Being a realist, I say that as long as the Kashmir issue is not resolved, both Pakistan and India are just going to be lingering around, while the world takes giant leaps.
I apologize but your view is not based on facts.
I will refrain from commenting on Pakistani situation as you and
@Kaptaan and
@save_ghenda would be better placed to speak on that topic.
As far as India is concerned, Kashmir is an issue that at best very marginally(at best) affects India's quest for growth.
You must understand India from Indians perspective instead of using Pakistani prisms of 'impact' of Kashmir on the country.
For example, the truth is that India is both geographically and population wise a massive country.
The troubling geography for us - Kashmir - has a total population of
7 million.
India has a total population of 1.3 billion i.e
1300 million.
Kashmir makes zero tangible impact to the life of 99.999% Indians regardless of whether every single Kashmiri is wielding a Kalashnikov on the street or even if working in a factory adding to the country's GDP.
They are just too small in number to make any difference to India either ways. Not even a drop in an ocean.
India has been moving up economically quite steadily since the 90's despite the fact that Kashmir blew up in our face in the 90's with lads wielding anti-tank rifles openly in city streets in Kashmir.
The point is - Short of a nuclear bomb going off in Kashmir, Kashmir cannot even affect 1% of our GDP growth either ways (both positive or negative).
Whether we are succeeding or failing . For India at least, we cannot blame Kashmir and Pakistan. What does affect us is the
system of governance in our country. That affects us. The rest is just white noise.
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On the issue of what
@Kaptaan said. I can concur on his and
@save_ghenda 's thought within my own country if that helps you at all.
Today, a much larger
percentage of Indians care less about ethnicity & caste than a decade back. The number of inter ethnic marriages and inter caste marriages is going through the roof. This was unimaginable for most Indians of the last generation (i.e the parents of those getting married now).
Kaptaan &
@save_ghenda - I will also identify the cause of why this has happened. And what is responsible for this change in thought process. It is not money per se what has brought about and is bringing about this change. It is market economy unleashed in 1991 which means education and jobs!
The reduction of state patronage networks of old which depended on ethnic relations and caste - like seth businesses and patwari culture -and rise of new competitive market economics has led to the massive boom of colleges &
white collar jobs in India is
almost exclusively responsible for this happening.
Earlier all these were limited to patronage networks of old which worked on the basis of caste/ethnicity. Once these networks started getting broken up in 1991 ( our big bang market economy started that year), slowly market economy is taking shape. The market economy is smashing the old networks.
Because a college will not accept you if you are of a certain caste nor will IBM give you a job because of your caste. Your knowledge will give you that job.
As an entrepreneur - the raw material you buy will be bought from supplier that offers the desired quality at lowest price. No one will buy a product of higher price because the supplier is of a certain caste.
For the new generation the economic payoffs of caste and ethnicity have reduced tremendously over the last 2 decades and so the impact follows in social sphere.
Because admission in all colleges is competitive - any student or his parent can now very very rarely ensure that they go to college in the same city. The overwhelming majority of students have to travel elsewhere for college education. Live in hostels or shared accomodation with countless others. They have to leave their comfort zones of their confines straight out of 12th standard school.
From there they have to travel to a third city/state for jobs. This has led to intermingling of different Indians in ginormous numbers that has brought about a massive change in thought process.
Almost every single college educated Indian now has to travel to get jobs. A graduate from Delhi is going to work in Bangalore while a graduate from Tamil Nadu is doing to work in Gurgaon.
A bengali can no longer think of an Andhraite as the 'other'. Or a punjabi can no longer think of a bihari as 'other'. And vice-versa. They now meet everyone from everywhere in whichever state they go to.
This is an ongoing process. It has only started happening in the last 20 years.
It has barely started and already the impacts are more than you can imagine. There are many other parts of the state which have not mixed into this melting pot. Assam and North East states for example are still not as mixed as the others are.
But the march of the market economy and jobs is unstoppable.
Another 20 years in the future and India would be unrecognizable by even people like me.
