Why India and Pakistan Keep On Clashing

Two of the world’s most acrimonious neighbors also happen to be among the few countries on the planet to have nuclear weapons. Long-running tensions between India and Pakistan center on the border region of Kashmir, an area in the Himalayas claimed in full — and ruled in part — by both. Violence flares often, as it did in 2019 when a terrorist attack led to the most serious military escalation in more than a decade. Also in 2019, India abruptly ended seven decades of autonomy in the part of Kashmir it controls, a radical move that stoked tensions further. The skirmishing has played out against a backdrop of superpower jockeying by the U.S. and China.

The independent nations of India and Pakistan were created by the partition of British India in 1947, a split largely driven by religion: Pakistan became primarily Muslim while India remained mostly Hindu. The drawing of new borders uprooted 14 million people and resulted in sectarian violence that killed as many as 1 million people. The two countries have fought three major wars since then, two of them over Kashmir. Pakistan’s leaders have seen India as an existential threat since the partition; some think India still harbors hopes of reversing the split. India has been frustrated by what it sees as the Pakistan military’s support for terror groups that strike inside its territory.