“Pakistan-India Friendship Zindabad”
–young scouts and students welcomed us as we came out of Karachi Railway
station. Hundreds of men, women and children had gathered to receive us
– 130 strong “Peace and Friendship” delegation from India. We were
garlanded and affectionately hugged, embraced and transported to a few
select hotels.
In the evening in a big lawn of a hotel, there was welcome performance
of Indian classical dances and musicals.
The well-known theatredancer Ms. Sheema Kermani had organized a drama
-cum-dance performance based on Tagore’s play. Sheema’s group staged a
beautiful act on the theme “Let my country awake where ..Mind is free
and the head is kept high.” Meeting Sheema Kermani was the most
rewarding experience on the Pakistani soil. She had been running,
sometime underground, theatre-cum-dance coaching school in Karachi. And
in the hostile land had sustained the classic artistic tradition by
teaching Kathak, Odissi and Manipuri dances to Pakistani youngsters.
For me, coming to Karachi was of some personal significance as I had
spent two teen years (15-16) in a Sindh village Potohar, 20 kms from
Karachi. After 56 years I was here on the Sindhi soil, on the beach of
the mighty Sindhu - the Indus, the center of ancient Harrapan heritage,
the land where the great Aryans had sung the hymns of the Rig Veda, and
where Emperor Ashoka spread the message of the Sakya muni , in 300 BC .
The Sindh that gave the Hindu identity to vast inhabitants of the entire
South Asian sub-continent Hindustan. Historical divides notwithstanding.
I recited our national anthem “Jan, gan, man..” and stopped at “Panjab,
Sindh, Gujrat, Maratha…” I was standing on the soil of Sindh but a green
moon crest flag of Pakistan was flying over my head
I could not locate my childhood village. There is a big Military
Establishment now, with advanced Air Force Station where US made F-14s
and F-16s fighter aircrafts are stationed. Village farmers had been
moved out and the the massive farm land had been turned into military
City predominantly owned by Panjabi officers’ families.
I met people in the streets, in convention halls, small and big shops,
legislators, media personnel, and politicians who were not in jail. It
was a joy to speak with all of them in simple Hindustani ( they call it
Urdu) as 60% of Karachi walas are expatriate Indians mostly from UP.,
Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. I participated in group discussions on how to
improve Indo-Pak relations. Whereas we strongly condemned Gujarat riots
but avoided criticism of jihadi violence in Kashmir. One Pakistani
cheered us by singing: “Madhuri Dixit do, Kashmir lelo.”
Once as I was having a group discussion on the lawn of the hotel, a lady
40, in Panjabi dress with no sign of Muslim identity, (no burqa or head
cover), informally joined in. I welcomed her in the discussion. After a
few minutes suddenly a smartly dressed girl, walked up to me and said:
“I want to be photographed with a Hindu professor..” and two
photographers appeared from nowhere. The intruder held my hand and as
the cameras clicked she shouted: “ Why are you killing our Muslim
brothers in India?”
“But you haven’t introduced your self?” The older lady interjected: “She
is my daughter. Her father is teaching in America. She wanted to meet an
Indian. Please don’t mind, she is abrupt..”
“You may like to think in another way,” I said. “ why do brothers fight
brothers? Wasn’t recently there an attack on Shia or Sunny mosques in
Pakistan? You may consider why Muslim Punjabis had killed Muslim
Bangladeshis?”
I could not go into long history of Islamic invasions, nor could tell
why India was partitioned. But I advised the Pakistani girl to read life
of Mahatma Gandhi to know why and by whom Gandhi was killed.
Addressing all Pakistani friends around me I said: I would like to know
if you have in Pakistan and in Islam a man like Gandhi? Before raising a
finger of wrong doings on us, remember that (Hindu) India gave Gandhi to
the world. What did Islam and Pakistan contribute to the global
civilization?
The next day I spoke on “ Science and Culture” at the Jinnah University
and questioned the belief in the divine origin of knowledge. I
maintained that Knowledge is totally a human paradigm, in which even if
He exists, by very definition of Almighty, He cannot contribute
anything.
“But Koran is divine and it came through the Prophet Mohammed –Peace be
upon him”. If you asked for proof, “it is said so in the Holy Koran”,
insisted my questioner.
I posed two serious problems: Would you consider God ( Allah) just or
unjust? Obviously He is Just, but Koran came around 7th century. So He
could not deprive earlier civilizations of His Wisdom. Besides, the
Hindus also claim that the Vedas are divine. So, the Hindus and the
Muslims must decipher the language in which the Almighty wants to speak
to ? And Why?
We must know what was the mother-tongue of Almighty Allah? And what
necessity did the Almighty felt to communicate?
AS a student of Epistemology (Theory of Knowledge), I believe that all
language-knowledge affairs fall in the human domain. Because it is we
who need to know things in Time and Space, and communicate with each
other. If Lord existed He/She must have no necessity to know anything
nor to tell anything to anyone and anywhere as He/She is omni-scent and
omni-present.
Several hands went up. I noticed but a few women in the audience and
none of them was in Islamic dress. “Let’s give a chance to a lady
professor.” She spoke straight:
“But Indians demolished the Babari Masjid,.. why? ” She referred to
“an eye-witness account” that 5 lakh Muslims had gathered to protect the
Mosque. But the Indian army went in with tanks, killed thousands of
unarmed Muslims and made a corridor for the RSS and Shiva Sainikas to go
in. And “ they destroyed the historic Babari Masjid…”
I could not control my frustration: “No, no, that is not true” and I
protested totally false anti-India story. I reminded them that
iconoclastic- culture is alien to Hindus but it is the very essence of
Islam. Therefore consider:
As in Islam you are required to pray facing towards Mecca. Building
structure is not important. What is then so sacrosanct about an old
structure that our Muslim brothers are ready to fight with Indians on
this account?
Secondly: Babar was an invader who invaded Afghanistan and through
Khyber Pass attacked Punjab, the U.P., and went all the way to Ayodhya
to build a mosque where there were no Muslims. All of you in Pakistan
and India were either Buddhists, or Hindus. What relation do you have
with a foreign invader of some hundred years ago called Babar?
