On Thursday 21 Aug 2008 6:43:58 pm Bonobashi wrote: > I'm afraid I won't find myself alone in believing that 8 out of 10 of those > Kashmiris living in the Valley want out. It isn't clear what proportion > want to join Pakistan, and what section wants independence, but it is > unlikely that they want to stay on as part of India.
Stephen Cohen the "South Asia Expert" from Brookings (I hate South Asia experts) actually wrote a good book on Pakistan. He said that the danger signs of Pakistani failure were when the elite started migrating out. However I believe he hinted that they might want to migrate to the West. I believe he was wrong. As Pakistan fails, there are more and more people from Pakistan looking at India. Not in terms of rejoining India (what a horror that would be) but in terms of regaining some of the old magic that they felt they had when India was them. A lot of articles are taking this concilatory line nowadays. Arrayed against that is Zia's Islam and an education system that has taught Pakistani children in standard school textbooks that India is to be feared and hated. Political correctness in too many media result in the refusal to acknowledge that Pakistan the nation of pure Muslims formed purely for Islam now has a problem with the religion of peace. The news at this moment says a suicide bomber killed 60 people in Islamabad. Yestreday Shias wre killed by a suicide bomber outside a hospital. Pakistan is not a state that is stable and nobody is taking the demands of Pakistan the state very seriously except for its propensity to cause violence and mayhem. With Pakistan itself being relegated to the third division, the feelings of the people of Kashmir don't count for much to anyone who matters. If they stay with India - they will be given a place to live and a veneer of secularism and some opportunities. If they don't like that they will not get anything else. They will have to shape up, or shape up. The ship out option don't exist. shiv
