Hyphen in Geopolitics

Through the 1990s and up until fairly recently, India insisted on something called de-hyphenation. The hyphen referred to was the one in the term 'Indo-Pak', which is how the world saw South Asia. Neither country was seen from the outside without the shadow of the other.

- Aakar Patel

American diplomats visiting India, like Robin Raphel, an official in the Clinton administration, would make it a point to visit Pakistan when visiting India to 'balance' the relationship. President Clinton himself when he visited India in March 2000 also stopped over in Pakistan for a few hours on his way back to assure Islamabad that it was not forgotten.

India chafed at hyphenation because it saw itself, legitimately, as the bigger power, the world's largest democracy and in many ways similar to the West, as opposed to our terror-exporting, failed-state neighbour. Others did not always see it quite that way. The world was fixated on the hyphenation of Indo-Pak especially in 1998 when India under Atal Behari Vajpayee detonated nuclear devices in mid-May and then Pakistan under Nawaz Sharif also did the same on 28 May. The world was concerned about instability and recklessness and this was heightened with the Kargil War of 1999, which was not officially war because war had not been declared by either nation though over 1,000 soldiers were killed.