I am sure you all have heard of the moral tale of the two cats and a monkey, but please indulge me in reviewing this story with you.
Once upon a time there lived two cats that came up a nice big cookie. They immediately claimed it for each other and quarreled bitterly over it. This was seen my a cunning monkey up on a tree who immediately offered to lend a helping hand in arbitrating the dispute. He started by breaking the cookie into two parts with one being small and the other little larger. Since it was not fair to one of the cats, he took a bite which subsequently made the smaller piece larger which he now claimed was not fair to the other cat. This went on till there were two very small piece which the monkey put in his mouth. When the cats asked him why he ate the last two pieces the monkey answered that those two pieces were his price of arbitration. The two cats, now wiser, realized their folly a little too late.
Now comes the geopolitical analogy to this moral tale. Substitute India and Pakistan for the two feuding cats, China for the cunning monkey that is above all fray and only wishes to bring harmony to the region, and finally the cookie could be any number of discords between India and Pakistan. We could for simplicity call Kashmir the cookie, although the folks that live there may not like to think of themselves. This is only an analogy and should not be taken too literally.
Basically it is a tale of India and Pakistan fighting constantly that has opened the door for opportunistic China in its drive for dominion status over all of Asia. China knows clearly that there is only one potential power that can derail its plans and that is India. So long as China keeps India engaged in Indo-Pak conflicts that do not ever end, the less chance India has in playing a role in the larger stage. The less the other countries recognize India as a global power, the more they see China in that role.
Once upon a time there lived two cats that came up a nice big cookie. They immediately claimed it for each other and quarreled bitterly over it. This was seen my a cunning monkey up on a tree who immediately offered to lend a helping hand in arbitrating the dispute. He started by breaking the cookie into two parts with one being small and the other little larger. Since it was not fair to one of the cats, he took a bite which subsequently made the smaller piece larger which he now claimed was not fair to the other cat. This went on till there were two very small piece which the monkey put in his mouth. When the cats asked him why he ate the last two pieces the monkey answered that those two pieces were his price of arbitration. The two cats, now wiser, realized their folly a little too late.
Now comes the geopolitical analogy to this moral tale. Substitute India and Pakistan for the two feuding cats, China for the cunning monkey that is above all fray and only wishes to bring harmony to the region, and finally the cookie could be any number of discords between India and Pakistan. We could for simplicity call Kashmir the cookie, although the folks that live there may not like to think of themselves. This is only an analogy and should not be taken too literally.
Basically it is a tale of India and Pakistan fighting constantly that has opened the door for opportunistic China in its drive for dominion status over all of Asia. China knows clearly that there is only one potential power that can derail its plans and that is India. So long as China keeps India engaged in Indo-Pak conflicts that do not ever end, the less chance India has in playing a role in the larger stage. The less the other countries recognize India as a global power, the more they see China in that role.
