Tarnishing Economy Disappoints Indians

Majority Wants Improved Ties with Pakistan

Though only 13 percent of the respondents had positive views on Pakistan, the survey observed that 70 percent of the Indians think it is important to improve relations with the neighbor.

According to the survey statistics, 77 percent of the Indian respondents favored a resolution of the Kashmir issue, 64 percent wished for increased trade between the two nations and 58 percent stood for negotiations to improve ties with Pakistan. “Notably, Indians and Pakistanis share an animosity toward each other. But both want their bilateral relations to improve,” said Pew, which did the survey between March 19 to April 19, 2012.

When, 59 percent of Indians have an unfavorable opinion of Pakistan, 72 percent of Pakistanis consider India unfavorable. For 57 percent of Pakistanis, India is a serious threat and for 59 percent of Indians Pakistan is a serious threat. The survey also revealed that Pakistan is viewed as a greater menace than the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba based there or the Security Challenge posed by China that fought a war with India in 1962.

The Pew survey got released as the foreign ministers of both India and Pakistan met in Pakistan to resolve their differences in the issues like the Kashmir dispute, which has been the key for three of the four wars between the two nations since 1947. In the meet, India and Pakistan signed a liberalized visa pact that will allow increased people-people contact.

After a gap of almost two years, both the countries have resumed their peace dialogue very recently in February. Trade became the main reason for this peace talks with India allowing the foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan and it made Pakistan to grant India the status of the most favored nation under World Trade Organization.

But the survey said that those who live in the rural areas, the outside world is simply not part of their daily consciousness and large portions of the rural population have no definite opinion about other countries' foreign leaders or international policy issues.