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Response to Jaideep Bose & Times of India: On peace & Asha
To: Jaideep Bose, Editor Times of India
Aman Ki Asha . Dont have a clue what Asha means. It gets very confusing
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha)
The italics are the Times of India article on peace. The Non-Italics are ours.
We appreciate al least the minimum effort to discuss peace between the two rival nations of Hindustan and Pakistan. We thank you taking the initiative and appreciate the first and last lines of your article.
We have waited for the message of peace from the Prime Minister of Bharat for decades. This is what will make peace. Open Letter to Indian PM: Can he bring peace to Asia?
We like most in Pakistan dont know what asha means. We had to look it up and are perplexed that you would send a message about a Hindu deity. Did you expect Pakistanis to being praying to a new Vedic deity Asha? We are confused!
Do we have to call Professor Robert Langston from Mr. Dan Browns Da Vinci Code to decipher a hidden message in this slogan?
Aa cannot be precisely rendered by some single word in another tongue,[3] but may be summarized as follows:
It is, first of all, true statement. This true statement, because it is true, corresponds to an objective, material reality. This reality embraces all of existence. Recognized in it is a great cosmic principle since all things happen according to it.[9][j] This cosmic [...] force is imbued also with morality, as verbal Truth, la parole conforme, and Righteousness, action conforming with the moral order.[10]
The correspondence between truth, reality, and an all-encompassing cosmic principle is not far removed from Heraclitus conception of Logos
The word is also the proper name of the divinity Asha, the Amesha Spenta that is the hypostasis or genius[5] of Truth or Righteousness. In the Younger Avesta, this figure is more commonly referred to as Asha Vahishta (Aa Vahita, Arta Vahita), Best Truth.
Avestan aa and its Vedic equivalent ?t both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian. Avestan druj, like its Vedic Sanskrit cousin druh, appears to derive from the PIE root
The Vedic equivalent ?t in the Rig Veda also means: truth, true essence and skill in workmanship, and is closely associated with rhythm, verse and the cosmic order.
It might be additionally illuminating to compare the inherent idea of divine virtue/skill/ ease inherent in the idea of ash/art with the Proto Indo European
Aman ki Asha: What the heck does Asha mean?
Response to Jaideep Bose & Times of India: On peace & Asha
Aman kee ashaa farce equals Bughul main choorimun peh Ram Ram
We do understand aman so we thought we would respond to anything to do with aman. Why would anyone in their sane mind send out an unintelligible message to a rival countryand disguise it as a message of peace. The language of the message says a lot about the mentality of the personyou should know my language if you want peace. Amazing logic! Sending a message of peace in a language that the people of Pakistan have rejected doesnt make any sense.
History is what we inherit. The future is what we make of it.
We got the message of Aman, and some confusing mystery of Asha. However, the hopes, dreams and values of most Pakistanis were shattered on the second line of your article. The word partition to patriotic Pakistanis conjures up image of a mythical Akhand Bharat that was somehow artificially divided the the British in a conspiracy with the Muslims. This version of history of course is anathema to any thinking Pakistani and does not bode well for a start on the road towards peace.
If you cannot reconcile to the independence of Pakistan from the British then any other step is futile and should actually not be taken. We know you know the difference between partition and independence, but you made sure you used the wrong word in your message for peaceknowing full well that some in Pakistan may not know the difference, or may be too polite to insult you by asking you not to use it.
India (Hind, Sindh) was our joint heritage. Bharat or Hindustan instead of India. After August 14th 1947, we became Pakistan and Bharat. However you have tried to incorporate the legacy as yours, and lay claim even to the Indus Valley which does not lie in your geographical boundaries.
Mumbai False flag: Indian hawk & Gujarat Chief Minister Modi exonerates Pakistans position. Delhis fails to prove Pakistan is complicit
India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization
When will India handover terrorists Advani, Thackery, Purohit & 38 other murderers
The Partition, for millions of Indians, remains the most traumatic chapter in living memory a raw, deep wound in the body and soul of this nation that the passage of six decades has not helped heal.
India and Pakistan have fought four wars (including Kargil), been on the perilous brink of a fifth, have exchanged heavy border fire countless times, and continue to view each other with suspicion and hostility.
What you call the trauma of partition is a day of joy, celebrated in Pakistan, not as an official national holiday, but a day of festivity and honor. Pakistanis sacrificed a million lives to achieve independenceit is the most honorable day for Muslims around the world. it can never be a day for sadness. How you could call the day of the independence of Pakistan a trauma is mind-boggling and certainly not an olive branch to the people of Pakistan. Certainly, Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was rightyour heroes are our villains, our villains are your heroesyour days of celebration are our days of sadness, and our days of sadness are days that are joyously celebrated in Bharat.
If you have any iota of self-respect, you will read the articles below and respond to them on this site or your own. However we are not holding our breath.
As if the first insult wasnt enough, you immediately dive into a very controversial subject of Mumbai. While the case against Mr. Kasab is falling apart even in Indian Kangroo courts, your letter indicts all Pakistanis for the alleged crimes of unknown persons.
We had hoped that your article would begin for apologizing for not conducting a plebscite in Kashmir, for arming training, and sponsoring the Mukti Bahni with 80,000 Hindu recruits. We had hoped you would ask your government to stop sponsoring TTP terror into Pakistan and to halt the support to Baloch terrorists in Pakistan. However you chose to take the low road by pandering to the bigots in your country.
