THE FANTASTIC INDIA-PAKISTAN BATTLE

The India-Pakistan battle is not concerned with history. Instead it is concerned with the future of 'reconstructed' pasts, with myths that f rame the fate of South Asia as it enters the twenty-first century, Ind ia cannot even conceive of itself, or even develop a self-definition o f itself, without reference to Pakistan-even though that reference is often to an imaginary, fantasized Pakistan. Pakistan returns the court esy. The plain fact is that the myths and histories, cultures and trad itions, and visions and aspirations, of these countries are so tied up together that it is meaningless not just to talk about the one withou t any reference to others, but even to imagine them as distinctively d ifferent nation-states. All South Asian states are modern construction s and as such are imaginary entities, artificially constructed and bou nd to fixed geographical boundaries. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.