Last spring, the coincidence of both an open confrontation between India and Pakistan and the still ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza encouraged historians to draw parallels between the origins of the two conflicts. While conflation must be avoided, comparative analysis revealed some similarities in the way these two seemingly never-ending crises have unfolded.
Both cases trace their roots to the disastrous circumstances that marked the end of British rule – 1947 in India, 1948 in Palestine. In both cases, partition was imposed by force, triggering mass population displacements and unresolved territorial disputes. In both cases, the lack of a settlement for these historical disputes has fueled a succession of increasingly threatening wars.
India was incorporated into the British Empire in 1858, while London received a mandate over Palestine from the League of Nations in 1922. In both places, the British imperial strategy of “divide and rule” led the United Kingdom to support separatist movements as a way of countering the rise of inclusive nationalism. The key difference is that in India, Muslim separatists emerged from the local population, while in Palestine, Jewish Zionist settlers arrived through immigration – sometimes encouraged, sometimes restricted by the British authorities.
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