ACHA PEACE
BULLETIN http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
A publication of Association for Communal Harmony in
Asia (ACHA) www.asiapeace.org
Editor: Pritam K. Rohila, Ph. D.
Subscription is free.
To SUBSCRIBE, email a request to ACHAPeaceBulletin-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email the request to ACHAPeaceBulletin-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________________________________
ACHA PEACE
BULLETIN-Volume
V, No.9, September 3, 2003, (Next issue, October 1, 2003*)
INDEPENDENCE DAY ISSUE
Editorial
*Will there be
peace between India and Pakistan? Pritam Rohila, Ph.D.
Peace & Harmony News From & About South Asia
Peace &
Harmony Organizations
Pakistan India Peoples'
Forum for Peace and Democracy
Friends of South Asia
South Asia Forum
NRI’s For Secular & Harmonious India
Build bridges, not bombs,
Beena Sarwar the News, Aug 17 2003
Should
Pakistan and India bury the hatchet? Dawn, 10 August, 2003
EDITORIAL
*Will there be
peace between India and Pakistan?
After retreating from the brink of yet
another war, India and Pakistan once again are groping their way towards peace.
Once again, people can visit their
friends and relatives on the other side of the border. Fazal-ur-Rahmans and
Laloo Yadavs can reach across the border to talk directly to the other side.
Noor Fatimas can take advantage of services in the other country. Commentators
and columnists in both countries are expressing cautious optimism.
To build on this opportunity, at midnight
of August 14, peace groups like Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace &
Democracy organized Candlelight Vigils for Peace at Karachi, New Delhi &
Calcutta.
In USA, on and around August 16, Indians
and Pakistanis, led by organizations such as Friends of South Asia, Action
group of Physicians of South Asia, and the Alliance for a Secular and
Democratic South Asia, are planning to hold Peace Vigils to celebrate
Independence Days of India and Pakistan jointly at Atlanta, Boston, Houston,
Madison, and Palo Alto.
At Portland, on November 6, the
Association for Communal Harmony in Asia together with the Portland State
University’s Institute for Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies Program, is
planning to host a civic Dialog on India-Pakistan-Kashmir.
These are all encouraging signs.
But will the governments of India and
Pakistan give up their old and worn-out dogmas and let peace between their
countries become a reality?
Will they be able to see beyond their
manufactured histories in order to turn this budding people-to-people
friendship into a lasting peace?
Or shall they, once again, sacrifice this
opportunity at the altar of their age-old fears, insecurities, and suspicions?
Only the time will tell.
Meanwhile, let us tell the governments
and the leaders of India and Pakistan that people there need peace, not
rhetoric of another war; that they need clean water, and better educational and
health resources, not more nuclear weapons; and that they want improved civil
administration, not persecution of minorities and the underprivileged.
Also, let us pray that God grant leaders
of India and Pakistan wisdom, foresight and courage to resolve all disputes
peacefully and in a just manner, and to lead their people in the ways of
prosperity and better health and education.
And let us pray that God bless you and I
to become an active part of this process.
Let
me close with the words of Dr Aslam Farrukhi, a
Pakistani Researcher, literary critic and author of Angan Mein Sitaray
Let flowers from every garden spread their fragrance
And in the bouquet collected fondly
Flowers from the Ravi and the Indus and the Ganges
and the Jamuna be interlaced
Pritam Rohila, Ph.D.
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM & ABOUT SOUTH ASIA
(Readers are
invited to submit similar information
from other areas of South Asia to help us broaden of our coverage.
Please send the info to pritamr@open.org , a week before the
date of publication of the next issue of ACHA Peace Bulletin)
*India
Seeking
peace and justice
Armed with placards demanding justice, schoolgirls, whose families were
victims of the last year’s communal riots, marked the World Peace Day with a
procession on August 6, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. (PTI, Via India West August 15,
2003)
India,
Nagas extend ceasefire
After their July 16-18, 2003 meeting at Bangkok, the
Indian government and the ethnic minority rebels of the National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) agreed to extend their ceasefire for another year
to seek a solution to a decade-old homeland dispute, the government announced
in New Delhi, last week. (PTI, Via India
West August 15, 2003)
*India & Pakistan 21 Indian children reach LahoreA group of 21 Indian children arrived here on Tuesday on a three-week tour by special Dosti bus under a children exchange programme for peace arranged by American NGO "Seeds of Peace".http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2003-daily/13-08-2003/main/main10.htm Indo-Pak delegation to hold vigil on border http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/12peace.htm "Indian parliamentary delegation due on 9th" http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2003-daily/03-08-2003/main/main7.htm
Indian
and Pakistani businessmen business signed deals worth $200 million
During a visit by them to India in July, a delegation of 40 Pakistani businessmen struck deals worth $200 million with their Indian counterparts, according to Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, co-president of India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, in Peshawar. (Reuter, Via India West August 15, 2003) *Nepal Third round of talks likely to be held this week, confirms Government spokespersonWhile speaking to the media on August 6, 2003, Government spokesperson and member of the peace talks team, Kamal Thapa, confirmed that the third round of talks with the Maoist insurgents is likely to take place next week. However, he gave no definite dates for the same. Thapa also said that prior to the formal talks the two sides would also hold an informal meeting at which the agenda for the next round of talks would be discussed. Nepal News , August 7, 2003.
Nepalese
cyclists on world tour for peace
Two Nepalese cyclists, Arjun Sharma Bhattarai and Prasad Pandel, who started their journey around the world, in Thailand in March 2003, with the message of peace, goodwill and harmony, arrived at Jalandhar, Punjab, in India, on their way to Pakistan. They have already been to Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China. (PTI, Via India West August 15, 2003)
PEACE & HARMONY ORGANIZATIONS
(Readers are
invited to submit similar information
from other areas of South Asia to help us broaden of our coverage.
