ABSTRACT

It was believed that without a settlement on the issue of water rights, India and Pakistan would not be able to resolve their differences on Kashmir and other issues. According to one official Indian source, “India and Pakistan can go on shouting on Kashmir for all time to come, but an early settlement on the Indus waters is essential for maintenance of peace in the sub-continent.”23 While this assessment certainly may have encouraged the swift negotiation of an agreement, it was certainly inaccuarate. India and Pakistan have fought two major conventional wars since the treaty’s implementation; in addition, both states have engaged in destabilizing each other through the use of proxy guerilla organizations in Kashmir and Sindh. But in 1951, it was believed, at least in some parts of the

The Indus Case Study 161

There have been three major wars between India and Pakistan. These were all, in one form or another, wars over territory or more precisely wars over symbolic territory. The first and second wars were about who controls Kashmir. The third war was about East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and whether it should be independent. In both cases (Kashmir and Bangladesh), the two sides were attempting to assert their respective identities with their opponent defined as the “other.” As this case study illustrates, the conflicts were never about water. The conflicts appear to be about territory at first glance, but religious and identity issues almost always appear to be important if not the primary factors in the conflict.