India-Pakistan Feud That Now Lasts For Decades

Over 10 years ago, Christian Parenti brought up quite a tense conflict between India and Pakistan in his book “Tropics of Chaos”. And even though the book itself was published in 2011, the roots of this rivalry go way deeper than one might expect.
            Everything started because of the countries’ need for water – a region called Kashmir was rich with alluring rivers, and since Pakistan’s agriculture almost entirely (in 90% of the cases) was dependent on rivers, it was crucial for them to add Kashmir to their territories  ("Tropics of Chaos", Christian Parenti). Originally, Kashmir was mostly inhabited by Muslim people but was ruled by a Hindi governor, so the situation in the region was far from being stable, and the state wanted to join neither Pakistan nor India. However, Pakistan decided to act - in October 1947 they sent the troops to take over the region. India didn’t want to give up such a water-rich asset, sending their warriors as well - and that’s how the rivalry started. As a result, after hundreds and hundreds of dead soldiers, the Line of Control was established, but no final border was in place ("A History of Kashmir Conflict"). However, this was just the beginning.

(https://images.app.goo.gl/SGm2KMiZdx2DFYjV6)

            In 1965, as well as in 1999, the countries went to war over Kashmir again. Pakistan simply couldn’t give up on one of the most valuable regions for the economy, and India wanted to have the power. At some point, the countries even came to a treaty, allocating rivers to each other’s territories, but once India started to restrict water flow to Pakistan, the fights broke out again.
            At the same time, climate change was also taking part in this conflict – it was simply making everything worse ("Tropics of Chaos", Christian Parenti). Pakistan reported dangerous “over-exploitation of groundwater” and a decline in rainfall. Due to extreme environmental changes, Pakistan is losing water which is already such a scarce resource for the nation. If this trend continues – and it will if humanity doesn’t decide to act upon it – Pakistan’s entire economy will collapse.

(https://images.app.goo.gl/VunRFJA8BkQJD7w2A)

            Today, in 2021, the rivalry still goes on. Even though a fragile cease-fire was established between the countries since 2003, shooting regularly occurs across the Line of Control. In addition to that, in all of those cases, it’s impossible to understand who started it – both sides claim to be responding to the attacks of the other (Global Conflict Tracker).

            Citizens of divided Kashmir are not living their best life as well. India-administered side of the region has enacted lockdown, leaving thousands of people detained and without connection to the outside world. Other than that, an attack on an Indian convoy in February 2019 also resulted in the deaths of at least forty soldiers which was considered “the deadliest attack in Kashmir in three decades”. The countries continue to fight, conducting airstrikes on each other’s territories, shooting down military aircraft, and capturing hostages (Global Conflict Tracker).

https://images.app.goo.gl/n69qhrKLokuLG7ry9

            Finally, both countries have their reserves of nuclear weapons. So far, we might have just been lucky that a nuclear war hasn’t broken out yet between India and Pakistan, as by this stage in the dispute everyone’s walking on thin ice. Water scarcity aggravated by climate change has brought the two countries into desperation over the years. The US and other developed countries have to act on this conflict much more actively because if we don’t do anything now, no one knows what might happen in the future.