Why Is India Talking to the Taliban?

The militant group's reintegration into regional politics was inevitable. New Delhi's move should be welcomed by the West.

- Mihir Sharma

The sole checkpoint between India and Pakistan opened again late last week - for one particular, highly symbolic convoy. More than 150 trucks from Afghanistan, carrying dried fruit and nuts, were allowed into India.

New Delhi had a point it wanted to make. The border was closed after the April 22 terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir, as anger against Pakistan's military rulers built in India, concluding in days-long clashes between the two countries in May. But India's leaders wanted to make it clear that this anger did not extend to the army's former allies, the Taliban.

The trucks' cargo is a hint that this gesture had more than economic logic behind it. Afghanistan has great cultural resonance in India: One of our most memorable short stories is about a trader in nuts and raisins from Kabul who strikes up a friendship with a family in 19th-century Bengal.

In those days, the British ruled both Kabul and Calcutta (as it then was), and trade and traders could move freely across the sub-continent. Since then, borders have been erected across the sub-continent, but Afghan populations have remained a big part of the lives of many Indian cities nonetheless.