Make a Difference

AUGUST 2002 - Is it foolish to hope that there will be peace one day between India and Pakistan? Throughout the year, this one and the many that have gone before it, every sign points to the same direction – that good and peaceful relations are impossible, that we are sworn to eternal enmity, that peace will never prevail. There is such a long history of mistrust, acrimony and bitter conflicts. We have fought two wars and lost thousands of good men, women and children on either side, yet it has not stopped us from rejoicing on the streets the day we armed ourselves with nuclear bombs. The same happened on the other side. In this gloom and doom scenario, there was a flicker of hope last week when Arundhati Roy spoke passionately for peace.

On a hectic visit to launch an English daily and more importantly, to convey her anguish and the anguish of people like her in India who desire nothing more than peace between the two warring neighbours, she received thunderous and standing ovations at the three cities where she was the center of attraction. Because she was the guest of a daily newspaper, the others thought it below their dignity to give her the coverage she deserved and many readers might have missed her visit and the message she and her associates sent out to the people of Pakistan. She and her two associates called for more people to people contact as the only way to clear the obstacles of hate and distrust that characterize the relations between the two countries. The Pakistanis spoke with the same passion and for the same cause. From the response of the packed auditoriums, the feeling was shared by all those who were present yet we all wondered if this was another small beginning destined to end in another big failure.

It was interesting to learn that all the peace initiatives from either side have been led by retired defence personnel and journalists but no bureaucrats have taken part. The retired defence personnel one can understand since 28 years of eye ball to eye ball contact with the ‘enemy’ seems to produce a great desire in them to discover and fight for peace once their uniforms have been stored with mothballs in large iron trunks. A friend from the armed forces, now retired and an active peacenik fervently believes in the need for dialogue and peace between the two countries. His old aunt when told about his awakening, remarked caustically that it was strange he had discovered this line of thinking when all his life he had done nothing but chuck ‘golas’ at the Indians! Journalists too one can understand because they – other than the ones who want to plant the green Pakistan flag on the Red Fort as it rises up from amongst the millions of bodies of dead Indians after our successful and tactical nuclear strike, believe that nothing will work for either country till we stop spending huge quantities of money that we borrow from the world to arm ourselves and fight each other. And of course a bureaucrat not being part of the peace process is even more understandable since the motto on both sides seems to be to block anything that makes sense. It was also interesting to learn that the two times Pakistan went to war, we were being ruled by generals. One thought it would save his empire from toppling and the other thought it would ‘save’ the country. Both were dead wrong, except they flourished and we died. We gained nothing from the first folly and lost hundreds of good men and for our second act of insanity, we lost half our country and earned a global reputation for being cruel and heartless at the way we abused the Bengalis who were ironically Pakistanis before we dismembered them. That sad episode is also part now of the sad history of our subcontinent and nothing can change that. The half-apology from the President comes three decades late, but it is a small beginning.

Arundhati Roy shot to fame with her Brooker Prize winning book ‘The God of Small Things,’ and it is quite likely that many in the gatherings had not read the book. She has since then become one of India’s leading activists and made the news recently over her fracas with the Indian authorities and her support for the people who will be displaced by the dams her government is building. One can understand that too. We haven’t built many dams because we don’t have a vision of the future but whatever we have built, we have made sure that the displaced people were never compensated properly. At Mangla and later at Tarbela Dam, thousands who lost their homes and lands were promised adequate compensation but were then forgotten. The lucky ones got something for the lands they had to give up, but many fared badly. To this day, years after the two dams were built – and now reach their high level of inefficiency and problems with silting, there are still news reports of people from Mirpur who remain among the victims of their own government. At Tarbela the story is the same as it is at Ghazi Barotha downstream. The new Gomal Zam Dam in the Suleman Mountains that the Chinese are starting to construct will have the same script where the ordinary people are concerned. They will be promised the moon and then given a shove.

It is the commonality of the experiences that we share with our neighbours, whether we hate them or they hate us, that gives peace that outside chance of succeeding in the hostility that characterises our relations today. While you and I who attended the Roy seminar haven’t fared too badly even as our country has continued its slide downhill and even as one well-intentioned general after another has promised us hope and real democracy, our people have slid down into the depths. There are an estimated 60 million who now live below the poverty line and I am frightened to think of the numbers in India. What is the poverty line? Is it like the Line of Control that we keep killing for? What happens to you when you cross the poverty line? How do we determine that people have successfully crossed the poverty line? What I understand from this dreaded line is that it is the stage where you have no food, no shelter, and no money. What kind of existence is that? We sit in air-conditioned luxury auditoriums, sip 100% safe water and moan about the subcontinent’s plight, but does anyone really know what it is to be really poor? I think even Arundhati doesn’t, which does not mean she can’t be the passionate advocate of the dispossessed, but only when we are prepared to actually feel for the poor and downtrodden people of our two countries, will we begin the first of many shaky steps towards an enduring peace.

There is nothing wrong with the people. They have already demonstrated that given half a chance, they can achieve impossible things. It is our governments – theirs duly elected, ours framed by a mishmash of dictators and inept civilians, who will not allow real peace to take birth. There are vested interests always – some are more vested than others as one of George Orwell’s animals might have put it, but only the people – you and I, can make the difference. Walls do crumble and to have peace and understanding is a vision that is almost heavenly. Think of all that we have achieved in spite of the obscene amount of our meager revenues that are gobbled up the machinery of war on both sides – think what we would have been had half that money gone to the people. In that search for a dream, Arundhati Roy deserves all our support, as do all those who believe in the people’s right to a decent life.