Must say i was surprised to read this but its a testament to our soft power which we need to ramp up further for global consumption.
[SIZE=\"5\"]How films and smugglers brought us closer[/SIZE]
Madhu Kishwar3 January 2010, 04:57am IST
During the visit of an Indian delegation to Pakistan, one of the officers of the Peshawar Chamber of Commerce began his welcome speech with the following joke: “An Indian and a Pakistani met each other at some airport and at once struck up a friendship. The Indian described to the Pakistani how much the Indians relished things Pakistani; and the Pakistani described how much the Pakistanis loved Bollywood.” Their mutual admiration continued until one of them asked in genuine puzzlement: “If all this is true, why are we considered enemies?” After they had both racked their brains for a while, the Pakistani said: “I think I know. It is the fault of politicians. They promote wars so they can play the old divide and rule game.” “In that case we should declare them as criminals,” the Indian said. “Oh, no! The problem is more serious than that,” the Pakistani quipped, “Criminals take your money and run. But politicians run and keep taking your money.”
This joke, at the height of Indo-Pak estrangement, speaks volumes about the deep mistrust most Pakistanis have of their politicians, jingoistic politics and their deep urge for friendship with India. Despite all the hurdles put in the way of free movement by both governments; of all the countries in the world it is only in Pakistan that an Indian, especially from the North, can easily forget that he or she is in a “foreign” country, let alone an “enemy nation”. The warmth with which Indians are treated by ordinary Pakistanis — waiters, taxi-drivers, bus conductors, shopkeepers and casual acquaintances — makes a visit to Pakistan a deeply moving experience. Not surprisingly, TOI’s survey shows that 72% of Pakistanis and 66% of Indians want friendly relations between two countries.
During one of my trips in the late 1990s, i met Balquees Azam Khan, daughter of an Army general and wife of a retired ICS officer. She had studied in the same school as my mother though they were not close friends. I walked into Balquees bibi’s house at Mall Road unannounced, and without any prior appointment, and yet i was received with great warmth and made to feel at home. A good part of this couple’s conversation revolved around how the Partition could have been averted but for this or that lapse of Congress political leaders. One must confess that the Pakistani version of our leader’s lapses doesn’t always match with ours. But what becomes clear from such interactions is that religion is not at all the dividing factor. It is how we relate to history, to various political leaders, how we interpret the role of Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, Badshah Khan and a host of others, that is the basis of our political divide.
While Pakistanis often migrate to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, London or Malaysia for economic reasons, they do not share an emotional or cultural bond with these countries like they have with India. It defies all politically cultivated prejudices. For example, my Pakistani friends tell me that when Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan was being telecast, streets would be deserted because people sat glued to their TV sets on Sunday mornings in all those cities and towns that received the signal.
At the time of the Lahore Bus yatra, a group of young Pakistanis received prime minister A B Vajpayee with the following chant: “Madhuri de do, Kashmir le lo.” (Take Kashmir, give us Madhuri Dixit). Even before the advent of satellite television, Indian film video cassettes used to reach Pakistan via Dubai within hours of their release in India. They kept Pakistanis emotionally hooked to Indian culture and provided an effective counterpoint to official propaganda. Way back in early ’90s, a young Pakistani woman lecturer informed with glee how during her trip to Delhi she had performed a puja at a temple. She was thrilled that the pujari was not able to guess that she was a Pakistani.
The word “smuggler” invariably evokes images of people who inhabit a realm of evil and vice. But each of my visits to Pakistan has made me realize how valuable a service to our society was performed by this despised group of people. If we had a mature political system, they would simply be called free traders, entrepreneurs and bridge builders between India and Pakistan through the worst of times.
Madhu Kishwar is a professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
[SIZE=\"5\"]How films and smugglers brought us closer[/SIZE]
Madhu Kishwar3 January 2010, 04:57am IST
During the visit of an Indian delegation to Pakistan, one of the officers of the Peshawar Chamber of Commerce began his welcome speech with the following joke: “An Indian and a Pakistani met each other at some airport and at once struck up a friendship. The Indian described to the Pakistani how much the Indians relished things Pakistani; and the Pakistani described how much the Pakistanis loved Bollywood.” Their mutual admiration continued until one of them asked in genuine puzzlement: “If all this is true, why are we considered enemies?” After they had both racked their brains for a while, the Pakistani said: “I think I know. It is the fault of politicians. They promote wars so they can play the old divide and rule game.” “In that case we should declare them as criminals,” the Indian said. “Oh, no! The problem is more serious than that,” the Pakistani quipped, “Criminals take your money and run. But politicians run and keep taking your money.”
This joke, at the height of Indo-Pak estrangement, speaks volumes about the deep mistrust most Pakistanis have of their politicians, jingoistic politics and their deep urge for friendship with India. Despite all the hurdles put in the way of free movement by both governments; of all the countries in the world it is only in Pakistan that an Indian, especially from the North, can easily forget that he or she is in a “foreign” country, let alone an “enemy nation”. The warmth with which Indians are treated by ordinary Pakistanis — waiters, taxi-drivers, bus conductors, shopkeepers and casual acquaintances — makes a visit to Pakistan a deeply moving experience. Not surprisingly, TOI’s survey shows that 72% of Pakistanis and 66% of Indians want friendly relations between two countries.
During one of my trips in the late 1990s, i met Balquees Azam Khan, daughter of an Army general and wife of a retired ICS officer. She had studied in the same school as my mother though they were not close friends. I walked into Balquees bibi’s house at Mall Road unannounced, and without any prior appointment, and yet i was received with great warmth and made to feel at home. A good part of this couple’s conversation revolved around how the Partition could have been averted but for this or that lapse of Congress political leaders. One must confess that the Pakistani version of our leader’s lapses doesn’t always match with ours. But what becomes clear from such interactions is that religion is not at all the dividing factor. It is how we relate to history, to various political leaders, how we interpret the role of Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Patel, Badshah Khan and a host of others, that is the basis of our political divide.
While Pakistanis often migrate to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, London or Malaysia for economic reasons, they do not share an emotional or cultural bond with these countries like they have with India. It defies all politically cultivated prejudices. For example, my Pakistani friends tell me that when Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan was being telecast, streets would be deserted because people sat glued to their TV sets on Sunday mornings in all those cities and towns that received the signal.
At the time of the Lahore Bus yatra, a group of young Pakistanis received prime minister A B Vajpayee with the following chant: “Madhuri de do, Kashmir le lo.” (Take Kashmir, give us Madhuri Dixit). Even before the advent of satellite television, Indian film video cassettes used to reach Pakistan via Dubai within hours of their release in India. They kept Pakistanis emotionally hooked to Indian culture and provided an effective counterpoint to official propaganda. Way back in early ’90s, a young Pakistani woman lecturer informed with glee how during her trip to Delhi she had performed a puja at a temple. She was thrilled that the pujari was not able to guess that she was a Pakistani.
The word “smuggler” invariably evokes images of people who inhabit a realm of evil and vice. But each of my visits to Pakistan has made me realize how valuable a service to our society was performed by this despised group of people. If we had a mature political system, they would simply be called free traders, entrepreneurs and bridge builders between India and Pakistan through the worst of times.
Madhu Kishwar is a professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
This article opened my eyes that if we can win over a hostile audience or at least influence them then there is much more to be had elsewhere too.