Please send the info to pritamr@open.org , a week before the date
of publication of the next issue of ACHA Peace Bulletin)
*Pakistan India
Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy: Contact Person: Tapan Kumar Bose, General Secretary,
India
WEST BENGAL CHAPTER: Muslim Institute 21 A Haji Md. Mohsin Square, Kolkata 700016,
India. Phone 91 33-24961565 Fax 22162843, Contact Person: Joint Secretary Amit
Chakraborty Email arkamit@vsnl.com
NEW DELHI CHAPTER: B-14, Gulmohar Park (Second
Floor), New Delhi 110049, India, Phone 91 11-26514847/26561743. Fax
011-26511743. Email: Pipfpd@Pipfpd.Org
PAKISTAN CHAPTER: 11 Temple Road, Lahore, Pakistan,
92-42-7357962
‘In order to redeem our faith and
confidence in the dialogue process between peoples of India and Pakistan and to give expression to peoples will and
resolve for peace and friendship between our two countries,” a candle light
vigil was organised on 14th August in Calcutta, in front of Academy of Fine
Arts. People sang, and recited whatever they liked relevant to the theme.
*Friends of South Asia www.friendsofsouthasia.org Contact
Person: Prashant Sham Jawalikar pjawalikar@yahoo.com
Friends of South Asia organized a joint celebration
of Independence Days by about 40Bay Area Indians and Pakistanis, at Lytton
Plaza in Palo Alto, California, on the midnight of August 14/15. The
participants sang Indian and Pakistani national anthems, peace and harmony
songs, shared laddus, shook hands, exchanged hugs, and held candles for peace.
*South Asia Forum, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Contact Person: Ayeshah Iftikhar ayeshah_i@hotmail.com
Responding to an initiative by Develop in
Peace initiative, South Asia Forum organized a peace vigil as a joint
celebration of Independence Days of India and Pakistan, outside Union South on
the university campus on Saturday, August 17. They hoisted the flags, and sang
the national anthems and peace songs from both countries. They talked about why
they had attended the event and what it meant for them. Everyone agreed that
there should be a people to people dialogue and that it was important to reach
out and get to know other Indians and Pakistanis in order to understand that we
are all humans and not demonized, faceless others. Later, photographs were
taken with Pakistani students holding the Indian flag and vice versa. They then
walked around the block with both national flags and lighted candles singing
"Hum honge kamiyab...we shall overcome..we shall live in peace". http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~safm/events/peace.htm
*NRI’s For Secular & Harmonious India,
Contact person: Shrikumar educserv@acd.net
On August 20, during her recent visit to USA, the
group organized a dinner meeting in honor of Nirmala Deshpande. The 74
years old Gandhian has been a powerful voice for Hindu Muslim and inter-faith
unity and Pakistan-India unity. Last year she went on Padyatra to Gujarat
to restore peace and had joined Vinoba's 50,000 mile march for the biggest land
gift movement in the world.
*Build bridges, not bombs, Beena Sarwar beena-issues@yahoogroups.com,
the News op-ed, Aug 17 2003
This year, there was an unusual addition to the crowds thronging Quaid-e-Azam's
Mazar on August 14. As the sunset, a small group (women of assorted ages, plus
two visiting Nepali teachers) arrived
with peace placards and candles. The Nepalis looked around, bemused at the
hordes of men, families with children, vendors and flag sellers milling about,
the women climbed onto the road divider opposite the Shahra-e-Quaideen gate.
The young men standing around were curious: "Aunty, what's this for?"
"We want peace between India and Pakistan."
The discussion continued through the din as the group handed out placards
mounted on thin bamboo sticks and candles. More activists - men, women and
children - arrived to join the vigil. Around them, rivers of human forms flowed
towards the illuminated Mazar, or away from it. Silencer-less motorcycles
roared between private vehicles packed with families and buses, their rooftops
loaded with shouting, whistling, flag wavers. "Amazing enthusiasm,"
observed one of the Nepalis.
An activist produced a camera, and the young boys clamoured to be photographed.
"Where will these pictures be printed?" asked one. There was no media
present, except one participant who was there in a personal capacity. "So
who are we doing this for?"
"For ourselves, for people here, and friends in India and around the
world... Can't we do something for ourselves?"
"Sure, why not? We want peace. But there's no leadership, and the people
don't want it either. We'll follow anyone who brings us peace."
"Who doesn't want peace - politicians, bureaucracy, army? Who gains from
the tension? Aren't we, you and me, the people also?"
Those who have until now been preaching hatred can
suddenly become peace envoys, but ordinary people continue to face hurdles,
with air and rail links still disrupted, and demand for visas far outstripping
supply. Visas, once granted, are for just three cities, not for the country!
Travelers still have to report to police on arrival and departure. When this
condition is waived, as for the delegates to the recent South Asia Free Media
Association meeting in Islamabad, visitors are still kept under such strict
surveillance that there is panic when one person (Mani Shankar Ayer this time!)
goes `missing' for a couple of days.
The Karachi vigil brought together private citizens, responding to a call from the West Bengal chapter of the
Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace
and Democracy (PIPFPD). It was just one manifestation
of the desire for an end to tensions. Similar events were held in India -
Delhi, Ahmadabad, Calcutta, Pune, Bombay, while the Wagah-Atari border crossing
demonstration drew an unprecedented number of
people on both sides, as Pakistani parliamentarians and minority
representatives joined Indians in celebrating the two independence days
together.
Veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayar has been lighting candles at the border on Aug
14 for ten years; this was the first time that Pakistan allowed similar
activity from this side. Last year, Pakistani border officials attacked peace
activists with lathis and abuses, not even sparing figures of international
stature like Asma Jahangir, Hina Jillani and Dr Mubashir Hasan. This time, it
was a changed atmosphere. Grp Capt. (r.) Cecil Chowdhry, a 1965 war hero turned
peace activist, wrote to the AsiaPeace email list: "Government
officials were very cooperative in allowing all of us to see off our delegation
right up to the gate of no man's land."
