India, Pakistan at crossroads as they celebrate 60 yrs of independence

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Girls paint their faces in the colours of the Pakistani and Indian national flags as part of independence day celebrations in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. — Reuters

Pakistan and India began celebrating 60 years as independent nations Tuesday with a series of parades, gun salutes and speeches that sees both nations at crucial crossroads in their histories, according to internet reports.
In Pakistan, a Muslim nation of 160 million people, cannons boomed as dawn broke on the 60th anniversary on Tuesday and the country's green and white flag was raised amid a deep political crisis and bloody militant violence.
Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, last week toyed with imposing emergency rule.
Across the border, where celebrations took place Wednesday, the story could not be more different. After decades of sloth, India, with a 1.0 billion-strong population, is poised to regain its pre-colonial glory as a great economic power and has had fair and free elections for decades.
Both countries have been ravaged by terrorism and security has been tightened in major cities.
In Pakistan fireworks were banned and public gatherings were being discouraged. Normally independence day is celebrated with wild public abandon in Pakistan.
India celebrated the 60th anniversary of its independence Wednesday in a triumphant mood, with many here feeling the country is finally taking its rightful place as a major global player.
But the optimism born of India's lightning economic growth was balanced by the fact that many of the country's 1.1 billion people are being left behind - Indian children are more likely to be malnourished than African ones, and the country is home to about a third of the people in the world living on less than US$1 a day. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh focused on that oft-forgotten majority in his Independence Day speech, the centerpiece of the day's celebrations.
While Pakistan celebrated the 60th anniversary of independence Tuesday with prayers and a national minute of silence, low-key festivities for a country in the grip of political and religious turmoil.
The two nations, the first colonies to break free of British rule after the second world war, technically became independent on the stroke of midnight between August 14 and 15 1947.
Although both nations inherited British legal and parliamentary traditions, Pakistan and India produced widely diverging histories. Pakistan has lurched between corrupt civilian governments and military rule, embedding cynicism in the electorate. India has regularly held elections, producing governments of differing political complexions.