…

I don’t even know where to begin with this.

If you’re unaware, over the last few days, India sent missiles into Pakistan in retaliation to a horrific attack that killed 22 people in April.

The history of India and Pakistan is a complex one that can be pinpointed to partition, but in all honestly, that was the culmination of cultural and religious fighting that started before then.

Many 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians whose ancestry hail from India (pre 1947) carry the weight and pain of partition with them, and when the violence between these 2 nations escalates we all hurt.

Tha narrative that says ‘all Indians hate Pakistanis’ and vice versa is hateful and pushes the discord further. It is damaging. It is misinformation. But it is dangerous. It allows specific groups and sects to weaponise it and utilise for their own advantage.

These are lines drawn on a map by people who did not know the land or its people.

Lines that turned into borders that ripped apart families, communities and friends. Forced displacement of millions of people who had no choice but to watch loved ones die. From Amritsar to Lahore, the land has never really healed, it’s people and the diaspora have carried it with them since.

I always find it SO interesting about how geography and politics are so intrinsically linked. How a line on a map can make or break a nation and it’s people. How borders shape identities. How they include and can exclude, who has rights and who does not. The notion of power and control all comes down to lines drawn on a map. History is built on nations going to war all for that extra slice and slither of land to add under their territory.

Why do people fight, kill and maim over lines in the dirt? Why does it matter? Turning swathes of people with shared blood and lineage against one another, what does that get you? Where does it get anyone? And I don’t think it’s the majority of people, but the rhetoric that is coming out of India right now is so hateful.

In a world where it’s so easy to hate, empathy is much harder to have and hold onto.

This all felt like a bit of a rant with no real point, but my heart is heavy.

xo