Dear All, I share some of things I did while in Delhi after the conference. Comments are welcome. Best Regards, Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed Daily Times, Tuesday, December 9, 2014 After the Track II India-Pakistan bilateral discussions, I shifted to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi’s faculty guesthouse, thanks to Dr Jayan Jose Thomas who teaches at the prestigious IIT institute in Delhi. He and I were colleagues at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore and, since then, we have remained good friends who meet once in a while in Delhi. This time I got the chance to meet his lovely family as well. As Kerala Christians they maintain a lively connection with their culinary traditions that I thoroughly enjoyed. A sizable number of students who study at IIT belong to modest backgrounds, many from under-privileged sections of society. Credit must go to the Nehruvian vision of inclusive development that includes the imparting of quality education to talented pupils from all sections of society, thus broadening and democratising the intelligentsia. In Pakistan, my sense is that public sector universities have generally suffered a lowering of standards and that institutions of excellence in education are increasingly to be found in the private sector. That means one must have rich parents in order to get the best education. No doubt, public sector universities in India are also expanding but, thus far, a balance is maintained between them. ITT, Delhi is undoubtedly a place where some of the best brains in India can be found. I gave a seminar on Pakistani politics in which we covered multifarious issues and problems, including civil-military relations as well as outstanding issues such as Kashmir. I argued that the military in Pakistan no doubt enjoys de facto veto powers over Pakistani affairs but it is not always looking for an opportunity to stage coups. On the other hand, although the Indian military was not part of formal decision making authority, the Indian governments did consult it and, sometimes, its views prevail over those of the politicians. I gave the example of the Siachen glacier conflict. In the question and answer session a consensus emerged that we as academics must use our knowledge and learning to fight prejudices and promote instead a culture of tolerance and mutual respect. I have always believed that South Asian culture unites while that of South Asian politics divides. Nothing unites us more organically and inseparably than our shared musical heritage. I had always wanted to learn how to play the harmonium and the best are to be found in India. As luck would have it we landed up at the Lahore Music Centre at Daryaganj. It is owned by a Sikh family, the Sachdevas, who shifted from Shahdara, Lahore, to Delhi. Dr Amit Ranjan, who was with, me took down notes and promised to write an article on the magic produced during that joyfully painful meeting of estranged Lahoris. I got a handsome discount as well. An evening at Delhi Gymkhana with Ambassador Moni Chadha and the Lahore and Punjab crowds there resulted in the usual enquiries about old class fellows and neighbours and messages to them. Lunch with Madam Usha and Professor Rajmohan Gandhi whose book, Punjab: A Short History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten, is widely being read today, was a befitting way to commemorate the launch of his book at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) last year. Short story writer Uma Vasudev, Lahore chronicler Pran Nevile and film music expert Satish Chopra — all originally from Lahore — were at the India International Centre maintaining a distinctive west Punjabi dialect. I also met old friends Hitesh Gosain and Virinder Singh, who accompanied me on a historic visit to East Punjab and Haryana when I was conducting my research on my book, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed. Comrade Satyen Raina, who in his youth was an active Naxalite, presented me his very interesting book, Stories of Sirmore: An Intimate Yet Political View of Life Lived In a Beautiful Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Had partition not happened he would probably be living on Waris Road only some 300 metres away from my ancestral home on Temple Road. Both of us were treated to a sumptuous lunch by Mr Veenu Bhagat who also hails originally from Lahore. Across the table I heard some ladies speak Lahori Punjabi and went and presented myself. Dr Santosh Sahi now lives in London but I had guessed right: she was born in Lahore. The last day was spent with actor Shyam’s (1920 to 1951) family. His younger brother, Harbans Chadhaji, has never celebrated his birthday as Shyam died on April 25, which was his birthday. His son Bimal and I became good friends when we met two years ago and this time he and Veenaji took great care of me. Had Shyam not died because of a fatal fall from horseback while shooting for Shabistan, the Bollywood trio, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, would most certainly have been a quadruple ruling the hearts of millions. Shyam’s closest friend was Saadat Hasan Manto. I learnt that Manto always spoke in Punjabi and insisted that other Punjabis do the same. When someone asked him why he wrote in Urdu he replied, with his typical proverbial candour, that if writing in Punjabi could help procure his daily daroo (booze) he would not hesitate for a moment to switch over to it. Bimal, Veena Chadha and I attended a musical programme titled ‘Ek sham Rafi ke naam’ (an evening dedicated to Rafi) where a young singer from Hoshiarpur district, Ram Tirat, gave a stellar performance of Mohammad Rafi songs to a large gathering. When called upon to say something, I recited Ustad Daman’s famous lines: “Laali ankhian di pai dasdi ay (the redness of the eyes tell) Roay toosi vi o, roay asi ve aan” (that both of us have wept) Antonio Gramsci described intellectuals as producers of cultural hegemony and called upon intellectuals of the working class to challenge the status quo. I would like to believe I try to be an autonomous intellectual committed to ideas and causes that seek to transform India and Pakistan’s adversarial posture into one of peace, amity and mutual respect. Considered in this light, my interaction with a cross-section of Indian opinion in Delhi was in the best spirit of Gramscian intellectualism. The writer is a visiting professor, LUMS, Pakistan, professor emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University, and honorary senior fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book award at the Karachi Literature Festival: The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed, Oxford, 2012; and Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Oxford, 2013. He can be reached at: billumian@gmail
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 05:08:10 +0000
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