When will our leaders in South Asia learn from history? The British would never have taken over India so totally had there been unity among the Nizam, the Peshwas, Tipu Sultan and all the rajahs and Maharajahs put together.

In this year 2007, which should observe the 150th anniversary of the first war of Independence, we must hark back to the old days to learn some lessons. And the first lesson both India and Pakistan must learn is that they must be united and not depend upon any other nation for whatever benefits each may acquire in the process.

Since Independence, Pakistan has sought help from the United Kingdom, United States and other western countries and subsequently, to please the United States, from China as well. India had no alternative but to lean on the then Soviet Union and to sponsor the non-aligned movement. India, at least did not sell its soul. Pakistan did and now we see the results. A report from Washington says that "Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf has fallen from Washington's good grace" and that President Bush who once called Musharraf his "tight buddy" has now decided to send his buddy an "unusually tough message" over his failure to deliver results in the war on terrorism.

Significantly U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced visit to Islamabad just for a few hours, no doubt to read the riot act to Musharraf. One can sympathize with Pakistan President. His icon is Kemal Ataturk, as secular a Muslim leader as one can ever imagine but Muharraf is the heir to two made theories; that India is Pakistan's Enemy Number 1 and that by showing subservience to the West, notably the United States, he can win Jammu & Kashmir.

According to him, Jammu & Kashmir is the "core issue". That it is not. The "core issue" is Pakistan's antedeluvian mind-set which it must get over. Truth to tell, he has been trying to get over it. For example he has said specifically that Pakistan has never claimed Jammu and Kashmir to be an integral part of his country. When that is said, Jammu and Kashmir ceases to be a "core issue".

The real "core issue" is Pakistan's long subservience to the United States. It must get over that. Another "core issue" is the support that his government, under the directions of Washington, gave to extremists, especially the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Now that issue is coming to haunt him.

On January 12 Musharraf frankly admitted that "extremists have the potential to destroy Pakistan" and that their political strength is a nightmare for the country". He admitted frankly in a telecast by the BBC that "nightmare for Pakistan is exactly this, that politically the extremists again are in strength" and that is a "tussle" he is involved with at the moment "to get the masses to realise that while we are Muslims we should not follow the extremists because they will destroy Pakistan".

And the blame should go not to India but the United States which has long been Islamabad's patron. Washington has only contempt for Pakistan. Pakistan is not a free country because, when it comes to brasstacks, America has no hesitation in bombing any part of Pakistan which it believes, harbours Al Qaeda. President Bush made it abundantly clear last september that if the US came to know of the presence of any Al Qaeda or Taliban leader in Pakistan it will not hesitate to kill him in Pakistan territory. Washington has no respect for the territorial integrity of Pakistan. It treats Pakistan as a slave nation.

What is the answer to Musharraf's dilemma? He has not one, but several problems. He has to reckon with a still anti-Hindu elite consisting of landlords and army men. He has to deal with mullahs who still live in the medieval era. The Sunni-shia conflicts are a source of perpetual killings. Then there is the persisting antagonism between the `locals' and the mujahids, the `outsiders' which remains to be settled but never would be. Baluchistan wants to have nothing to do with Pakistan. With the murder of the Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti last September, Baluchistan is for all purposes beyond Islamabad's control.

Pakistan has been forced to sign a `truce' with militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and it is virtually a truce between Pakistan and the Taliban. Pakistan's rule does not operate in Waziristan. And the ISI has turned out to be a law unto itself. Needless of what Musharraf plans to do. In effect Pakistan has defeated itself.

A report from Quetta in The Tribune (8 September ) said that Musharraf may soon be purging some of his army commanders, and one shouldn't be surprised if the US is behind the revolt among army leaders. Washington will not hesitate to do away with Musharraf against whom there have been half a dozen murder attempts in the past two years.

If Musharraf turns out to be a hurdle in implementation of Washington's policies, it will have no hesitation in getting rid of him. We know what happened to Zia. Accidents can always be created. And in this field the United States has great expertise. If Pakistan wants peace and prosperity it has only one friend in the world: India. He must throw out the United States and China and befriend India wholly and totally. That, in fact, is the "core issue". It will then revolutionize South Asia and make it a true power. And, if Musharraf would like to hear it said, it will be a joint power. India will walk an extra mile towards befriending Pakistan.

If that is achieved, both India and Pakistan can thumb their noses against any power in the world. Islam won't lose its glory. Musharraf must remember that the armies which stood by Bahadur Shah Zaffar were largely Hindu. And India will stand by Pakistan if it chooses to do away with the overlordship of the United States and its subservience to China. It is not only possible, it is wholly necessary.

An Indo-Pakistaniconfederation is the only answer to Pakistan's present woes. It is pleasant to hear that a three-member team of archaelogical experts from Pakistan had come to India in search of Hindu idols to be restored in temples in Pakistan, that Islamabad has budgeted Rs.100 million to complete the Katasraj Temple Project and that last November Musharraf had even visited a Shiva Temple in Karachi and declared that "historical places of all religions including that of Hinduism are integral part of Pakistan's cultural and geographic history".

All that is in the right spirit. India and Pakistan must undo partition, not territory wise but emotion wise. Throw out the white man, General. Learn from India's past history. Together India and Pakistan can make South Asia great. Remember what the British did to Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857, General. What the British did to India, the Americans can do it to you.

Courtesy: www.samachar.com, March 22, 2007