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Synopsis Born at midnight, fated never to see the sunshine of amity. That, to some, is the India-Pakistan story. Whether it is Kashmir or the nuclear issue or the cricket field, the two seldom seem to agree. A shared culture has ever divided, never united. The subcontinental twins went to war within months of becoming independent. Over the following half-century, they’ve fought three other wars, clashed at the United Nations and in every conceivable global forum. Today, a nuclearised South Asia is seen as among the world’s most dangerous places. Like the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, the Indo-Pakistani rivalry is a legacy of history. It’s roots lie in the Muslim separatist movement of the 1930s and, indeed, can probably be traced back further to the 17 century battle of succession between Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb. It is a complex conflict, with religious and territorial angles, with two diametrically opposed views of nationhood and national imagination. As a conundrum confronting the still young 21 century the India-Pakistan equation has few equals.