You constantly publish incorrect maps of Pakistanand then you talk of peace. You allow bigoted comments in your columns, and you discuss aman.
The 26/11 Mumbai assault confirmed what New Delhi has believed for a while that Pak-based groups have been involved in recruiting, training and financing terrorists whove struck Indian cities with chilling regularity, killing hundreds of innocent people. Theres a sense on this side of the border that these terrorists have, at least in the past, been used, unofficially or semi-officially, as proxies in an undeclared, low-intensity war against India.
Mumbai False flag: Indian hawk & Gujarat Chief Minister Modi exonerates Pakistans position. Delhis fails to prove Pakistan is complicit
India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization
When will India handover terrorists Advani, Thackery, Purohit & 38 other murderers
Bharat wants to talk about Mumbai, and forgets to discuss the shameful LTTE-RAW attack on Lahore. Bharat wants to discuss Seed, but forgets to mention her support for the Mukti Bhani and the BLA. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the Bharati positions. It does not want the UN resolutions implemented saying this is a bilateral dispute. During bilateral discussions, it says that Kashmir is an internal matter. Who can talk with such circular logic.
Peace is always in the mutual interest of parties tied up in conflict. One party does not do the other party any favors. It is the height of arrogance to convey the impression that peace talks are a reward for good behavior of one party. By portraying Pakistan as the guilty party, Delhi sabotages any prospect for peace. If the Americans and the Russians can smoke the peace pipe, so can the Indians and the Pakistanishowever it has to be done on the basis of dignity and mutual respect, not diktat and dictation.
There are many types of peace. It is obvious that India has neither the capacity nor the wherewithal to impose peace of the sort that exists between the Native Americans and the US government. India is not Israel and Pakistan is not the Gaza strip. If Israel with all its might could not force an unequal peace on unequal partners (Syria, Palestinians and Lebanon) it is also very obvious that Delhi cannot impose peace on Pakistan the same way. Bharat could not break up Lanka and make it Kowtow to Bharat. It cannot force Pakistan. It has to woo Pakistanis if she wants peace on her Western borders.
As a harbinger of peace, you dont even ask your own government to start peace talks. Some prophet of peace? Most Pakistanis will respond with a big yawnwhy bother.
Against such a backdrop, it is but natural for the Indian government to move with caution on reopening negotiations with Islamabad. Nor can it be blamed for wanting to first ascertain if the Pakistan government is serious about cracking down on cross-border terrorism. Anything else would be seen as a weak-kneed response to a terrible threat to the Indian state one that could compromise the safety of its citizens and betray the memory of the many lives so wantonly snuffed out.
We agree with you you. The need for aman is needed, indeed required. However we see no bold steps from Mr. Manmohan Singh who periodically goes back on his own words
And yet, the need for aman has never been greater. Shouldnt someone, somewhere try to take a bold, even if tiny, step towards breaking this unending cycle of enmity and violence? Chances are that such an effort will be heaped with ridicule by the naysayers and dismissed as naive by the skeptics.
Does that mean we say no to giving peace a fighting chance? That we play into the hands of warmongers, who want nothing more than to keep the two nations at each others throat? And condemn our children, grandchildren and the generations thereafter to a life of strife?
As it is, we live in what is widely described as the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world two nuclear powers who share a border and a history of hate. With Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan in turmoil, theres a danger that the region could descend into bloody chaos, even pass fully into the hands of the Taliban.
The price of doing nothing is too high to contemplate, for both India and Pakistan.
In the past 25 years, we have never read a positive story in the Times a Indiaa sober and popular newspaper in India.
Which is why the leading media groups on either side of the border Jang and The Times of India have chosen to join hands in a peace initiative called Aman ki Asha. (The Jang Group includes Pakistans pre-eminent Urdu newspaper and its second-largest English paper; its also No. 1 in television, thanks to Geo TV, radio and music.) We believe the media can serve as facilitators in fostering greater understanding between people. Unfortunately and TOI cannot entirely escape blame we tend to focus far too much on the negative. In the process, the good that people do is drowned out by the sensational, and by the constant flow of death-and-destruction headlines.
If you are interested, and we have doubts about your intentions, you can start the process by begining to learn the name of the countryits PAKISTAN, not Pak.
Ignorance breeds distrust. What we do not know, we tend not to trust. Decades of Indo-Pak hostility have reduced normal interaction to less than a bare minimum. Apart from those with relatives on the other side, or those who need to travel on business, there is little traffic between the two countries. The big benefit of the two largest media houses coming together is that it will help open new windows into each others world.
Are we being foolishly romantic, are we tilting at windmills? Perhaps. Will our efforts bear fruit? We can only hope they will. All that we can do is plant as many saplings as possible and pray that they grow deep roots in the ground and strong shoots in the air.
Ours is by no means the first peace effort braver men and women have walked the path before us. There have been several efforts at Track II people-to-people diplomacy. But its been more stop than go, frequently disrupted by outbreaks of violence and terror.
We have never seen you persist on the road to peaceso your words are pretty hollow.