The India-Pakistan rivalry is reflected in
expatriate communities - who often meet `the other' for the first time abroad.
But many are working to break the barriers of distrust and bigotry. They
include citizens "from all walks of life- physicians, students,
academicians, social workers, shopkeepers and journalists, men and women,
Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and others who celebrate their unity in
diversity," says a press release from the new USA-based Develop in Peace
(DiP) campaign. DiP pulls together many "common people turned
campaigners", including groups like Friends of South Asia, Action
group of Physicians of South Asia, and the Alliance for a Secular and
Democratic South Asia.
This year, they organized activities in the USA, UK and Canada to jointly
celebrate their countries' independence. In the USA, citizens participated from
Houston, Madison, San Francisco, Boston, Charlotte,
St Louis, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, Madison, Atlanta, and Palo Alto. National
anthems were jointly sung, flags hoisted, and meetings held, with poetry, music
and food. These activities culminate today, August 17, in a conference call
from Houston connecting all the participating cities.
The campaign rejects "hatred, violence and distrust in the name of
religion, caste, regional, national or any other identities", and
denounces the arms race; "demanding development, not destruction, with the
poorest of the poor in sight; asking governments and politicians to build
bridges, not bombs; and provide security through food, not propaganda."
They are aiming for thousands of signatures for their online petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/DIP81415/petition.html),
to be submitted to policy makers on September 1, the UN International Day of
Peace. The campaign will continue to the January 2004 Islamabad
Indo-Pak summit and SAARC meeting "and beyond".
But even if our politicians continue the peace process that has begun, it will
take a long time, and much sustained interaction before the wall of suspicion
and hatred is knocked down.
At the Karachi vigil, the peace vigil is joined by a couple of youngsters, one
of them waving a giant flag mounted on a six-foot pole. "We want
peace," he said.
"And friendship with India?"
"Are you crazy? Would I be here if I wanted dosti? The Indians always
deceive us," he replied, barely saving his flag from being snatched up by
youngster the crowded roof of a bus lumbering by. "Oye, stop
that!"
"They say that we deceive them, like with Kargil."
"Well. Maybe you are right. Maybe they are right. I suppose they are
people like us," he replied, waving his flag at another bus rolling by,
its roof crammed with revelers.
This time, he wasn't able to save his flag. "OYE!!!" he yelled,
brandishing the bereft flag-pole.
"Yaar, just leave it," shrugged his friend.
They smiled and waved before disappearing into the crowd.
The writer is a staff member - beena.sarwar@geo.tv
*Should Pakistan and India bury the hatchet?
Dawn, 10 August, 2003
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/books1.htm
As the two South Asian neighbours set out on the
road to a dialogue, we posed the above question to 26 writers and poets. Here
is what they had to say:
Dr Aftab Ahmed: Urdu literary critic and author of Faiz Ahmed Faiz:
Shaer Aur Shakhs, Noon Meem Ra'ashed: Shaer Aur Shakhs and Ghalib-i-Ashufta
Nawa.
At a big reception in India Faiz was awarded a
standing ovation as he appeared on the rostrum. He started his address by
saying: "I am deeply overwhelmed by the affection you have showered on me.
However, if you were to extend half of it to my country, many a problem between
us would be solved."
Concurrently with the antagonism that has marked relations between the two
countries, there has also been the process of cultural integration. The apostle
of which was again a poet, Amir Khusrau, a Muslim migrant from Central Asia. In
addition to his contribution to Indian music, he laid the early foundation of a
new language, known as Urdu in Pakistan and Hindi or Hindustani in India.
Their scripts are different, but the spoken language in its simpler form is
very similar. Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Mr Vajpayee must have conversed in this
language when they met in Delhi recently.
It is time the Indians accepted Pakistan, and Pakistanis mended fences with
India. We may have friendly relations with Iran and Turkey and others, but let
us not forget that we are a part of the subcontinent. That's a geopolitical
reality. We are destined to live with India as neighbours. So let us bury the
hatchet and live as good neighbours.
Khusrau was the apostle of integration, Iqbal was the apostle of separation.
Who is going to be the apostle of reconciliation? It is now a matter between
two independent states; it has to be politicians on both sides - politicians
who have the vision of statesmen.
F.S. Aijazuddin: Poet and Author of several books including Lahore
Recollected: An Album and The Bark of the Pen.
Surely we can talk again, without using cloven tongues that lisp and hiss cleft
meanings, disguising our true intent.
Surely we can smile again, with teeth washed clean of each other's blood, mould
lips into forgiving kiss Jesus gave to Judas Iscariot.
Surely we can touch each other's palms without losing caste, hold fast in an
embrace that will keep us face to face as future friends, not yester-foes.
Surely we can age together, teach your youth and mine, what they need to know,
about how close we came to committing joint infanticide.
Surely we can offer a common prayer in our separate dialects to our separate,
equal Gods.
Have we not proof enough that my God is no stronger than yours, nor yours any
stronger than mine?
Dr Mubarak Ali: Historian and author of over 25 books including
Historian's Dispute and History on Trial.
A lesson history teaches us is that no country can afford perpetual
confrontation with its neighbours. It has to resolve its problems through
dialogue. Pakistan has gained nothing from its 56 years of hostility with
India. On the contrary, we have lost a number of opportunities to learn
together with each other and contribute to the universal knowledge system. We
have squandered the opportunity to gain a dignified place in the civilized
world. Hostility has affected our energy, creativity and resources. Having experienced
economic loss, political subjugation, social and religious disintegration, we
are now at the stage when we should abandon our policy of hatred and bury the
hatchet with India and concentrate on improving, reforming and strengthening
our society internally.
To develop good and friendly relations with India, we must first of all correct
history textbooks that contain poisonous anti-Indian and anti-Hindu material.
