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A Hindu priest and two Indian Muslim scholars at a New Delhi conference on communal violence, March 9, 2002; Indian missiles aimed at Pakistan, Dec. 31, 2001 |
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Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, India on January 26, 1950, adopted a new constitution. Providing for a federal union of states under a parliamentary system, it attempted to defuse communal conflict by ensuring all Indians, regardless of caste, ethnicity or religion, fundamental rights. Nevertheless, Nehru and the prime ministers that followed have continued to struggle with the legacy of partition. Exacerbating the lingering bitterness between Pakistan and India were several unresolved territorial issues: upon independence, three princely states had yet to join either Pakistan or India. Two of these, Hyderabad and Junagadh -- ruled by Muslims but with predominately Hindu populations -- were forcibly annexed by India. In 1949, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir -- which was 85 percent Muslim -- finally opted to join India, prompting the first of three India-Pakistan wars, one of which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Today, Pakistan holds one-third of Kashmir; India holds the other two-thirds and accuses Pakistan of supporting terrorism among Kashmiri separatists. (By mid-2002, the two countries, both nuclear powers, were again on the brink of war over terrorism linked to the region.) During the 1990s, the Kashmir problem combined with more ancient grudges to feed Hindu nationalist populism. India's current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was helped to power through its endorsement of a militant Hindu plan to demolish the Moghul-era Mosque of Babur in Ayodhya. This destruction was carried out in December 1992. Since that time, Hindu nationalists have continued to press for permission to build a temple in its place. In February 2002, 58 Hindu nationalists returning from a rally in Ayodhya were burned to death when a gang of Muslims set their train on fire. This attack sparked anti-Muslim violence throughout the state of Gujarat during the first week of March, 2002, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Indian Muslims.
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