The Indo-Pak Symbiosis: Brothers or Neighbors?

Bhaiyya Joshi
Mar 15, 2004

Regarding the ex-Pakistani pace bowler-turned politician Imran Khan’s novel suggestion of raising an - XI playing with the rest of the world, why should he stop short of going for more enduring ventures? He will, probably, face opposition from his compatriots. And there may be an Indian crowd mocking at his proposal. So what?

A new idea is always born in an unreceptive . The adversaries and opponents are numerous, the supporters, few. I have lived in the U.S. for some time. My background is Hindu, but I am not much of an ascetic. I have met many Pakistanis and was surprised a large number of them have views not essentially different from mine. We all know the division of the into and was not the best thing happened to us. It did not serve a good purpose, though it fed a few egos on both sides of the Indus. The premise that the religious entities dominating the two countries cannot intermingle seems farfetched.

During the partition and thereafter in four wars, more than a million Hindus and Muslims perished─most of whom had neither political affiliations nor a perception of a nation state. These carnages have not resolved anything; well, they were not expected to do so. But even at the peak of animosity between the two communities, while the waters of Chenab and Ganges ran deep red, there was no racial divide. Only the centuries-old cultural interchange took an unhealthy pause, albeit a long one. Other than the catastrophe resulting from the unfortunate breakup of British , the actual number of in and in the last seventy-to-eighty years does not differ significantly from the sectarian in Northern Ireland or the tribal warfare in the African continent, during the same period. These countries still remain in one piece. The tragic incidents of , where the Muslims suffered, or the killings following the Babri Masjid demolition a decade earlier, tend more to be exceptions than the norm. Save for the quarantining of the two countries, there wouldn’t have been a border dispute. It is hard to solve this nagging problem even at a conceptual level. And the forthcoming composite “” dialogue between the respective foreign secretaries and eventually the higher-ups we keep hearing about? It is unlikely anything substantial vis-à-vis is going to come out of these talks despite the hilarious hullabaloo during the recent SAARC gathering. Which of the two heads of states can afford a compromise? Such a move will be suicidal for at least one of them literally, not just politically─à la Yitzack Rabin.

Referring to a known statistic, the number of Muslims in is at least comparable to the of . Are the Indian Muslims unhappy? Not any more than the Hindus. Fact, the Muslims succeed as much as others in , and in every field. The richest Indian, an entrepreneur, Azim Premjee, is a Muslim. stars Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan,Yusuf Irfan Pathan make proud. The third Muslim President of and the father of its missile program, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is unassuming enough even for an average Pakistani to easily relate to. Which, incidentally, brings to mind the other Abdul (Quadeer Khan), the Almelo (Holland)-trained father of ’s nuclear bomb, now pardoned by the of for his role in the nuke-design sales to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. Regardless of the facts (there is a strong possibility of his taking the full rap for absolving the past and present rulers and army heads of ) in this matter, imagine the two men guiding research projects in tandem, and helping avoid enormous spending on the so-called national defenses.

Touching on other endeavors, the ex-Pakistani Tariq Ali or the titular Indian Fareed Zakaria are oftentimes critical of , and one need not agree with them always. But nothing they write is offensive to the right-minded Indian. Identically, remarks from Kuldip Nayar or Khushwant Singh can be tolerated by any Pakistani patriot.

The history of a leading segment of the entertainment industry in , the Hindi/Urdu , is filled with anecdotes that almost defy the “two-nation” theory. The year of the partition () saw Mallika-e-Tarannum Noorjehan bid farewell to Bollywood and adopt as her home. But her co-star in the then released Jugnoo, Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan), remained in . Were their fames and fortunes affected? Not really. The actress/singer Khurshid (Irshad Begum), the director Zia Sarhaddi, the song writer Ghulam Haider (the discoverer of Lata Mangeshkar) opted for , but Shamshad Begum, Mehboob Khan, and the genius that was Sajjad Hussain did not. Without a , these were individual decisions. It will not create chaos in if the foursome Khans, suddenly, pack up their bags and decide to devote themselves to the Pakistani large screen, or if another Indian Muslim, hopping from Allahabad to Aurangabad to Ahmedabad, moves on to Jacobabad for better business prospects. Actually, sites such as Kutub Minar and Taj Mahal belong to both the countries, as do Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro, in an archeological/philosophical sort of way.

Hearing about the ex-Prime Minister of , Benazir Bhutto, complimenting the Indian Prime Minister Vajpai at the conference on Dividend in New was indeed, a gratifying experience. The “Rawalpindi Express” Akhtar’s recent giving away of the cricketing award to Tendulkar in Mumbai shows a similar upsurge in bringing the separated countries closer. With all their rivalries, the two peoples have a greater deal in common than one realizes.

The contrived notion the Muslim in is deprived of what the Pakistani Muslim gets naturally has to change. The founder of , , was a democrat and a modernist; so was , the first Prime Minister of and the architect of its multi-party system. Both were enlightened humans of secular instincts, and on a lighter note, neither was a vegetarian. So, where did it go wrong?

The gossip within the Viceroy Wavell’s administration had feeling sidetracked by and during the freedom struggle. Did the clash of the titans emanate from their Asiatic preeminence? It is alleged Allama Iqbal was disenchanted with his in the uniqueness of undivided ─but only for personal reasons─and was instrumental in bringing to his newly-formed point of view. Lately a story is making rounds in the diplomatic circles of Islamabad about ’s having melancholic second thoughts during his last days on the righteousness of creating . Whatever may be the brutal truth, is it late to undo the infamous split of the brightest jewel in the British crown? The alluded process can lead the way to a federation with twin capitals, a unified province of , and a provision for a reversal of the setup if things do not work out well. That is better than effecting a metamorphosis of the LoC into an international border. Worse still, with the continued militant-insurgency in , we may inadvertently create a Palestine-like situation in , culminating in the fifth and maybe the final(?) between the two unfortunate countries. One shudders at the thought.

The hindrance to the futuristic design may not be so much in the enactment of these plans as in the thinkable and probable lack of such a desire even among many open-minded Indians and Pakistanis. The anomaly is saddening in that these “backward” nations also comprise some of the finest minds world culture has witnessed. Egypt and Syria tried their hands at coming together during the cold . We can succeed where they had failed. It is worth living for because the stakes are much higher.