It has already created a mindset, which believes in confrontation, jingoism and
extremism rather than tolerance and friendship. This mindset has to be changed.
Secondly, we must also make attempts to purge anti-Indian sentiments from our
media.
We all know that cultural ties play an effective role in bringing people
together. Therefore, there is a need to promote mutual social and cultural
relations between the people of the two countries. We must create a peaceful
world so that the coming generations are not required to live under the shadow
of war.
Javed Amir: Author of Writing Across Boundaries and Modern Soap.
Should Pakistan and India bury the hatchet is hardly the question. The real
question is how to bring this irrational historic animosity on the tormented
and nuclear-armed subcontinent to an end.
On several occasions, I have talked to senior diplomats of both Pakistan and
India in Washington. I must confess I have found only rigid mindsets. These
officials cling to a destructive past and seem bogged down in a bureaucratic
quagmire demanding a "full resolution of disputes".
What leaders of the two countries desperately need is the realization that this
is not a zero sum game. They must urgently engage in result-oriented dialogue
and look for new, win-win solutions.
In this regard, it is critical that they grasp the reality that deep-rooted
disputes cannot be ever "fully resolved". You can only transform
them. And how do you do that? With the explosive rise of fundamentalism and
hate in both countries, rational leaders on both sides should begin serious
discussions not only on confidence building measures like movement of people,
ideas and trade but jump start a broad based people movement where scholars,
journalists, farmers, students, artists, businessmen and politicians on either
side try to win the hearts and minds of each other's nation.
Uzma Aslam Khan: Author of The Story of Noble Rot and Trespassing.
If we value life, our two countries have no choice but to make peace. I'm
reminded of what a visiting Indian journalist said last year about the closure
of land and air routes: the other airlines, like Emirates and Gulf, were the
victors. When our two countries quarrel, the rest of the world prospers.
And so do our leaders. By keeping us divided, they reduce civilian power. One
way to reduce theirs is to start acknowledging, with an open heart, the
strength of those on the other side of the border. Perhaps the media in both
Pakistan and India could take this poll: what do you LIKE about each other? For
myself, I applaud Prime Minister Vajpayee's decision NOT to send troops to
Iraq. He has listened to the Indian public. It's called democracy. India,
despite sharing so many of Pakistan's handicaps - poverty, illiteracy,
pollution, overpopulation, religious extremism, and poor health care - has
never had a military dictatorship. The people of India should get credit for
this.
What we like about each other could be an institution, or something smaller. A
musician, a dancer, a forest, a dish, a book, a beach. It can start with a
tender detail, and then it can grow. But only if we truly value life.
Attiya Dawood: Feminist poet and writer, author of Raging to be Free
and Sindh ki Aurat: Sapnay Say Sach Tak.
Two years ago, I attended a three-month creative writing residency in New Delhi
where writers from different countries were present. One day, I went with
Meaghan, Brook and Peter to the Delhi museum. I queued up with my friends
before the window for foreign visitors. When the man at the counter saw me he
called out, "Why are you standing here? This queue is for foreigners. You
are supposed to stand here." My friends burst into laughter as did I. But
my laughter was laced with pain.
During my stay, I was never recognized as one coming from across the border
even though I always carried my papers in my purse and my identity was stamped
on my person. The fact is that all their progress notwithstanding, neither of
the two countries has a device to differentiate between the Indians and the
Pakistanis from their appearance.
It was my first visit to a foreign country, where there was nothing foreign to
me - the language, culture, literature, arts, civilization - absolutely
nothing. But my friends were granted more privileges in this land as compared
to me. They were free to travel anywhere and enter any city they wanted to. But
not I.
I was baffled. There is no force which can separate us. What sort of division
is this? The divisible cannot be divided. In Delhi, the mothers of Hiro Thakur
and Ashoke Bhutani ask me longingly to bring a pinch of soil from 'their' land
when I return to Delhi again. Thumping my chest I say, "Sure, why
not?"
Later, I realize how crazy I was. A pinch of soil could evoke an ocean of
hatred and prejudice, lined with the scum created by the rulers on both sides.
Dr Aslam Farrukhi: Researcher, literary critic and author of Angan
Mein Sitaray.
The doors of friendship between Pakistan and India are now ajar. The dosti
buses have started plying on the Lahore-Delhi route. Negotiations on air links
are on the cards. These are welcome moves, especially for a person who has been
a witness to the animosities of the last 56 years.
Friendship has always taken precedence over enmity for sensible people. Love is
a more powerful tool than hatred to resolve problems. Pakistan and India should
know. They have fought wars but not a single problem was resolved on the
battlefield and matters went from bad to worse. Mercifully they are now coming
to understand the truth and efforts are afoot to bring about reconciliation
between them.
Writers and poets are the ambassadors of love and friendship. Pakistani authors
have used their writings to bring the peoples of India and Pakistan closer so
that they can share their pain and sufferings.
I also wait eagerly for the air routes to open between Pakistan and India. I wait
for visits from my friends in India and look forward to receiving books, and
newspapers from there. I had been visiting the most revered shrine of Hazrat
Nizamuddin Aulia for sixteen years. I want to pay homage to my saint once
again.
I had composed a 'mauqabat' (adulatory verse) in praise of Hazrat Sultanji (RH)
five years ago. The sentiments still hold true. It runs:
Let humanism, love and peace prevail
Let flowers from every garden spread their fragrance
And in the bouquet collected fondly
Flowers from the Ravi and the Indus and the Ganges
and the Jamuna be interlaced
The time has come to pick the flowers.
Ahmad Faruqui: Economist and author of Rethinking the Natioanl
Security of Pakistan.
