A Pakistani Perspective on India-Pakistan relations, written for an Indian magazine: www.outlookindia.com | To Understand Pakistan, 1947 Is The Wrong Lens

The author identifies himself as a Pakistani living in the US who recently visited India. He argues that while Indians view the relationship of the two countries through the lens of the partition of British India innto India and Pakistan in 1947, the crucial event in India-Pakistan relations for Pakistanis is the 1971 war which led to the secession of East Pakistan to form Bangladesh. Key quote: "But what the Indian mind perceives as Pakistan’s ongoing divorce from reality is in fact Pakistan’s most fundamental political reality. The Pakistani establishment has internalised the memory of 1971. In all things, and at all times, it must account for India. Dismemberment has the requisite effect of focusing the mind on existential matters. Nothing can be taken for granted." www.outlookindia.com | To Understand Pakistan, 1947 Is The Wrong Lens