The Europeans seem to have, finally, come up with a practical and peaceful method of solving these kind of disputes. In Europe, there are many potential Kashmirs. They solve them, by:
1. allowing local autonomy, such as Spain granted to Catalonia and the Basque. The central government controls external security and foreign relations, the local government controls police, courts, schools, etc.
2. Another similar solution, is to allow each ethnic group their own State, and then tie all the little States together, in a permanent meshwork of economic, political, military alliances. So, for instance, the Czechs and Slovaks split up, but both will (soon) belong to NATO and the EU, permanently ceding much of their sovereignty to the continent-size grouping.
The same kind of solution would work for India. The Imperial model no longer works. It would be a shame if India went the way of the Ottoman and Soviet Empires. |