India and Pakistan need to bury the hatchet, or their second half-century would
look as bleak as their first. The partition of 1947 did not bring an end to the
"communal conflict" between the Muslims and the Hindus. It re-emerged
as the first war over Kashmir, which ended with Pakistan having won a third of
the "promised land." Two more major wars and several minor wars came
later, the realities on the ground changed but little. More than a hundred
thousand innocent lives were lost in the process. Billions were spent on
military expenditures that could have been used to feed the poor, educate the
children, minimize corruption and institutionalize sustainable development.
South Asia continues to be a low-income zone while the Asia-Pacific region,
which was just as poor a half century ago, now ranks among the world's
prosperous regions. If India and Pakistan were to bury the hatchet, there is no
limit to what they can accomplish together. When European nations with ancient
enmities spanning centuries can become friends, why can't India and Pakistan?
Their squabbling has impoverished a fifth of humanity, and only benefited the
merchants of hate and the purveyors of weaponry. It should stop.
Dr Farman Fatehpuri: Professor of Urdu, Chief Editor, Urdu Dictionary
Board and author of Taabirat-i-Ghalib, and Amli Tanqeeden, Niaz Shenasi and Mir
Ko Samajhney Ke Leeay.
It is now 55 years when the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent was declared
independent. That is the age the British government decreed as the retirement
age of its employees. Let us also retire the British imperialist legacy from
our midst. This is time enough for Pakistanis and Indians to cleanse their
minds of all such biases and prejudices that have hampered their progress and
welfare, as these were created with a purpose.
Let us compare ourselves with other countries, which won their liberation much
after us. They managed their affairs so skillfully to consolidate their power
so much so that today the major states of the West feel threatened by them. The
People's Republic of China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea and others have
gained in strength and prosperity and now they don't need not go to any other
country with a beggar's bowl.
If we analyze the causes behind our backwardness we will discover that the
mutual hatred, apprehensions, biases, narrow mindedness, intolerance and fears
that the two countries have nursed for decades have taken them to the verge of
destruction. These tools of suicide should now be buried deep. It is time to
promote love between the two nations and not hatred.
The nuclear age has taught us about life and death. We can now see the cause
behind our malaise. It is our ignorance about each other that breeds fear, and
it is fear that causes tension and social and political chaos. In the process
we have gone and acquired nuclear power with which we can only annihilate
ourselves. Let us use this knowledge to sow the seeds of peace, friendship and
development.
Mohsin Hamid: Author of Moth Smoke.
Forget India. Pakistan must bury the hatchet. We are strong enough to protect
ourselves: our nuclear deterrent makes an Indian invasion unthinkable. We are
too weak to win back Kashmir by force: India is seven times our size. So why
are we still carrying our hatchet? Our undeclared state of war only brainwashes
us, makes more of us unemployed, and condemns us to ignorance and poverty while
the rest of the world moves on.
From our side, let's put an end to our confrontation with India. If the Indians
reciprocate, wonderful. But even if they don't, even if they continue to growl
from across the border, we will still be better off than we are today, because
at least we will have begun to move away from a self-destructive value system
which places killers at its apex and teachers and doctors at its feet.
It is time we recognized that our conflict with India distorts the very nature
of our society. I, for one, would rather belong to a people known for their
determination to live well, not for their determination to die well.
Let's bury our hatchet and plant a mango tree on top of it.
Basit Haqqani: Author of Pappio.
We have been brought up, like bonsai trees - cut, pruned and forced to grow in
one direction, prevented from growing in another. Those who control our destiny
call this directed development "nation building". They deny that
nations grow through an autonomous process, nurtured by the nutrients absorbed
by the roots, down below, from the soil. They regard nationalism as a top-down
process, fed by airy stuff gathered by the canopy. That also explains our
fascination with, and unquestioning subordination to, ideology.
Ideologies and nationalism are essentially exclusionary processes. Cohesion in
the group is engendering by denial of the "other" who is outside our
"ideological and geographical frontiers" (as General Zia would have
said). Readiness for war is great national cement, but it serves other unspoken
and unspeakable purposes as well. On the people it has a very deleterious
effect. It skews their growth, distorts their character.
Pakistanis and Indians get on perfectly well with nationals of other countries.
When dealing with each other, however, they behave like the Taliban confronted
by women - fascinated but also strangely repelled. This ambivalence leads to an
undercurrent of hostility except when the two make a genuine effort and
discover each other's common humanity.
Decades of hostility has distorted our psyches, collective and individual. It
is time to change, for our sanity if for nothing else. Hostility has not
worked. Should we not give goodwill a chance?
Zahida Hina: Short story writer, author of Zamir Ki Awaz and Qaidi
Saans Leta Hai.
Those were the martyrs - Mangal Panday and Ishwari Panday lit the torch of
freedom by giving up their lives in 1857. The Rani of Jhansi, Hazrat Mahal,
Raja Kunwar Singh, Tantia Tope and Bakht Khan chose to die for Mughal India. In
the 20th century Bhagat Singh and Dada Ashfaq went to the gallows for India's
freedom. Then how did it happen that the Muslims and the Hindus took up the
hatchet against each other and launched on a campaign to decimate their rich
Indo-Iranian civilization and secular tradition? Sadly the killing spree goes
on.
This act of violence has given us the gift of terrorism, poverty, unemployment,
illiteracy, and many such social evils in its wake. In global politics, the US
has replaced the East India Company. The Americans have established their
military bases in our region, and are anxious to devour us with their economic
and military might.
Should we the Muslims and Hindus of South Asia continue to bleed each other to
death in the name of jihad and Hindutva? Has not the time come yet for us to
bury our hatchets, swords and kirpans and our hatred for each other, for the
sake of independence, right of self-determination and prosperity of the
subcontinent and our invaluable common culture?
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy: Professor of nuclear and high-energy physics and
author of Muslim and Science.
For the moment Pakistan-India relations seem to be on the upswing. But will
this happy situation last? It is easy to be lulled into complacency and forget
that the fundamentals remain unchanged. A hardline Hindu nationalist government
is in power in India, infatuated by dreams of national grandeur and dismissive
of the real needs of India's people.
