Side-effect Constant, for sure
by Harris Khalique
Seasoned Indian diplomat and legislator Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his column titled "Constant or Composite?" has pleaded for an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue process between the two feuding neighbours. Unlike some of his colleagues who cherish their diatribes when it comes to Indo-Pakistani relations, Aiyar, who was deputy high commissioner in Karachi between 1978 and 1982, mostly speaks in a sombre, conciliatory and humanistic tone.
What else but a humanistic issue does it remain. When farmers in India and the urban poor in Pakistan are committing suicides after killing their children, five-year-olds beg on the streets and seven-year-olds work in fields and factories, thousands die of curable diseases every year and half the population is illiterate, what else but an issue of survival and dignity does it become for a billion of the world's people.
Partly, it is the neo-liberal economic model blindly followed in both India and Pakistan, which is making the rich richer, and fewer, and the poor poorer, and larger in numbers. But it is also the denial of those opportunities which can be found within the current economic paradigm in terms of free mutual trade, cooperation in industrial growth besides tourism and cultural exchange which would offer incredible economic benefits to each other's service industries.
Regional openness makes the hawks in Pakistan and India nervous because they will fast lose their constituency of hate.
This has been said here time and again: that the whole premise of Partition was to bring peace to the Indian Subcontinent, and not to create a permanent atmosphere of animosity between the two countries. One is reminded of the interview the Quaid-e-Azam gave soon after Pakistan was created. He said he would retire to his house in Bombay. But things were to change soon. India, more powerful militarily and diplomatically, took some measures which made Pakistanis believe that Indians wanted to subvert their country's existence.
For instance, resource-poor Pakistan's share from the combined treasury of British India was delayed deliberately after Partition. Mahatma Gandhi had to campaign for the release of Pakistan's share. Then, we saw competing logics followed by the Nehru government in annexing the native states of Junagadh, Kashmir and Hyderabad. Junagadh had a Hindu majority and a Muslim ruler. Kashmir had a Muslim majority and a Hindu ruler. Hyderabad had announced autonomy. All three are now part of India, except for a region of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir which Pakistan administers.
Nevertheless, there were people on both sides of the border who wanted sanity to prevail. Very few now remember that there was a Joint Defence Council between the two countries where the Kashmir issue was first raised, probably in November 1947. Earlier, India had also made a statement in favour of Pakistan's candidature for membership at the United Nations.
There was a lot of traffic between the two countries until war broke out in 1965. Films, books, magazines and other goods had been exchanged regularly. With all its weaknesses and shortcomings, what the two countries still follow, and never even breached during the two full-scale wars, is the Indus Basin Treaty signed in 1960. After wars or escalation of tensions, there were also political accords like the Liaquat-Nehru Pact and the Shimla Agreement. If finally we have to sit across the table and talk, then why waste time? Better begin a continuous dialogue process with a seriousness of purpose. Egotistical elite, civilian and military alike, may think of the poor for a change.
The writer is a poet and advises national and international institutions on governance and public policy issues. Email: harris. khalique@gmail.com
Friday, July 02, 2010
Seasoned Indian diplomat and legislator Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his column titled "Constant or Composite?" has pleaded for an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue process between the two feuding neighbours. Unlike some of his colleagues who cherish their diatribes when it comes to Indo-Pakistani relations, Aiyar, who was deputy high commissioner in Karachi between 1978 and 1982, mostly speaks in a sombre, conciliatory and humanistic tone.
What else but a humanistic issue does it remain. When farmers in India and the urban poor in Pakistan are committing suicides after killing their children, five-year-olds beg on the streets and seven-year-olds work in fields and factories, thousands die of curable diseases every year and half the population is illiterate, what else but an issue of survival and dignity does it become for a billion of the world's people.
Partly, it is the neo-liberal economic model blindly followed in both India and Pakistan, which is making the rich richer, and fewer, and the poor poorer, and larger in numbers. But it is also the denial of those opportunities which can be found within the current economic paradigm in terms of free mutual trade, cooperation in industrial growth besides tourism and cultural exchange which would offer incredible economic benefits to each other's service industries.
Regional openness makes the hawks in Pakistan and India nervous because they will fast lose their constituency of hate.
