Soviet relations with India and Pakistan

This book is an attempt to analyze the Soviet policy to wards India and Pakistan, before and after the Tashkent Agreement an important milestone on the road towards the normalization of relations between the two countries. The Soviet policy, especially after the Indo-Pakistan con flict of 1965, has been the subject of diverse speculation and controversy. The author's understanding is that the Soviet Union has shown a remarkable consistency in her attitude towards what they call the "Two Hindustan States". Even during the height of the cold war when India was, as it is now, favourably disposed towards Russia, the latter never gave up her efforts to woo Pakistan, notwith standing Pakistan's membership of the American military pacts.

Unlike the Western Powers, the Soviet Union has looked upon the Indians and the Pakistanis as the same people ethnically, culturally, and historically-artificially cut apart by colonialists. In the process of developing friendly relation with the two countries and strengthening the economic basis of their freedom, the Soviets have endeav oured to bring the two "blood brothers" together and help them overcome the problems left in legacy by the British rule. The course of this twenty-three-year-old relationship has not always been quite smooth. Yet the occasional mis understandings have been surmounted with astonishing rapidity.