by Nathan Hook

Created on: December 12, 2008

For many people, India conjures up images of one of the great romantic tourist destinations. An eclectic mix of bustling, crowded cities, exotic locations, diverse religion and cultures, pocketed with iconic architecture and remnants of its colonial past. India remains an interesting mix of the old and the new - of urban sprawl and rural isolation. A thriving movie business and booming IT industry sit, perhaps paradoxically, alongside the ancient agrarian lifestyles of more remote villages, where life remains almost identical to the way in which the first invading Portuguese colonists found them centuries earlier. As India thrusts itself onto the 21st century stage as a contender for being one of the new economic giants, this diversity and the legacy of British rule present numerous political and social challenges. However, its' principal concern remains a disturbingly familiar one: the relationship it has with its' north western border nation, Pakistan.

Last month's attack in Mumbai, which killed 170 people, reinvigorated tensions between the two countries which date back to 1947, when India first won its' full independence from the British colonialists. Artificially, the country was divided on religious lines by British viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, which caused sectarian violence and arguably the largest human migration ever witnessed, as Hindus and Muslims fled to escape the ensuing disorder in roughly opposite directions. Disputes between the two countries have continued for decades over the ownership of Kashmir, helped form Bangladesh, and culminated in alarming nuclear tests in 1998 in a show of military muscle which drew international condemnation and grave concern.

While the Kashmiri situation has mired into a ceasefire since 2004, the issues surrounding Pakistan's inability to effectively deal with terrorist insurgents surely must remain a grave concern for India. Pakistan has found itself in an internationally difficult situation. Caught up, rather directly, in the War on Terror, having had a rather close relationship with the Taliban government prior to the insidious 9/11 attacks and now it's remote and rugged Afghan borders are regarded as a notorious hideout for a variety of wanted insurgents and terrorists. The participants in the Mumbai attack are believed, by Indian authorities, to have direct links with the Pakistani based terrorist organization LashkareTaiba.

Whilst terrorist acts are not uncommon in either country, the vicious targeting of foreign

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