Some years ago, I was visiting Samarkand in Uzbekistan, from where the Mughal Dynasty came down to the subcontinent. The only other person from South Asia in the group was a senior Pakistani military officer. We soon realized we had more in common with each other than any other members of the group because of our shared political and cultural ancestry of the Mughal empire. We agreed that the Khyber Pass was as much a part of my cultural heritage as the Taj Mahal was his, and we looked forward to the distant day when we might be able to visit both sites without restrictions.

With a bit of luck, that day may be nigh. Relations between India and Pakistan are poised to be the most hopeful in decades. A series of unilateral steps by each side has been matched by reciprocal concessions from the other, and led to restoration of diplomatic and transport links, overflights through national airspace, and some humanitarian goodwill gestures. The climax was the meeting between the two countries' leaders around the margins of the South Asian regional summit in Islamabad this month and a joint declaration on a fresh dialogue to be launched next month.

What has brought things to this happy pass, and how might the conflict be resolved?