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Couples Counseling for India and Pakistan
By Deepak Chopra and Salman Ahmad
Suspicions over a cooked election in Iran have brought a glimmer of hope for real reform. It takes glimmers in the long, fractious fights that hold societies in thrall. Can we find one in the toxic fight that has plagued India-Pakistan relations for six decades?
We've already had a Camp David moment. When the two heads of state met to shake hands in mid-June, Manmohan Singh of India and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan obeyed some new forces.
One was the force of economics, which has cut both ways. Economics promises to make India a prosperous player on the world scene. With money has come the expectation of rational behavior, and India can see rationally that a stable, nonaggressive Pakistan is the kind of neighbor it wants to have.
The other side of economics is the downturn. The mini-Cold War that has raged between the two countries keeps draining much needed resources that neither side can afford to squander.
The second new force is social, and it has arisen since the terrorist attack in Mumbai last November. The fact that the Indian populace did not call for reprisals against Pakistan, combined with Pakistan's seemingly genuine efforts to crack down on terrorist camps, had an unexpected result. The xenophobes and zealots on the right lost the recent Indian election, and now the ruling Congress party has seen a peace benefit in real-time politics.
Now what?
Both countries need to test if a deeper shift in consciousness has taken place. Family feuds make for the bitterest wars. Behind the facade of nationalism, Delhi and Islamabad have been acting like battling exes in a never-ending divorce dispute.
It's on this human basis that peace could make progress. The point isn't how to slice up Kashmir or stop brandishing useless nuclear bombs. Until the divorced parties stop demonizing each other, both sides will cling to the one thing that all family feuds are based on: feeling right. India and Pakistan mutually feel justified in calling the other side wrong, and their emotional stance has ossified for 60 years.
May we offer some suggestions as a form of couples counseling?
First, the two countries need to recognize their commonality. Both were born on the same day in 1947, share the same ethnic and many of the same tribal backgrounds. India has a massive Muslim population, and on both sides of the border millions more identify as Punjabis. Their young people go to the same rock concerts and download the same songs, while their grandparents tell the same folk tales around the fire and relive the same myths.
With this commonality in mind, we propose a new paradigm for moving toward peaceful relations:
1. Increase people-to-people exchanges.
2. Use the arts and culture in building new cultural bridges.
3. Adopt a proactive realignment in loans to serve all the people, not just the privileged few.
4. Make the public feel safer by a joint agreement renouncing nuclear weapons and massive standing armies on each other's border.
5. Agree to isolate violent extremists of all shapes and stripes, whether Hindu or Muslim.
6. Resolve the Kashmir conflict through international intermediaries.
India's current national leadership can help immeasurably in strengthening the region by playing an astute and farsighted role in normalizing relations. An older generation couldn't conceive of India without Pakistan as a blood enemy and vice versa. But the younger generation wants to be free of such rigid conditioning. With 60% of Pakistan's population under 24 and India's young people being globalized via the Internet, the race between MySpace.com and the politics of hatred looms large.
Given the right signals, beleaguered Pakistanis and Indians will recognize and embrace a sincere, open approach toward conflict resolution. This may take a leap of faith on both sides, but the time is ripe. Iran isn't unique. Change is in the air everywhere.
Deepak Chopra, an Indian-American, is the author of more than fifty books translated into over thirty-five languages. His latest is "The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore."
Salman Ahmad, a Pakistani-American, founded the popular South Asian band Junoon, which has sold over 25 million albums and became the first rock band invited to perform at the U.N. General Assembly.
By Deepak Chopra and Salman Ahmad |
June 29, 2009; 4:05 PM ET
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Posted by: ccnl1 | July 1, 2009 8:52 AM
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Anyone who notes the mafia situation in India should also know the mafia situation in Israel and note this in any commentary criticizing India and Pakistan.
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There is no connection between the two or three as is evidenced by ccnl's failure to produce one.
The mafias in India, and the doings of Daud Ibrihim are relevant to the essay, although as usual ccnl is clueless.
Catholic Mafias, Part II: On the Italian Catholic mafia (also called Cosa Nostra) and its doings in the US and abroad, see this article. Many more postings to come on other Catholic/Christian mafias.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | June 30, 2009 4:30 PM
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Anyone who notes the mafia situation in India should also know the mafia situation in Israel and note this in any commentary criticizing India and Pakistan.
Posted by: ccnl1 | June 30, 2009 3:35 PM
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Every country has problems with Mafia-type organizations.
