The Mumbai attacks revealed the real – bad and deteriorating – relations between India and Pakistan. They did not cause them. This 2002 paper now appears prescient from today’s perspective. It examines the sources of tension between India and Pakistan going back to partition and in the context of evolving geopolitics. It stresses that the language of diplomatic overtures between the two countries needs to be decoded bearing in mind that each country is keen to pose itself as America’s lead ally in the region. Finally, this paper argues that the conflict will remain unresolved until its very terms and those defining partition, the relationships between communities too, are revisited.
