DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 28 February, 1999
Peace must be made
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
AND so the Indians came, and were accorded right-royal treatment. They were low-key, they were polite. Pradhan Mantri Atal Behari Vajpayee spoke well and meaningfully, as did Wazir-e-Azam Mian Nawaz Sharif.
The stone-throwers, slogan-mongers, windshield-breakers, and jehad-fighters should ask themselves exactly where it is they have brought their country over the past 50 years. In 1948, had our 'freedom-fighters' advanced with some purpose and any sort of discipline and made for the Srinagar airfield, rather than deviating into an orgy of looting at Baramulla, we could have seized the Vale and held it. Thereafter, the three wars with India have cost us the loss of half of our country, whereas discussions and diplomacy have added to our territory - Gwadar - the only territory gained since 1947.
Today we find Nawaz Sharif's government doing the right thing as far as relations with neighbour India is concerned. The opposition (if we can call it that), headed by the likes of Messrs Tahirul Qadri, Aslam Beg, Chattha, Nasrullah, and Ms Benazir Bhutto oppose purely for the sake of opposing. They matter little. The sole party to attempt to cause a physical impediment to the Sharif-Vajpayee meeting on our soil was the unelectable and unelected Jama'at, headed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad and his street-forces.
Why do the opposers of friendship not try to learn from history? It takes years of sustained effort to overcome the bitterness caused by past enmity. Take France and Germany. From 1870 to 1945, the two countries fought three destructive wars, all to do with territorial gains and losses.
The war of 1870 was swift and decisive. Then came World War 1, fought over four long bitter years from 1914-1918, which cost the lives of almost 1.5 million Frenchmen and marginally less Germans. World War 2, lasted for six years during which over 600,000 Frenchmen and 4.5 million Germans were killed. The impregnable Maginot Line and the mighty Siegfried Line proved useless.
When Germany was divided in 1945, no one doubted that one day it would reunite, but few alive today thought this would happen in their lifetime. But it did. It was all a question of time - time, the great healer - and circumstances. Germany is one today, and France and Germany stand united in a united Europe.
As for Qazi Hussain Ahmad, he is not as scary as his press photos and his fiery utterances make him out to be. A year or so ago, one of his naib-amirs came calling to tell me that his Amir was in Karachi for a Jama'at conference and it was his 'khwahish' to call on me. I would call on Qazi, I replied. So, I was invited to dinner.
The Qazi ran true to form, itching for confrontation, ready for a fight. The preliminaries dispensed with, he announced that he reads what I write and does not agree with any of it. As our conversation went along, he conceded he agreed with certain points. By the end of the evening, he admitted that he agreed with the larger part of what I wrote.
He was keen to discuss religion. I was not. He asked when the Zoroastrians, the Parsis, had first come to Karachi. In 1847 or so, I said, but he heard 1947. (With him as is the case with far too many in this country, the world was created in 1947.) Was it in that year we ran from Iran, he asked? That was over 1300 years ago, I explained, when the Zoroastrians suffered oppression and persecution by the conquering Arab Muslims and decided to leave for more peaceful shores. At this, he banged his fists on the table, told me I was wrong, that Mussalmans never commit 'zulum.'
I reminded Qazi of the Battle of Qadisiya. (Before Yasdezird III sat upon the throne of Iran, the Muslim Arabs, driven by poverty and religious fervour, had begun to attack the rich lands bordering their deserts. In 636 AD they overran Syria and Mesopotamia and met the Imperial Iranian Army at Qadisiya. A bitter battle was fought and the Arabs were victorious.) I reminded him of the oppression that started thereafter. But, I said, I am not interested in what happened over 13 centuries ago and am certainly not willing to argue or fight about it, so let's agree that there was no persecution. Then why did you leave Iran and come to India, he asked?
The Zoroastrians had set sail for better climes, for the largely uninhabited island of Madagascar where the 'aabo-hawa' was excellent, food grew in abundance, and the wildest of animals were fun-loving apes. During the voyage our spirited navigators imbibed to such an extent, befuddling their senses, and they sailed off-course, eventually landing at Surat, on the West Coast of India. Tired, there they stayed, and were welcomed by the benign monarch Jadev Rana. There ended that tack.
Qazi again took off on his favourite topic, reminding me that I lived in a Muslim country. I needed no reminding on that score, I assured him. Whereupon he picked up a knife. Were someone to hold this at your throat and tell you he would kill you unless you recite the Holy Kalma, what would be your reaction, he asked? I requested him to put down the knife, recited the Kalma for him, explaining that I was not willing to die for my religion and certainly did not wish to die for his.
Thereafter he adjudged me to be a reasonable man, and we parted as friends.
The cynics say that the Indians are wily and capable of inveigling us into situations from which we will not be able to extricate ourselves. Who is to blame if we are inveigled? Pragmatic they are. They know what they want and they know what they can get. One story, symbolic though it may be, augments the point.
In 1965, the powerful Bombay-based consortium Associated Cement Company (ACC) owned two excellent well-run cement manufacturing units, one at Wah, one at Rohri. No profits were being repatriated to India and there was no hope of any Pakistani buying the units and remitting the sales proceeds. The Hindu and Parsi directors met, decided it would be wise to abide by the premise of the old saying "Wania mooche neechee" (no English phrase literally translates this). They had done their homework and knew there was but one man in Pakistan to whom they could talk, with whom they could settle, and who would deliver what he promised. That man was the Nawab of Kalabagh, Ayub Khan's Governor of West Pakistan.
The Chairman of ACC, Dharamsey Khatau, was asked by the Board to meet Kalabagh. His instructions : "Pooroo kari avo." Khatau arrived with his director, Bobby Mistry. Mahmud Alam, then looking after the affairs of ACC in Pakistan, asked Kalabagh if he would meet the two. Of course, was the answer, and they will stay as my guests whilst in Lahore. Alam thanked him, and then quietly informed the household comptroller who was standing by that Dharamsey was a vegetarian. Kalabagh overheard the exchange and butted in, "As long as Khatau is under my roof, no meat will be served at my table." Throughout Khatau's stay Kalabagh ate daal-bhaat, dahi, and tarkari.
Khatau proposed a price and said that over a specified period of time India would accept cement across the border in lieu of cash. The Nawab nodded, and said it seemed reasonable, and asked Alam if Pakistan could deliver. Yes, came the answer. "Done," pronounced Kalabagh.
Then came the '65 war. Many politicians tried to persuade Kalabagh that the two plants could justifiably be taken over as enemy property without any compensation beng paid to the Indians. "Over my dead body," said the Nawab, "my promise will be kept."
Thinking and attitudes have changed, gentlemen of their word are now few and far between. When the Pradhan Mantri dined with our Wazir-e-Azam, Nawaz did not eat dhal-baat. The banquet menu read : "Cream of Mushroom, Assorted Breads/Katlama; Lahori Fried Fish, Channa Masala; Paya Curry, Paneer Kofta Masala, Taka Tin, Curry Pakora, Seekh Kebab, Palak Paneer, Chicken Karahi, Sarson ka Saag,Vegetable Pillau, Roti, Kulcha, Makai di Roti; Gajjar ka Halwa, Pethay ka Halwa, Gulab Jamon;" all accompanied by Lassi.
India will not give up Kashmir. To hope that it will do so by our merely asking for it is folly. First things first - we, and they, must ensure that no more Kashmiri lives are lost through the fault of either side. Talks and more talks must continue, on and on. Nawaz will have to make a reciprocal trip to India, after having practised squeezing himself into and out of a Maruti.