Punjab holds the key to peace

Ishtiaq Ahmed

Daily News: Saturday, February 10, 2007

The year 2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the bloody partition of the two key provinces of Bengal and Punjab as well as of India. In a series of forthcoming articles I shall from time to time review different aspects of that cataclysmal event. My special focus will be on the Punjab.

Some people suggest that the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16, 1946, was the best solution to the communal tangle of the subcontinent. Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah accepted it but it was rejected by the Congress. Therefore the Congress Party bears the main responsibility for the division of India.

From the Indian side, one hears that the Cabinet Mission Plan would have resulted in the balkanisation of India, and probably brought the India-Pakistan border nearer Ambala or Delhi than where it is now. By entering into treaties with princes and other supporters of the Raj the British would never have left. Therefore a partitioned India was better than a balkanised India.

It is my firm belief that even if India was to be partitioned, had it happened in an orderly manner the politics of this region would not have so easily become hostage to chauvinism and jingoism externally, and religious and sectarian terrorism internally. What happened subsequently in the two Punjabs is particularly instructive.

In the Pakistani Punjab, Muslim religious identity proved brittle. The idea of a Muslim, rather than a Pakistani nation, began to dominate the debate on national identity soon after Jinnah died. It inevitably resulted in the rather intractable controversy over who is a proper Muslim. The year 1953 brought the first manifestation of the sectarianisation of Muslim identity as riots were directed by the religious parties and sections of the Muslim League against the heterodox Ahmadiyya community. Later, during the 1980s, Sunni and Shia militias began to fight each other. Recently Sunni sub-sects have been involved in vicious attacks upon each other.

In the Indian Punjab Sikh and Hindu leaders, who had closed ranks against the Muslims in 1947 now clashed over domination in the province. Although in 1956 the former princely states of Patiala, Faridkot, Kapurthala, Nabha, Jind and other minor ones were amalgamated into East Punjab, it did not satisfy the Sikh leaders of the Akali Dal who began to campaign for a compact Punjabi-speaking province in which Punjabi written in the Gurmukhi script would be the official language and the medium of instruction in schools and higher seats of learning.

In reaction, Punjabi Hindus, under the influence of various communal parties as well as the Congress Party, declared Hindi and not Punjabi as their mother tongue. This resulted in the Punjabi Suba agitation launched by Master Tara Singh and later Sardar Fateh Singh. In 1966 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi conceded the demand of the Sikhs. Accordingly only Punjabi-speaking areas remained in East Punjab while those areas in which Hindi was the main language were awarded to Haryana or to Himachal Pradesh.

Such redrawing of borders did not, however, satisfy some Sikh nationalists who launched the Khalistan movement in the hope of establishing an independent Sikh state. The Indian state reacted with all the might at its disposal and between June 1984 and the early 1990s the Khalistanis and the Indian police and security forces were embroiled in terrorism against each other which resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 people and led directly to Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Notwithstanding all this the ordinary people in both Punjabs have all along managed to live peacefully with one another. In fact things have improved very much in East Punjab and in Pakistan's Punjab too sectarian terrorism seems to have lessened; the recent peaceful passing off of the Muharram Ashura event is a good sign.

It is my firm belief that extremists and terrorists cannot survive for long if the government is determined to eliminate them. Therefore, without the connivance and protection of state functionaries extremism and terrorism have no future. This is an iron law of large-scale ethnic, religious and sectarian conflicts and we should always bare that in mind.

Each time the Punjabis have had an opportunity to meet they have shown keen interest in the fellows from the other side. Already in 1948 the citizens of Lahore and Amritsar sent peace delegations to each other and the reception was warm and friendly despite the very recent bloodshed that took place in those two cities.

In 1955 the Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, allowed East Punjabis to visit West Punjab during an India-Pakistan cricket match at Lahore. On that occasion West Punjabis e showed the visitors such warm hospitality that the bloody riots of only a few years earlier seemed a nightmare. From my various interviews with refugees who have visited the other side of the border, it comes out very clearly that they have been received with great warmth and affection.

The moral which I draw from these varied behaviour patterns is the following: there is no fixed or permanent identity nor love or hatred among human beings: it all depends on the circumstances and the role of politicians.

Tridivesh Singh Maini is a young Sikh academic who lives in Delhi. I know his parents and even grandparents. His maternal grandfather, Brigadier Chaudhry, was a member of the Punjab Boundary Force. He saw to it that the Muslim Meo population of 11 villages from East Punjab safely reached Pakistan. I will soon have evidence from a Pakistani Lt-General who also served on the Punjab Boundary Force. He too did his duty with honour when he helped Hindus and Sikhs cross the border safely into India.

Tridivesh wants us to look forward. He has produced a most timely book, South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Two Punjabs (New Delhi: Siddharth Publications, 2007) in which he develops a very persuasive argument, backed by solid economic and social data and cultural arguments, to show that peace and prosperity in the South Asian subcontinent is an imperative that we cannot anymore ignore with impunity.

He asserts correctly that reconciliation between Indian and Pakistani Punjab is the key to enduring peace in South Asia. He has spoken to leading scholars of India-Pakistan relations, politicians, journalists, writers, poets and the result is a very representative presentation of well-informed expert and public opinion. More such books are needed.



The writer is an associate professor at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University in Sweden. Email: ishtiaq.ahmed@statsvet.su.se

‘Two Punjabs’ can help normalise relations’

By Reporter

Daily Dawn

LAHORE, Feb 28: Need for increasing people-to-people contacts by relaxing visa restriction and restoration of direct trade was stressed for expediting the Indo-Pak peace process at the launching ceremony of Sikh writer Tridivesh Singh Maini’s book titled ‘South Asian cooperation and role of Punjabs’ here on Wednesday.

