India must reiterate what Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir reminded his compatriots last week—“We are NOT the same people"—presuming that the Pakistanis are not all miserably aware of it already. In fact, India should reiterate it in action that is markedly different from what it has done so far. To date, the difference between India and Pakistan has been asserted emphatically for decades in the economic, business, academic and sports spheres.

Now India has to fulfil the unfinished agendas of 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999. Four wars which it lost have not hammered home to Pakistan that India is more than its equal. Because India was magnanimous in victory, and Pakistan crafty in defeat. Because India’s political leadership of all hues remained bound by the Hindu view of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, making us regard even this implacable enemy as ‘family’ even if Pakistan did not think of itself as such.

Immediately after Partition, there were enough similarities and memories to make the first few generations at least on the side that did not propound the two-nation theory to believe that they were simply two siblings separated by a twist of fate. The world also hyphenated their relationship with India-Pakistan. A lot of water has flowed down both the Ganga and the Indus since then. The world no longer hyphenates, nor do most people in both countries born post-1947.

We Indians have put a fractured past behind us and forged a new, distinct identity and even rediscovered a pride in our Hindu past. But India should listen........

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