On Tuesday 19 Aug 2008 8:40:14 am Perry E. Metzger wrote: > It wouldn't make any difference to me, so far as I can tell. Indeed, > if Texas wanted to leave, and Mexico had nukes, it would be all the > more reason not to want to spend blood and money keeping it, LOL!
> Anyway, I'm curious: what sort of difference will it make in your life > whether Kashmir is part of India or not? I'm asking about concrete > things, not abstractions like "it would upset me". It would certainly upset me, but May I quote you? > I firmly believe that we are judged best not by the ideals we hold > when they are easy to support, but by what we believe in when it is > painful to stand by our principles. Let me say in brief: There are many principles that will get broken by allowing Kashmir to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. May I quote you again: > Pakistan is an economic and political basket case, where India is just > starting to take off and join the first world The reason why modern India is moving ahead is because it was built up on certain principles. Among these was the subservience of the population to a constitution, no matter how faulty and incomplete that subservience may appear to be. The other principle that India the modern nation state is that diverse people of many religions and faiths - and this includes Islam CAN live together in one country. The Indian constitution, and the ethos of India the nation state does not allow Islam to opt out and indeed the majority of Indian Muslims do not want that either. The one opportunity for those who wanted out came in 1947 and several million people were killed. It will not happen again Indians are such a meek people that they will boldly shout in support of extremists and not even squeak about the fact of ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir. And now some separatists in an ethnically cleaned Kashmir want freedom. I refuse to accept that, in the light of what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan and in the light of what India the nation state as I know it stands for. shiv
