If you are reading this then it is very obvious that you are acquainted with the English language. Considering the readership of this blog ,you are,in all probability,an English speaking citizen of a particular country,for instance India. Again this article can also be read by an English speaking “resident” of Bangladesh,or for that matter,that of the USA. Then the only superficial difference between the readers would be on the basis of their nationality. With that idea well placed,I proceed to the main point.
Looking at the exchange of POWs across the Wagah,I was suddenly caught up in a wave of questions that sensationalized the whole process. What is this Wagah border? A ceremonial gateway between two nations,the identities of these two nations being at cross-roads between the gates!!
I wondered what these POWs would be feeling at that particular moment,getting transported from one country to another,which resembled like Siamese twins even after more than five decades of their separation.they may have felt uprooted and dislocated but was it India that they longed for,or was it their family,their village or their friends back home??
India and Pakistan are two countries that have shared history so much so that the birth of one was out of the womb of another. Looking at the TV screen I was caught up in the flux of identity that was part of my existence in the subcontinent,yet was not thoroughly deciphered.
There was a benevolent,yet sublime,feeling of mutual camadeire that I was sharing with the news reporter,alongwith a sense of suspicion about the treatment of “our” soldiers at the Pakistani prison. To add to my confusion, I could hear the radio belting out “Durr”,which is one of my favourite songs;incidentally composed by a Pakistani group called Strings.
I realized that a country is not made of people or cultures. Those are transcendental. But it is made of borders-invisible fences that we build,to shut ourselves off from “others”. Borders are a political necessity but as a culture and people,it is flimsy.
A world without borders is not possible. Theoretically,there are no lines drawn between nations,no barren strips of land called the “no man’s land”, no trenches or soldiers with guns. The landscape across this flimsy reality is constant. But borders allow us to have a neat view of things. It is easy to classify, easy to govern within a system of order. Borders are needed to define our identity, a sense of belonging to a herd!!
Identity is mercurial in the realm of politics,but on a personal level it remains constant. We are extending a friendly hand towards our,till now,hostile counterpart but that is the same country we want to squash in a less threatening space of a cricket field,where again our passions are governed by a barbed wire drawn out on a piece of land.
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13 comments:
Like it is rightly said," Good walls make good neighbours".
There is a pride in every ones mind about the border they live in. Its just that they feel that others should feel the same. I guess thats where the problem lies.
Wagah border signifies POWER!
Think abt it!.While its nice to read quality articles wouldn't it be better if some better media was involved like say....a newspaper?
Had to speak out again! It is not the topic that enchants me but the way in which it has been written. Well done!
well locomotiff...blogs r a way of expression and this particular article appeared in a leading national daily...so there!
I feel like taking a nuke and blasting their head off. Howz that for an answer?
Your opinion on the subject is as passionate as it is interesting.
The piece makes for a brief and well writen analysis of an issue which, had it only been more understood, would have solved all the border disputes that exist between the two countries atleast a decade ago. However, I disagree that India and Pakistan are as similar as they once were. The decade I just mentioned has passed. The landscape which was cut out of an enslaved country has changed.
Religious and social dogma change how people think. While one country continues to maintain its identity on the bloodless victory it got, the other has been reduced to surviving on scraps from wealthier nations. And in the midst of all that has happend on the western side of the border in the last 20 years, the new Pakistani isn't anywhere similar to the new Indian. He/she is still caugth in dogma, still troubled by the identity of themselves and their nation and most of all still far from the rest of the world.
Those POWs were not treated like locals or for that matter even as people sharing similar legacy. Both sides use these opportunities to brutalize any ties that may still show up in the eyes of the enemy. It is and will remain an ordeal. While Pakistan has shown no signs of changing from a terrorist breeding ground, India has not stopped any of its own contemptible treatment of the 'deer-in-the-spotlight' Kashmiri's.
They are more different now than they ever were - India and Pakistan are headed in different direction in the 21st century. The emotions, the human ones, will never differ too much. Just like they don't anywhere else. None-the-less, it is quite calming that there still exist those like you, who find figments of a lost time.
thanks for ur insight as...u rightly pointed out my indulgence with the identity of the two nations as they were during the partition but i seriously think (just like u agree with) that peace can only come once we go back to where it all started!
i wonder if political blotch-ups are what they are really made out to be...I cannot think, but then if I did then it would not have mattered much as i am not the seat of governance.
Its an interesting piece, well written no doubt. But then thats the least one can expect from a literature student. Now lets do a reality check.... if u were in the army or were even remotely related to someone in the army, it would have been brought to ur notice by now that there are lines drawn btw nations (in the form of wired fences)and there are barren strips of land called the 'no man's land' and there definately are soldiers with guns... real ones... :)
Great article! Thanks.
Thanks for interesting article.
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