the British during tribal raiders’ attack in Jammu and Kashmir on October 22, 1947, and the failed attempt by Pakistan to find a military solution to Kashmir prior to the 1965 war. Referring to the contentious bilateral issues—Siachen, Sir Creek, Baglihar and the Indus water dispute—he argues how their resolution can benefit both countries but gets carried away when he suggests that the entire Siachen region, including land illegally transferred by Pakistan to China in 1963, should be converted into an international peace park and a site for scientific research for glacier and world weather studies. He would also like Indus basin to be jointly financed, constructed, managed and controlled by both countries. An audacious hope, it seems.
While discussing Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Verghese vividly brings out the US perfidy in helping A Q Khan acquire blueprint and fusion material from European nations in return for Pak help in facilitating US-China rapprochement and pulls up Washington for allowing itself to be blackmailed into providing military and economic aid lest Pakistan sells nuclear technology to rogue countries and refuses to serve their strategic interests in the Afghan-Pak region.
On Kashmir, Verghese clarifies that our claim to Pak Occupied Kashmir has always been pretentious. In fact, way back in 1952, Nehru envisaged Kashmir as an independent country, guaranteed by India, Pakistan and UN, and in 1964, he and Sheikh Abdullah even agreed for a confederal arrangement without prejudice to existing sovereignties. At Shimla, Mrs Gandhi proposed the idea of CFL/LoC as permanent boundary. Going a step further, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, J&K chief minister, proposed to give the valley an independent status by India, Pakistan, USSR and China, let go ‘Azad Kashmir’ to Pakistan and Jammu to India. Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharraf thought of rendering LoC as irrelevant by encouraging free movement and unhindered investment, trade and commerce on both sides of the border. Verghese prefers the Manmohan-Musharraf formula, with some internal adjustments like wider autonomy for J&K, addressing human rights grievances, thinning out security forces, squeezing the scope of disturbed areas, infusing funds to kick-start development to blunt call for Azadi and restoring nomenclatures such as Sadre-e-Riyasat and Wazir-e-Azam. His prescription sounds tantalising but may not have takers.
The author believes that time has come for India to assist Pakistan, which is on the cusp of emerging as a liberal, secular and democratic nation. According to him, people in Pakistan who are by and large liberal, and secular Muslims want to live as good neighours with India, and its civil society of media, artists, writers, historians, legal community and human rights activists have actually begun seeing the need to move away from perennial confrontation over Kashmir and needless militarisation and Islamisation of the state. His impression seems to be seriously flawed in the absence of any supporting evidence. However, his one advice merits consideration. He strongly pitches for making a lucid and objective account of Kashmir’s accession to India, the UN resolution and article 370 available in the curriculum of every educational institution to dispel misgivings should the government adopts an out-of-box formula to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio.