Frontline
July 2001 
Cover Story

Open windows of the mind

Frank inquiry and free contact are possibly the best antidotes to prejudice and demonisation

BY Teesta Setalvad

Frank inquiry and open debate is possibly the best and only recommended ideology.  For peace to actually happen  and reign in the minds and hearts of men, women and children, the process does need to begin. Acknowledging that, sparing some thoughts for the agonies experienced by the children, men and women of Kashmir and Jammu (as also the north-eastern part of India), this piece would like to wish the upcoming Indo-Pak summit well. But for the peace process to be abiding and successful, the conviction that peace is the only practicable way out of a situation of acute despair and impending nuclear destruction needs to ground itself within us.

We have in our midst individuals and forces that thrive on the creation of the bogey of an ‘enemy’, an enemy that is at perpetual war with India and Indians. For them to keep the image of this enemy alive and kicking, the enemy outside needs to have constant echoes within; hence the deliberate allegations levelled at sections of our own population, dubbing them ‘unpatriotic’ or ‘anti-national’. Reserved mostly for Indian Muslims, this label is at times also hurled at peace and human rights activists, trade unionists, Dalits, women, anyone who dares to question the unfairness and injustice perpetuated by us on our own people.

The poem/song that follows, regularly sung in schools run by the RSS, is a good example of how scared forces that thrive on the bogey of the ‘enemy outside’ and the ‘enemy within’ are of openness and frank inquiry. Called ‘Pakistan ki jhanki’, the chorus lines of the song that young children are made to sing daily goes thus: “Aao baccho tumhe dikhaoon, jhanki Pakistan ki, Bharatmata ka ang bani ab, Karmabhoomi shaitan ki” (Come children let me show you a glimpse of Pakistan, A severed part of Bharat Mata is today the devil’s workshop!) If we are made to sing this dutifully each day or each week, there are good chances that we will begin to believe some or most of it.

It was to counter this assiduously cultivated hate with sanity, reason, questioning and sharing that we began AMAN — an olive branch of the Khoj project in 1996.  Not only through this experiment, but also through our KHOJ lessons on South Asia each year, and our engaging problem-solving sessions dealing with children’s emotions, the notion of Pakistan as ‘my enemy’ always crops up. But give kids a chance and the solutions are many and varied. We may get shocked and surprised at the openness displayed by Pakistani children because they show such curiosity about other religions because of the Holi and Diwali celebrations they have seen on Zee TV. We may get another jolt when we know that Basant is a much-enjoyed festival in the (Pakistani) Punjab even today; that Holi is also celebrated in the deserts of Sindh. We may also, if we are willing to be honest, openly admit that we and our kids have been victims of a greater stereotyping when we find our letters unconsciously asking, ‘Are there rivers in Pakistan?’

When you are angry at a country like Pakistan, which you feel is India’s enemy, what would you do?
I would try and make them understand our point of view by the technique of satyagraha — fighting injustices in a peaceful manner with sit-downs, boycotts and demonstrations. If they do not understand still, then I will declare a war against that country. 

(Aayushi Bagadia, Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Malad west). 

Especially when Pakistan beats us in cricket, I feel that I should make (organise) a series and tell the Indian team that they should win. If they don’t win, I will cheat. If they declare war, I will try the technique of satyagraha 
(Another child from Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Malad west).
When we are angry with Pakistan, we should first show them the technique of satyagraha, that is, solving problems through peaceful means. If they do not obey it, we should not declare war against them. Then the Pakistanis will also feel ashamed and come to us and say sorry. So Pakistan’s anger will also go.

(Abha, V-D, Radhakrishnan V)

If we fight with Pakistan, we will get nothing but thousands of people losing their life. Towns and cities will be destroyed. We should make them understand not to fight with each other. All are equal, no one is inferior or superior. 

(Rahul Shah, V-D, Radhakrishnan V)

Do we think India and Pakistan can become friends? How?
Yes, I think India and Pakistan can become friends only if the Pakistanis stop the fight for Jammu and Kashmir. 

(A child from Bombay Cambride -east).

. India and Pakistan can only be friends when the people forget the differences between Hindus and Muslims.

(Natasha Mehta; V-B, BCE).

I can’t say because I cannot tell the future.

(Rahul Kumar, V-B, BCE).

No. India and Pakistan cannot become friends because they are fighting.

(Mahesh V-B, BCE)

The more intense the interaction, the more varied the responses. Aman gets letters all the time from children, adults and adolescents to help them become friends with their counterparts in Pakistan. The difficulties in communication has restricted us (a simple letter or postcard to Pakistan, costs as much as a postal communication to the USA) at present. But we hope to set up an interactive website soon. Equally, KHOJ-AMAN proposes to launch a nationwide campaign through schools and colleges demanding that postal rates and telecommunications charges between India and Pakistan be reduced.

Ask youngsters which is the place or country they would like to visit and Pakistan and Kashmir invariably figure. Interestingly, for a majority of the same kids Pakistan remains the ‘enemy’ but the curiosity to visit the ‘enemy’ overrides any fear. 

To work with children in India on this issue, we need to be able to maturely handle painful schisms like Partition and the demonised imagery of the Kashmir conflict (all Kashmiris as terrorists) created and sustained by Hindi cinema, even television serials and often, news. Growing minds are curious, they are frank and they can sniff out our hang-ups, the shadows we create to conceal what we don’t want them to see, or wish to be seen. All this requires stepping out of the boundaries set by nation states and governments to create educational syllabi and textbooks in tune with what they would like us to believe.

Here’s what we told our youngest and first Aman batch, something we continue to use. “Its all a question of which side or angle one approaches a problem, isn’t it? For years you, I, others as well, may have been brought up with an idea passed down by parents that here is our enemy. As we grow older and learn details and facts — not known to us before — about the birth of both countries from both points of view and the high costs that both our countries are paying for this intense hostility, suddenly a small window in our minds opens. We look out of this window into the endless blue sky where there are floating clouds, soft as cotton, that recognise no manmade boundaries. They flit, bold and free, over a sky that is neither Indian nor Pakistani. In the hope that this happens more and more.    


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