So why do we persist? It is our fervent belief and a poll conducted for Aman ki Asha bears us out that an overwhelming majority of Indians and Pakistanis want peace and stability. Also, it is an article of faith with us that the sum of all good must triumph over the sum of all evil because there is so much more good than evil in this world. Evil exists in pockets of darkness, but has a nasty habit of casting a disproportionately long shadow.
You visit Pakistan, soak in the hospitality, and then go back into your paradigm, blaming Pakistan first for any and all issues. You and other opinion makers can put a stop to the Islamaphobic and Anti-Pakistanism in Bharat, but you persist in airing the views of the bigots and the racists. You can employ Pakistani authors, and air the views of Pakistani columnists, but you dontyou air the views of the Neocons and those who oppose Pakistan and Pakistanis.
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit Pakistan have come back, almost without exception, brimming with stories of warmth, hospitality and an amazing generosity of spirit. Pakistan is one of the few countries where we are made to feel genuinely welcome, not for our growing economic clout or the buying power of our tourists, but for ourselves. What could be a more powerful bond to build on, than this?
You scare us when you call upon the people to tear down the walls. Do you want to erase the boundaries and make it Akhand Bharat. We dont want peace at the cost of Pakistani sovereignty.
It is not Delhis god given right to rule Kabul. Nor does Bharat extend from Kabul to the Raj Kalhani in the East. That Akhand Bharat the dream of the Hindu Mahasabah will never materialize. Bharati religions preach the eternal history of Bharat beyond its borders. If Bharat is a secular country then this transnational dreams of a greater Bharat must be brought back to reality. Every time Adhvani and Modi open their mouths, peace is sent back a decade.
What we need is wider and deeper engagement to tear down the walls that separate us, and clear the misconceptions we harbour about each other. Theres an unfortunate notion among some of us in India that Pakistanis rub their hands in glee every time were struck by terror. Far from it 26/11, in particular, left them shocked and saddened. Just as most Indians are moved to tears by the sight of a father in Lahore or Karachi or Multan cradling the body of a daughter killed by a bomb. If India has been at the receiving end of one deadly terror attack after another, so has Pakistan, indeed with far greater frequency.
We ached to see India joy when Pakistan won the T20, we remember the special prayers for Pakistani losses. Instead of congratulating, and being happy about the well deserved cricket success, take the patronizing knife of condescending hatred and plunge it deep into the temporary misfortune of Pakistancause by what many believe Indian mercenaries.
And if our hearts go out to each other in times of tragedy, they also beat together in moments of good fortune. There was such joy on this side of the border when Pakistan won the T20 World Cup six months ago it was the next best thing to an Indian victory. The fact that they triumphed in the face of enormous odds a country under siege, a team that had little time to prepare made their victory all the more poignant.
There is much in common between India and Pakistan, but there is much that separates the countries. Mere cultural affinity and anathema to religion cannot wish the differences away. Bharat must recognize that Pakistanis do not see Delhi as the perfect model to emulate on anything. Therefore Delhi must stop wishing for a Pakistan in its own image. There are many routes to success, and Pakistanis admire the Chinese a lot more than they admire Indians.
Many things bind us together, certainly not food, nor pornywoodbut there are some cultural aspects that are shared. Your country never praises the great Pakistani poets who are held near and dear to the hearts of Pakistanisyou do however praise those who criticize Pakistan.
You must come to the conclusion that Pakistan does not want to be secular. Pakistan is an Islamic Republic and this will not change. Accept it or continue on your path to war and destruction.
There are so many ties that bind us together social, cultural, civilisational, familial, and above all, emotional and so many common interests: Pakistans love for Bollywood and Hindi TV soaps has to be seen to be believed; equally, theres deep admiration and respect in India for the great poets, writers and musicians Pakistan has produced.
In a recent interview to an international magazine, Bill Clinton said, You have to believe that what we have in common is more important than our differences The context in which he spoke may have been different, but it could just as easily have applied to India and Pakistan.
Good relations with Pakistan begin with better treatment of Muslims in Bharatbeginning with the Kashmiris, but not just limited to them. The Gujaratis and the other downtrodden Muslims in Bharat must be treated as equal citizens, and things must move beyond tokenism (Azad, Fakharuddin & Kalam).
Delhi has to tone down its rhetoric on terror. Islamabad and the world knows who is behind the TTP in Swat. If Delhi wants peace with Pakistan, it has to pull back in Afghanistan and Swat. It has to make major territorial concessions in Kashmir and the border areas. Once the border disputes have been resolved, the sky is the limit in cooperation with Pakistan. Sir Creek and Siachin have to solved and resolved quickly. Once Kashmir is resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistan government will find to problem in helping Bharat gain trans-national travel through Pakistan. However this has to be on a mutual basis which would allow Pakistani truck to reach Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bharat must live up to the letter and the spirit of the Indus Water treaty and begin treating Pakistanis are friends rather than enemies.
Peace needs to be underwritten by politicians; at the same time, its too important to be left solely to them. Nor is it always a linear process: it needs people who are willing to swim against the tide of conventional wisdom, and it requires the occasional leap of faith.
Our efforts can never supplant official government-to-government talks. What we hope to start is a movement that will gradually make its way from the periphery to the centre, a wave of goodwill that will touch the hearts and minds of people on both sides. History shows that even grand, Nobel-winning gestures dont always lead to long-term peace, not unless theyre backed by popular support and sentiment.
