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"Patriotism" boon or bane?

Samir Gupta

An Indian
wonders who
his enemy is
across the
border. Is it
everything and
everyone
associated with
Pakistan,
security forces
or something
more subtle?

t is twilight on a
Wednesday evening
and I hear loud chants
coming from the public
park opposite my house -"Bharat Mata ki Jai" (long
live Mother India). It's a
group of teenagers from
relatively poor families in
a training session run by a
nationalist group. The
electoral win for a "Hindutva" government at
the centre in India has made
patriotism fashionable as
India moves decidedly in a
majoritarian
direction.
Slowly but surely, India is following in the footsteps of its
western neighbour and estranged sibling, Pakistan.
The National pledge introduced in schools on 26 January 1965 was originally reserved for special occasions
like Independence Day and
Republic Day. I had even forgotten its text until I attended
a school assembly recently
and learnt that it is now recited every day there. The national pledge ends: "To my
country and my people, I
pledge my devotion. In their
well-being and prosperity
alone lies my happiness".
Stirring words indeed, but if
you look closely, therein lie
the seeds of competitive nationalism.
The media reinforce the
nationalistic conditioning imparted by our schools, as
media outlets sensationalise
every incident related to Pakistan to sell their reports and
grab the attention of the
viewers and readers. When
Lata Mangeshkar sings "Aye
mere watan kay logon, jara
aankh main bhar lo paanee,
jo shaheed huway hain unkee
jara yaad karo qurbanee. Jai
Hind Kee Sena", it arouses an
emotional reaction that
makes me want to stand up
and fight the enemy.
But who is the enemy? Is
it the nation of Pakistan?
What/who is Pakistan anyway? The landmass demarcated by cartographers? The
people who live there, or
both? Surely the forests, the
animals and the rivers can't
be my enemy. It is perhaps
the people.
Which people though?
Can't be my friends who are
so full of love for me. Must be
the bloodthirsty loonies who
roam the streets of Lahore,
Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar. The same people
who are themselves being
targeted by terrorists and

Who's the enemy? Students at Edinburgh University. Photo: Intasar-ul-Haq

criminals every day? Who
welcomed Indians with so
much love during the 2003
cricket match series? The
Pakistan Army Chief, Gen
Raheel Sharif and his predecessor, Gen Kayani are both
talking about terrorist groups
being the enemies of Pakistan.
One of my dear friends
Fatima Harris is from India,
married into a military family
in Pakistan. She is an active
member of the Aman ki Asha
Facebook group, where I
first came across her. She
and her Pakistani family do
not seem like my enemy.
The most interesting Pakistani friend I have is a
Karachi based businessman
called Tariq Jamil Khan,

whom I 'met' via the Aman ki

Asha Facebook group. A
fiercely nationalistic Pakistani, he loses no opportunity to criticise India. His
Facebook wall is full of
provocative material that has
some of my Indian friends
seething with anger. Yet, over
the last eighteen months,
over Facebook posts, comments and chats and infrequent phone calls, we have
the developed the most wonderful relationship you can
have as a human being with
someone you have never met.
Every time I interact with
Tariq bhai, I feel an undefinable yet very strong connection with him that you can
only have with a family member. The quintessential

watanparast who is equally

critical of Pakistan's descent
from its Jinnah-ite beginning,
Tariq bhai is definitely not
my enemy.
Maybe the common people are not the enemies. Perhaps it is the security agencies, the militia, the
journalists, the talk show
hosts and the products of the
madrassas who are brainwashed into so-called 'Jihad'.
I am told that Pakistan is suffering badly from the disease
of ultra-nationalism that
India is catching fast on.
India's national shame is
the 1962 war with China that
we lost badly by all accounts,

imprinting China as the

enemy in our minds while
Pakistan still suffers from the
1971 nightmare. In an effort
to protect itself from a similar national catastrophe, Pakistan has locked itself into a
lonely corner.
Aha! So it is ultra-nationalism that is the disease. Jingoism or ultra-nationalism is
a self-perpetuating phenomenon that has people
draw up walls of fear and hatred against those that the national narrative terms as our
enemies. It is what gets fully
grown men hyperventilating
and frothing at the mouth
with rage at the slightest
provocation. It is what
causes them to behead
enemy soldiers, kill those
across the border as revenge
for the last cycle of violence,
to viciously attack anyone
who dares to stand up
against unfair and inaccurate
characterisations of those
across the border.
It is what caused many in
India to vilify the recent
movie PK for showing an Indian woman falling for a Pakistani man. It is what causes
many in Pakistan to lap up
the poison spouted by television hosts like Amir Liaquat
or Mubasher Luqman and
many in India to so the same
when leaders of Shiv Sena,
VHP and Bajrang Dal spew
poison in India. It is what
causes raucous celebrations
and despair when a cricket
match between the two countries is won or lost. As someone said once, "India-Pakistan cricket is war without
the military weapon".
"Patriotism cannot be our
final spiritual shelter; my
refuge is humanity. I will not
buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow
patriotism to triumph over
humanity as long as I live,"
said Rabindranath Tagore,
British India's first Nobel
prize winner.
As I turn to the Aman ki
Asha Facebook group where
I am a moderator, I realise
the need to do what I can as
an individual. I am strengthened by being part of a larger
group of volunteers striving
to tear down these walls of
bigotry and counter the hatemongers on both sides. After
all, we can only control our
own actions, as the Bhagwat
Gita famously teaches us.

