When a group of people with peace in mind gather together
for two days of presentations, poetry, music and dance, issues such as
cast, colour and creed completely cease to exist: love and harmony
becomes the rule, rather than the exception and the goodwill and
positive intentions. Thus, generated is a prime illustration of how our
world can be, if we cast aside differences and work together for the
benefit of all.
Actively participating in one such event - ‘The
International Sufi Peace Festival’ held in Amritsar, India, recently was
a pleasurable honour. The honour multiplied manifold by being a member
of the official Pakistani delegation of writers, poets, musicians and
dancers, who were invited to represent our country on this auspicious
occasion.
Held under the banner of ‘South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation’ (SAARC) and jointly organised by the ‘Foundation
of SAARC Writers and Literature’ (FOSWAL) and ‘Punjab Heritage and
Tourism Promotion Board’ India, this groundbreaking event was held in
Khalsa College, a historic building of overpowering grandeur and glory
and attended by participants from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran,
Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey
and Uzbekistan.
“So…....what’s the big deal?” I hear some of you
wonder and why is the event being written about in this column, rather
than under a general news heading?
The answer is this: living here
in Pakistan, many of us have simply gone with the flow of repression -
cultural, religious and otherwise - that has increasingly manifested
ever since the Zia era when freedom of action and interaction, on a
multitude of levels, began to, slowly but surely, be taken away. On the
whole, this happened in such a manner that a large percentage of the
population failed to recognise it for what it was and so did nothing at
all to prevent this steady erosion of the human right to ‘be’.
This
erosion, deplorable as it is, speeded up over the last decade and, in
the recent past, gained astronomically destructive proportions to the
point, admit it or not, that we all, on a certain level, now live in
fear: a fear that many fail to recognise until, as with the writer, one
is lucky enough to spend even a little time in a place where such
ingrained fear does not exist.
That I am writing about India will,
this is also ingrained now, aggravate a certain segment of the
population here but I make no excuses, other than that I happened to
have been invited there, for using this example which, I have no doubt,
is equally applicable to the majority of other countries around the
world too. So read this in the spirit in which it is intended and do not
go off at an anti-Indian tangent, please!
Once across the Wagah
border and on the highway to nearby Amritsar, it is a revelation to see a
mosque, a church and a temple all in close proximity and, Amritsar
being the holy city of the Sikhs, then Sikh places of worship abound too
and, life being as laid back as it once was here in Pakistan, then
adherents of these and of other religions, happily intermingle in their
daily life with absolutely no evidence of tension between them.
Smiling
faces abound, people laugh and chat on the streets, schoolgirls in
white uniforms with a pink dupatta draped around their shoulders ride
pink bicycles to school and back, college girls and women, some with
children in tow, ride scooters and motorcycles, navigating through dense
downtown traffic with practiced ease and without, or so it appears, a
care in the world and the atmosphere is one of total freedom. There is
no need of security at hotels, in shopping centres, at office buildings
or educational institutes; no one objects if, after sundown, young men
gather around music playing cars parked by the side of the road to sing
along and generally chill and teenage girls are both comfortable and
safe to jog quiet streets. Couples amble along hand in hand and
strangers call out greetings, and, frankly speaking, the atmosphere of
freedom hits the newly arrived Pakistani with the impact of a ton of
bricks!
Delegates and performers attending ‘The International Sufi
Peace Festival’ were of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and other
denominations too. Yet, all shared words, thoughts, literature, art
forms and general bonhomie without the slightest trace of hesitation or
tension, generating a beautiful atmosphere of peace in the process and
were a living, breathing demonstration of how wonderful a place this
world can be in the absence of war and fear and of how, working together
in tolerance and peace, we can all lead harmonious lives to the benefit
of every single life form on this badly beleaguered planet.
Being
a very patriotic Pakistani, it is painful to admit that things here are
worse than I had previously realised and I returned with a large amount
of trepidation, recognising that we are severely and increasingly
repressed on each and every single level of existence and that, unless
we the people, put all perceived differences aside and actively work
together for change, we are set to plunge further into fear and misery
than ever.
The writer is author of The Gun Tree: One Woman’s War (Oxford University Press, 2001) and lives in Bhurban.
Email: zahrahnasir@hotmail.com