People need to believe that just as the cost of continued conflict is enormous in terms of its human and economic toll the peace dividend can be huge too. No wonder the two words, peace and prosperity, are so inextricably linked. There is a multiplier effect of peace: in the immediate term, the defence budget can be pared and the money spent on development instead; more importantly, trust leads to trade, and business blossoms in an environment of security and stability. In the long term, the spread of prosperity will hopefully lighten the burden of poverty that drives many young men to violence, for it is often among the ranks of the poor and the disillusioned that extremist groups find ready recruits (if the stories about Kasab are to be believed, it wasnt ideology that first drove him into the arms of the LeT; in India too, deprivation has fuelled insurgency).
Your words are hollow, when your leaders talk about reunification, and your Chief of Army Staff threatens Paksitan and China with war. We hate to burst your bubble, but Pakistanis have neither admiration, nor applause for the disgusting state that most Indians livePakistanis admire China, and that is a model which should followed.
A stable, prosperous Pakistan is in Indias interest as much as it is in Pakistans. Its also perhaps time we tried to look at things from the other side. Its not easy to do, in any relationship be it personal, professional, or between nations. But a genuine attempt at it can lead to greater empathy, understanding and perhaps even a congruence of views. Among the educated middle to upper class in Pakistan, there is admiration for Indias economic achievements. But there is also a certain insecurity of a large and powerful neighbour that has never quite come to terms with what it calls Partition and what Pakistan calls Independence. For many Indians, Jinnah remains a villain; on the other side of the border, hes Quaid-i-Azam (The Great Leader) and father of the nation.
We are making history every day. We dont see any difference in the words of Sarwarkar, and Modi, or Nehru and Manmohan Singh. Only the names changethe Akhand Bharati policies continue. We remember too well, Shuddi and Shangtram, and Gujarat and Babri Masjid. How could we forget 1970 when Bharat intervened in a squabble between brothers. Bharats potential
Yes, there are differences, but should we let them get in the way of a shared destiny? Must our future remain hostage to our past? We think not. Should the good intentions of hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis be subverted by a few hardliners and radicals? Certainly not.
Over the past few months, many of us at The Times of India have had the privilege of meeting some very fine people at the Jang Group, and have made some wonderful friends there. We look forward to deepening this relationship in the months and years to come and spreading the goodwill beyond the confines of our newspapers and TV channels.
Remember the words of John Lennons peace anthem, Imagine? You may say Im a dreamer/But Im not the only one/I hope someday youll join us Wed like to believe there are many more dreamers like us out there and that our dream of India and Pakistan living in harmony will come true.
From all of us here, we wish our friends in Pakistan a peaceful and prosperous new decade. Times of India. AMAN KI ASHA, Peace with Pakistan: Give Tomorrow A Chance, Jaideep Bose 1 January 2010, 04:10pm IST
If Bharat wants peace with Pakistan, it has to dismantle the infrastructure of the RSS and the BJP and gag the Islamphobes that it nurtures within its borders. If Bharat wants peace it has to stop sabotaging Pakistan at all international forums, and begin supporting common and Pakistani causes. Jointly fighting for the Basmati patent, and IRRI copyright would help the atmosphere of friendship.
The last time Mr. Singh met with with President Zardari, the meeting did now go well. Mr. Singh was rude and undiplomatic. Like a juvenile toddler in his terrible twos Mr. Singh was seen as a spoilt toddler jumping up and down complaining after he has lost his favorite teddy. The temper tantrum impressed no one. Perhaps Mr. Singh has gone senile and forgot where he was. The septuagenarian Premier was behaving as if he was showing up at a schoolyard brawl after being told by the headmistress to repeat a certain line. It was seen for what it was worth, Complaint diplomacy at its worst.
Mr. Singh has failed in all his efforts to isolate Pakistan. Instead of isolation, the US actually tripled its aid to Pakistan. The entire Bharati establishment was in high gear trying to portray Pakistan as a fountain of terror. The world rallied around Pakistan with arms and money to overcome the TTP.
No one is advocating boycotting talks with Delhi. However the talks should be part of a routine without any expectations. Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeating the same mistakes. Pakistan has dealt with multiple Congress Prime Ministers. None have come forward with any genuine desire for peace. All of them want Akhand Bharat. Indira Gandhi told Henry Kissinger that the NWFP belongs to India and Punjab is on the way. This is the mentality of all Indian leaderseven the so called liberal ones.
We also wish that the coming generation of Bharatis will break the shackles of caste, and A martin Luther will liberate the 450 million Dalits. We have only good wishes for the 150 million Muslim brothers marginalized and strapped into penury. We hope that Bharat will recover 40% of its territory, now in the hands of the Naxals and the Maoists, and we hope that Kashmiris will one day see freedoms and rejoin their brothers of the Indus in Pakistan. We hope that the gender genocide that kills 10 million baby girls before and after birth will end in Bharat soon. We also hope that Bharat raises itself on the hunger index (lowest in South Asia) and lower than some Sub-Saharan countries. We desire that the Bharati growth does not return to the Hindu growth rate which defined it in the past fifty years, and that the current growth goes beyond the 30 families which control one third of the rate of growth. We hope that the fruits of the $42 billion IT industry go beyond the 6 million and does not shrink.
