Comparative Overview of Indo-Pak Societies

EVEN after the establishment of Pakistan scores of political and non-political figures, including the Indian premier Jawahar Lal Nehru, had been issuing "dead lines" as per their mean aspirations about national continuance. The latest addition to this series is by the American-origin scholar Mr Cohen, who has declared the next 5-6 years to be critical to Pakistan's national existence. Against this backdrop, a range of coteries emanating various shades of opinion are intensively debating the future of Pakistan and drawing different perspectives with concernment to the remarks of American intellectual, Mr Stephen Cohen.

Just a bird's eye view of the Pakistan's state of affairs characterizes dramatic turn over the last few years, leading to the aggregate corrosion which is by no means satisfactory for national stabilization. However, in this very regard, there is another aspect of this bleak scenario that has even been highlighted in recent days by many Indian thinkers like Ram Mohan and Parkash Sanghwi, who had undertaken a comparative analysis of the problems confronting both Pakistan and India and pointed out Pakistan's economic and national plight declaring Indian position relatively better on these fronts, but they have also raised the positive significant superiority of Pakistan which is otherwise going unnoticed by many Indian and foreign highbrows. And that is the deep realization among segments of Pakistan's strategic community that without sincere attention rectification of national ailment would be impossible making reformation a remote dream. Volatility, turbulence and perturbations are obvious features of the Pakistani society, even acknowledged verbally by all, thus urging for collective improvement. Indubitably, an important stage is the diagnosis of any disease that ultimately leads to its treatment. But, if any individual or group is completely ignorant of the weakness then how that could be removed or at least overcome. It is perhaps the luckiest aspect of the Pakistani society that it has got the full realization of its ailment. Obviously everyone knows that corruption, intolerance, and group differences have assumed dangerous proportions that may cause the situation incontrollable until the trends are reversed positively. Almost every commoner not only acknowledges the societal downfall but also aspires for a positive change.

Within this framework, the scheme of things in India is not only different but distinctly the opposite as the indigenous predicament is though on its extreme yet going unnoticed by the materialism celebrating India's move on the road to prosperity and development. Contrarily, the factual account negates this materialistic affluence. The rich-poor divide has assumed alarming proportions as on one side the October 2010 marks the construction of Anil Ambani's 27-storey spectacular and world's most expensive and luxurious palace in Mumbai costing more than $1000 million, ridiculously residents of the palace merely comprise five persons – Anil Ambani, his wife, two children and aged mother Kocaila. Furnished with outclass luxurious accessories, the palace has six hundred servants alongside helipads on various stories with adjacent orchards, cinema house etc. On the other side, it is also the same city of Mumbai the 5000000 residents of which are born and dead on footpaths for being deprived of their basic shelters. Statistically, all these are the component parts of India's aggregate economic state and definitely such nonsense talk has greatest share in ballooning the volume of Indian economy. But to understand what effects these disparities have on the economic and social lives of India in days to come, one needs not the presence of an astrologer or intellectual like Mr Stephen Cohen.

But an overview of the situation in Pakistan, one finds that ranging from a commoner to the independent judiciary