THE WORD OF GOD

proper. If this division had indeed been proper, the Partition of India that it led to would not have had such terribly tragic consequences. Is there any improvement in sight for India-Pakistan relations? In both countries, the media kept up a steady propaganda against the ‘enemy’ country. But when an Indian Hindu visited Pakistan, he would be overwhelmed by the hospitality and warm welcome which he received from Pakistani Muslims. And when he returned to India he would remark, ‘Pakistanis treat us so nicely! So, why this enmity between our countries?’ Likewise, when a Pakistani Muslim visited India and met with Hindus here, he would be touched by their affection. And he would go back to Pakistan and say, ‘The Indian Hindus gave me a lot of love. Then why is it that enmity continues to prevail between our nations?’ The answer to this question is that when individual Hindus and Muslims from India and Pakistan respectively meet, they meet as one individual meeting another. And whenever one individual meets another at the individual level, it is a meeting of two manifestations of nature—and as far as essential human nature is concerned, there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani. But the matter is different when two communities relate to each other. When two individuals meet, their guide is their own nature. But when a Pakistani Muslim wants to know about the Indian nation as a whole, he gets its information from the Pakistani media. Likewise, when an Indian Hindu wants to know about the Pakistani nation as a whole, he accesses the Indian media. And, as we know, the media specializes in sensationalist, negative news, news about violence, enmity and hate, presenting the opponent as despicable and utterly evil. This is why when two individuals from two different communities meet, their reactions to each other are very different from when two communities or nations seek to relate to each other at the collective level. If at the collective or national level, Indians and Pakistanis could relate to and view each other in the same way as an individual Indian and an individual Pakistani do when they meet each other, shorn of the influence of media conditioning, it would go a long way in improving relations between the two countries. What is the way forward for India and Pakistan in terms of developing friendly relations? India and Pakistan have tried to solve their problems through wars, Track-II diplomacy and the so-called internationalization of the issue.