We wish the Bharaits the best of luck in the next decade.
To: Jaideep Bose, Editor Times of India
Aman Ki Asha . Dont have a clue what Asha means. It gets very confusing
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha)
The italics are the Times of India article on peace. The Non-Italics are ours.
We appreciate al least the minimum effort to discuss peace between the two rival nations of Hindustan and Pakistan. We thank you taking the initiative and appreciate the first and last lines of your article.
We have waited for the message of peace from the Prime Minister of Bharat for decades. This is what will make peace. Open Letter to Indian PM: Can he bring peace to Asia?
We like most in Pakistan dont know what asha means. We had to look it up and are perplexed that you would send a message about a Hindu deity. Did you expect Pakistanis to being praying to a new Vedic deity Asha? We are confused!
Do we have to call Professor Robert Langston from Mr. Dan Browns Da Vinci Code to decipher a hidden message in this slogan?
Aa cannot be precisely rendered by some single word in another tongue,[3] but may be summarized as follows:
It is, first of all, true statement. This true statement, because it is true, corresponds to an objective, material reality. This reality embraces all of existence. Recognized in it is a great cosmic principle since all things happen according to it.[9][j] This cosmic [...] force is imbued also with morality, as verbal Truth, la parole conforme, and Righteousness, action conforming with the moral order.[10]
The correspondence between truth, reality, and an all-encompassing cosmic principle is not far removed from Heraclitus conception of Logos
The word is also the proper name of the divinity Asha, the Amesha Spenta that is the hypostasis or genius[5] of Truth or Righteousness. In the Younger Avesta, this figure is more commonly referred to as Asha Vahishta (Aa Vahita, Arta Vahita), Best Truth.
Avestan aa and its Vedic equivalent ?t both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian. Avestan druj, like its Vedic Sanskrit cousin druh, appears to derive from the PIE root
The Vedic equivalent ?t in the Rig Veda also means: truth, true essence and skill in workmanship, and is closely associated with rhythm, verse and the cosmic order.
It might be additionally illuminating to compare the inherent idea of divine virtue/skill/ ease inherent in the idea of ash/art with the Proto Indo European
Aman ki Asha: What the heck does Asha mean?
Response to Jaideep Bose & Times of India: On peace & Asha
Aman kee ashaa farce equals Bughul main choorimun peh Ram Ram
We do understand aman so we thought we would respond to anything to do with aman. Why would anyone in their sane mind send out an unintelligible message to a rival countryand disguise it as a message of peace. The language of the message says a lot about the mentality of the personyou should know my language if you want peace. Amazing logic! Sending a message of peace in a language that the people of Pakistan have rejected doesnt make any sense.
History is what we inherit. The future is what we make of it.
We got the message of Aman, and some confusing mystery of Asha. However, the hopes, dreams and values of most Pakistanis were shattered on the second line of your article. The word partition to patriotic Pakistanis conjures up image of a mythical Akhand Bharat that was somehow artificially divided the the British in a conspiracy with the Muslims. This version of history of course is anathema to any thinking Pakistani and does not bode well for a start on the road towards peace.
If you cannot reconcile to the independence of Pakistan from the British then any other step is futile and should actually not be taken. We know you know the difference between partition and independence, but you made sure you used the wrong word in your message for peaceknowing full well that some in Pakistan may not know the difference, or may be too polite to insult you by asking you not to use it.
India (Hind, Sindh) was our joint heritage. Bharat or Hindustan instead of India. After August 14th 1947, we became Pakistan and Bharat. However you have tried to incorporate the legacy as yours, and lay claim even to the Indus Valley which does not lie in your geographical boundaries.
Mumbai False flag: Indian hawk & Gujarat Chief Minister Modi exonerates Pakistans position. Delhis fails to prove Pakistan is complicit
India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization
When will India handover terrorists Advani, Thackery, Purohit & 38 other murderers
The Partition, for millions of Indians, remains the most traumatic chapter in living memory a raw, deep wound in the body and soul of this nation that the passage of six decades has not helped heal.
India and Pakistan have fought four wars (including Kargil), been on the perilous brink of a fifth, have exchanged heavy border fire countless times, and continue to view each other with suspicion and hostility.
What you call the trauma of partition is a day of joy, celebrated in Pakistan, not as an official national holiday, but a day of festivity and honor. Pakistanis sacrificed a million lives to achieve independenceit is the most honorable day for Muslims around the world. it can never be a day for sadness. How you could call the day of the independence of Pakistan a trauma is mind-boggling and certainly not an olive branch to the people of Pakistan. Certainly, Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was rightyour heroes are our villains, our villains are your heroesyour days of celebration are our days of sadness, and our days of sadness are days that are joyously celebrated in Bharat.
If you have any iota of self-respect, you will read the articles below and respond to them on this site or your own. However we are not holding our breath.
As if the first insult wasnt enough, you immediately dive into a very controversial subject of Mumbai. While the case against Mr. Kasab is falling apart even in Indian Kangroo courts, your letter indicts all Pakistanis for the alleged crimes of unknown persons.
We had hoped that your article would begin for apologizing for not conducting a plebscite in Kashmir, for arming training, and sponsoring the Mukti Bahni with 80,000 Hindu recruits. We had hoped you would ask your government to stop sponsoring TTP terror into Pakistan and to halt the support to Baloch terrorists in Pakistan. However you chose to take the low road by pandering to the bigots in your country.
