I am Founder of IndiaLovesPakistan.com and today I launched an Android app called 'India or Pakistan'. Happy Valentine's Day! AMA.

What do you believe is the most significant source of animosity between people in Pakistan and people in India?

What is the most effective way to restore good faith between the two nations?

Excellent questions..

There are quite a few reasons, but the most significant source of animosity is that most Indians have never met any Pakistanis, and most Pakistanis have never met any Indians. So because of the lack of any personal context, it's easy to just rely on what we heard about the other country in the news and on TV. There's a lot of political propaganda on both sides, which is full of exaggerated half-truths. In short, everyone around us dehumanizes the people of the other country.

In my opinion, the most effective to restore good faith between the PEOPLE of the two nations is to vastly increase the number of connections and conversations across the border. Luckily for our generation, the tools at our disposal are unprecedented in human history - Facebook, Twitter, Reddit - all these inventions call out for the goodness in man. Social media has turned the world into a village, where there's virtually no separation between us. We can reach out and make a connection. We must realize the truth that nationality is an accident of birth. Just because someone was born on the other side of a man made line in the sand doesn't make them less human or more evil.

There are many promising signs that this is happening. Less than 2 months ago, a school was attacked in Peshawar Pakistan, where 132 young students lost their lives. Indians started tweeted #IndiaWithPakistan, and within 2 days, there were over 1 million tweets sent. And, just last night, I saw this video of Indian college students wishing Pakistanis a Happy Valentine's Day. These seemingly small gestures are HUGE. It's like lighting a candle in a dark room. And what's more is that, a candle can light other candles without losing it's light at all. That's what we're seeing here these micro gestures between the people.

I have a dream that one day people will be judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their passport. :)

tl;dr - problem is that we don't know each other. solution is that social media allows us to get to know each other.

Something like this would be cool to get set up, and may help people connect in a real way.

Thanks for that link. I agree. That would be cool. There are some colleges in the 2 countries that do Google Hangouts with each other. And coke made this commercial that did that with a coke vending machine.

Oh man, that's cool. Coke should do stuff like that with America and some Middle Eastern country. I feel like a lot of people in my country could benefit from it.

To be honest, I don't know if Coke actually setup those vending machines beyond filming the commercials.

What about tomorrow's cricket match? Who do you think will win? India or Pakistan?

I'm really excited for tomorrow's game, because both teams have been playing really poorly as of late.

Everyone and their pet turtles has heard the statistic that India has won game every time they've played against Pakistan in a World Cup.

But, this is Pakistan's opportunity to change that forever. This is quite possibly the weakest Indian World Cup team ever. That is my uninformed opinion. I don't really know. I'm basing that on the fact that I can recognize 4 or 5 of our 15 players on the team, and their recent string of losses Down Under doesn't inspire much confidence either.

I want tomorrow's game to be decided in the last 3 balls of the 50th over of the second innings. I want to be on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, screaming at the tele, and be so engrossed in the game that I forget to drink my chai as it goes cold.

tl;dr - There's a good chance that India will most definitely probably win. ;)

Everyone and their pet turtles

Pet turtles? Is that a Desi thing I don't know about?

Haha... No, it's not. I didn't feel like saying "everyone and their mothers".

If I had a nickel for every time someone mentioned that India has always defeated Pakistan in a cricket world cup game, then I would have quite a lot of nickels.

Where are you from? Where do you live?

India. New Delhi.

Why is it called 'India or Pakistan' not 'India and Pakistan'?

India OR Pakistan because... in the app, you see a photo of a person, monument, or street, and you have to answer whether you think it's India OR Pakistan. Then you see the correct answer, and get the next photo.

Good initiative, but seems like things like these last till the next time tensions flair between the two nations. As soon as tensions flair, everyone becomes an arm chair general/historian/news expert. They love dishing out "expert" opinions on why the other side is wrong and always has been wrong.

As a US based Pakistani, seems like Pakistan has everything to lose due to this animosity and tension. India is doing quite well (relatively speaking) on its own. (I am probably banned from /r/Pakistan now)

Do you think your initiative will survive the next time tensions flair?

txs2300 - Are you a graphing calculator?

You're right. Haters gonna hate. It's very easy to point fingers when things flare up, and get riled up about "they did X" and "they're doing Y". And let's be clear... but both you and I know that there will always be those who will point fingers and spew hate.

