Article February 18, 2002 Issue

Two perspectives on a tale of two nations

Can another India-Pakistan war be avoided and Pax South Asia take hold?

By Warren Bolon

INDIAN AND PAKISTANIS are struggling to overcome the divisive effects of the partition that came with both countries' independence, 54 years ago. How hopeful about peace are those closest to the tense standoff between armies massed in Kashmir? We asked Sarbjit Singh Pannu, who lives in Chandigarh, a city in Punjab, India's northern province that borders both Pakistan and Kashmir, and Roshan Mana, an Indian by birth who is now a Pakistani citizen living in Karachi.

Sarbjit Singh Pannu has about a billion neighbors. Actually, he probably would up that number to over 1.1 billion neighbors, including the 142 million Pakistanis to the west and 12 million Kashmiris to the north. Pannu says that the real partition—if indeed there is one between brothers and sisters on the South Asian subcontinent—is essentially "a mental partition."

By phone and by e-mail, I talked with Pannu about his life and work, religious diversity, and his expectations for economic development that could link both countries.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The day I rewrote my life