Hereby is a link to my humble submission on countercurrents.org. This was written on the 7th of August (07/08/2008) and published on countercurrents.org on the 8th.
Entitled:
Oh The Pangs Of Reunion: Reversing 1947
Note: Apologies for putting this content in advance of it's timeline. This aberration should be a one-off because it is too late to be reversed.
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Hi Tanveer
ReplyDeleteI am an Indian who is ashamed of what's going on in Kashmir. We were brothers in India and Pakistan, now we are fighting like enemies. And the people who suffer the most are Kashmiris. Instead of burning the valley, why not use it as a bridge of friendship between the two countries ?
I have just visited Strassburg in Europe, this city has a violent history of German and French occupation. Now it serves as the headquarters of the European parliament. Why not try to do the same with Srinagar ?
Nationalism is an idea of the past. In my opinion, we will have international conglomerates in the future. And slowly, we will evolve into a global citizenship. There are three forces accelerating this (1) the power of the internet which is radically improving the notion of democracy (2) the global per capita income which is growing exponentially, poverty will be abolished in the future as abundant energy is produced by nuclear and solar power (3) the common global causes of environment etc .. make it imperative that we think and act globally.
We should look upon the European union as an inspiration in the subcontinent - as a union of equals.
I hope India and Pakistan become more federalized, and form a common union of nation states like in the EU. This will be a union of equals, and not a rule from Delhi. In fact, the European parliament is located in three places : luxembourg, strassbourg and bruxelles - all meeting points between Germany, France and other big countries. Similarly in the future, I hope the common parliament of the subcontinent will be located in Srinagar and Jaffna. In order to achieve this dream, we should work towards federalizing the constitutions and increasing the degree of autonomy to all the states. This will require hard work but it is possible.
Inspired by Europe and the Indian subcontinent, latin america and africa will get together in a spirit of brotherhood.
You may call me a dreamer, but I am thinking in the most logical fashion possible.
Well, thanks very much for those comments Ray. I agree with a lot of what you say. The only difference is 'Switzerland', a neutral country within the very continent whose example you give. Why can't all that you suggest - localised governance in particular - happen whereby the region and 'great' powers accept the State of Jammu & Kashmir as a neutral entity linking Asia from all 4 points of the compass?
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