The colour of hatred

The writer is a freelance columnist
and former newspaper editor.
It is extremely difficult to define hatred. It has no definite shape, no definite colour and in many ways no direct manifestation. Yet it exists and influences individual lives, communities, entire countries and vast regions.
The hatred we are seeing in India, orchestrated mainly by the extremist Hindu Shiv Sena group shows how prejudice can be extremely deep rooted and survive over decades, indeed centuries. The series of senseless attacks by the goons sent out by the party indicate how easy it is to whip up feelings of hate and direct them against a particular group. In this case, both Pakistanis and Muslims seem to be the target. Musicians, politicians, cricket administrators and others have been among those who suffered.
If we were to follow social media in our country, it would be easy to believe that the hatred was entirely centred in India – the centre of all vices for so many in our country, even now six and a half decades after Partition. But this is not strictly true.
Hate exists at home too and has been directed against Hindus in the country, against other minority groups and of course in the vitriolic statements churned out against Indians on social forums whenever the chance arises.
The question is about how we can tackle this problem. It is in many ways a severe handicap to the effort to establish peace and goodwill between the two nations. At the same time, building this relationship of greater trust is vital to the region and in particular to our own country. If we are to escape the extremism that sweeps across our own nation and shows up in a curious resort to Arabic terminology whenever we can distort our own language, as well as in other far more violent ways, it is vital that we rediscover our subcontinental heritage and the strongly woven threads which held us together as a region under many different rulers despite the animosity that arose between regions and occasionally on the basis of religion during this time.
This subcontinental heritage is something we carry deep within us. It comes up in our culture, in the fact that Indians and Pakistanis essentially share the same national language and many the same traditions observed at weddings and on other occasions. Many of these have in fact been borrowed from our long interaction with Hinduism. Some are good; some like the caste system, which we have recreated to fit our social norms, not so.
But the reality is that the shared heritage continues. When abroad, Indians and Pakistanis – especially when they form a South Asian minority amidst other communities – form the strongest of bonds and cross-border marriages are becoming more and more common. It is a tragedy that so many of them bring issues like visa constraints and work permit problems with them. But they also show that Pakistanis and Indians are in many ways nearer than the extremists on either side of the border would like to believe. This cannot be altered. We cannot go back and rewrite the realities of history.
What we can do is change the present and rebuild the future. How can this happen?
In the first place, we must make it possible for more and more Indians and Pakistanis to meet each other. It is perhaps most useful when they meet in the formative stages of life – at the school level, at college level, at university level and as young professionals. Organisations working for peace on either side of the border must place emphasis on arranging seminars, debate competitions, sporting contests, plays and other events where people can intermingle, talk and voice both differences in opinion and agreements on issues.
The fact that Indians and Pakistanis have been held apart for so many years by borders that are notoriously difficult to cross adds a great deal to the animosity between them. Perceptions are formed without any true knowledge and come essentially from the right-wing media and from other bigoted sources.
The truth is that when people from both nations are able to reach across that random dividing line drawn up by Cyril Radcliffe in a rather frenzied rush during the final days before Partition, they generally find a great deal of commonality. Communities, families and people at the national level face very similar hardships and share very similar ideas. And yes, the differences too do not always divide but can act as points for discussion leading to the formation of new opinions and generating new ideas.
The present campaign of hatred will prevent people from meeting. It has in fact already done so. The incidents involving Shiv Sena and their senselessly frenzied acts intended to humiliate deter many from even seeking visas.
Who can blame them? These actions are naturally played out in detail by the media. This is after all to be expected. They make news. While a frequently hawkish media on both sides of the border can be blamed for pushing forward stereotypes and promoting distrust, in the horrendous set of recent cases the ground has perhaps been laid out for it to act as it has been doing.
The display of communalism in India, uncountered by a government which seems to play to much the same tune, is obviously disturbing and a reminder to the more idealistic among us that the ugliness that led up to Partition was not entirely a political creation but something that lay deeper, lurked darkly beneath the soil. It has risen up again and continues to do so from time to time.
Interaction and understanding is the key to ending hatred. The sealed borders don’t help in this. Only when people are able to meet, talk and discuss matters can differences at the ground level be resolved. Rulers, and in some cases those behind them, have perhaps made this deliberately difficult. They have their own agendas to meet; their own reasons for their actions. They are many powerful forces that benefit from keeping tensions high between the two countries. School curricula, the media and other means of disseminating information play a part in this strategy.
Sadly, smaller acts of humanity go unnoticed. Yes, the story of Geeta, the young Indian woman recently returned to her country after accidently crossing into Pakistan as a child has made headlines. The Edhi Foundation has been thanked in words and in cash by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for caring for her through these years.
But other acts are not picked up on. They include the immense hospitality visitors from both sides of the border receive in each other’s country almost invariably when they visit. Restaurants and shops refuse to accept money, people open up homes and suddenly the long years of animosity are forgotten. There is too much in common, too long a history shared to be simply shoved aside.
It is this that we need to build on. People need to be brought together – ideally as quickly as possible. Children and students are the ideal candidates. We need efforts to promote exchanges between them and by doing so work towards ending the distrust that has existed for far too many years.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com