Political Line newsletter: Old Boys and New Men: people in the India-Pakistan conflict

The Hindu

25-05-2025

The fact that India and Pakistan (and Bangladesh) were part of the same country until August 1947 has become so remote to most of the people living in these countries that many of them might even find it difficult to believe. These modern countries were formed as a result, at least partly, of British imperial policies which accentuated and aggravated social divisions. American scholar Jeffrey Sachs recently noted that several conflicts of the world currently — in South Asia, West Asia and East Asia (China and Taiwan) — are legacies of British and western imperialism. In the Indian subcontinent, the conflicts began as 'fraternal violence' — to borrow from historian Shruti Kapila. The long history and myth of violent fraternity goes all the way back to the Mahabharata in which the war was within the family. As of today, the rivalries have acquired a new edge that is sharper and more dangerous than in the past.
A key factor in the current tone and character of this conflict is the generational shift in both countries. For the first time in history, India and Pakistan are led by people who were born after Independence and the Partition. Three generations — 78 years — have passed since the Partition. In 2014, Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to be born after Independence (1950). In Pakistan, this shift had happened seven years earlier. Pervez Musharraf was the last ruler/army chief of Pakistan who was born before the Partition. Ashfaq Kayani, who succeeded Musharraf, was born in 1952; The current army chief of Pakistan, Asim Munir, was born in 1968.
Musharraf and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq — who tilted Pakistan irreversibly in the direction of radical Islamisation — were both born in Delhi, and both left the city in 1947. Musharraf as a four-year old and Haq as a graduate of St. Stephen's College. K. Natwar Singh, who joined St. Stephen's a year after Haq left, went to Islamabad as India's High Commissioner when the latter was the ruler of Pakistan. Singh later recounted how Haq would give his private jet to a group of students from St. Stephen's who went to Pakistan.
This was not a one-sided affair — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani were both born in what would later become Pakistan. Singh, as PM, would famously dream of a day when one could have 'breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul'. In 2005, Mr. Advani went to Pakistan, and also visited the St. Patrick's school in Karachi where he studied. He would nostalgically recall stories of his childhood. When Musharraf came to India, he visited his family's home in Old Delhi. Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto shared 'pedigree and degree', as a commentator put it; it was his mother and her father who signed the Simla Agreement. In her last book that she finished before her assassination in 2007, Benazir wrote that Pakistan's ISI suspected her to be an Indian asset and sabotaged her ties with Rajiv. The military leadership of both countries also had personal contacts in the early decades. In 1947, Sam Manekshaw was a Lieutenant Colonel and Yahya Khan was a Major in the British Indian Army. Military assets were partitioned — two-thirds of the personnel going to India and one-third going to Pakistan. Khan purchased from the future Field Marshal a red motorcycle but apparently did not pay the promised amount of ₹1,000 around the time of Partition. During the 1971 war, Manekshaw was the Indian Army chief and Yahya Khan was the President of Pakistan. As per an account by Pakistani columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee in 2008, Field Marshal Manekshaw said after the 1971 Bangladesh war, half in jest: 'I waited for 24 years for ₹1,000 which never came, but now he has paid with half of his country.'
Even more dramatic is a slice of the story of the surrender of the Pakistani army in Dhaka. Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar gave this account in an interview to an online news portal about the eventful day of December 16, 1971. Major General Gandharv S. Nagra was leading a contingent of Indian troops to Dhaka. He and Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi, the commander of Pakistani forces in East Pakistan, had gone to college together. There was no direct communication between the two armies. The Indian Army chief was asking the Pakistani troops to surrender, over a radio broadcast. Nagra's convoy approached an abandoned post of the Pakistani army near Dhaka, and used the phone there to connect to its command headquarters. Niazi was on the line.
'He (Nagra) said, 'Abdullah, this is Gandharv here' and General Niazi asked, 'Gandharv, where are you?'
He said, 'I am at the gate of Dhaka and waiting for you to surrender.'
General Niazi said, 'We are ready to surrender, but we don't know who to tell.'
General Nagra said, 'We are here.'
General Niazi said, 'I'm sending a few cars, you come into Dhaka and we'll work out the surrender terms.'
We then went into Dhaka in Pakistani vehicles and saw the hospital, university, airfield en route.
We arrived at the HQ, Pakistan Eastern Command. General Niazi came out and embraced General Nagra.
They went into the office to talk. Meanwhile, we informed Calcutta that we were in Dhaka, and the Pakistan army was ready to surrender.'
The rest of the formality followed. Even through wars, terrorism and continuing conflicts, leaders of both countries had some memories of these countries being one, and this was very personal too. Not only did they share the same country in their memories, all of them were also trained in the western education system. With the complete passing of those generations, the India-Pakistan conflict is in a new phase.