These thoughts emerged as I was replying to the 100+ comments on Omar’s post, India and Pakistan, Back to the Future..
Flight, Fragility, and the First Bollywood Snake
My first memories of Pakistan are tangled with flight and childhood fiction. In 1990, as we escaped Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion, our car crossed into Pakistani Baluchistan carrying five adults and three children. After over a month in Iran (the family gardens of Shiraz are a blurry childhood memory), where we were understandably low-key about being BahĂĄ’Ăs, I remember yelling out the car window the moment we crossed the border, âIâm BahĂĄâĂ! Iâm BahĂĄâĂ!â My family laughed (I was the youngest and always the most impetuous). The story has been retold so often I donât know where memory ends and performance begins.
But the innocence of that moment gave way quickly. I remember the poverty at the border: raw, overwhelming on both sides of Baluchistan. And then, in Karachi, came my first exposure to Indiaâthrough a Bollywood film featuring a dancing girl in a Sari transforming into a snake. That, more than any textbook, was my introduction to Hinduism. Try as it might, Pakistan is the ineffable portal to Hindustan, a mirror that reflects what it cannot contain. These memoriesâflight, fragility, and fantasyâetched into me the idea that culture moves where politics cannot.
Restraint Is the Strategy: Rethinking Peace in South Asia
South Asia is home to nearly 2 billion people. Itâs a region of nuclear states, frozen conflicts, and postcolonial trauma. Yet every time a cross-border terrorist attack kills 20 or 30 civilians, it makes global headlines. Thatâs not just because of the violenceâbut because the violence is rare. This isnât an excuse. Itâs a signal: South Asia has already learned restraint. The question is whether it can remember why.
The Bug in the Democratic Mind
After 9/11, the U.S. was angry. George W. Bush gave the people what they wanted: a war. Two, actually. Instead of a tactical mission to dismantle a terrorist network, America destabilized entire regions, wasted trillions, and incubated future threats.
This is the paradox of democracy:
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Populations demand retribution.
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Leaders comply.
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Strategy is hijacked by spectacle.
India must adopt a radically different approach. Treat Pakistan the way South Korea treats North Korea: sidestep, outperform, outgrow. Engagement legitimizes provocation. Retaliation restores parity. Indifference signals dominance.
The Nerd and the Bully
Picture a high school studentâquiet, brilliant, focusedâon the verge of exams. The class bully taunts him a few days before. Two options:
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He fights back and ruins his prep.
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He absorbs the humiliation, aces the exam, and gets into an Ivy League.
Thatâs India. Thatâs South Korea. Thatâs strategy.
Indiaâs Real Ascent
Over the past three decades, India has built something extraordinary:
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A $4 trillion economy (11x Pakistan)
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Global tech and services dominance
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Strategic alignment with the West
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A fast-growing middle class
Meanwhile, Pakistan:
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Is politically fractured
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Has an economy smaller than the market cap of Tata Group
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Remains ideologically incoherent
This isnât about moral high ground. Itâs about trajectory. Retaliating conventionally resets the board. It restores a false parity. Thatâs the trap. New Delhi must resist it.
The Cultural Trap: Presence > Absence
Banning actors like Fawad Khan feels like discipline. But it feeds Pakistanâs siege narrative. Isolation hardens identity; exposure destabilizes it. Let Pakistani civil society breathe Indian air: Bollywood, memes, markets, music. This isnât charity. Itâs infiltration. Itâs soft power, and it works.
Shutting the doors validates the idea that “India hates us.” Flooding the room with Indian culture undermines authoritarian control.
Final Reflection: Architects vs. Hecklers
Strategic restraint isnât pacifism. Itâs power. Because peace isnât the absence of violence. Itâs the refusal to let your adversary dictate your path. India already has one foot in the Ivy League of nations. The real victory isnât going back to the playgroundâitâs eventually owning it. Let Pakistan throw stones. India should keep building. Because one day, the scaffolding becomes the skyline. And history always remembers the architect, not the heckler.