Lessons from a Cement Company

I' m sure just about everyone has seen the ad. Two brothers, B R Thakur and S R Thakur, reconcile after many years, over the wall that divides their ancestral property. "Chhotu!" says the older, more conservative brother, dressed in kurta-pyjama and a turban. His side of the family mirror him in all respects. "Bhaiyya!" cries out the younger brother, with just as much feeling. He is more modern in dress and appearance, just like his side of the family.

The brothers decide to break down the wall separating them. They call upon family members to bring the barrier down and the two clans use their respective methods to try and do the job. They are, ultimately, unsuccessful. "Tootegi kaise? Ambuja Cement se deewaar jo bani hai?"

Does this seem familiar? If it doesn't, it should. The Father of the nation of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, while negotiating with Lord Mountbatten for the vivisection of India, assured him that Partition would be like a case that he had once handled, a property dispute between two brothers. The brothers were at each others' throats during the case, but a year after the judgement they were "the best of friends". He was confident that this would be the case with India and Pakistan.

Regrettably, that hasn't happened. Our nations still view each other with suspicion, over many issues: terrorism, Kashmir, the 1971 war of Bangladeshi Independence and now, nuclear capability. The man on the street in India is mostly hostile towards Pakistan as a nation, though individual Pakistani visitors are still treated with courtesy. We have come to see Pakistan as a poor, backward, dangerous nation, run in turn by fanatic mullahs and power-hungry army officers. We see it as a nation that routinely bombs our cities without declaring war on us openly.

The Pakistanis, in turn, see us as a cruel nation, suppressing Kashmiri aspirations for independence or accession to Pakistan. We are the interfering busybodies that severed their nation in two. We are the knaves that wouldn't give them their share of the treasury during Partition (in India's defence, we were fighting a war with them at that moment).Nonetheless, Indian visitors to Pakistan are welcomed warmly as is the tradition in those parts.

As an Indian, I think that most people wish Pakistan would just go away. They wish that there were no more bomb blasts in our cities and massacres in Kashmir; these are things that deter foreign investors. Europe and America are seem closer to us: culturally, politically, diplomatically and, in these days of dizzying prosperity, economically. Pakistan is the poor, embarrassing and hostile neighbour that we wish would just move to the slum.  "WE are part of high society now"; this is the general feeling towards Pakistan, no matter how much we may love Adnan Sami or Strings.

Let's not kid ourselves. Our nations are inextricably bound. What affects them affects us and vice versa. Pakistan's failures, economic and political, should be a cause of grave concern for us, rather than a reason to feel smug. The reasons for it are both pragmatic and idealistic. The most compelling reason for us to wish Pakistan economic progress and political stability is to free the country from the clutches of India's sworn enemies: the Islamic fundamentalists and the Pakistan Army. Democracy, real democracy, not the sham being perpetrated by Pervez Musharraf, is the only hope for peace between our countries. Let's not forget, Pakistan have a nuclear arsenal and delivery capability, gifts from our other  dear neighbour, the People's Republic of China. The cost of a war would be too much for us to bear, even in victory.

The idealistic reason for wishing Pakistan success is simply because they were, and still are, a part of us. Bengal and Punjab, the two regions most affected by Partition, have strong, vibrant cultures. The bond of language and culture are very strong, even when separated by boundaries. There are many families in both nations having relatives on the other side. Sindhis in India and other displaced communities on both sides still bear the scars of being torn from their motherland. Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis still have more in common with each other than almost anyone else.

What is the point of this post? It is a prayer for peace. In a perfect world, our nations will form a European Union-like group. If France and Germany can share a common currency and allow their citizens 
to cross borders freely, a mere sixty years after fighting the most destructive war in history, why can't we? The Continent, which was once war-infested, has known its longest period of peace in thousands of years. "Imagine all the people...sharing all the world"-John Lennon