On our side there is a government headed by soldiers, and fatally obsessed with
Kashmir. They keep telling us not to worry because nuclear weapons will always
prevent war by the very fact of their existence. This untested hypothesis has
created a dangerous sense of complacency even as we slide towards nuclear
apocalypse. None of South Asia's political and military leaders have yet
grasped Einstein's famous remark that the Bomb has changed everything except
our way of thinking.
Continuing militarization is glaring proof of the repeated failure of Indian
and Pakistani hawks to make peace. These men belong to two tribes that can
barely conceal their mutual animosity, but whose mindsets and perceptions are
cloned from the other. They can generate no recommendations, no discussions of
relevance and substance, and no goodwill for future initiatives.
Therefore, making peace will have to be a task for the people of the
subcontinent and the diaspora, spread far and wide. Only activists, scholars,
writers, journalists, and others who feel the urgency for breaking with the
past, can generate the goodwill needed for peace efforts to eventually succeed.
Intizar Husain: Writer, literary columnist and author of Dili Tha Jis
Ka Naam and Mulaqatein.
It seems strange that in spite of having so much in common between them,
Pakistan and India are at daggers drawn with each other. The people's craze for
each other's music, poetry, and fiction and their admiration, to the point of
adoration, of so many singers, actors, and writers on the other side of the
divide is demonstrative enough of the affinity between them. Yet they stand
estranged from each other.
Of course, when allowed, the people meet open heartedly and grow intimate in no
time. But opportunities of this sort are rare. India-Pakistan talks have begun
with high hopes in the past. Progress has been made fairly well giving a fillip
to our expectations, but just when everything appeared settled the talks were
broken off. This has happened again and again.
This oft-repeated sequence of events reminds me of the story of Yajooj-Majooj.
Those mythical twins would start each evening with the will to lick up the
heavy wall obstructing their way. The whole night they would be at work and
towards the morning they felt that the wall had been licked to the thickness of
fine paper. With a sigh of relief they would take a nap. And when they woke up,
they found the wall once again as high and as thick as it originally was.
I feel that Pakistan and India have been trapped in this Yajooj-Majooj syndrome.
Not all myths are pleasant. Our misfortune is that Yajooj-Majooj forebode
trouble for us. But according to the legend there must come a dawn when
Yajooj-Majooj will find to their pleasant surprise that the wall has been
licked away.
Can we hope for some such surprise? Is the wall really going to be wiped out
this time? Who knows.
Aquila Ismail: Writer, translator and editor of Harvest of Anger and
compiler of several reports for the Urban Resource Centre.
When Pakistanis and Indians get together in third countries, the talk
invariably turns to the relationship between our two countries. We might be
discussing food, clothes, cricket, Iraq, Palestine whatever, but at the root
are the ties between the two governments. People from both sides realize that
the tensions between India and Pakistan stem from the insecurities of their
rulers and it is time this should end. There is an overwhelming desire that
this maddeningly stupid situation should be normalized.
In the multicultural, multinational milieu of the
UAE, where I live, each friend and neighbour belongs to a different
country/religion/culture. The irony is that the closest in kindred spirit are
Indians and Pakistanis. So whereas there are societies of North America,
Francophiles, Latin America, etc, the only group missing is one that embodies
the subcontinent.
Ramesh and Promil, Bedi and Manju, Kala Banga, etc etc love our ways. We share
our table with them on Eid and they invite us to their Navratri celebration.
Each imbibes what is good in the other in the celebration of life. Bedi grew up
in Gowalmandi Lahore, and Kala lived in Tulsi House in Clifton. They long to
come and see their place of birth. We want to go to Delhi to experience the
rich cultural diversity that the city has to offer and to see the remnants of
our glorious past before we went underway into imperial conquest.
During the Iraq war, when Sanabel conducted a food and cash drive for our Iraqi
brothers and sisters, the Indians and Pakistanis were major participants...
volunteering, collecting, packing for hours on end. Its time this very
artificial divide between us comes to an end and we live like we were meant
to... good friends, neighbors in the universal acceptance of diversity and
tolerance.
Mohammad Ibrahim Joya: Educationist, intellectual and author of Shah
Sachchal Sani.
In August 1947 India was divided into Indian India calling itself Bharat and
Muslim India calling itself Pakistan. The hands that held the hatchets, while
dividing the land, hurled them in disgust at each other. They instantly
replicated the hatchets, which they have been waving ever since at each other
in impotent rage.
And what are these hatchets? They are identical in shape and form on both
sides, otherwise the contestants could not have survived their mutual forays.
But this game has cost them dear: mass poverty, loss of national prestige, the
inertness of the people, and the rise of violence and intolerance. Politicized
communalism sprouted in the two countries and played havoc with their societies.
Now we have happy tidings that the political environment in the region is
changing. The time has come for India and Pakistan to voluntarily bury their
hatchets for good. Europe is a role model. This continent was blessed with the
Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution.
It led the way in introducing democracy to the world. On the eve of the new
millennium, Europe announced the end of the era of confrontation and declared
that it was "liberating itself from the legacy of its past".
Let the peoples of the Indian subcontinent follow in the footprints of the
liberated Europe. Will they end their troubles, and move forward to establish
in the near future "The Conference on Security and Cooperation of India
and Pakistan" as the European nations have done in Helsinki?
Kishwar Naheed: Feminist writer, poet, translator and author of The
Distance of Shout.
In this scientific age you can get your nose or eyes changed but not political
neighbours. What a tragic history India and Pakistan have had - their politics
has thrived at the cost of friendship between the two countries. Who controlled
the policy, army and fundamentalists in Pakistan? And who controlled the
Pandits of Kashmir and the fundamentalists in India?
Now the syllabus of the two countries is full of hatred and distorted history.
