ABSTRACT
Although the minutiae of the past do not necessarily guide the solutions for the future, no debate on current affairs may go far enough without some references to them. In the case of Indo-Pakistani relations, the central event of partition still casts a long shadow over the politics of the Sub-continent. The combined efforts of the departing imperialist power and the Muslim aristocracy, which resented the loss of an empire to a European country and which chose to believe in the formation of nation-states on the basis of religion, brought about the partition of the Sub-continent. The British contributed their Machiavellian share to the sequel of the Lahore Resolution (1940). While the Muslim League positions showed similarities with the Hindutva ideologies, the votaries of the two-nations theory came to power in the newly-carved state of Pakistan, but their counterparts among the Hindus failed to create a similar structure in the rest of India. However, the institutions of both countries are now under stress and need renewal. The Quaid-e Azam's wise forethought that the Muslims and the Hindus ought to cease to be so in the political sense as citizens of the state has been buried with him. While the centralizing drive of successive Indian governments since the 1970s marginalized some minorities and caused the eruption of religious or ethnic tensions, the question for Pakistan is whether nationhood may be built on religion alone. The recurring crises suggest, as in India, that the trend should be towards federalism. Both countries still seem to be going through the process of nationbuilding.