The author is an IT profesional and peace activist based in

Ghaziabad, India. Email: samirguptacklear@yahoo.com

An app for India Pakistan love

n August 2013, as many on both sides of the

border jointly commemorated India and
Pakistan's Independence Days, Amrit
Sharma a young software engineer turned
project manager turned 'digital nomad'
launched IndiaLovesPakistan.com. The aim: "to
add the human element into the India Pakistan relationship".
Now Sharma, 28, has launched an Android app
called "India or Pakistan" through a self-funded
tech startup (IndiaOrPakistan.com).
"The goal," he says, "is to highlight the similarities between India and Pakistan, learn about some
monuments, and further humanise the Indo-Pak
relationship."
The app features photos of people, monuments, streets and markets. Users answer whether
they think the photo is of India or Pakistan, see the
correct answer, and get the next photo. Sharma is

Amrit Shah: adding the human element

'Shared history,
shared hopes'
he recent World Book
Fair, New Delhi, included a session on
'Shared
HistoryShared Hopes' with Prof.
Chaman Lal, Sadia Dehlvi,
Ram Mohan Rai and Dr.
Dhananjay Tripathi, organised
by Aaghaz-e-Dosti, a cross border initiative for Indo-Pak
friendship.
Aaghaz-e-Dosti founder
Ravi Nitesh moderated the session, starting with a recital of
the Lahore-based writer Saeed

Ahmed's poem 'Hamare

tumhare saanjhe hain' that
Ahmed had sent to Nitesh just
the day before. The poem honours writers and artists whose
works and thoughts the people
of India and Pakistan revere -like Manto, Ismat Chughtai,
Premchand, Krishan Chander,
Khushwant Singh and Bhagat
Singh.
Prof. Chaman Lal expressed the vision for a visafree South Asia like US-Canada
and the European Union. He

said he still hopes for the day

when Lahoris can come over
for Amritsari lassi and Amritsaris can go for Lahori kababs
whenever they choose.
'Goli nahee Boli chahiye'
(We all need talks, not bullets),
said social activist Ram Mohan
Rai, who also paid tribute to
the late Nirmala Deshpande, a
great bridge-builder between
India and Pakistan.
Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi of
South Asian University talked
about the changes in history

THE FIRST STEP

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

Feedback, contributions, photos, letters:

Email: amankiasha@janggroup.com.pk
Fax: +92-21-3241-8343
Post: aman ki asha c/o The News,
I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi

inspired by a 2012 TED talk by the Israeli graphic

designer Ronny Edry (Israel and Iran: A love
story? http://youtu.be/6Lp-NMaU0r8). When
war between Israel and Iran seemed imminent, Edry had shared a poster on Facebook
of himself and his daughter with the message: "Iranians ... we [heart] you."
Other Israelis joined him, and Iranians
responded warmly. The idea sparked many
Facebook communities like "Israel loves
Iran," "Iran loves Israel" and even "Palestine
loves Israel."
Hearing Edry's talk, Sharma realised
that thanks to social media, "the world is a
village with no degrees of separation". One
person with the right idea can be like lighting a candle in a dark room.
"What's more is that a candle can light other
candles without losing any of its brightness.

That's what we're seeing with more and more

social ventures - like DearNeighbour, Aao Dosti
Karein, Aaghez-e-Dosti, and soon to
launch Sarhadpaar by beyondviolence.org," says Sharma. "Over time, it
becomes abundantly clear that the silent
majority in India and Pakistan want to
live by each other's happiness, not each
other's misery.
Born in Delhi and raised in Kathmandu, Sharma lived in Minneapolis for
ten years. He has always had international friends, "including from the Pakistani embassy, from kindergarten till
university, I realized early on that people
are people, even if the politics between
their countries is complicated and at odds".
Beena Sarwar

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

B R I E F S

Pakistan launch of Naseeruddin

Shah's memoir
ell known Indian actor Naseeruddin
Shah will participate in a question
and answer session with director
Meenu Gaur, at the Oxford University Press,
Pakistan launch of his critically acclaimed
memoir 'And Then One Day' on Monday,
February 23 in Karachi. The book was earlier
published by Penguin Books India/Hamish
Hamilton, 2014.
Meenu Gaur is the co-director of the
award-winning Pakistani film 'Zinda Bhaag', produced by
Mazhar Zaidi and co-directed by Farjad Nabi, that stars Shah.

