In pakistans case, even if by some quirk of history the country becomes less religious, it’s national identity will still need to be shaped by difference from India.

Without India a lot of internal issues kind of spiral out of control.

The British divided ‘India’ when they left.

Tribalism uses religion as…apparel. Isn’t necessarily driven by it.

Do Japan and China have an active territorial dispute?

Did China send “non-state actors” into Japan to murder its citizens?

“We” do not lack emotional maturity. We lack a neighbor governed by common sense and self-interest, instead of a kleptocrats that have doubled down on the ‘original sin’ of the fabrication of ‘Pure land’

Oh my welcome back; Girmit, u & Calvin are immune to the IndoPak discussions..

It’s a civil war of the IndoGangetic belt.

If the people here are anything to go by, religion losing its salience would still see India as the enemy number 1.

Wonderful comment.

The British did not create the divisions thst are there today but definitely created a political culture that encourages and at times obfuscated other issues in favor of these division.

My understanding is that while these division were there wete ever present, they did not percolate to the day-to-day life of many people as they do today, largely limited to a section of religious leadership and their followers, with even the kingdoms and governance letting pragmatism guide day to day actions.

The British main contribution is the culture that exercebates these division.

KK = BB

If the Pakistan movement had been longer and more debated, there would not have been one Pakistan, not even a unified Western Pakistan. These guys would have been at each other’s throat long before getting their new Medina.

“emergence of a common threat”

The stormy skies over Pindi bled a heavy crimson gray,
A wall of tribal riders cut the garrison’s breath away,
But as the final gate collapsed beneath the fierce Mountain horde,
The Winged Hussars of Poona Horse! came thundering with the sword,
With turbans high and engines roaring, they turned the tide of the war.