What stops India and Pakistan from being friends? In this provocative and deeply analysed book, full of riveting revelations and anecdotes, Husain Haqqani, adviser to four Pakistan prime ministers, looks at the key pressure points in the relationship—Kashmir, terrorism and the N-bomb—and points out where both sides are to blame. But, he argues, it is Pakistan’s pathological obsession with India which lies at the heart of the problems between the two countries.
He goes on to establish how, under the military’s influence, Pakistani nationalism has evolved as anti-Indianism and how Pakistani textbooks continue to reinforce these feelings among the youth. As jihadism and Hindutva extremism grow in strength in both countries, and as India shows signs of becoming less pluralistic, tolerant and secular, the space for friendship between the two countries continues to shrink, leaving no scope for reconciliation.
A former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has also been a journalist, academic and advisor to four Pakistani prime ministers, including Benazir Bhutto. He is the author of Pakistan Between Mosque and Military and Magnificent Delusions: US, Pakistan and an Epic History of Misunderstanding. He is currently Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC.