The simple answer to this question is: ‘a pliant Pakistan’. Trying to establish itself as a hegemon of sorts, India wants a plaint neighbourhood. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is dead, and thanks to India’s coercive diplomacy, New Delhi has complicated relations with almost all neighbours except a pliant Bhutan.
Indian policy of ‘hedging’, its presumed aspiration of ‘strategic autonomy’, its emphasis on a multipolar Asia and multipolar world, and Delhi championing the cause of Global South is under stress by the very same American Administration that once basked in the glory of cadence like … ‘Howde Modi’ in Texas. After repeated snubs form an egotistic Trump, Modi’s New Delhi may lay down its redlines of not conceding to the US pressure on buying Russian oil, allowing US agricultural products, dithering on trade negotiations and accepting no mediation in the Indo-Pak context; the fact remains that the shine from the ‘shining India’ is beginning to peel off. Indian foreign policy once again is in wilderness. We shall discuss the SCO meet-up between Modi, Putin and Xi next week.
So, in its yearning for a plaint Pakistan, India needs to ask itself: Is a pliant Pakistan possible? Can Islamabad structurally support subservience to New Delhi? Will Pakistan’s stakeholders ever acquiesce and support Indian dominance and hegemony? The answers to these questions, and many more on these lines, is a robust ‘No’. Because such a possibility will erode the raison de etre of Pakistan, its existence and its foundations.
First, without going into the lessons of history, Afghan and Central Asian Muslim dynasties ruled India for centuries. The over hundred years of British rule allowed Hindu majoritarianism to turn into communalism. Fanned hatred in movements like Shudhhi and Singhton, forced a rethink on the Muslims to go for an independent Muslim country, Pakistan. The departing British left a mess like they did all over their colonies.
The wounds of batwara, or independence, were too deep as both India and Pakistan looked for missing men, women and children years later, on both sides. Rape, pillage, arson, loot and plunder characterised August 1947, when canals, rivers and trains were blood-soaked and carried dead bodies. Millions perished. Then both newly independent countries went to wars in 1948, 1965, 1971, 1999 and in May 2025 more recently, not to count the many military escalations in between.
Second, even now New Delhi and Hindutva-driven Modi sarkar leaves no stone unturned in maligning Pakistan regionally and domestically, calling it ‘Terroristan’, and blaming it for any acts of omission and commission on its soil, that are purely the result of India’s own security failures. A passerby stabbing a hawker in distant Puna or Kashmir, because he is pissed at the bargain or agitated by the oppressive monsoon heat, is blamed on ISI, conveniently deflecting responsibility for the state’s ineptitude. Pahalgam is one case in point.
Third, Indian hatred for Pakistan runs so deep, it does not need reigniting. Be it vilification of Pakistan diplomatically, ditching its economy under the sanctions of FATF, refusing to undertake bilateral composite dialogue, maneuvering to muddy Islamabad’s financial relations with IMF or World Bank, opposing Islamabad on all international fora without issue-based merit, or water aggression by abrogating decades-old Indus Water Treaty and then more recently, releasing water in three rivers without prior notice, flooding Pakistan, the list is long. Militarily it tries to browbeat Pakistan through false-flag operations, establishing the ‘new normal’ of attacking Pakistan, whenever and wherever it pleases, using all weapons short of the nuclear arsenal, with or without any provocation.
Fourth, and I have said it on numerous occasions that the Indian military establishment dangerously thinks there is space for a punitive conventional war with Pakistan under the nuclear overhang. This is the ‘conceptual contour’ of the ‘New Normal’, its hardware being the use of cruise/ballistic missiles, armed RPVs and drones, and air force, as recently witnessed. The Indian military feels this ‘New Normal’ is now ‘More Normal’ after Kargil, Pulwama/Balakot and Pahalgam. This is a dangerous line of thinking.
Peace on ‘victor’s terms’ would never be acceptable to Pakistan as the recounted history and other rationales mentioned above substantiate. Complete peace between India and Pakistan is not possible without solid reckoning and concessions by a bigger India. The ensuing ‘uneasy peace’ will always be fragile, and open to manipulation by India for political (read electoral) purposes, etc.
However, making Pakistan a pliant state will always come to naught, given the very foundations that made Pakistan possible against Hindu political dominance and majoritarianism. Pakistan’s military stands as a bulwark against Indian designs, and threat from a hegemonic India is central and existential to its clout, significance and expense justification. So, structurally Islamabad is not configured to accept Indian hegemony now or in future. While politicians and others from across society on either side may feel good under ‘aman ki aasha’, Modi’s India is bent upon mortally weakening Pakistan, to put it on life-support. And that reality has sunk in very well into the geostrategic construct of Pakistan. Indian exterior maneuver with or without extra-regional forces, every now and then, is well understood, debated and operationally responded to.
Islamabad does not need to be apologetic about the Indian noise of Islamabad’s ‘nuclear blackmail’ at international fora. Pakistan and its military need to instill and reinforce the Indian fears of uncontrolled escalation, if India persists with its ‘New Normal’. States do what is essential for their protection and well-being. Bibi Natanyahu’s genocidal war against Palestinian civilians, despite so much criticism, is a case in point.
Diplomatic and political noise should never dissuade Pakistan from taking tough decisions to protect its dignity. India should never be allowed to bleed Pakistan diplomatically, politically, militarily and economically. We should, and I say it with full responsibility, ‘declare our resolve’ to use nuclear weapons first, if push comes to shove. That and only that will put some fear of God in the RSS-laced Modi’s India, which is increasingly becoming overconfident in its punitive anti-Pakistan exploits.
Surviving as a pliant state, with no dignity, no respect, under the communal largesse of India is survival without being alive. So, righting the economy is existential!
