The respected retired Indian Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju at a recent function New Delhi said that “the only solution to the Kashmir issue is reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong, secular, modern minded government which does not tolerate religious fanaticism or bigotry and suppresses it with an iron hand.”
His argument for re-unification is that Pakistanis and Indians are one people, and that the basis of Partition “is the bogus two nation theory, that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations.” He elaborates his views in a blogpost titled India and Pakistan : The Case for Reunification (and hats off to him for having the vision to actually run a blog, how many retired judges do that?).
What I believe we should be pushing for is a South Asian Union, along the lines of the EU, with soft borders, easy people-to-people contact, travel and trade etc.
I agree that Pakistan must be declared a secular state. This is something we in Pakistan are working towards (one initiative that I’m part of is called Forum for Secular Pakistan (of which the late Iqbal Haider was President).Agree that the ‘two-nation theory’ is bogus. I don’t accept it, and neither do many others in Pakistan. We speak against it at every chance we get.
However, this does not mean that Pakistan and India should be re-united. But suppose they are – what about Bangladesh?
Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: #SouthAsianUnion, India, Justice Katju, Pakistan, South Asian Union, two nation theory |
Journeys to democracy 
All the nations of Greater Historical India (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanamar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka) must unite and develop. This will be good for humanity and nature.
We need good leaders who can bring this about during the course of our lifetime.
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You forgot Bhutan too as part of unification. I think it would be best that Sri Lanka and Maldives are left as they are.
First the extremists in Waziristan and Afghanistan as well as their governments should be eradicated.
Second, the mass murdering regime in Burma should be dismantled along with their mass murdering 969 Movement thugs. Ma Ba Tha, BBS.
All criminals, gangs and perpetrators and corrupt officials should be eliminated whether on streets or prisons.
The Qadiani, ISKCON, Sathya Sai Baba puppets too should be purged from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Most economic hubs should be: Kabul, Jalalabad, Karachi, Islamabad, Mumbai, Kolkata. Bangaluru, Punjab, Thimpu, Trashiyantse, Trongsa, Paro, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Birendranagar, Dhaka, Sylhet, Myitkyina, Hpa-An, Taunggyi and Yangon.
A diverse society would be interesting like Hinduism should be the first majority, Buddhism will be second, Sikhism will be the third and lastly Islam will be majority.
Language would be Hindi. Other national languages will be: Sinhalese, Urdu, Bengali, Bhutanese, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Tamil, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Burmese.
The Rohingya, Kashmiris and Lhotshampa too should be made people of the newly unified South Asia and should be free of these persecutions.
Leaders would be maybe Modi or even Sushma Swaraj would be suited for this course.
I would call this Bhāratīya Phēḍarēśana (Marathi for: Indian Federation)
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