India & Pakistan: Why can’t they get along?
If you’ve ever asked that question, you’re not alone. For two countries that share so very much – food, clothing, appearance, and in some ways even language – India and Pakistan continually stand at odds.
Why is that?
The British previously controlled the entire Indian subcontinent – and the religious turbulence was obvious even then.
"Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions,” stated Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the man who would become the founder of Pakistan. “They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions."
Jinnah’s two-nation theory became the basis of the idea for the two nations to be separated. As the largest minority in India, Muslims wanted their own country where they could live with religious freedom and practice their own customs.
Fleeing across a corpse-littered landscape
After close to 200 years of occupation, the British finally gave up control on midnight of August 14, 1947. The region split along largely religious lines into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan.*
Yet what should have been a time of celebration erupted into terror. Thousands who lived on the “wrong” side fled for their lives from religious attacks. “The darkened landscape bore silent witness to trains laden with the dead, decapitated bodies, limbs strewn along the sides of roads, and wanton rape and pillaging,” according to one writer.
According to the BBC, about 12 million people became refugees in what’s considered one of the largest migrations in human history. Reports of anywhere from 1 to 2 million died in the ensuring violence.
The region of Kashmir, to the north, shares borders with both countries and its allegiance has been hotly disputed since the beginning.
Does the anger remain?
The BBC refers to the ongoing tension as “one of the most enduring geopolitical fault lines.” For example, despite the geographic proximity, no airlines offer direct flights between the two nations’ capitals. Both countries have even developed their own nuclear weapons.
The U.S. Institute of Peace notes that a 2021 cease-fire agreement over Kashmir has brought some stability to the relationship between the two countries – but still calls that cease-fire “fragile.”
In what ways, today, are the two countries similar, and in what ways are their differences the source of continued, simmering volatility?
• Population
According to the CIA World Factbook, India’s population is 1.4 billion, with a literacy rate of 74 percent. Pakistan’s population is 252 million, with a literacy rate of 58 percent.
• Religion
India’s citizens are roughly 80 percent Hindu and 14 percent Muslim, while Pakistan is almost 97 percent Muslim. Hindus worship cows, and Muslims eat cows, so that alone escalates tensions. Muslims not only eat animals but also make animal sacrifices as part of their religious practices, which is highly offensive to Hindus. (The highest social cast of Hindus, “Brahmans,” are strict vegetarians.) Both religious groups do follow a strict caste system and prioritize marrying within their castes.
• Language
The Urdu language spoken in Pakistan is basically the Muslim version of India’s Hindi. Most Bollywood movies (India’s film industry) actually use Urdu in their songs because they find Urdu poetry more endearing and beautiful. Yet the two languages use different alphabets, so written text in one language is usually not intelligible to speakers of the other group.
What does this mean for the gospel?
Here at Life TV Pakistan, we long to reach all Urdu-speaking Muslims with the gospel. Today, almost 200 million Indians follow Islam. Since so many can understand Urdu, we know that our programming can make a powerful impact there as well as in Pakistan.
Won’t you join us in prayer? We’re asking God to bring our Urdu programming into every home where it can reach people’s ears with the gospel. And that the inner life transformation Jesus brings to every heart will help heal the decades-long rifts between these two beautiful countries.
*At the time of Partition, the Dominion of Pakistan actually consisted of two primarily Muslim regions sandwiching India. In 1971, Pakistan itself split into two, with the eastern region becoming an independent, primarily Muslim Bangladesh.
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Sources: “How Jinnah’s ideology shapes Pakistan’s identity” by Secunder Kermani, Aug. 17, 2017, bbc.com. “1947 Partition of India & Pakistan” by C. Ryan Perkins, Stanford Libraries. CIA World Factbook: India, Pakistan. “India’s Muslims: An Increasingly Marginalized Population” by Lindsay Maizland, March 18, 2024, Council on Foreign Relations. “Partition 70 years on: The turmoil, trauma -- and legacy” by Andrew Whitehead, July 27, 2017, bbc.com. “As Fragile Kashmir Cease-Fire Turns Three, Here’s How to Keep it Alive” by Christopher Clary, Feb. 21, 2024, United States Institute of Peace.