Tea and company across the border line

LAHORE: As you walk through the streets of Karachi or Lahore, strangers invite you to tea when they come to know you are an Indian, said delegates who attended the sixth joint convention of Pakistan-India People''s Forum for Peace and Democracy, held in Karachi last week.A group of delegates, including women travelling at night by bus from Karachi to Mohenjodaro, were terrified when a police officer stopped the vehicle, stepped in and declared himself as the officer-in-charge of the area. Tension subsided when he said he wanted all the delegates to have tea with him.The delegates had taken considerable risk in travelling at night since emergency had just been declared in Sindh after the attack on the life of president Musharraf. But the urge to see the archaeological sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa proved stronger. To their relief, they found the police escorting them all along the way.The people of Multan had waited all night with meal and were disappointed to find only a few visitors. They even booked the journey of these delegates to Lahore. The hosts were surprised that Yeshpal Khanna, a businessman from Kolkata, who hails from Multan, still spoke the Multani-Sariki dialect, a largely forgotten language. Khanna, who was seven-year-old when he left Multan, was thrilled to see some of the old houses and streets of his childhood.In Karachi, a lawyer, Syed Mazarul Haque, was so overwhelmed to see delegates from his former hometown Nagpur, that he was with them all the time, said Prakash Meghe, a lawyer from Nagpur and delegate to the conference.In the upper class Gulberg area in Lahore, this correspondent asked a policeman for direction and was pleasantly surprised not only to get the information with courtesy but also an offer to take him on his motorcycle.The delegates also came across a very large number of liberal, progressive artistes, intellectuals and activists at the conference. They were also surprised that the Pakistani establishment still retained the ancient Indian identity in many places. The official travel literature recognises Lahore as a town founded by Rama''s son Lav and the female tourist guide at the Lahore fort dwelt considerably on this theme.The Lahore museum has a whole section on ancient India, and galleries on Jain temples and Buddhism. There are even marble images of Shiv, Parvati, Krishna playing the flute, all attributed to artistes in 20th century Pakistan. The Buddhist section includes a 2nd century A.D. image of the fasting Buddha with a shrinking body in yogic posture. The image was found in Maradan in the North West Frontier Province. At another level, the state of Pakistan is fostering intolerance. During the anti-colonial struggle, the Muslim community sought safeguards due to its minority status but once Pakistan came into being, the rights of religious minorities in the country were forgotten, said I A Rehman, a former president of the Pakistan chapter of the Pakistan India People''s Forum and human rights activist.Rehman said religious minorities remain victims of discrimination in law, in access to justice and their rights to equality in services and social sectors are not recognised in practice. The treatment of the Ahmadiya community is a glaring example of intolerance of a minority group, Rehman said.Also of great concern is the Islamisation of the curricula, said A H Nayyar, professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, on the basis of a detailed study of text-books.The books drive home the point that Pakistan is for Muslims alone, that Islamiat is to be forcibly taught to all students, whatever their faith, including a compulsory reading of Quran, that ideology of Pakistan is to be internalised as faith and hate to be created against Hindus and India.Gone is the liberal approach on textbooks in the first 25 years of Pakistan even though two wars were fought against India in this period. The early books contained chapters not only on the oldest civilisations of Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Taxila, but also Ramayana and Mahabharata and extensively covered, the kingdoms of the Mauryas and the Guptas.One found books with chapters on Gandhi using words of respect for him and admiring him for his qualities. Some books also clearly mentioned that the most prominent Islamic religious leaders were all bitterly opposed to the creation of Pakistan.But now the Ulemas, who bitterly opposed the creation of Pakistan, are turned into heroes of Pakistan movement. The Quaid-i-Azam is turned into a pious practising Muslim and hate is created against Hindus, said Prof Nayyar.