Photo: David Rumsey Cartography
formidable barriers than they do with, say, the United States. Indians in its Northeast have a deep fear of Bangladesh and its demographic nightmare. The Indian Ocean has little to do with these closed gates. Religious fault-lines have had a big role to play in this divide. It does not require elaboration that subcontinental divides owe much to this. This, in turn, has had far-reaching geopolitical consequences. Today, it is much easier for Pakistan to imagine itself as a part of the greater Middle East than India. If anything this separation of universes, as it were, has accentuated as India has progressed and Pakistan rushes towards chaos. It has also had an unfortunate effect on other countries that have other, non-religious, affinities to India. Afghanistan and Bangladesh come to mind. They are, however, hostages to a history of painful, but
unavoidable religious divide. This, however, does not deter Mr Kaplan. He writes that, “ …Neither, for that matter, is it inevitable that the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and between Pakistan and India, will continue to have the same meaning they have today …In fact, for negative reasons like crossborder terrorist attacks as for positive ones like the construction of roads and pipelines, this vast region of the Mughal Empire may achieve a new kind of unity, ultimately bringing Sindh and Gujarat, as well as Central Asia and the Subcontinent, together once again, that is, South Asia to a Greater Middle East. ” (page 123) Roads and pipelines are not a point here. The issue is how these societies have diverged over a period of time and this is affecting their international outlooks and PRAGATI —THE INDIAN NATIONAL INTEREST REVIEW
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