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How
to make friends?
The ruling classes in India and Pakistan themselves show
little interest in improving relations and put numerous hurdles in the path of
ordinary citizens trying to change things
BY MUBARAK ALI
Believing that
the ruling classes of India and Pakistan are not interested in improving
relations, it is left to some individuals and organisations to initiate
people-to-people dialogue in the hope of pressurising their respective
governments to end tension and improve relations. The moot point is how
effective people in both countries are to change the policies of their
governments and force them to reframe their agenda to one based on good
neighbourly relations.
We all know
that people can play an important and useful role in democratic societies only
when there are deep- rooted and strong democratic institutions in their
political structure. Even in such societies, the establishment media
manufactures public opinion. Recently we have seen how people in Europe and
America were misled by their leaders about Iraq with lies and falsehood. Those
who were aware of this falsehood and organised huge rallies to express their
displeasure failed to prevent the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In the case of
India and Pakistan the situation is quite different. Given the absence of
democracy most of the time, the Pakistani people have no role to play in
politics, their voice is not heard in the corridors of power. The Pakistani
ruling elite behaves, as the colonial masters did earlier, like the mai bap of
people, guaranteeing to protect them, undertaking all decisions in the national
interest. In return, they are expected to obey and be ready to sacrifice their
lives for the sake of their country.
In India,
where there is democracy, people have the right to vote. But after exercising
this right, their role comes to an end. On both sides, the ruling classes
mobilise people’s emotions against each other in the name of patriotism and use
them for their political and personal interests.
Ordinary Indians and Pakistanis are well aware of how
they are treated when they visit each other’s countries. The moment they
approach the High Commission for a visa, they are ‘welcomed’ by a host of
intelligence agencies whose agents ask all manner of questions just to harass
them. If they get a visa, the mode of travel is specified: train, bus or by air.
Once the mode of travel has been spelt out in the visa form, it is very
difficult to change it. Further, they are permitted to visit only a limited and
specific number of cities. The rest of the country is banned for them.
If anyone tries to violate
this, he/she is immediately imprisoned as a spy. Then, there is the system of
police reporting. Every Indian or Pakistani is treated as a potential threat by
the neighbouring country, so the in
telligence agencies regard it their
national duty to keep tabs on his/her movements.
I have had personal experience of police reporting. In
1997, I visited India along with my family. We were told that we had been
exempted from police reporting, a great privilege if you manage to get it.
However, on our way back, the immigration officer detected that all of us were
all exempt from police reporting except for my wife. The officer asked her to
stay back and complete the police reporting procedure. In spite of our request
to reconsider his decision, he refused. There is no question of any
understanding in such cases. My wife had to stay back and returned to Pakistan
only after a week. We were lucky that we had friends who looked after her. If
this had happened to someone coming from south India or some other far-off city
to Pakistan, imagine their plight.
Once I was invited to Mumbai by Teesta Setalvad to
attend a South Asia History Workshop. She applied to the concerned ministries in
New Delhi for clearance and telephoned them nearly 50 times. I was lucky to get
a visa at the last moment, but only for four days during which I was not exempt
from police reporting. (Police reporting means that the visitor must physically
present himself with all documents before the special branch of the city police
both on arrival and before departure.)
I was lucky
because senior police officials knew Teesta and the police reporting formalities
were completed without my having to make a personal visit. Otherwise, I would
have had to spend half of my time in police reporting and the other half
participating in the seminar. Here is another personal experience of mine of a
different nature: in 2001, the Nehru Museum and Library, New Delhi, selected me
for a senior fellowship and sent my case for clearance to the home, external
affairs and human resources development ministries. So far, there has been no
news about the clearance.
On the other side, if an Indian visits Pakistan, he
and his host face numerous problems. First of all, an Indian visitor cannot stay
in any cantonment area. (For Pakistanis visiting India there is a similar
restriction.) Clearly, visitors to both countries are treated as the enemy and
not allowed to visit sensitive places. Then there are different agencies to
watch their movements and inquire about their activities.
I have had
some unpleasant experiences because I invited Indian scholars for lectures.
These lectures were always public lectures, announced and later reported in the
local newspapers. Yet, it was usual custom that after every such lecture I
organised, men belonging to different agencies arrived to ask me all kinds of
questions about the speaker and the contents of his speech.
Once I received three history
books from India by post. The very next day, I was visited by people from the
special branch to ask who had sent me those books and why! Sometimes, it is
difficult to satisfy them. They inquired about my date of birth, about my
education, employment, and about my family. And this exercise was repeated
several times. On one occasion I told the intelligence officer that all the
questions he was asking me had already been asked and they were sure to be in
the police files. His reply was simple: others had done their duty and he was
doing his. At one time I became so popular in the special branch that whenever
Indian scholars visited Lahore, they would ring me and inquire about them, not
even bothering to ask me whether I knew them or not.
Recently, an Indian journalist from The Asian Age came
to see me. I was surprised to see two gentlemen from the special branch the very
next day, asking me about the journalist. Curiously, they seem to be very
efficient in this respect.
So, my
question is simply this: how can a Pakistani citizen like me maintain friendship
with Indians if my telephone is tapped, my post is censored and my movements are
watched simply because I have friendly relations with Indians? How could we, the
people, change the attitude of our ruling classes?
(Mubarak Ali is an independent
historian based in Lahore, Pakistan).
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