You constantly publish incorrect maps of Pakistanand then you talk of peace. You allow bigoted comments in your columns, and you discuss aman.
The 26/11 Mumbai assault confirmed what New Delhi has believed for a while that Pak-based groups have been involved in recruiting, training and financing terrorists whove struck Indian cities with chilling regularity, killing hundreds of innocent people. Theres a sense on this side of the border that these terrorists have, at least in the past, been used, unofficially or semi-officially, as proxies in an undeclared, low-intensity war against India.
Mumbai False flag: Indian hawk & Gujarat Chief Minister Modi exonerates Pakistans position. Delhis fails to prove Pakistan is complicit
India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization
When will India handover terrorists Advani, Thackery, Purohit & 38 other murderers
Bharat wants to talk about Mumbai, and forgets to discuss the shameful LTTE-RAW attack on Lahore. Bharat wants to discuss Seed, but forgets to mention her support for the Mukti Bhani and the BLA. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the Bharati positions. It does not want the UN resolutions implemented saying this is a bilateral dispute. During bilateral discussions, it says that Kashmir is an internal matter. Who can talk with such circular logic.
Peace is always in the mutual interest of parties tied up in conflict. One party does not do the other party any favors. It is the height of arrogance to convey the impression that peace talks are a reward for good behavior of one party. By portraying Pakistan as the guilty party, Delhi sabotages any prospect for peace. If the Americans and the Russians can smoke the peace pipe, so can the Indians and the Pakistanishowever it has to be done on the basis of dignity and mutual respect, not diktat and dictation.
There are many types of peace. It is obvious that India has neither the capacity nor the wherewithal to impose peace of the sort that exists between the Native Americans and the US government. India is not Israel and Pakistan is not the Gaza strip. If Israel with all its might could not force an unequal peace on unequal partners (Syria, Palestinians and Lebanon) it is also very obvious that Delhi cannot impose peace on Pakistan the same way. Bharat could not break up Lanka and make it Kowtow to Bharat. It cannot force Pakistan. It has to woo Pakistanis if she wants peace on her Western borders.
As a harbinger of peace, you dont even ask your own government to start peace talks. Some prophet of peace? Most Pakistanis will respond with a big yawnwhy bother.
Against such a backdrop, it is but natural for the Indian government to move with caution on reopening negotiations with Islamabad. Nor can it be blamed for wanting to first ascertain if the Pakistan government is serious about cracking down on cross-border terrorism. Anything else would be seen as a weak-kneed response to a terrible threat to the Indian state one that could compromise the safety of its citizens and betray the memory of the many lives so wantonly snuffed out.
We agree with you you. The need for aman is needed, indeed required. However we see no bold steps from Mr. Manmohan Singh who periodically goes back on his own words
And yet, the need for aman has never been greater. Shouldnt someone, somewhere try to take a bold, even if tiny, step towards breaking this unending cycle of enmity and violence? Chances are that such an effort will be heaped with ridicule by the naysayers and dismissed as naive by the skeptics.
Does that mean we say no to giving peace a fighting chance? That we play into the hands of warmongers, who want nothing more than to keep the two nations at each others throat? And condemn our children, grandchildren and the generations thereafter to a life of strife?
As it is, we live in what is widely described as the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world two nuclear powers who share a border and a history of hate. With Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan in turmoil, theres a danger that the region could descend into bloody chaos, even pass fully into the hands of the Taliban.
The price of doing nothing is too high to contemplate, for both India and Pakistan.
In the past 25 years, we have never read a positive story in the Times a Indiaa sober and popular newspaper in India.
Which is why the leading media groups on either side of the border Jang and The Times of India have chosen to join hands in a peace initiative called Aman ki Asha. (The Jang Group includes Pakistans pre-eminent Urdu newspaper and its second-largest English paper; its also No. 1 in television, thanks to Geo TV, radio and music.) We believe the media can serve as facilitators in fostering greater understanding between people. Unfortunately and TOI cannot entirely escape blame we tend to focus far too much on the negative. In the process, the good that people do is drowned out by the sensational, and by the constant flow of death-and-destruction headlines.
If you are interested, and we have doubts about your intentions, you can start the process by begining to learn the name of the countryits PAKISTAN, not Pak.
Ignorance breeds distrust. What we do not know, we tend not to trust. Decades of Indo-Pak hostility have reduced normal interaction to less than a bare minimum. Apart from those with relatives on the other side, or those who need to travel on business, there is little traffic between the two countries. The big benefit of the two largest media houses coming together is that it will help open new windows into each others world.
Are we being foolishly romantic, are we tilting at windmills? Perhaps. Will our efforts bear fruit? We can only hope they will. All that we can do is plant as many saplings as possible and pray that they grow deep roots in the ground and strong shoots in the air.
Ours is by no means the first peace effort braver men and women have walked the path before us. There have been several efforts at Track II people-to-people diplomacy. But its been more stop than go, frequently disrupted by outbreaks of violence and terror.
We have never seen you persist on the road to peaceso your words are pretty hollow.
