17-08-2004

Book diplomacy for Indo-Pak peace process?

via www.indianexpress.com

For India and Pakistan, mid-August brings with it thoughts of the Other. In Independence Day flag unfurling and homage paying, memories of division are never too far away. It is not that August 14-15 elicits pangs of betrayal. It is more that the two-day affair offers a peg to situate a larger inquiry. An inquiry to understand what it could have been in Partition — and anything else thereafter — that keeps the two countries mired in suspicion and rivalry. It is an investigation that requires introspection, and dialogue. It is one that must be sustained by constant exposure to each other’s narratives…