[an unforeseen benefit of not being able to write the post all in one go is i get some feedback for the posters' comments.]
i do not know, nor do i claim to know, the exact societal situation in either india or pakistan (or even bangladesh for that matter). but i do believe that i have been blessed with a great brain (contrary to what my mother may think
) and can read between the lines quite perceptably.
i am basing my observations on my browsing indian and pakistani internet forums. this has added credibility than simply interviewing ppl in the streets of karachi or mumbai for the reason that internet access amongst indians and pakistanis is a relatively rare thing. being able to post in english means that the poster is at least decently educated and wealthy. perhaps they live in the relatively objective West (UK, US).
i also understand that my analysis is not completely unbiased, and any bias i have is unintentional as well as far less than most other ppl can achieve.
browsing the forums it appears that radicalism is the ideology of the day. anyone who does not embrace it, is automatically labeled as a traitor or treasonous scoundrel.
beggining with the pakistani forum, there was a debate between the posters there an a neo-conservative jew. the debate spanned several hundred posts and the hostility was always present by both sides. however the recent ME events caused animus to reach all time highs and the mod shut the discussion off for a while, only to resume, and die a natural death several days later. of course no change in ideology was observed. the muslim-hating jew remained as such, and the jew-hating pakistanis remained as such. it will be interesting to note that only the moderator and perhaps one or 2 other posters were balanced in the views, the lone jewish poster and the dozens of pakistani posters were quite hateful in regards to each other. this is not to say that neither group lacked valid points, but hatred tends to invalidate even sound logical arguments.
i have not observed much with regards to the pakistanis' views on india and related issued, but would guess that it would be at least equally as intolerant as the jewish dialogues were.
interestingly enough, there was a discussion about the 1971 pakistani civil war and its aftermath.surprisingly
, the overwhelming majority of pakistani posters admitted that their mistreatment of the bengalis was the immediate cause of the schism.
i don't know if its a case of sour grapes or not, but most also stated that the whole notion of 2 part pakistan was untenable to begin with for logistical reasons. and cited that even today pakistan has internal problems with groups in the baluchistan province.
at the indian forums, there is an equal amount of hatred and intolerance. however, the situation there is far more interesting.
i have noted, that whether otherwise secular or devout, almost all the active posters at ICF are rabidly anti-muslim. there are often ironies present in their feelings and sentiments.
almost all the posters take pride in india being a secular nation. this is most often used when referring to the islamic republic of pakistan. however, interestingly, recently there has been an issue where muslim indians have refused to sing the vande mataram song in defiance of federal government injuctions. the BBC asserts that the song is a hymn to the hindu goddess durga. some replies to this situation on the ICF forum where "its a hindu country, if they don't want to sing it, they can leave". and this from the same posters who condemn pakistan for not being as secular as india.
although the vast majority of the posters harbor such condradictory sentiments, there is always the one who challenges everything. the ICF does have its token blacksheep, if you will. a poster who claims to be decendent of brahmins yet is not a hindu by conviction. he has been almost unanimously lampooned by being called an apologist of the worst kind.
almost every other thread in the ICF forget cricket section, gets heated and even the members often say that "this thread is headed for disaster." by contrast, the number of threads in BC or PP that get pulled due to overheating is quite fractional.
in conclusion, i will make the following statements which may be offensive to some, but i feel are nonetheless true:
1) on the whole, pakistani and indian posters are equally bigotted disproving the common misconcetion that bigotry is exclusively a muslim trait.
2) the BC forum is much better in this regard.
3) the difference between india's secular, tolerant hindu society and pakistani society is that PAK is a terrible place to live for non-muslim minorities. they have next to no rights and are persecuted. but muslims in india, tho they may have a much better quality of life, come a riot, they won't have their lives for very long.
4) in such cases, bangladesh is a far better place for minority religious groups than either pakistan or india.
5) a factor in bangladesh's continued lack of growth or retarded growth is that internally bangladeshis are much less united than both pakistanis and indians. it seems that pakis and indians as bigotted as they are, understand their national interests and are willing to act accordingly. bangladesh's may have a better human rights record, but when it comes to national interest, personal gain comes second to none.