Both the curriculum makers don't abuse the British colonialists but promote
hatred between the Muslims and the Hindus.
Interestingly this emotional hatred is between North
India and northern Pakistan. The rest of the population of both the countries
are least bothered about Kashmir or any other issue. The people at large wish
for a peaceful South Asia like the European Union.
Dr Tariq
Rahman: Academician, scholar and author of several
books including Language and Politics in Pakistan.
Pakistan and India have suffered incalculably because of the state of hostility between them. First, many families became separated and the emotional cost of never being able to meet loved ones was simply inexpressible. Then there was the cultural cost. There was much both the countries could have gained by being able to exchange views and cultural artifacts. This is done but at the cost of hypocrisy i.e. Indian songs and movies are enjoyed in Pakistan but the stated policy is to ban them and hate them. Then, there is the cost to trade which is best known to business people who often lament the insanity of not being able to buy and sell things except through smugglers. Above all, there is the cost to the people because of military spending. It is only recently that a new and grisly hydra has raised its head - the possibility of nuclear extiction! If this happens, we will also have to reckon the cost to the environment which one can hardly contemplate without shuddering at the prospect. For all these reasons, it is insane not to bury the hatchet. But how is any government to do so? After all, both sides have spread so much hatred against each other through official textbooks, unofficial posturing and the hateful speeches of religious fanatics on both sides that the public has taken the governments hostage.
The governments may want to move away from their
earlier positions but the public would not let them. This is the common
perception. However, my recent surveys of the opinions of students and teachers
in Pakistan tells me that the public does not want war. Indeed, it wants peace
though it imagines that this peace is possible without fexibility and
compromise. This is an illusion. The way to buy peace is to make the public
flexible on both sides. This will take long but it is possible. It is also in
the long-term interests of the elites of both sides since they can only prosper
if the countries remain. Not to bury the hatchet endangers the very existence
of South Asia. It is one of the greatest perils on the planet.
Fehmida Riaz: Feminist poet, short story writer and author of Badan Dareeda.
Purva Anchal
How beautiful is this land!
Beautiful and long-suffering.
A shawl of buckwheat green
Flutters in the wake
Of this train speeding
Through the East.
As far as eye can see,
Green fields and granaries.
This land is a peasant woman
Coming home from the fields
With a bundle on her head.
Home?
Where angry vultures wheel
Over the rooftops and threaten to lunge,
Any minute, in any direction?
The grass is wet with dew,
Unless my tear-glazed eyes
See only tears.
Brick and stone
Reduced to rubble.
Mosque and temple still locked
In the same old squabble.
Every brow disfigured
By a frown.
A son of this land,
Laid long ago to rest,
Wakens now,
To bring you peace.
Listen to Kabir,
Who pleads with you:
Wars of hatred
Do no honour to God.
Ram and Rahim both
Will shun a loveless land.
Near a bamboo grove
Across the unruffled River Sarju,
By a lotus pond thick with blooms,
Stands a Buddha tablet
With a message from the wise.
"When two are locked in conflict and ready to
lose their lives,
neither can win in the end,
unless both do - and equally.
A battle lost by either
Will be fought and refought
Until both are destroyed
And both are equal losers".
Such are the paradigms of war,
Such the insight of the Buddha.
Why are we, his heirs, so blind?
The Pandit and the Mullah
Are flattered and hung with garlands
And feasted and housed like lords,
While you, dear people of the land,
Are drowned every time
In the bloodbaths they inspire.
(Translated into English by Patricia L. Sharpe and
Salman Tariq Qureshi)
Prof
Hasan-Askari Rizvi: Professor of political science
and author of Pakistan's Nuclear Programme, The Military State and Society in
Pakistan, The Military and Politics in Pakistan, 1947-1997.
Their relationship of distrust, acrimony and war spread over 56 years, had a negative impact on Pakistan and India. It has strengthened the forces of extremism and intolerance in both countries, dehumanized their bilateral relations, and diverted the attention of the two states away from human development.
This approach should now change for two major
reasons. First, this has accentuated Pakistan-India problems and locked them in
a perpetual conflict. The human and material costs of this relationship are
becoming unbearable.
Secondly, Pakistan and India cannot cope with the
challenges of the 21st century without evolving mutually acceptable solutions
to their problems. The pressures of globalization, the primacy of economic
issues, trade and investment in world affairs and the on-going revolution in
science, technology and human sciences leave little room for continuing with
the old policies of confrontation.
Pakistan and India should compose their differences
and develop harmonious interaction so that they do not become irrelevant to the
world of the 21st century. Let us commit ourselves to peace and good
neighbourly relations and a better future for the ordinary folks of the two
countries.
Bina Shah: Author of Animal Medicine and Where they Dream in Blue.
I think it's a very good idea. The subcontinent
needs positivity instead of the negativity we've all grown up in, which really
affects us and drains us of energy in every sphere. What's vital to this is
that we drop the hostile competition that seems to have built up between us and
encourage people from both sides of the border to travel and get to know each
other, like estranged families that agree to put aside their differences so
that they can get on with their futures instead of being harnessed to their
pasts. We can put our heads together and really come up with creative solutions
for our problems, including poverty alleviation, education, and health issues.
Pakistan and India have a lot to learn from one
another, and I envision a day beyond the repair of the political relationship,
when there is a free flow of ideas and activities in academics, science,
culture, and sports between our two countries. There's a lot to lose if we
continue to face each other as enemies and I think there's even more to gain if
we can resolve our differences and treat each other as friends and allies in
development and prosperity.
Kamila Shamsi: Award-winning author of In the City by the Sea, Salt and Saffron and
Kartography.
It seems a matter of common sense that neighbouring
nations should find ways to peacefully coexist - no country can prosper and
flourish while living under the threat of war. So, of course, it is in
Pakistan's self-interest to improve relations with India. The question is how
this should be done.
