By Gobind Thukral

Date:15-05-06

Source: South Asia Post, Issue 9 Volume I, February 15, 2006

WHEN freedom bells tinkled a little less than six decades ago, Punjab, the whole of Punjab of five rivers was soaked in gore and blood. The land when it woke to a new dawn of freedom lay devastated with a nearly million of its sons and daughters butchered by each other. Many times more were forced to flee across the artificial borders created by roguish imperialists in their last ditch effort to sow the seeds of hatred and due to chicanery politics of the two major political parties, the Congress and the Muslim league. Violation of women`s honour and maiming and killing of children showed that man was worst than the animal. Till 1947 history had not experienced such horror, such mass migration on communal lines and such slaughter. People with the same culture, same language and common inheritance and roots were separated because they happened to profess different religions. They had absolutely no role in this communal partition of the sub continent.

The two Punjabs later suffered devastation due to successive wars and low cost insurgency and the untold misery what people live through when they are uprooted and culturally alienated by swords and guns. Pangs become unbearable. Both east and west Punjab have suffered in terms of economic progress, social cohesion and political clout. The generation that suffered this disaster is leaving us one by one on both sides of the border, but the memories of misery and mayhem do not.

Now a different world is possible. Europe has healed many of its wounds of two deadly World Wars. A more cohesive and friendly European Union with open borders and open trade and movement is emerging from the ashes of the past wars and bloodshed. There is now a strong desire and also a movement for peace and understanding in the Indian sub continent despite some visible or invisible divisions at the political plane. The constituency of peace was never this large despite determined effort to prop up hatred and violence. People want relations to be blissful and live in prosperity rather suffer due to mutual exclusion. This explains why a Hindu Right wing party BJP and its leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister that had played a corresponding divisive role before 1947, went to Lahore to sign a peace declaration and also why a solider turned President Pervez Musharraf travelled to Agra and who keeps making all the noises for peace. Now Congress and its Left partners and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who can not forget the holocaust even when he occupies the most coveted seat of power are no less committed to friendly relations and peace in the sub continent. Obviously they hope reap political dividends.

There are plenty of ifs and buts on this current peace process. Experts in Delhi and Islamabad would tell us that this may be yet a pipe dream. But what would peace mean to people in the sub continent and particularly Punjab? Let us look at the dividends. Both the countries can reduce their heavy spending on defence, security and intelligence gathering networks. This is accepted by all. But what is perhaps less realised is the fact that two the Punjabs could gain immensely from peace.

Pakistani Punjab is a dominant state claiming over 50 per cent of the population and had all along a dominant role , leading to industrial and agriculture development. There was more balanced growth as agriculture unlike Indian Punjab which contributed 40 per cent; it contributed only 27 per cent of the GDP. Rest came from industry and service sectors. Indian Punjab attained great heights in farm production till 1990s when so called reforms set in. it had the highest per capita income and with less than two per cent population and land area, it remained granary of the country contributing over 40 percent of the food grains for long time.

In agriculture also, the two Punjabs have certain dissimilarities that can work to each others advantage. Indian Punjab has done wonders in wheat, rice, potatoes, maize and cotton production and Pakistani Punjab in cotton and basmati rice. Under the new trade regimes being worked out by WTO, the can work to each others advantage. Similar is the situation in agriculture research where Indian Punjab along with Haryana has done pioneering work. This accumulated knowledge can benefit Pakistani Punjab.

It is in the area of unfettered trade and commerce where both can flourish and get the much needed push. Both are land locked and after the reforms in 1990s, Indian Punjab has been constantly been in falling not only in agriculture production with rate of growth touching less than two per cent but also in trade and industry. Goods like sewing machines and bicycles that are exported from Indian Punjab to Singapore and Dubai later and land in Lahore and Sahiwal and cost hell of money to Pakistani consumers as middlemen in Mumbai and Singapore make good money as commission. Similar Indian Punjab could profit from basmati rice and textiles. The list is endless and two states could trade what is not produced here but elsewhere. They could exchange technological know-how, cooperate in the fields of education and Pakistani farmers could expect a push in land reforms where Indian Punjab has done something. For Indian Punjab the route could be up to Central Asia. Lahore and Amritsar could be the gateways as soaring land prices in the two cities tell their own tale. Trade and tourism and cultural and media exchanges could lead to understanding and finally build a durable peace.

In the two countries much of the space has been appropriated though repression and demonstration of force. Competitive militarism has been too costly a proposition and has resulted in denial of basic democratic rights like education, health and social welfare. Militarism and the fundamentalist mentalities thrive on fear and that in turn breeds hatred and violence, which both have suffered. The two countries have to come out of that syndrome. There is an urgent need to evolve collaborative relationship between the states and within the states and among the sub-systems and the communities in the larger emerging global settings. A wholesome approach to harness shared values, common culture to the benefit of the communities who have all along been denied their legitimate say, is the need of the times. It would indeed be another world where people have stake in peace and neither in war mongering nor in wars.