Pakistan frees Indian prisoners

n a goodwill gesture
on the day of India
and Pakistan's faceoff on the cricket field in
Adelaide, Pakistan repatriated 172 Indian fishermen and a civil prisoner
on Feb. 17.
Pakistani and Indian
coast guards routinely
Indian fishermen arrested by Pakistan. arrest fishermen from
Photo: Fareed Khan/AP
the other side along
with their boats for crossing the maritime boundary. It is difficult to identify the territorial waters while fishing in the Arabian
Sea.
Arrested fishermen often languish in jail even after serving
their terms due to poor diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan. They also suffer huge damages due to loss of livelihood
during imprisonment as well as the loss of their boats, costing
Rs three lakh to 10 lakh. Pakistan still holds 349 Indian prisoners
after the release of these 173. The prisoners were transported
from Karachi to Lahore by train..

Indian delegates at Lahore Lit Fest

he annual, three-day Lahore Literary Festival that kicks

off on Friday, Feb. 20, will feature sessions with several
Indian delegates including Romila Thapar, Naseerudin
Shah, Rahul Singh, Naresh Fernandez, Shobhaa De, Mohd
Asadudin, Saadia Dehlavi, Priya Kapoor, John Elliot, Shekar
Gupta, Mahesh Rao, Minu Bakshi, Ruchna Shah, Hiba Shah, Martand Khosla, Aakar Patel, and Anannya Vajhpai.
The International Advisory Committee of LLF 2015 comprises representatives from around South Asia and elsewhere -Maina Bhagat, Apeejay Kolkata Literature Fest; Libby Owen Edmunds, Galle Literary Festival; Yasmin El Rifae, Palestine Festival of Literature; Namita Gokhale, Jaipur Literature Festival and
Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi, Dhaka Hay Festival.

'A common desire'

he Third Indo-Pak Peace Calendar was launched in

Chandigarh along with a peace seminar at People's Convention Centre, Chandigarh, organised by Yuvsatta,
Peace Club of Dev Samaj College of Education and Aaghaz-eDosti, a joint Indo-Pak initiative of Mission Bhartiyam, India,
and The Catalyst, Pakistan.
The calendar features selected artworks by students from
both countries, as well as messages from prominent personalities on both sides of the border. It was earlier launched in
Delhi, Nashik, Panipat, Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
"We don't want war with Pakistan not because we love
Pakistan but because we love India," said Devika Mittal, Aaghaz-e-Dosti Convener, India. Speaking at the seminar, Prof.
Ronki Ram of Panjab University said that an average Indian
and a Pakistani share the same secret desire: to cross the
border, at least once to see what people are like on the
"other" side.
But "they will be highly disappointed because it is just the
same," he said. "We share a common history, a common language, a common culture and even a common desire among
average Indians and Pakistanis. And it's time to build these relations towards sustainable peace across South Asia.".

Exchange for
Change completed

n eighteen month
project titled Exchange for Change:
Pakistan India 2013
2015, involving 5,000 students from 31 schools across Karachi,
Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Dehradun,
has just been successfully completed, say the organisers, Citizens
Archive of Pakistan (CAP) and Routes2Roots (R2R), of India.
The children's stories are featured in a series of multi-media exhibitions titled 'Crossing Borders' that includes a giant interactive storybook, letters, collages, postcards and oral histories.
Organisers say that the project has negated stereotypical
views of the 'other' and "has brought about a visible change in
the perceptions of the young participants who will be the leaders
of tomorrow".

books that both countries made

after 1960. He also stressed the
need for more exchanges at the
level of youth, students, academics, activists and people besides government.
Member of a divided family,
Sadia Dehlvi shared the experiences and difficulties of
meeting family across the border due to visa issues. She
talked about her friend and
mentor the late journalist
Khushwant Singh who loved
Pakistan so much that he
would say 'My Makka Madina
is Pakistan'. She also talked
about Sufism and the common
culture of both countries. As
two houses under one roof,
both India and Pakistan have
to move on the path of Insaniyat (humanity), mohabbat
(love) and dosti (friendship),
she said.
aka (Left to Right): Ravi Nitesh, Ms. Sadia Dehlvi, Prof Chaman Lal, Ram Mohan Rai, Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi
A peace initiative whose time has come...

Destination Peace: A commitment by the Jang Group, Geo and The Times of India Group to
create an enabling environment that brings the people of Pakistan and India closer together,
contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.