At the launching ceremony of the book arranged by the Pakistan India Peace Initiatives at Alhamra Art Centre, Pakistan Thinkers Forum chairman Shahid Hamid said both the countries should themselves resolve their disputes and curtail the role of bureaucrats in this regard.

He said the two countries should hold direct negotiations for resolution of all the disputes, including Kashmir issue, instead of waiting for the help of world powers.

He said increase in people-to-people contacts and restoration of trade could expedite the peace process and help normalize relations. Visa restrictions should be relaxed, police report condition waived and visitors issued country-specific visas instead of city specific.

He said businessmen of Dubai were benefitting from indirect trade between India and Pakistan and people of the two countries paying higher prices. The prices could be reduced significantly in case of direct trade through land route.

PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan said India could not emerge as a regional power without resolving disputes with Pakistan. Resolution of disputes and direct trade were also in the interests of Pakistan as it could export its bed linen and other goods to India instead of European Union and the US. Pakistanis could also buy a motorcycle for Rs22,000 and a bicycle for Rs2,200 in case of direct trade with India.

He said the government should not depend on bureaucracy for normalisation of Indo-Pak relations as bureaucrats could not think about welfare of the people.

Former UN assistant secretary-general Zia Rizvi said the two Punjabs could contribute to normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan because of common culture, history, heroes and rivers. If European countries could form a union despite deaths of 30 million people in two world wars, India and Pakistan could also normalise relations. Both the countries would be losers in case they did not normalise ties in the present age of integration of regional markets.

Mujeebur Rehman Shami said Punjab had not only been divided but had suffered the most due to partition. The history of the sub-continent would have been different if Punjab had not been divided. India and Pakistan should, however, learn lessons from history instead of becoming its prisoners.

He said writer Tridivesh Maini had called for a forward-looking approach and proposed confidence building measures like promotion of people-to-people contacts.

Imtiaz Alam said the writer had called for revival of relations between two Punjabs for utilisation of their growth potential.

Moneeza Mirza from Government College University said cooperation between the two Punjabs could go a long way in normalisation between India and Pakistan. Both the countries should use multi-track diplomacy for resolution of conflicts. She proposed following of African model for equitable distribution of economic gains for resolution of disputes.

Tridivesh Singh Maini said normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan was necessary for achieving the objective of poverty alleviation which the champions of religion and nationalism had failed to do.

‘Punjab link can further Indo-Pak peace’
Charu Singh
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

A book titled ‘South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs’ authored by Tridivesh Singh Maini was released at India International Center recently. Speaking on the occasion, the author observed that very little work had been done on the two Punjabs since the 70s.

“Despite the fact that a lot has been done towards bringing about a rapprochement between the two Kashmirs, the two Punjabs have not come in for any attention of this sort,” he said.

“The two Punjabs have so much in common; there are emotional, cultural and economic connections between the two Punjabs and despite neglect and hatred, the basic fondness between people of the two states refuses to die,” he added.

The author said that although Pakistan’s political establishment and top brass was dominated by Punjabis, it did not play the ‘Punjab card’ to help build peace.

“The two Punjabs are currently losing out on a better political-cultural-economic relationship that could go far in improving Indo-Pak ties,” Mr Maini said.

“My idea all along has been to give a realistic and holistic picture of the two Punjabs so that policy makers realize that potential,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of the ‘Indian Express’ expressed surprise at the fact that no one had used or highlighted the Punjab connection.

“There is a movement right now to bring the two Punjabs closer. The two Punjabs have always had a strange relationship; there is intense friendship as well as intense enmity. A new trust has however been built over the last 3-4 years which could lead to a big love affair, like say, a Pakistani coach for the Indian cricket team,” he said.

Speakers call for better Pak-India relations

Staff Reporter

The POST, March 1, 2007

LAHORE: The speakers at the launch of a book, South Asia Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs, called for better relations between Pakistan and India to start a new era of cooperation.

The launch was organised by Pak-India Peace Initiatives, a non government organisation, at Alhamra Hall III on Wednesday.

Tridivesh Singh Maini, the author of the book, former Punjab Governor Shahid Hamid, former United Nations Assistant Secretary General Zia Rizvi, MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, journalist Mujeeb ur Rehman Shami, Muneeza Mirza from Government College University and Awais Sheikh, president Pak-India Peace Initiatives, were among the speakers.

Shahid Hamid suggested the governments on both sides allow visitors to go everywhere except 'no go areas' such as cantonments and some sensitive areas. He also said that the people over the age of 55 should also be exempted from the restriction of visas.

Zia Rizvi said that Kashmir could become an Asian Switzerland if declared a neutral state.

He said that both the countries have been spending huge amounts of money on defence instead of focusing on improving the living standards. 'It is foolish that in this very small global village people are still living in 192 different pieces of lands,' he said. Rizvi stressed opening borders on the basis of humanity.'

Aitzaz Ahsan said that governments on both sides were still discussing 'non issues' whereas it was the time to take the bull by the horns. He said that Pakistanis and Indians shared common culture, territory, languages, costumes, customs and several other things and therefore there should be no obstacle to the peace process.

Aitzaz said that 1947 was the era of madness for the people of both sides and it was time they compensated for that madness. 'If Europeans who killed 30 million people in the continent during World War I and II could become friends, why not us?,' he questioned.

Muneeza Mirza said that policymakers on both sides of the border should take bold initiatives.