Pakistan-India Relations:
Highs And Lows Of Pak-India
Relations
Muhammad Ahmad F2025065034
Section C1
Pakistan Ideology
Synopsis:
Pakistan and India share a severe relationship. In addition to several limited border clashes they
have fought four major wars since 1947, However, they have also a history of joint efforts for
resolving differences through peaceful means. In fact, after every major conflict, they sat down on
table for talks. The peace efforts can be categorised into three types: the UN driven, the bilateral
peace parleys and third-party mediations. The study concludes that third-party mediation has been
more successful and resultoriented as compared to the bilateral efforts or the UN-sponsored
initiatives. This article relies on multiple sources to traverse the history of Pak-India conflicts and
peace efforts. The findings of this paper support the main argument that third party mediations have
been more successful in resolving issues between the two countries.
The relations between Pakistan and India started on a bitter note because of the partition of
the Indian subcontinent. The main cause of clash was the bloodshed of millions of Muslims,
Hindus and Sikhs, moving across the new borders to settle either in India or Pakistan. The
communal violence, at the time of independence, set the stage for a permanent future
rivalry between Pakistan and India. This paper traces the history of Pak-India bilateral
relations and focuses on the moments of acute tension and joint efforts for making peace. It
hypothesises that third-party mediation is the most successful model of conflict resolution
between Pakistan and India. It helped the two sides to sign the historic water accord of
1960, which had a far-reaching impact on the agriculture of the two countries. The bilateral
efforts produced only limited results while the UN-sponsored initiatives were not much of a success
either. For instance, its resolutions on Kashmir have still not been implemented. There are two parts
of the paper. The first part sources have been used in this research .
A summary of past conflicts
seen as win-or-lose situations
The political history of Pakistan and India is a study into rivalry and unmitigated
confrontation ─a kind of zero-sum game. Till date, the relations have not fully recovered
from the first conflict over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The First 1971 War:
The main Cause of the 1971 war was the elections of 1970. The Awami League Party won
majority votes after sweeping the polls in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Since power
was not transferred to the Awami League by March 1971, as was initially announced, its
supporters resorted to violence and created a rebellion like situation in the country. The central
government retaliated by launching a military crackdown to overcome the disturbance. The
situation
slowly was out of control until India entered , resulting in the Pak-India war. Pakistan
suffered a defeat and lost its eastern wing permanently due to shortage of supply o0f arms and
goods as there was no land connection . As if it was not enough, more than 90,000
soldiers were made Prisoners of War (PoW) by India.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was nominated prime minister as his Pakistan’s People Party had won a majority
in 1970
elections in the the West Pakistan.11 In 1972, Bhutto signed the Shimla Accord with India and the
two sides promised to normalise ties. However, India exploded its first nuclear device in 1974,
putting the region on a path to develop nuclear weapon capability. Apart from this, the rest of
the 1970s was smooth for the Pak-India relations.
False Threats By India:
The 1980s were full of action for Pakistan and India. Pakistan recovered faster than expected from
the defeat of 1971. Its relations with India were first defined by the Sikh insurgency in Punjab, for
which India blamed Pakistan. Second, Kashmir was back on the scene after India surprisingly
outmanoeuvred Pakistan to occupy the Siachen glacier in 1984. Pakistan also sent troops to stop
any further ingress by India and the two sides are still locked in the futile conflict. In 1984, Pakistan
was also threatened that India was planning an attack on its nuclear site in Kahuta near Islamabad.
There were reports that India might implement its nefarious designs with the help of either Israel
or Kabul government, which was controlled by the former Soviet Union. However, the Americans
came to rescue and informed Islamabad that the report about the involvement of Israel was not
true. India was also told that Pakistan will interpret such an attack as an act of aggression.
A few years later, a new danger emanated when India organised a massive exercise in 1986-
87. The manoeuvres were called Brasstacks, which triggered a tension that lasted for at least
three months. Pakistan could not ignore the threat and moved is troops close to the border.
However, the escalation came to an end after the two sides agreed in February 1987 to call back
the troops. The US officials played a major role in de-escalating the tension.