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Non-<strong>Trade</strong>-Related Stakes of<br />
the <strong>Pakistan</strong>-<strong>India</strong> Relationship<br />
| 116 |<br />
AMIN HASHWANI<br />
This essay, while acknowledging the immense importance of<br />
trade between <strong>India</strong> and <strong>Pakistan</strong>, focuses on the non-traderelated<br />
stakes of this relationship. People in both countries draw<br />
stimulus from the maturity of civil society, the old game of perceptions,<br />
the recent phenomena of the media raj, and most importantly the security<br />
dynamics of our region. The essay examines each of these issues in<br />
detail. It also describes how expanded bilateral trade can strengthen a<br />
relationship that already shows great signs of warming—especially on<br />
people-to-people levels—and can increase prospects for peace in <strong>India</strong><br />
and <strong>Pakistan</strong>, and across South Asia on the whole.<br />
BaCKdroP<br />
The independence of the Subcontinent from British rule and the simultaneous<br />
creation of <strong>India</strong> and <strong>Pakistan</strong> have produced one of the<br />
most turbulent and violent divisions of the post-World War era. These<br />
events represented much more than a process of forced separation or the<br />
creation of a distinct political entity. Rather, they formed the basis for<br />
long-term practices such as identity, work, and memory, and they had<br />
far-reaching sociological implications for communal patterns, generational<br />
dynamics, and individual lives. First-hand memories of the migrations,<br />
casualties, and myriad dispossessions of homes and property that<br />
affected millions of people are still vivid for the older generation, posing<br />
amin hashwani is a businessman and founder of the <strong>Pakistan</strong>-<strong>India</strong> CEOs<br />
Business Forum.