The recent attack of India at Pakistan who saw air raids and missile attacks by India in the disputed territory of the Kashmir and caused at least 34 victims It originates from the decades of tension between the two countries. The rivalry between India and Pakistan was born from the fact that, in the colonial era, the two countries were administered jointly and are separatedon a religious basis, at the time of independence, in 1947: i Muslims they formed the Pakistan and the Hindu (or Hindu) India. However, religious separation did not take place according to precise lines and a region, that of Kashmir, is claimed by both countries. From this derives the tensions, which over the decades have caused numerous conflictsalthough, so far, no total clash. In recent years, a constant tension reason has been the Islamist terrorism.
The origins of the conflict between India and Pakistan and the independence of the two countries
The origins of the conflict between India and Pakistan date back to the time in which the Indian subcontinent was a colony. The United Kingdom had in fact colonized the entire subcontinent, corresponding to the current India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Only small portions of the territory were in the hands of other European countries: France and Portugal). In the territory they lived together Hindu (majority) e Muslims (minority), together with minorities of other religions. In 1947 the subcontinent obtained independence and members of the two main religious confessions decided to separate. Muslims founded a state in the same way, Pakistan, and the Hindu remained majority in India.
The separation was supported by the main political leaders, Mohammed Alì Jinnahleader of the Panindian Muslim League and first president of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, and Jawaharlal Nehruleader of the Indian National Congress Party and Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1962
The causes of tension
The partition left some unresolved problems. The main ones were as follows.
- It was not possible to divide the territory on precise religious basesbecause the Muslim minority was majority in the Pakistan area, but was present in most of the territory. Even today it is estimated that more than 13% of the population of India, that is, over 150 million people, is of Islamic faith.
- A region on the Himalaya chain, the Kashmirwas disputed between the two states. In the colonial age, Kashmir had been a semi-independent principality, governed by a Maharajah and subjected to indirect control of the United Kingdom. The Maharajah was of Hindu religion, but most of the population was Muslim. After independence, both India and Pakistan claimed the possession of Kashmir.
- The Pakistan was a state divided into two parts: a western (the one that constitutes Pakistan today) and an oriental (today Bangladesh). The two parts had no territorial contiguity and were separated by thousands of kilometers of Indian territory.
Indo-Pakistani wars
Due to unresolved problems and, in particular, for the issue of Kashmir, India and Pakistan live in one state of perennial tension And on several occasions they compared militarily. The main conflicts were the following.
War of 1947-1948
At the time of independence, the separation was not painless. In many areas, whole violence developed and millions of people moved from one country to another. Furthermore, between the two states the First conflict for Kashmirlasted since October 1947 at the end of 1948. With the mediation of the United Nations, the territory of Kashmir was divided into two parts, one controlled by India, and one from Pakistan. The principality thus lost independence. The division still persists today.
War for the Kashmir of 1965
Both countries claimed The entire territory of Kashmir. In 1965 Pakistan infiltrated special forces in the Indian area in order to provoke the revolt of the population; India reacted by sending the army. The war lasted five weeks and ended with a new one of the UN mediation and the maintenance of the status quo.
War of 1971 and independence of Bangladesh
The 1971 Indo-Pakistani war was not caused by Kashmir but by Eastern Pakistan broken rebellionin which much of the population believed it was discriminated against and asked for independence. India, to weaken the rival country, intervened in favor of the independence rebels. He therefore broke out another Indo-Pakistani conflict, which lasted two weeks and ended with the victory of India. Pakistan had to accept to lose the eastern territory, which became an independent state with the name of Bangladesh.
Clashes of the 80s
In the 1980s, small clashes took place for the possession of the Siachen glacierin Kashmir.
War of 1999
In 1999 another small war broke out, because Pakistani and rebellious forces of the Kashmir infiltrated the area controlled by India and occupied a portion of the territory, the Kargil District. The intervention of the Indian army forced them to retreat.
The other reasons for tensions and atomic weapons
In addition to the real conflicts, a state of constant tension exists between India and Pakistan. In recent decades, The terrorist attacks of Islamist matrix in the Indian territorylike those who hit the city of Mumbai in 2008, created tensions, because the new Delhi authorities accused, more or less explicitly, the Pakistani government of supporting the attacks.
The tension is made dangerous by the fact that both countries are nuclear powers: India experienced its first atomic bomb in 1974, with the test called Smiling Buddha; Pakistan became nuclear power in 1998, with the test Chagai 1. Currently both nations have about 170 nuclear devices.
Today the Indo-Pakistani rivalry constitutes a reason for concern on an international scale, but the two countries are in Very different conditions: Pakistan is a simple Central Asian state, albeit very populous, while India is the Most populous country in the world (with over 1,400,000,000 inhabitants recently exceeded China) and, despite the persistence of vast pockets of poverty and underdevelopment, it is meeting great technological and economic growth.
