The 'same people' mantra

Whenever, I visited India officially, it annoyed me as most of the bureaucratic and wholly-headed media and socialites said to be liberals, gave us the sermon that India and Pakistan are the same people. It was like a mission statement tailored to be given to all Pakistanis, with a soft note that the Partition was un-natural. 

I listened without loosing my cool and intentionally avoided getting into any confrontation or argument to embarras my host. However I did communicate that I respect your views and I have equal rights to have my own views, which are contrary to yours. 

The only person I come across, courtesy of a friend, was said to T.V., anchor and columnist of Hindustan Times, who vehemently debated and confronted the Indian Punjabi liberals to the effect that when it comes to India and Pakistan, we are the same people. He pleaded that it may be true before 1947 as Pakistan was part of British India and Punjabis from West Punjab were as Indian as, say, Tamils from Madras. 

He deliberated that gap between the Tamils and Indian Punjabis have narrowed, thanks to improved communications, shared popular culture and greater physical mobility, the gap between Indians and Pakistanis has now widened to the extent that we are no longer the same people in any significant sense. I argued with the view of Indian columnist, however politely disputing that we were different even prior to 1947, even though we shared cultural values, neighbourhoods and gastronomic habits, but there were many dividing factors, last religion. It is true that we inherited some Hindu cultural customs due to the dominance of the majority Hindu populace. 

To support my argument I quoted Guru Gowalker who posited in his book, published in 1939, that the North Pole was in India and fudged what would be akin to Wagner's theory of continental shift to justify the location of Indo-Aryans as people eternally rooted in India. Gowalker's theory has neither been denied or disowned by his followers. 

It is a pity that it continues to help rationalise the imagined " Son of the Soil" claims of a few, whereas all other groups who come to India later are projected as invaders. The Muslim fall in the category of invaders. Thus how we could be same people, when we are not treated as sons of the soil, despite living together for generations. It is not easy to market your own ideas, although duly supported by logic and history. Some saner elements accepted them but Rhetoric, of the same mantra by government officials continued to brain wash us. 

I, had the privilege of visiting many states in India and I can say that due to abject poverty many cities in particular, the city of Jaipur islands, on the main road near Hawa Mahal, are infested with various statues of gods and flowers and every Indian to me was far more religious than a Pakistani. 

Indians are equally proud of their history and religion both, which is evident with temples, be it at Bombay or Amritsar, full of the masses. I was awakened at 4 am in my Clark hotel, with the Bhajans that continued upto 0800 hours. Thus religion in India too is a dominant force and the same is reflected by the BJP, whereas Islamists never win more than a few seats to form a federal or provincial government. 

In spite of 123 separatist movements in India, the Bharat Mata has been a cohesive force, again a religious factor that needs not be elaborated. I was witness to a road show in Delhi where the Indian map was displayed and a leader in Safron cap was cursing us that the two hands of Bharat Mata, ie Pakistan and Bangladesh, have now been chopped off by invaders from the west. 

I, agree the percentage of such fanatics may be minimal, but they do exist in secular India. We also cant deny such fanatics in our land of the pure. The suicide bombing invented by the Japanese in 40's was re-invented by PARBHAKARAN of LTTE who was trained in Tamil Nadu, and now our zealots are following same. 

The majority of Pakistanis do not subscribe to extremism as the elections reflect, but some religious devotees feel so embattled and embittered by the questioning or rejection of their cherished beliefs that they are prepared to resort to murder, even indiscriminate mass murder as had been the case in Gujrat with Muslims and Christians in Orissa, so is the wave in Pakistan. 

This only happens wherever fanaticism is mixed with resentment and ignorance to produce the hateful brew of what is done in the name of faith. Whilst watching the Indian media, it is astonishing to see that Indian leaders who in their election campaign, are promising a great past rather than future. 

We, in Pakistan are unfortunate that due to poor governance / diplomacy we could not reflect a soft image of Pakistan, whereas in spite of religious / ethnic cleansing, Indians have been portraying their then soft image of an incredible / shining India. We must accept our failure that we could not project ourselves well. I have explained to my Indian friends that we don't have the same mind set, whilst Indians remain cool, we confront aggressively, damaging our case. 

More so I have yet to meet an Indian in US/UK and Gulf, who publicly condemns a India irrespective of being a Tamil or Northeren, but we Pakistanis, as a fashion, in particular the well-to-do condemn Pakistan in public abroad, which is a shameful act, as there is nothing wrong with any country. 

It is the governance to be blamed and we must not cast any aspirations on our motherland. We should learn from the Indians to restrain ourselves, at-least when abroad. I still recall a Pakistani cursing Pakistan a few years back on the US media, who has now been rewarded and is now a diplomat. 

It gave me immense pleasure to read an article in the Hindustan Times of Saturday 14th March by Vir Sanghvi the famous anchor and columnist, at last agreeing that Indians and Pakistanis are poles apart, and the Indian mis-guided liberals who keep blathering on about us being the same people forget that in the 60 odd years since independence, our two nations have traversed very different paths. I tend to agree and only subscribe to his above observation and not the article in totality. 

Pakistanis are well advised to see the Slum dog millionaire' to know the real face of shining India. The movie has exposed the poverty of a G-20 nuclear and most cherished state in the US and West. 

Some in the Sub-continent try to palliate or even excuse the crimes committed in the name of religion in human history by invoking the glorious art and music it has produced, to which the answer is that Greek mythology and secular avocations have done the same, without burning anyone at the stake in process. 

I am the fervent opinion that we live and trade as good neighbours whilst respecting each other mutually, without any hegemony, as two different nations but good neighbours and friends, forgetting the past aiming for a prosperous future for South East Asia. I am sure this is achievable if we don't mix religion with governance and draw political mileage out of religion.