Imran Khan's election to PM won't change relations; visa restrictions will keep India-Pakistan division alive

Outsiders are usually puzzled about why India and Pakistan cannot be friends. From their perspective the two nations are not just vaguely similar but alike. That is to say, not different like Spain and Portugal or Germany and France, where there is a long history of separation and a distinct culture and a separate language. India and Pakistan have no such division in history before 1947, because there is no natural barrier between them. And though one can argue that Pakistanis have a very different culture from Indians, this is not noticeable, at least immediately, to the outsider.

The food tastes the same — heavily flavoured with masala and with a base of rice or roti. The way the people look is quite similar — it is not easy to tell the Lahori woman apart from the Delhiwalli or the Karachi man from the one in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. The south and the east of India are different, but then those differences exist inside India as well.

The music is, of course, also quite similar. To outsiders, the distinction of some specific ingredients and meat used (actually most of the food that Pakistanis eat is like ours, right from meat to dal, vegetables and grain) is not that significant. And that puzzles them as to over why such hostility exists.