BORDERS & BELIEFS: ETHICS, ACTORHOOD, AND THE INDIA-PAKISTAN CONFLICT by Kiran Pervez Submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations ~ w Clth) h,__ I Dean of the School of International Service ~ 7 m4-1 c4., ~ O<Yl Date 2009 American University Washington, DC 20016 AMERiCAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY q4 oo UMI Number: 3358195 Copyright 2009 by Pervez, Kiran All rights reserved INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. 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BORDERS & BELIEFS ETHICS, ACTORHOOD, AND THE INDIA-PAKISTAN CONFLICT BY Kiran Pervez ABSTRACT This dissertation project examines why peace has continued to be elusive in the India­ Pakistan context using ethnomethodological procedures and a relational social constructivist perspective that locates constitutive power in ongoing social processes instead of putatively existing substances. I suggest that we expand our focus beyond mere 'factors' that only help identify what issues are contentious and pay attention instead to 'actors' by analyzing the meaning-making practices in which our worlds cohere. To this end, I employ two analytical concepts: ethical imaginaries and articulation. Ethical imaginaries reveal the different.rules that, for actors, circumscribe multiple ways of being themselves thereby highlighting the heterogeneity characteristic of the worlds we inhabit; these rules are ethical in so far that actors take into account how they have acted in the past and how they ought to act in the future to preserve the 'self' in a particular way. Articulation refers to the specific interpretive practices deployed in a given space-time particularity. The sites analyzed here include Bollywood films about India­ Pakistan relations as well as first-hand interviews with Muhajirs in Pakistan, Muslims in India, and individuals who have been involved in Track II diplomacy efforts to understand the ethical imaginaries of 'lndian-ness' and 'Pakistani-ness' as well as the discourse around 'peace'. What this investigation reveals is that although both nations see in the 'other' a 'friend' with whom they have enough in common to share an amicable relationship, the prospects of peace are complicated by a culture of mistrust expressed in India's characterization of the ii iii 'Pakistani other' as 'religious fanatic' and Pakistan's perception of the 'Indian other' as a 'bully' that then renders peace complicated. I show how each of these articulations are framed by the ethical imaginary of the two-nation theory which formed the basis for the partition of India in 1947 onthe-grounds that Hindus and Muslims were distinct civilizational entities. PREFACE One of my earliest childhood memories has to do with standing all day in front of the TV in my parents' bedroom watching a cricket match. Other than being completely enthralled by the sport itself, I remember wondering, on multiple occasions, why "they" called it black-and-white TV. After all, there seemed to be more space on the screen that was gray rather than simply either 'black' or 'white'. Why not call it "black-and-white-and-gray" TV? That would surely be a more precise description of the visual on the screen. After all, the picture wasn't simply black and white - the field, as far as I could tell, was composed overwhelmingly of what we conventionally recognize as the color gray. What does any of this have to do with the India-Pakistan conflict? Metaphorically speaking, this dissertation project is an examination of the "gray" amidst the "black-and-white". What existing academic and journalistic analyses proffer by way of a causal explanation for the India-Pakistan conflict is that the two nuclear rivals share a "love-hate" relationship. Once they learn to put their differences aside, we are told, all relations amicable will abound. It is only because they are consumed by hatred that the balance has tilted overwhelmingly in favor of wars, military standoffs, nuclear tests, and the like. The implication here is that the India-Pakistan conflict is sustained because neither side is willing to see the 'other' as anything but a loathed enemy. If they can learn to think of the 'other' as friend, only then will peace be achieved. In other words, what is suggested in the extant literature that concerns itself with the problematic of peace is that India and Pakistan have to unlearn difference for it is the very notion that they are 'divided' instead of 'one' or 'unifiable' that lies at the root of conflict. So far, so "black-and-white"; each imagination of the 'other' is associated with a specific outcome. iv v However, what if 'self' and 'other' think of one another as both 'friend' and 'foe'? .Consider another possibility. What happens when one day the 'other' who was viewed as 'friend' is now regarded a 'foe' or vice versa? In the black-and-white version of the story, there is no room to account for either of these two possibilities except by recourse to explanations of the exogenous shocks variant. However, in the India-Pakistan context these possibilities are very real. It is these two possibilities, nay realities, that motivate this dissertation i.e. (a) heterogeneity in narrations of 'self' and 'other' as distinct from each other; and, (b) oscillations in the tenor of relations without qualitative changes in the factors thought to produce a particular political order. Conventional black-and-white explanations overlook a third color - gray. Without this gray, the empirical heterogeneity and oscillations that characterize the relationship between two­ nation states that find themselves in a contentious relationship much like Pakistan and India simply cannot be ?-ccounted for. What happens when we think of the relationship between identities and orders not in black-and-white terms where a particular narrative is associated only with a particular outcome but, instead, embrace uncertainty or, if you will, the "gray" fields in the picture? What happens if we become open to the idea that the political order that is the India­ Pakistan relationship is the product of seemingly incongruent narratives of national identity whereby the 'other' is viewed simultaneously as 'friend' and 'foe' (among other things)? What happens if our static notions of identity are reconceptualized instead as contingent and always­ changing narrations of identity in which actors and, consequently, relations between them are always emergent? It is, in fact, this very possibility that I embrace in this dissertation to account for the persistence of conflict between India and Pakistan by moving away from 'factors' and, instead, turning to 'actors' as the source from which political order is birthed. Precisely how and why I endeavor to do so is laid out in greater depth in the next 3 chapters. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Anyone who commits to a dissertation project knows all too well that while it is a single­ authored endeavor it is hardly a single-handed one. I would like to take a moment or, to be more precise, a few pages, to thank those whose support gave me courage to go on. Having read the acknowledgments sections of several dissertations, I know it is customary to begin with the names of those intimately and immediately connected to the dissertation as an intellectual product with the names of family and friends following thereafter. I want to break with that tradition a little for if it wasn't for some of my closest loved ones I wouldn't have ever set foot on this path. First and foremost, I am eternally grateful to God for this incredible privilege that I, as a middle-class woman from Pakistan, could have never even dreamed of. Most people from my background, if they are fortunate enough to get a good education, rarely get the opportunity to pursue a path that allows them the luxury of learning for its own sake. I consider myself blessed. On the days that it felt beyond impossible, it was my faith in God that helped me weather the uncertainty and tackle the challenge anew. Now, a little closer to earth! To my parents, Seema and Pervez - I don't think I will ever be able to convey to them how much I appreciate all they have done and continue to do for me. Without their support and encouragement, I would have surely pursued a more beaten path. This PhD is as much their accomplishment as mine. It is my parents' love that has shaped me and that keeps me going.