In this context, the phrase 'bury the hatchet' is an
interesting one. Its origins lie in the creation of the League of the Great
Peace, of the Five Iroquois Nations (which later became the League of the Six
Nations) which introduced for the first time in history the idea of a peaceful
federation, with a cooperative over-government uniting disparate but sovereign
nations. At the ceremony establishing the League, war weapons (including
hatchets) were symbolically buried under a pine tree.
Strangely, the League of the Great Peace doesn't
seem too dissimilar from the ideas of the Cabinet Mission Plan which the Muslim
League accepted in 1946, and Nehru turned down. So I suppose we could say the
chance to bury the hatchet was squandered long ago. We are now faced with the
far more arduous task of finding ways to resolve the dispute over Kashmir. Once
that is done, the primary obstacle to peaceful coexistence and economic
cooperation is removed. It must be done for the sake of Pakistan's future, but
it will take a lot more than symbolic gestures to achieve it.
Dr Ayesha
Siddiqa: Expert on strategic studies and author of
Pakistan's Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99: In Search of a
Policy.
Before one gets down to suggesting recipes for
solving the issue, it is worth pointing out that the issue has been manipulated
and exploited by both sides resulting in depriving their own people of a better
future. Once this fact is understood then naturally the answer is that we
should bury the hatchet, which we are told is not an easy thing. Perhaps, it is
not, especially for people who have personal interests tied with the prolongation
of this war.
A look at national interests would make the
leadership understand that this is the time that the issue should be buried. As
long as it is understood the greater interest of solving it, it would not take
a lot for the Indian leadership to understand that a resolution of the issue
would not necessarily break India, or for Pakistan's military to understand
that Pakistan would probably survive better without this dispute. Of course,
the best option at this stage is to have an independent Kashmir with sovereign
guarantees to be provided by both India and Pakistan. However, the next best
option is to institute a mechanism of soft borders with Kashmiris allowed to
travel across. This would necessarily mean accepting the LoC as the international
boundary. These are two extremes for both the leaderships to think through
keeping in view the future of the entire region that, today, hangs in the
balance.
Bapsi Sidhwa: Award-winning author of The Croweaters, The Bride, The Ice-Man and The
American Brat.
There are so many 'hatchets' requiring burial that one must ask: 'Which
hatchet?' And often it is not a question of 'should we' but 'can we?' Can we
bury the Kashmir hatchet? Can we bury the hate and distrust with which each
religious community views the other? Given that one should not even contemplate
the use of nuclear weapons, can we bury our inclination to pull the trigger? Or
even stem our pride in these abominations?
But if by some lunatic leap of faith and sanity we arrive at an accommodation with each other - see our common humanity instead of our differences, we will experience the joy that comes of shedding communal distrust and fears and being at peace with our neighbours... And there is an endless and enriching trajectory of further benefits - an exciting exchange of newspapers, books and ideas.
The billions spent on purchasing arsenal and
maintaining armies will become available instead for education and health
services. Green onyx and Benarsi silks, CD's of Qawalis and bhajans, cars and
computers will keep the money in circulation and the economy buoyant. We will
exchange tourists instead of terroristsand resolve issues through discussions
and shed misconceptions - and who knows our politicians in the National
Assembly and Lok Sabha will exchange poems instead of bellicose ultimatums.
Aameen.
Dr Sher Zaman
Taizi Pushto scholar and author of Gul Khan,
Ghunday, Amanat and Wadah o' N'sho.
YES!
There are some small segments of society on both sides, which want disturbance and violence to serve their nefarious interests. They are (a) religious fanatics, (b) greedy business communities, (c) profiteers, (d) black marketers and (e) fame-hungry politicians. They create new issues and exploit dormant issues to fog the minds of the people and entangle them in non-issues.
Majorities on both sides are now tired of their evil
designs.
India and Pakistan have no reason to deprive
millions of their peoples of their basic rights to security, health and
education in the immoral games of the small vested interests.
Of late, hope has emerged on the horizon and the
clouds of distrust are thinning. That is how I see the restoration of the Dosti
Bus Service; the resumption of the junior one-day cricket matches, the return
of the High Commissioners to the two capitals and the recent bilateral trade
agreement between the chambers of commerce of both the countries.
Bacha Khan persistently emphasized peaceful
co-existence in the region - between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We should
not forget the lesson given by this great visionary figure.
It is now time for Pakistan and India to cut down
their expenditures on defence and the money thus saved should be diverted to
security, health and education, and overall prosperity of their peoples. Both
countries should destroy their nuclear weapons under the joint supervisions of
teams of their own experts and UN experts. We don't need atom bombs.We need
books.
S. Akbar Zaidi: Social scientist and
author of many books including Issues in Pakistan's Economy, The Dismal State
of the Social Sciences in Pakistan and Continuity and Change: Socio-Political
and Institutional Dynamics in Pakistan.
Is it at all possible for a sane person to ask such
a question, seriously? If Pakistan and India don't 'bury the hatchet', the
animosity and mistrust between the two states will continue for another half
century, or longer. Yet, I don't see that happening. Not that the current thaw
in relations will lead to anything significant other than restoring previous
links and ties, but it somehow does not seem possible for the two countries to
continue the way they have over the last three decades. I think geopolitical,
regional, and global economic developments in this decade, will move towards
the unbuckling of tensions and conflict between the two.
This does not mean at all that there will be a South
Asian Union or Federation of any kind in the next decade or so, but I think
there are better times ahead. Importantly, the 'Independence' generation -
those who participated in the Partition/ Independence movements - would soon no
longer be around, and another, younger, generation in both countries which has
been brought up after Independence, will probably look at life differently.
The lead towards better relations must come from
India, the predominant power in the region, which will evolve into an even more
formidable regional player with global aspirations by 2025, and will need to
play a more mature, more generous and conciliatory role in South Asia.