So why do we persist? It is our fervent belief and a poll conducted for Aman ki Asha bears us out that an overwhelming majority of Indians and Pakistanis want peace and stability. Also, it is an article of faith with us that the sum of all good must triumph over the sum of all evil because there is so much more good than evil in this world. Evil exists in pockets of darkness, but has a nasty habit of casting a disproportionately long shadow.
You visit Pakistan, soak in the hospitality, and then go back into your paradigm, blaming Pakistan first for any and all issues. You and other opinion makers can put a stop to the Islamaphobic and Anti-Pakistanism in Bharat, but you persist in airing the views of the bigots and the racists. You can employ Pakistani authors, and air the views of Pakistani columnists, but you dontyou air the views of the Neocons and those who oppose Pakistan and Pakistanis.
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit Pakistan have come back, almost without exception, brimming with stories of warmth, hospitality and an amazing generosity of spirit. Pakistan is one of the few countries where we are made to feel genuinely welcome, not for our growing economic clout or the buying power of our tourists, but for ourselves. What could be a more powerful bond to build on, than this?
You scare us when you call upon the people to tear down the walls. Do you want to erase the boundaries and make it Akhand Bharat. We dont want peace at the cost of Pakistani sovereignty.
It is not Delhis god given right to rule Kabul. Nor does Bharat extend from Kabul to the Raj Kalhani in the East. That Akhand Bharat the dream of the Hindu Mahasabah will never materialize. Bharati religions preach the eternal history of Bharat beyond its borders. If Bharat is a secular country then this transnational dreams of a greater Bharat must be brought back to reality. Every time Adhvani and Modi open their mouths, peace is sent back a decade.
What we need is wider and deeper engagement to tear down the walls that separate us, and clear the misconceptions we harbour about each other. Theres an unfortunate notion among some of us in India that Pakistanis rub their hands in glee every time were struck by terror. Far from it 26/11, in particular, left them shocked and saddened. Just as most Indians are moved to tears by the sight of a father in Lahore or Karachi or Multan cradling the body of a daughter killed by a bomb. If India has been at the receiving end of one deadly terror attack after another, so has Pakistan, indeed with far greater frequency.
We ached to see India joy when Pakistan won the T20, we remember the special prayers for Pakistani losses. Instead of congratulating, and being happy about the well deserved cricket success, take the patronizing knife of condescending hatred and plunge it deep into the temporary misfortune of Pakistancause by what many believe Indian mercenaries.
And if our hearts go out to each other in times of tragedy, they also beat together in moments of good fortune. There was such joy on this side of the border when Pakistan won the T20 World Cup six months ago it was the next best thing to an Indian victory. The fact that they triumphed in the face of enormous odds a country under siege, a team that had little time to prepare made their victory all the more poignant.
There is much in common between India and Pakistan, but there is much that separates the countries. Mere cultural affinity and anathema to religion cannot wish the differences away. Bharat must recognize that Pakistanis do not see Delhi as the perfect model to emulate on anything. Therefore Delhi must stop wishing for a Pakistan in its own image. There are many routes to success, and Pakistanis admire the Chinese a lot more than they admire Indians.
Many things bind us together, certainly not food, nor pornywoodbut there are some cultural aspects that are shared. Your country never praises the great Pakistani poets who are held near and dear to the hearts of Pakistanisyou do however praise those who criticize Pakistan.
You must come to the conclusion that Pakistan does not want to be secular. Pakistan is an Islamic Republic and this will not change. Accept it or continue on your path to war and destruction.
There are so many ties that bind us together social, cultural, civilisational, familial, and above all, emotional and so many common interests: Pakistans love for Bollywood and Hindi TV soaps has to be seen to be believed; equally, theres deep admiration and respect in India for the great poets, writers and musicians Pakistan has produced.
In a recent interview to an international magazine, Bill Clinton said, You have to believe that what we have in common is more important than our differences The context in which he spoke may have been different, but it could just as easily have applied to India and Pakistan.
Good relations with Pakistan begin with better treatment of Muslims in Bharatbeginning with the Kashmiris, but not just limited to them. The Gujaratis and the other downtrodden Muslims in Bharat must be treated as equal citizens, and things must move beyond tokenism (Azad, Fakharuddin & Kalam).
Delhi has to tone down its rhetoric on terror. Islamabad and the world knows who is behind the TTP in Swat. If Delhi wants peace with Pakistan, it has to pull back in Afghanistan and Swat. It has to make major territorial concessions in Kashmir and the border areas. Once the border disputes have been resolved, the sky is the limit in cooperation with Pakistan. Sir Creek and Siachin have to solved and resolved quickly. Once Kashmir is resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistan government will find to problem in helping Bharat gain trans-national travel through Pakistan. However this has to be on a mutual basis which would allow Pakistani truck to reach Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bharat must live up to the letter and the spirit of the Indus Water treaty and begin treating Pakistanis are friends rather than enemies.
Peace needs to be underwritten by politicians; at the same time, its too important to be left solely to them. Nor is it always a linear process: it needs people who are willing to swim against the tide of conventional wisdom, and it requires the occasional leap of faith.
Our efforts can never supplant official government-to-government talks. What we hope to start is a movement that will gradually make its way from the periphery to the centre, a wave of goodwill that will touch the hearts and minds of people on both sides. History shows that even grand, Nobel-winning gestures dont always lead to long-term peace, not unless theyre backed by popular support and sentiment.
