ASIA’S CHANGING HISTORY: INDIA’S RELATIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

• Authors: Rath Saroj Kumar
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Indians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although lucky to live in the neglected neighbourhoods, are victims of the hostile and discriminatory state persecution and local environs. Historically acknowledged as one of the centres of Indian civilization, where Buddha himself had travelled, Afghanistan has substantially differed from India in recent times. People of Indian origin in Afghanistan are now dwindling and diminishing, and their conditions are palpable and precarious. Across the Hindukush, Pakistan, the very heart of India till the mid-20th century, holds the dubious distinction of persuading an intolerant approach towards India since its creation. A professed Islamic state, Pakistan’s prejudice towards minorities, even against some Islamic sects, is reflected even in its constitution. Created after an artificial vivisection, it shed its secular character rather too soon to embrace Islam. Immediately after the vivisection, all non-Islamic living mortals, especially the Hindus and Sikhs, in the country were designated as unwanted. Not so long ago a cherished land of Hinduism and Indian civilization, Afghanistan and Pakistan are now nightmares for persons with Indian roots. The author has analysed three basic issues. Firstly, the paper discusses India’s intimate civilizational contacts with the region and how the course of history has changed over a period of time. Secondly, the paper tried to identify those catalysts, which were responsible for the abrupt and indiscriminate mutation of the hard-core ideologies in Pakistan and Afghanistan that has dislodged India from the two countries. Finally, the paper sheds some limited light on the contemporary time and events which have had a bearing on the changing history of Asia.

Keywords

EN

ASIA; HISTORY; INDIA; AFGHANISTAN; PAKISTAN; HINDUISM; ISLAM; BUDDHISM

• Publisher: Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Asian and African Studies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 302 – 331

Contributors

author

Rath Saroj Kumar

• Sri Aurobindo College University of Delhi Malviya Nagar, New Delhi – 110017, India