India and Pakistan: Brotherly love lost
EXCLUSIVE: As both countries mark their birthdays, two authors write for us about the growing distance between the neighbours
By Rajiv Dogra and Shueyb Gandapur
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The Big Story
India and Pakistan mark 78 years as independent nations just months after the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours engaged in what defence experts describe as a “near-war”.
Though 78 is not a milestone birthday, this anniversary is significant for India and Pakistan because of what just happened and what those events might portend.
Analysts say the India-Pakistan relationship is so fraught there will almost certainly be other crises, of escalating severity.
What is certain is that India and Pakistan have increasingly become “distant neighbours”.
In the past few decades, India and Pakistan have metaphorically moved further apart, suspending already scant transport links and people-to-people exchanges. There are no direct trains or flights between the two countries and trade relations have been frozen for years.
Rajiv Dogra was India’s last consul general in Karachi. He is the author of Where Borders Bleed: An Insider’s Account of Indo-Pak Relations.
Shueyb Gandapur, Pakistani author, published Coming Back: The Odyssey of a Pakistani Through India this year.
Originally published at https://medium.com on August 13, 2025.
