Indian leaders and diplomats can talk as much as they want with their Pakistani counterparts. But unless Pakistan gives up its penchant for radical Islam, there will be no peace between the two countries
Any announcement of high-level India-Pakistan talks will only be welcomed with caution, if not derision. This time too there is more doubt than certainty that the resumed bilateral talks — if they really take off — will be more of a flash in the pan than a sustained effort to improved bilateral relations. The flame of hope is still too weak, despite Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif meeting in Paris, which was followed by the Bangkok talks between the National Security Advisors, Foreign Secretaries and other senior bureaucrats of India and Pakistan.
In dealing with Pakistan, the fly in the ointment at all times is the proverbial Banco’s ghost lurking over the delegation from Islamabad — which, in this case, is the alliance between the Pakistan Army and Islamist militants. This alliance has its own foot soldiers in the terrorist organisations and the Pakistani masses attuned to the destruction of India as a sacred goal invoked in the name of religion.
Those who have seen the recent documentary, Among the Believers, will recall how the radical Red Mosque network is brainwashing young minds in Pakistan and churning out teenagers dying to be cannon fodder for the clerics. Read in the context of the Pakistan Army, which only has India as its target, as revealed by many studies on Pakistan’s political situation, and viewed against the backdrop of the intensification of so-called jihadi infiltration into Kashmir, can there be much hope for peaceIJ
Within India, the vigil against terrorist strikes has been rightly intensified. In fact, this is the situation globally. The San Bernardino shooting in the US, by Pakistani-origin terrorists, is yet another global warning that Islamist ideology has become an international menace. Increasingly, there is a lowering of credibility of the claim that Islam, as a religion, is not responsible for the spread of violence and terror in so many countries. Fewer people now say with any confidence that Islamist terror strikes and Islam should not be mixed up.
This is most evident in real estate tycoon and US presidential presidential hopeful Donald Trump openly demanding that non-American Muslims be banned from travelling to the US unless Islamic terror can be resolved. European Governments are also worried by the Islamic State’s call to all Muslims to kill all persons belonging to non-Muslim, non-Sunni sects, especially at a time when isolated Islamist-inspired killings crowd media newscasts.
One reason why so many young people are joining the so-called jihad is the education they receive in madarssas. The Muslim community leadership is responsible for this — it has refused to highlight secular education as an important tool to prepare the new generation to rise up to the challenges of the technological age.
Instead, it sees secular education, wherein knowledge and ideas are critically examined, as a threat to Islam. Recall how the military dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq injected radical Islam into all walks of Pakistani life, particularly in madarssas where religious education was extensively promoted with Government funding.
Across Europe, with every Government and society now coming under the threat of sporadic or organised bombings and killings, the authorities have started deeper investigations into madarssas suspected of peddling modern-dayjihadi ideology.
By isolating young Muslim children from any learning where critical faculties are promoted, it is easier to brainwash them into the ‘jihadi’ mental makeup. If at all mathematics, science and history are taught at madarrsas, these are secondary to the main subject of Islamic theology, which comes with its exclusivity claims.
This is true ofmadarssa education in India as well. Generations of young Muslims come out of these religious schools, accepting whatever the clerics claim is the interpretation of their holy book as unquestionable and final. Other enquiries are nominal.
Besides, these youngsters are not exposed to children of their own age group from other religions, as many madarssas are residential. Once the understanding of the outside world in set in the unchanging religious groove, the later teaching of science and history acts only as an attachment that does not change the mind which has already been shaped.
The product is then ready for manipulation by those who have helped create this narrow mindset. That is why educationists say that merely teaching of mathematics and history as additional subjects will not help in cleansing the ‘jihadi’ mindset of the young, even if there are many years of general education afterwards.
The missing link in the madarssa-based education system is the isolation from the reality of a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment. Yet, this is the pluralist environment in which Muslims have to function. The solution suggested by the clerics in this case is for the students to work towards a one-religion-only world. This is dinned into the young minds from the first class itself by suitable quotes or interpretations from religious texts.
Generations of Pakistan have been brought up on a cocktail of theology and twisted history. The creation of Pakistan has its origin in the divisive mindset which was nursed by the Aligarh Muslim University in the pre-independence days. Of course, the move to vivisect India on religious lines got all the intellectual support it needed from the left movement and crafty Britishers.
And during the last 68 years, the Pakistani establishment has worked ceaselessly to further the agenda of hate against thekafirs (read: Hindus, India and its timeless civilisation). The general mindset in Pakistan is such that anyone talking of peace with India or religious tolerance stands no chance to be in a leadership role.
Non-state actors and the Pakistani state may be at war at times. But the differences between the two are mostly confined to timing of various anti-India moves and strategy to achieve one shared goal: The destruction ofkafir-dominated India.
Against this background, India has a few options. Since it cannot replace its rogue neighbour, it has to find ways to deal with it. India has to engage Pakistan both on the border and the negotiation table. Meanwhile, it also has to be constantly on the lookout for infiltrators, non-state actors and Indian passport-holders who have their hearts set in Pakistan.
The likes of Mani Shankar Aiyar may be dreaming of better India-Pakistan ties in the post Modi era but this is an absurd proposition. India and Pakistan have fought repeated wars. Also, irrespective of the party in power in Delhi, India has always aspired for a stable and peaceful neighbour. Its relations with Pakistan will only improve after there’s a paradigm shift in the Pakistani mindset.