After the Peshawar school attacks, there were some people in Pakistan that blamed it on India. But there were 1 million tweets from India with the hashtag #IndiaWithPakistan, and corresponding "OMG! I can't believe this" & "#ThankYouIndia" tweets coming back over to India.

IndiaLovesPakistan.com isn't trying to win the macro level battle yet. I'm content to be more lean and nimble about building a community of compassionate humans in both countries that engages with each other... and then find and amplify the voices like #IndiaWithPakistan, #DearNeighbour, etc.

What we need to realize is that there's a difference between political theature, military conflicts and everyday people on both sides. (oh.. and yes, it's important for citizens of any country to turn on the TV and put their own thinking cap on every now and then). :)

Do I think my initiative will survive the next time tensions flair? There's only one way to find out.

But I'm hopeful, because you know what - this is the easy part - it's easy to post funny and cheerful India and Pakistan Valentine's Day and Cricket World Cup, especially in times of relative Indo-Pak peace.

If/when tensions flare up, that's when we'll know how I personally adjust and how the community responds/reacts.

You should stop by, @IndLovesPak on twitter and /indlovespak on Facebook too. :)

P.S. LOL. I really hope that comment doesn't get you banned on /r/pakistan. :)

What is the story behind all of this. I think it's an excellent idea, and I am curious to now how you got it in the first place. Also. Have you noticed a change in how the people around who are Indian view Palestinians, and vice versa?

Do you think that this idea can be applied to countries such as North and South Korea, maybe even Israel and Palestine?

This TED talk by Rony Edry was the inspiration to start this website. That's how I got into it. It's about Israel and Iran.

I think you mean, Pakistanis not Palestinians. ;) Have I noticed a change in how the ppl of India view the ppl of Pakistan? That's a big question Mr. Turtle. On the macro scale, absolutely not. What I have accomplished is not even a rounding error in the grand scheme of things of India-Pakistan. But in a world where the status quo is assumed to be that "Indians and Pakistanis hate each other", every single positive, friendly and supportive message is revolutionary (for lack of a better word). I have seen SO MANY such tweets, posts on facebook, DMs, etc... from small villages, towns and cities across both countries that I can't help but be hopeful about the future of South Asia.

Israel and Palestine - Yes, it can. There are probably organizations doing similar work and even on a larger scale.

North and South Korea - Well... North Korea (i mean, Best Korea) doesn't have internet access, so that'll be tricky.

But let's be clear about what we're talking about... I'm not trying to bring about "peace" in the region with political advocacy. My hypothesis is that we won't be ready for peace (and lasting peace) if we don't even treat each other with basic human dignity, and realize the basic truth that the politicians gonna politrick. The political and military strategies, tactics and shenanigans don't represent the values of the people.

I really believe that the vast majority of Indians and Pakistanis want to live by each other's happiness, not each other's misery.

[deleted]

On advice from Admiral Ackbar, I respectfully reserve my right to not answer this loaded question.

EDIT: For the record, the question that OP has now deleted was "Do Indian muslims despise Pakistan as much as the Hindus and Sikhs?"

Have you had any negative reactions from your countrymen who things you are a sympathizer with the enemy, disloyal or just delusional?

Negative messages have been extremely rare, maybe 1 message every 2 months or so. And, even then, they're almost never pointed at me personally.

But on the contrary, I'm blown away by the 1-on-1 messages and the public comments I receive with support and love from both countries - from villages, small towns and big cities. It's so heartwarming. The messages are so nice that it would even make a robotic elf jedi a bit teary eyed. :)

Any chance for an iOS app?

There's a chance yes, especially if I get many more messages asking for it. But as of now, there have only been a handful of people who've asked about for an iOS version.

I don't know where you're from, but if you walk through the streets of any city in India or Pakistan, then you'll see Android phones everywhere, and very few iPhones. Most days when I'm out and about, I don't any iPhones.

Our target market is India and Pakistan so "Android only" is the right decision at the moment.

Even though personally, I'd like to justify the invest time, effort and money into building the iOS version because there's a cool swipeable library that will let users answer India or Pakistan with a swipe left and swipe right (yes, just like tinder).

P.S. You should ask your friends who have Android devices to download it for you. :)

Why did you create this?

Can you please clarify whether you mean this app or this website?