This has been said here time and again: that the whole premise of Partition was to bring peace to the Indian Subcontinent, and not to create a permanent atmosphere of animosity between the two countries. One is reminded of the interview the Quaid-e-Azam gave soon after Pakistan was created. He said he would retire to his house in Bombay. But things were to change soon. India, more powerful militarily and diplomatically, took some measures which made Pakistanis believe that Indians wanted to subvert their country's existence.
For instance, resource-poor Pakistan's share from the combined treasury of British India was delayed deliberately after Partition. Mahatma Gandhi had to campaign for the release of Pakistan's share. Then, we saw competing logics followed by the Nehru government in annexing the native states of Junagadh, Kashmir and Hyderabad. Junagadh had a Hindu majority and a Muslim ruler. Kashmir had a Muslim majority and a Hindu ruler. Hyderabad had announced autonomy. All three are now part of India, except for a region of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir which Pakistan administers.
Nevertheless, there were people on both sides of the border who wanted sanity to prevail. Very few now remember that there was a Joint Defence Council between the two countries where the Kashmir issue was first raised, probably in November 1947. Earlier, India had also made a statement in favour of Pakistan's candidature for membership at the United Nations.
There was a lot of traffic between the two countries until war broke out in 1965. Films, books, magazines and other goods had been exchanged regularly. With all its weaknesses and shortcomings, what the two countries still follow, and never even breached during the two full-scale wars, is the Indus Basin Treaty signed in 1960. After wars or escalation of tensions, there were also political accords like the Liaquat-Nehru Pact and the Shimla Agreement. If finally we have to sit across the table and talk, then why waste time? Better begin a continuous dialogue process with a seriousness of purpose. Egotistical elite, civilian and military alike, may think of the poor for a change.
The writer is a poet and advises national and international institutions on governance and public policy issues. Email: harris. khalique@gmail.com
Friday, July 02, 2010
Visa regime & national identity
Thursday, July 15, 2010
by Faiza Moatasim
One of the positive issues taken up by the Aman ki Asha initiative is the aggressive campaign to force revisions in the ridiculous visa regimes for citizens of India and .....more
Thursday, July 15, 2010
by Faiza Moatasim
One of the positive issues taken up by the Aman ki Asha initiative is the aggressive campaign to force revisions in the ridiculous visa regimes for citizens of India and .....more
Searching for Aftab Manzil
Thursday, July 08, 2010
by Sehar Tariq
In 1947, Aftab Omar and his wife AshfaqJehan Begum packed a suitcase, locked the front door of their house in Meerut, got on a tonga for the railway station and left for .....more
Thursday, July 08, 2010
by Sehar Tariq
In 1947, Aftab Omar and his wife AshfaqJehan Begum packed a suitcase, locked the front door of their house in Meerut, got on a tonga for the railway station and left for .....more
Praying for a visa-free zone
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
by Rabia Ali
The hurdles faced by those wanting to visit holy sites in India
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
When Sardar Ramesh Singh enters the awe-inspiring Golden Temple in A .....more
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
by Rabia Ali
The hurdles faced by those wanting to visit holy sites in India
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
When Sardar Ramesh Singh enters the awe-inspiring Golden Temple in A .....more
Cutting off a nose to spite a face?
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
by Murtaza Ali Shah in London
Local economies would benefit hugely if India and Pakistan lifted the visa restrictions that prevent visits from foreign citizens with links to the other country .....more
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
by Murtaza Ali Shah in London
Local economies would benefit hugely if India and Pakistan lifted the visa restrictions that prevent visits from foreign citizens with links to the other country .....more
Even in death
Friday, July 02, 2010
by Urvashi Butalia
A friend once told me a strange story about visas. Her uncle, an Indian married to a Pakistani and working in a third country, died in a country he was visiting on busine .....more
Friday, July 02, 2010
by Urvashi Butalia
A friend once told me a strange story about visas. Her uncle, an Indian married to a Pakistani and working in a third country, died in a country he was visiting on busine .....more
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For the past 2 years the Jang Group and Geo have been working on a project of great national interest; one that we hope will help usher in an era of peace and prosperity in the country and indeed, in the region. And one that hopefully all Pakistanis can be proud of.
The Jang Group has entered into an agreement with the Times of India Group, the largest media group of India, to campaign for peace betw
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