How can India-Pakistan relations be improved? “Above all, through people to people contact,” believes Dr Rajmohan Gandhi, the prominent Indian writer and scholar, visiting Lahore for a few days last week.

 “People on both sides should take the trouble to study the geography, history, culture and economy of the neighboring country,” he says, pointing out that even the well-intentioned are hugely ignorant of basic facts about the neighboring country.

 We’re sitting in the garden of the Trust for History, Art and Architecture, Pakistan (THAAP) in Lahore, during the lunch break of a conference on the “Cultural Roots of Art and Architecture of Punjab” attended by authors, historians, architects and artists. After presenting his paper on “Clash vs Common Sense”, Dr Gandhi meets me during the lunch break, having gracious agreed to give me some time when I got my copy of his book signed the previous day following his lecture at F.C. College (see box).

 I now ask him who he thinks are the people trying to halt the peace process.

 “Well, they are quite well known. They don’t need to be named but they exist on both sides of the border.”

 He agrees that there are those in India who would like to deviate from democratic and secular norms but believes that “the Indian majority will be able to prevent that deviation”.

 How is the Gandhian style of non-violent politics relevant today given the prevelance of force in international diplomacy, stockpiling of nuclear weapons and rising militarism?

 “Non-violence also means goodwill and mutual respect. Even within Pakistan and within India, we need to practice goodwill towards people we disagree with,” he replies. People belonging to different backgrounds, provinces, sects and religions should get to know and respect each other, solve problems at the local and neighborhood level and develop the habit of doing things together rather than exclusively with people of their own type.

 “If you want to change the world, first change yourself,” says Initiatives of Change, an NGO engaged working towards trust building, reconciliation, democracy and equality that Dr Gandhi has been involved with for 58 years, since 1956. He believes focusing inwards can help resolve problems in relationships ranging between family members, colleagues and fellow students, to political parties and ethnic groups -- “and of course, between India and Pakistan.”

 Literature also plays a significant role in bringing a positive change, points out Dr Gandhi, not just through writings about the bloody riots and killings during the partition but also by documenting the moving stories of how Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus helped one another during that crucial time. He recommends Mohinder Singh Sarna’s ‘The Savage Harvest’, a compilation of Punjabi stories about the horrors and inspirational stories of Partition.

 Did partition create more problems than it solved? “Partition was an immense human tragedy but we should look ahead and not backwards,” he responds. “As two sovereign states Pakistan and India should treat each other with respect and build normal relations.”

 Dr Gandhi is also a biographer of his grandfather Mahatama Gandhi -- ‘Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire’ (2008). How did the Mahatama influence him?

 “I learnt two things from him: Muslims and Hindus must learn to live together because there is no other option. India and Pakistan are neighbors and therefore, we have no other option but to live together peacefully. Secondly, that I should always be true to my conscience.”

 Dr Gandhi’s latest book, “Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten” (2013), is dedicated to Dr Mubashir Hasan, the pioneering Pakistani peace-builder and co-founder of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy.

 The author studies English Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London and is a classically trained vocalist from Lahore. sehyrmirza@gmail.com