Commentary/Dilip D'Souza

I remember you in Lahore

In this hectic cricket season, I've been thinking of Asim Hameed. I met this sturdy young man in November 1995, when I went to the Lahore convention of the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy. He was at our hotel first thing every morning, arranged for buses to take us to and from the convention and the airport, helped with various other arrangements and when there was nothing else to take care of, he just sat and chatted.

I remember Asim's soft voice and ready smile often. But most of all, I remember him when I see the Pakistani team playing cricket, as they have done in India over the past three weeks. Asim is an up-and-coming all-rounder. He told us he probably would have been in the Pakistan Cricket Board XI that played an England 'A' team in a match in Lahore on the same days that we were there.

Except that he had volunteered to help in the conference.

"But why didn't you play?" I asked Asim on the bus to the airport on our last day. He shrugged and said: "Well, I'm with you and this is more important." I was stunned. Here was a young cricketer who had passed up a chance to play a big match, a possible career-making match, only so he could help with our conference. Because it was "more important."

Maybe you think it is naive to look at the relationship between India and Pakistan through the lens Asim held up to us in Lahore. I know the jingoists around us, and there are many, think just that. They will laugh the very notion off with a derisive snort. But there are times when I can't help thinking that experiences as with Asim might just be the best cornerstone for a new take on India vs Pakistan. Perhaps we can build on the energy and goodwill of people like Asim rather than the morbid hostility and pessimism of so many others. Maybe we should give that goodwill a chance to influence the way our countries view each other. Why shouldn't we aim for a time when that will be not naive, but an entirely realistic thing to do?

This is what motivates the PIPFPD. The forum fundamentally believes the relationship between our countries has been too long left in the hands of people who will never bring us peace; who, in fact, are not even really interested in peace. It's time for others to take a hand, however small it may be to start with, in bringing India and Pakistan closer.

That's just what happened at two small conventions and three larger ones (New Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta) over the last three years. Hundreds of ordinary people in both countries attended, found common links and interests, established friendships that are now battling postal and other bottlenecks but are lasting. Above all, as several of us did with Asim Hameed and his friends, they sat and talked.

Not that it was back-slapping bonhomie all the way. When I think of Asim, I also remember Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, probably Pakistan's most eminent physicist and an outspoken voice for peace. There was the long conversation I had with him over a coffee one evening. Inevitably, we turned to Kashmir: really, what else is there between our countries?

"I feel so sad when I say Kashmir must be allowed to choose if they want to join us," Dr Hoodbhoy told me that day. "Because I really believe they'd be far better off in India, or independent, than in my country. But you guys have messed things up so badly that nobody in Kashmir wants to stay with you!"

Almost against my will, and despite recognising some truth in what he was saying, my hackles were rising as I listened to this. Right, and what about the mess you guys have stirred up in Kashmir?

In fact, there was truth in what both of us were saying. But -- and I had to force myself to remember this -- what was the real imperative here? Should we be going into the past, finding fault, pointing fingers? In which case, neither country really has much of a moral leg to stand on in Kashmir. Or should we be talking about the future, of answers to our predicament? Whether it is India's or Pakistan's fault, Kashmir is bleeding. What do we do about that? How will we ever address it, given the rigid chauvinism that both sides have sunk themselves in? Surely the answers can only come from dialogue, especially including Kashmiris themselves?

The Lahore convention realised this. "Both the governments of India and Pakistan are continuing to disregard the wishes and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," its resolution on Kashmir began. It spelled out the desire of the convention's delegates "to hold discussions with all the parties including Kashmiri participants from both sides of the line of control. The intended objective is to contribute towards a peaceful and democratic solution.."

If that ever happens, I hope Dr Hoodbhoy is involved. His hard-nosed, if sad, realism is just what such discussions need.

Paradoxically, it was precisely because the goodwill we found in Lahore was tinged with some amount of acrimony that I returned optimistic. As much as the blind hatred of the last half-century has mired us in years of conflict, a friendship that ignores the conflict cannot last. Any dialogue must recognize those things, must start with them as a foundation, even if it seems a shaky one.

Last weekend, the India chapter of the PIPFPD met in Bombay to plan future strategies and programmes in India that will promote peace with Pakistan. The conventions have already established a number of links between people on both sides: journalists, activists, school-children, lawyers. How can those be spread wider? How will we change common impressions and stereotypes about Pakistanis, all of whom hate India, didn't you know? We will be trying to address some of these questions, and many more, over the weekend.

As we do, I know I'll miss having Dr Hoodbhoy and Asim Hameed around. I know I would have liked to introduce them to the pea-brained man my wifemet at the Central Telegraph Office in Bombay while I was in Lahore. She was there trying to call me in Lahore. When she gave the operator the details, this man, standing next to her, said loudly: "Marathi boltat, mag Pakistan la phone ka lavtat? (You're speaking Marathi, so why are you calling Pakistan?)"

I'll let you work out all the intricate implications here. Also try to imagine what meeting an Asim Hameed might have done for this man's horizons. For the chances of a lasting peace.

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