It’s been 72 years since the shared page of history between India and Pakistan was ripped in two, after which the two countries entered what seems to be an interminable state of mutual animosity with each passing decade deepening the under tug of volatility and mistrust that has on two occasions even led them to war. But is this animosity truly interminable?

As the two nations celebrate their respective independence days, Pakistan on August 14 and India on August 15, it would do well for the two neighbours to eschew the predictably recurring and overly familiar rhetoric that comes of rewinding history and remapping the blood stains of the past.

Instead, they must indulge in an entirely different exercise that in truth is an innate ability they both possess but use so little. And that is to trace the innumerable common threads of culture and heritage that still run unfrayed and colour fast through the fabric of their combined narrative, binding them for posterity in a fait accompli delivered by history.

The truth is, what India and Pakistan have in common far outweighs what they fight over. From food, music, language, poetry to rituals and cultural idioms, the vast repository of the two people’s intermeshed memories of lands, ties and families runs like a subterranean river across the two geographies whose call is heard by them all.

Its power and purpose can be gauged by the fact that despite the escalating din of political rancour that drowns out the voices of reason on both sides, the dulcet note of accord and amity rings sweet and clear on a myriad platforms in the socio-cultural environment, as thinkers, artists, influencers, writers and activists from both sides of the divide release, with unflagging optimism year after year, the proverbial doves of peace.

Auguring well for this momentum, the page of a new political chapter has just been turned in Pakistan and ahead of its Independence Day, as a gesture of goodwill, it announced the release of 30 Indian political prisoners.

In a bilateral climate that has only been marked by political storm clouds of late, this silver lining holds its weight. And that is just as well because many a time, it’s the small gestures that have chastened the intransigence of political standoffs and set a positive new course for political history.

It’s a denouement that is not unfamiliar to both India and Pakistan.