For years, informal dialogue sponsored by NGOs and civil society groups was critical to building bridges between India and Pakistan.

The process is known as "track II diplomacy" and involves networks of non-state actors like NGOs, civil society members and peace activists. They all work towards finding prospective solutions to crises through dialogues with stakeholders. Governments often use feedback from Track II entities to help with policymaking.

Funding from Western donors would regularly sponsor informal interactions in neutral environments across the world. In this way, even the most hardline voices from both India and Pakistan could meet eye-to-eye and exchange viewpoints.

However, these networks between India and Pakistan have now been rendered less effective. This is partly due to funding problems, but also because the two governments are less inclined towards dialogue.

After India and Pakistan approached the brink of war in April, a group of track II actors from both countries issued a statement to deescalate tensions.

"We are of the considered view that fanning war hysteria and perpetuating ongoing tension into any kind of military conflict would be extremely destructive for our countries and peace-loving people," the statement said.

The statement was issued a week after the attack and a week before India launched cross-border strikes on "terror infrastructure" in Pakistan. The clashes eventually ended with a ceasefire. 

Sushobha Barve is a founding member and executive secretary of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDU), a New Delhi-based think tank devoted to conflict resolution. She told DW that track II diplomacy had taken a hit.

"When governments aren't engaged in any formal dialogue, track II loses its relevance — and with that, its funding," Barve said.

How civil society groups help India and Pakistan

Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Alam was a founding member of the NGO South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), alongside his Indian counterpart Vinod Sharma. He told DW that track II diplomacy had enabled dialogue outside of formal channels like high commissions and intelligence agencies.

In addition to SAFMA, other prominent groups played influential roles in fostering dialogue between officials. These included the South Asia Media Association (SAMA), the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), the Pakistan-India Parliamentary Forum (PIPF), the Chaophraya Dialogue, the Neemrana Dialogue, Women's Peace Initiatives, and the Southasia Peace and Action Network (Sapan).

Over the years, their efforts helped build consensus on long-standing disputes between India and Pakistan, especially involving Kashmir. Both countries claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part, creating a decades-long flashpoint between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Between 2005 and 2015, the CDU led a series of civil society dialogues on Kashmir , which enabled contact between the populations and cross-border trade.

Former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharraf even agreed to set up "softer borders." 

Barve from the CDU, who has worked on dialogue and reconciliation for nearly 40 years in violence-affected areas of India and South Asia, said that these meetings with stakeholders drew attention from the highest levels of government.

"It wasn't just bureaucratic attention — even the prime minister himself gave us an audience on several occasions to understand the ground realities [in Kashmir]," she said.

Conciliation Resources, another track II NGO, had been involved in India-Pakistan dialogues that successfully opened up more secure trade routes between India and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

India-Pakistan track II erodes

However, track II endeavors between India and Pakistan received their first major blow after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack by Pakistan-based Islamists. Another big setback to diplomatic dialogue was New Delhi revoking Jammu and Kashmir's semi-independent status in 2019, which angered the local population.

In 2015, Germany-based pro-democratic Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) focused on "enhancing regional cooperation and peace in the South Asian region," and had organized trust-building dialogues with Indian and Pakistani interlocutors. However, the focus of FES in South Asia has now changed.

FES India Director Christoph Mohr told DW that in 2025 FES India is "not working on India's neighborhood, Pakistan in particular, nor are we working on any regional peace mechanism."

"FES India focuses in its foreign policy work on the bilateral relationship with Germany and the EU, trade, and India's position in the world," Mohr wrote in an email.

NGO sector diminished in India

India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also put pressure on foreign NGOs working in India.

In 2018, the Indian government's decision to amend the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), resulted in the many organizations losing their licence,and leaving peace initiatives severely under-resourced.

Another weakness of track II diplomacy is that it has remained largely confined to elite circles and has struggled to connect with ordinary citizens.

"Today's generation is shaped more by viral hate content than shared memories of partition. That disconnect is dangerous," Rita Manchanda from PIPFPD told DW. She was referring to the partition of India after British rule ended in 1947, which created India and Pakistan and led to the displacement of millions.

"Still, there are glimmers of hope in a few emerging youth-led initiatives trying to revive interest in shared heritage," she added.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn