The concept of national boundaries and patriotism are meaningless for the people of Hundermann, a hamlet right on the LoC near Kargil. They've have had to change their nationality three times in 50 years. After Partition, they were told they were Pakistanis. And 24 years later, in the '71 war, an officer of the Indian army walked into the village to announce Pakistan's defeat. The people of Hundermann discovered that overnight, they'd become Indians.
Mohammed Musa, 48, remembers it: "At 1 am, there was heavy shelling. We hid in our houses for seven days. Then one morning a Sikh officer assured us not to worry because the Indian army was in command. I greeted them by saying 'Ram, Ram.' Then we shouted slogans 'Hindustan zindabad.'" Adds Ghulam Ahmed: "You'll do anything to avoid problems."
Significantly, they don't have fond memories of their former rulers. "Under martial law, the Pakistani army didn't interact much with civilians. So they quietly left the post without informing us," says Ahmed.
Ask them what it is like to inhabit a border village and they reply in one voice: "We're being punished for no fault of ours. Shelling from across the border has finished our crop and damaged our houses; children can't go to school and we're forced to leave our homes."
The entire political establishment may have been debating the Kargil war on the eve of the general election but for the people of Hundermann it is not an issue to be emotional about. All they say and pray for is that the shelling must stop. Says Mohammed Musa: "We are not concerned with the war. We wonder why these people fight. None has benefited from war so far.
