<I wonder how well this solution would work in countries that are more polarized and where the violence is more imminent, e.g., Kashmir.>
3 ways this works out in practice:
1)It works when the majority understands the necessary limits on their ability to impose their culture on the minority.
2)If they don't, then there is frequently a nationalist revolt by the minority, an exchange of populations, and the minority becomes a majority in a new small nation.
3)The other solution, is for some external power to impose, by force, a solution. But this, which is essentially Imperialism, is ever-less-viable as a solution.
In Kashmir, there is no entity who could play "honest broker". Both India and Pakistan are steadily drifting toward Fundamentalisms. The inevitable ugly logic of the situation, if that Hindu Fundamentalist India will face a perpetual guerrilla war in Kashmir, until they expel the Muslim population and colonize the territory with Hindus. Or are defeated and withdraw. The same choice that Israel faces in the Occupied Territories. |
