And The Word Was With Peace

They were anxious because they thought they’d see Hindu extremists stalking the streets of New Delhi. They had expected to hear the drums beating a call to war and see eyes flashing with hatred as they stepped off the Samjhauta Express. But the humdrum of poverty, chaos and general apathy which surrounded the New Delhi railway station, or more specifically the Rail Yatri Niwas, proved to be curiously reassuring, even though tensions are running high between the governing elite of both India and Pakistan.

Zaeema Saga, a primary school-teacher and one of the 97 Pakistanis in Delhi en route to Bangalore to attend the fifth convention of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, says breathily: "It’s just the same in Pakistan. We see people on the streets suffering in both countries. Nobody wants war and nobody wants the nuclear bomb and everybody has been so nice to us here."

The groupEwhich includes lawyers, teachers, former politicians, NGO workers, artists and housewives-was angry, not with the immigration or customs officials who were apparently responsible for the bureaucratic delay at the Wagah border, but at the politicians who made the laws. According to the delegation, these laws made it impossible for it to cross the border on foot-something it had wished for-and it had to wait for the train instead.

Says California-returned, 32-year-old Mohammad Ahtasham from Peshawar: "We were supposed to have come on April 1, but nobody was willing to pick up the phone and make a call to hasten things-it got screwed up-and we had to return to Lahore and come back the next morning to the border at 5 am." Ahtasham was even more frustrated when the group was told that since their visas didn’t allow for a visit to Amritsar, they would not be allowed to see the Golden Temple although they had hours to spare on the Attari railway platform before taking the train to New Delhi. Ahtasham, who is here to see the land of his forefathers and meet other Indians he had befriended during his 10 years in California, exclaims: "It’s all such baloney!" He continues: "No one in Pakistan can understand why I had Indian friends in the US and no one encouraged me to come to India."

But Ahtasham and his group are bound by a common agenda: to try and get the two governments to reduce defence expenditure, to change the history books of their respective countries so that they reflect their shared ethos, to strive for good governance and particularly, to address the problems of women. Avers housewife Gulshan: "Both our countries must sign the ctbt immediately." She has attended three previous conventions.

They intend to achieve their goals by applying public pressure through the media and regular submissions of reports to their respective governments. Says leader of the Pakistani delegation Khwaja M. Waseem: "The government is polite and interested, but nothing ever happens." He adds, "But we won’t stop because dialogue is the most important thing and we believe that the two governments must talk now without any precondition." He is fully conscious of the critical nature of the fifth joint convention coming after Kargil, the hijacking and the stoning of the Pakistan bus. "All these things make our mission all the more difficult and I’m afraid we are again on the back-track." The previous conventions were held in Delhi, Lahore, Calcutta and Peshawar respectively. Haji Mohammad Adeel, deputy speaker of the Awami National Party, however believes it would be right for India to demand a return to democracy in Pakistan before resuming talks.And after that it is India’s responsibility to initiate the resumption of a relationship. Says he: "India is seven times bigger than Pakistan. It is for India to make the effort to resume dialogue."

Masood Ashar, editor of Mashal Pakistan, an NGO publishing house, has attended three conferences before and says that both the Indians as well as the Pakistanis discuss but do not necessarily agree on all issues. "There is a plurality of views and that is fine. But we do tend to talk about them in a much more nuanced way than is currently being stated by the hardliners on both sides and we all agree that the most important thing is to stop this spending on defence."

Not everyone, however, is that concerned with the weighty matters which have created a chasm between the two countries. Says Kathak dancer and Bulle Shah award-winner Faqir Hussain Saga, smiling and pointing to the constant flow of salwar-kameezes in and out of the building foyer: "Look at all these people-they are stealthily going out to get nice glasses of chilled beer-you know we can’t drink in our country." Saga, who was the first Pakistani to come and study dance in India on a government of India scholarship in 1963, lost his son, a pilot, during an air force exercise in Pakistan and abhors all forms of violence. "I try and communicate my feeling through dance," he says, moving his hands in the air as though he is already on stage. Saga spent the Millennium eve in Kanyakumari drinking the local brew and dancing. "I am a very sad man, but I have to try and forget-and the best way is through dance."

While dance, discussions and drink between ordinary citizens from both countries may not resolve outstanding issues, it certainly punches holes in the current wall of silence.