People need to believe that just as the cost of continued conflict is enormous in terms of its human and economic toll the peace dividend can be huge too. No wonder the two words, peace and prosperity, are so inextricably linked. There is a multiplier effect of peace: in the immediate term, the defence budget can be pared and the money spent on development instead; more importantly, trust leads to trade, and business blossoms in an environment of security and stability. In the long term, the spread of prosperity will hopefully lighten the burden of poverty that drives many young men to violence, for it is often among the ranks of the poor and the disillusioned that extremist groups find ready recruits (if the stories about Kasab are to be believed, it wasnt ideology that first drove him into the arms of the LeT; in India too, deprivation has fuelled insurgency).
Your words are hollow, when your leaders talk about reunification, and your Chief of Army Staff threatens Paksitan and China with war. We hate to burst your bubble, but Pakistanis have neither admiration, nor applause for the disgusting state that most Indians livePakistanis admire China, and that is a model which should followed.
A stable, prosperous Pakistan is in Indias interest as much as it is in Pakistans. Its also perhaps time we tried to look at things from the other side. Its not easy to do, in any relationship be it personal, professional, or between nations. But a genuine attempt at it can lead to greater empathy, understanding and perhaps even a congruence of views. Among the educated middle to upper class in Pakistan, there is admiration for Indias economic achievements. But there is also a certain insecurity of a large and powerful neighbour that has never quite come to terms with what it calls Partition and what Pakistan calls Independence. For many Indians, Jinnah remains a villain; on the other side of the border, hes Quaid-i-Azam (The Great Leader) and father of the nation.
We are making history every day. We dont see any difference in the words of Sarwarkar, and Modi, or Nehru and Manmohan Singh. Only the names changethe Akhand Bharati policies continue. We remember too well, Shuddi and Shangtram, and Gujarat and Babri Masjid. How could we forget 1970 when Bharat intervened in a squabble between brothers. Bharats potential
Yes, there are differences, but should we let them get in the way of a shared destiny? Must our future remain hostage to our past? We think not. Should the good intentions of hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis be subverted by a few hardliners and radicals? Certainly not.
Over the past few months, many of us at The Times of India have had the privilege of meeting some very fine people at the Jang Group, and have made some wonderful friends there. We look forward to deepening this relationship in the months and years to come and spreading the goodwill beyond the confines of our newspapers and TV channels.
Remember the words of John Lennons peace anthem, Imagine? You may say Im a dreamer/But Im not the only one/I hope someday youll join us Wed like to believe there are many more dreamers like us out there and that our dream of India and Pakistan living in harmony will come true.
From all of us here, we wish our friends in Pakistan a peaceful and prosperous new decade. Times of India. AMAN KI ASHA, Peace with Pakistan: Give Tomorrow A Chance, Jaideep Bose 1 January 2010, 04:10pm IST
If Bharat wants peace with Pakistan, it has to dismantle the infrastructure of the RSS and the BJP and gag the Islamphobes that it nurtures within its borders. If Bharat wants peace it has to stop sabotaging Pakistan at all international forums, and begin supporting common and Pakistani causes. Jointly fighting for the Basmati patent, and IRRI copyright would help the atmosphere of friendship.
The last time Mr. Singh met with with President Zardari, the meeting did now go well. Mr. Singh was rude and undiplomatic. Like a juvenile toddler in his terrible twos Mr. Singh was seen as a spoilt toddler jumping up and down complaining after he has lost his favorite teddy. The temper tantrum impressed no one. Perhaps Mr. Singh has gone senile and forgot where he was. The septuagenarian Premier was behaving as if he was showing up at a schoolyard brawl after being told by the headmistress to repeat a certain line. It was seen for what it was worth, Complaint diplomacy at its worst.
Mr. Singh has failed in all his efforts to isolate Pakistan. Instead of isolation, the US actually tripled its aid to Pakistan. The entire Bharati establishment was in high gear trying to portray Pakistan as a fountain of terror. The world rallied around Pakistan with arms and money to overcome the TTP.
No one is advocating boycotting talks with Delhi. However the talks should be part of a routine without any expectations. Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeating the same mistakes. Pakistan has dealt with multiple Congress Prime Ministers. None have come forward with any genuine desire for peace. All of them want Akhand Bharat. Indira Gandhi told Henry Kissinger that the NWFP belongs to India and Punjab is on the way. This is the mentality of all Indian leaderseven the so called liberal ones.
We also wish that the coming generation of Bharatis will break the shackles of caste, and A martin Luther will liberate the 450 million Dalits. We have only good wishes for the 150 million Muslim brothers marginalized and strapped into penury. We hope that Bharat will recover 40% of its territory, now in the hands of the Naxals and the Maoists, and we hope that Kashmiris will one day see freedoms and rejoin their brothers of the Indus in Pakistan. We hope that the gender genocide that kills 10 million baby girls before and after birth will end in Bharat soon. We also hope that Bharat raises itself on the hunger index (lowest in South Asia) and lower than some Sub-Saharan countries. We desire that the Bharati growth does not return to the Hindu growth rate which defined it in the past fifty years, and that the current growth goes beyond the 30 families which control one third of the rate of growth. We hope that the fruits of the $42 billion IT industry go beyond the 6 million and does not shrink.
We wish the Bharaits the best of luck in the next decade.
