Perceiving the Enemy Differently: A Psycho-cultural Analysis of Pakistan–India Conflict

Abstract

By using an interdisciplinary approach, this article seeks to examine Pakistan–India partition and their on-going rivalry which is a permanent threat to the South Asian regional security. This article analyses the Pakistan–India conflict through a fresh psycho-cultural framework to explain both states’ endless competitive urge to outpace each other. I will describe the attributes of the indigenous ‘culture of conflict’ in both countries and use them as an ‘analogy’. This article develops a conflict theory to explain the rationale behind such an emotion-laden rivalry between the two nations. The conflict theory presented in this article (which can be termed as Sharike-Bazi [Culture of Conflict]) explains that peoples’ conflict behaviours in Pakistan and India are rooted in their earliest socialisation within primary kinship institutions. In Pakistan and India, the indigenous ‘culture of conflict’ emanates from the segmentation of the most pervasive and influential institutions, the kinship institutions. The moralities of conflict behaviour learned within these institutions are extrapolated to every other institution in the outside world. Therefore, psychologically, the indigenous ‘culture of conflict’ creates certain moral views affecting the conflict behaviour of people as well as policymakers. It provides them with cultural moralities to pursue this zero-sum interstate conflict.

The role of emotions in interstate relations: Using an interpersonal conflict model to reconceptualize Pakistan’s obsession vis-a-vis India

“…Secondly, as families are systems, so are states (Zimmerman and Jacobson, 1993). Third, it is disputant parties’ intentions that matter while perceiving the “other” and interpreting reality (Kadir, 2019).…”

“…This indigenous model presented by Kadir (2019) highlights the segmentation process of a harmonious joint family in the Indian subcontinent and thus the demands of separation by one branch of the family from the other – the demands arising out of being neglected and not being accommodated and respected in the joint family setup. It disrupts the harmony of relations between branch members of the same family.…”

“…Emotions cannot be removed from their mutual relations; as they lie at the very core of human existence (Elster, 1999). This article explains this causal link by drawing upon two interpersonal conflict models presented by Weingarten (1993) and Kadir (2019). The cognitive neuroscience explanations have also been borrowed to explain how the dynamics of an idealized family model become the source domain for people to conceptualize the functioning of their nation and state.…”

“…However, the India-Pakistan conflict owes more to historical and psychological nearness than to mere competition for resources or territory. And that much is clear in the language they use to talk about each other (Kadir, 2019).…”

Does conflict begin at home?—using family dynamics to understand The Hindu-Muslim conflict in British India; 1907–1947

“…In understanding intergroup conflicts therefore, we must consider the dynamics of the family amongst the people of a particular area. Accordingly, an indigenous family conflict model known as Sharike-Bazi in the Indian subcontinent (Kadir, 2019), has been used to examine the interpersonal conflict dynamics among the leading political figures in the prepartition period. This model highlights the segmentation process of a joint family and the demands of separation by one branch of the family from the 'other'demands arising out of being neglected and not being accommodated and respected in the joint family setup.…”