The law of causality says every event has a cause, and the event, or the effect, in turn becomes the trigger for yet another happening, creating a chain of episodes that stretches from the present to the past. Unless humans work backward in time to fathom the cause-and-effect linkages and consciously break them, they are doomed to forever remain shackled by the mistakes of history.

Apply the law of causality to American President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 50 per cent tariff on India and you will realise that behind it is the festering problem of Kashmir. Surprised? Here’s how they are linked.

It’s now widely accepted that Trump is waging a tariff war against India in pique, because of Delhi repeatedly rejecting his claims of having worked out a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May. Whether or not Trump’s claims have substance, he wouldn’t have made them had there been no India-Pakistan armed conflict. Then again, India’s attack was a punishment visited on Pakistan for allegedly sponsoring the terrorists who mowed down 26 people at Pahalgam in April. The reason behind Pakistan interminably bloodying Kashmir is that a segment of its people endorses violence as a solution for their alienation from India.