To wit:
from Wikipedia-
Notable Israeli Mafia incidents
11 December 2003 - A bomb at a money exchange shop, aimed at Zeev Rosenstein, kills three bystanders and injures 18 but leaves Rosenstein unhurt.[3][4][dead link]
1 August 2004 - A grenade aimed at a casino owned by Asi Abutbul in Prague, Czech Republic, injures 18 tourists.[5]
11 July 2008 - Yoram Haham, one of Israel's best known criminal lawyers, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Tel Aviv.[6] Haham had represented Asi Abutbul.[7]
28 July 2008 - During an assassination attempt targeting associates of the Abergil crime family on a beach in Bat Yam, a gunmen accidentally kills a bystander while she was spending time with her husband and 2 small children.[8]
8 September 2008 - Gunmen wound Charlie Abutbul and three bystanders in an attack in Netanya.[9]
12 September 2008 - Gunmen on motorcycles try to kill mob figure Yotam Cohen in Netanya.[10]
18 November 2008 - A car bomb kills mobster Yaakov Alperon in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli mafia in the United States
Israeli mobsters have a presence in the United States.
In New York City in the late 1980s Yehuda “Johnny” Attias operated a criminal organization heavily involved in drug trafficking, making millions through importing heroin from Amsterdam and Thailand as well as hashish from Turkey.
They also pulled off the biggest gold heist in the history of Manhattan's jewellery district, getting away with over $4 million in gold jewellery. However Attias was ultimately murdered in January 1990, and New York's Israeli mafia fell apart soon after. Several members such as Ron Gonen had turned informant and the authorities arrested the rest of the gang in September of that year.[11]
The Israeli mafia (such as the Abergil crime family) is heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking in the United States[1] and were allegedly the suppliers to former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano in his Arizona drug ring. Gravano's main drug supplier was New York based Israeli mobster, Ilan Zarger.[12][13][14]. Reportedly Israeli criminal organizations are trying to move into Las Vegas, to control the drug and prostitution rackets in the city. [1]
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Posted by: ccnl1 | June 30, 2009 4:07 AM
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All wonderful ideas, but they will never be realized. I cannot tell you how many Pakistani and Indian academics I know who share your views. Right now, both countries are plagued by terrorists, Pakistan more than India, of course, but India has its share. Both countries are riddled with corruption--India has 95 separate mafias--not to mention the long reach of Daud Ibrihim. Its shenanigans in Bangaladesh are a disgrace. Then there are the Dalit.
Pakistan remains, for the most part, a feudal society run by an incompetent, with Taliban and Taliban sympathizers over-running the country. On top of its ancient feudal problems, some bonded laborers have simply left the farms and are, at present, "landless men." Crime in Karrachi is at an all-time high. Countless calls by academics to end the nuclear program, use the money for development have been ignored. The state, in short, is reaching the breaking point.
As for Kashmir, it is the site of gun-running on the part of both the Pakistani and Indian armies. Nobody's going home any time soon. The situation, frankly, is desperate.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | June 29, 2009 9:20 PM
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Is there a connection between the Italian Mafia and the Indian Mafias. Not noted in the following reference but might there be a blood diamond and/or narcotics connection between the mafia in India and the Jewish mafia in Israel and the USA???
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia
An excerpt from said reference:
"In the early 1980s, the magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino began a campaign against Cosa Nostra. Their big break came with the arrest of Tommaso Buscetta, a mafioso who chose to turn informant in exchange for protection from the Corleonesi, who had already murdered many of his friends and relatives. Other mafiosi would follow his example. Falcone and Borsellino compiled their testimonies and organized the Maxi Trial, which lasted from February 1986 to December 1987. It was held in a fortified courthouse specially built for the occasion. 474 mafiosi were put on trial, of which 342 were convicted. In January 1992 the Italian Supreme Court confirmed these convictions.
The Mafia retaliated violently. In 1988, the Mafia murdered a Palermo judge and his son; three years later a prosecutor and an anti-mafia businessman were also murdered. Falcone and Borsellino were killed by bombs in 1992. This led to a public outcry and a massive government crackdown, resulting in the arrest of Cosa Nostra's "boss of bosses", Salvatore Riina, in January 1993. More and more defectors emerged. Many would pay a high price for their cooperation, usually through the murder of relatives. For example, Francesco Marino Mannoia's mother, aunt and sister were murdered.[61]
After Riina's arrest, the Mafia began a campaign of terrorism on the Italian mainland. Tourist spots such as the Via dei Georgofili in Florence, Via Palestro in Milan, and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome were attacked, leaving 10 dead and 93 injured and causing severe damage to cultural heritage such as the Uffizi Gallery. When the Catholic Church openly condemned the Mafia, two churches were bombed and an antimafia priest shot dead in Rome.[62]
See Wikipedia's reviews of the Indian and also the Jewish mafias for added information on both.