Religious nationalism, not geopolitics, could define India and Pakistan's future

Most significantly, Shivaji is venerated as the founder of the Maratha Empire, whose rise heralded the beginning of the end for the Muslim Mughal Empire. Many historians regard the Mughal dynasty as the most formidable embodiment of Muslim rule in India since the arrival of Muhammad bin Qasim, who led an army dispatched by the Umayyad governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf to Sindh, then the frontier of the subcontinent.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir's recitation of Quranic verses during a press briefing drew considerable attention. Much has been made of the general's religious background as a hafiz (one who has memorised the Quran), his commitment to Islamic teachings, and his emphasis on Pakistan and India as two distinct nations, divided by history, faith, and tradition.

Pakistani media, in its coverage of the conflict, concentrated on Indian shelling of mosques in border areas that New Delhi claims are home to extremist camps responsible for the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir, last April.

Surge in religious fervour

What emerges clearly from the rhetoric on both sides during this latest bout of hostilities is a marked surge in nationalist and religious fervour, as each nation navigates a difficult period of transition.

India, for its part, is gradually distancing itself from the secular foundation laid after the 1947 partition—a model vigorously championed by Jawaharlal Nehru in his book The Discovery of India, where he described secularism as the sole safeguard against descent into endless civil strife.

Proponents of Hindutva, however, maintain that the millennium-long Hindu-Muslim conflict has concluded with a Hindu triumph, thereby legitimising their vision of India as a Hindu state.

Critics of Hindutva argue that this ideology has been codified in personal status laws that, they contend, have effectively relegated Muslims to second-class citizenship. The retreat from secularism, they suggest, may well surpass the BJP's abandonment of socialism and its embrace of market liberalism and integration into a global order increasingly oriented toward the West.

In contrast, Pakistan remains locked in a deep identity crisis, torn between embracing a legacy of Muslim-ruled empires, from Muhammad bin Qasim to the Mughals, and forging a modern, tolerant nation. The former offers a romanticised historical continuity; the latter demands structural reforms across tribal, regional, and ethnic lines. More than 70 years on, those reforms remain largely unrealised.

These global geopolitical shifts—from Islamabad's deepening alliance with Beijing to the West's growing support for New Delhi—continue to cast long shadows over the ever-volatile Indo-Pakistani conflict. Yet beyond the strategic alignments, it is the deeper, ongoing transformations in identity, culture, and society within both nations that may ultimately shape the trajectory of their future.