As tensions persist between India and Pakistan, Cardinal Joseph Coutts has called on both nations to rediscover their shared history and foster a culture of peace rooted in mutual respect and dialogue.
“In a time of tension, we can only call for prayer for peace between India and Pakistan,” said Cardinal Coutts, Archbishop Emeritus of Karachi, in an interview with Fides News Agency.
“We must rediscover our roots: we are brothers and sisters because we are children of one Mother, as Mahatma Gandhi used to say,” the prelate added.
The cardinal, who recently participated in the conclave and the inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV, said religious communities have a critical role in addressing the current climate of hostility.
“Today, we feel the urgency to do something for authentic peace,” he stressed. “We as citizens and as religious communities in India and Pakistan can and will promote a culture of peace to defuse hatred, disarm hearts, and educate people to forgiveness.”
He called on political leaders to take concrete steps toward resolving the Kashmir dispute, emphasizing that it remains a deeply political issue marked by ongoing mutual accusations between the two governments.
Reflecting on the origins of the conflict, Cardinal Coutts traced it back to the 1947 partition of the British Empire.
He noted that while the general premise was for Muslims to join Pakistan and Hindus to join India, Kashmir presented an exception.
Despite the region’s Muslim majority, its Hindu ruler opted to join India—an action that, according to him, contradicted the will of the people and sparked the ongoing dispute.
“Back then,” he said, “we were truly brothers and sisters, a people fighting together for liberation from the colonial yoke. This fraternity must be rediscovered today and is the path to building a just and lasting peace for the future.”
Cardinal Coutts lamented that Gandhi’s vision of unity has been largely forgotten and urged the public to “return to the words of Mahatma Gandhi, who said: For two thousand years we have lived together as one people, we are all children of one mother, Mother India.”
But today Gandhi is forgotten and not even taught in schools,” he added.
He cautioned that political nationalism has exacerbated divisions over time, with repeated clashes and wars intensifying hostilities between communities that share a common history and culture—highlighting, in his view, the futility of continued conflict.
“Back then, the goal was to create two nations that would grant equal rights to all citizens and live in peace. The leaders of the independence process, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Mohandas Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, envisioned two sister nations. Let us return to that desire. Today, we are called to live together as good neighbors,” he said.
Cardinal Coutts ended by reaffirming his episcopal motto, “Harmony,” expressing his hope that it would guide both internal relations in Pakistan—through interreligious dialogue and mutual respect—and external relations, particularly with India, by fostering reconciliation and building bridges between communities.
