2 days ago
Another Road From ‘15 August'
Reflections from a time when between 'the garden of Lahore' and 'the dawn of Banaras', there was a dream of a peaceful future.
The gate on the Pakistani side of the Attari-Wagah border post, as seen from the Indian side on the 79th Independence Day, near Amritsar, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Photo: Shiva Sharma
Pandraah Agast (15 August), Swatantra Diwas, is our cherished day – a reminder of when we heard our beloved leaders speak from the ramparts of Lal Qila.
We heard India's prime minister speak from Lal Qila this morning, the emblem of the Mughal dynasty. Will this 11-year-old dispensation issue an edict changing the name of Lal Qila, amongst many monuments it wants renamed? I wonder. The vortex closes around me. As I draw to the end of my life, I watch the effort to rip 'Muslim' off from the Indian fabric.
Yesterday on the front page of The Indian Express there was a full-page ad for a book called 'Kafila'. From the blurb I gather that the book is set in 1947, about the killing, looting and raping in a place in Punjab called Jhang. No author or publisher can afford publicity of this magnitude. The ad has been put out to stoke hatred towards Muslims. It is a prime example of communalism spreading its tentacles. Parallel to Kafila is a narrative, Panipat written by a woman in 1947. The story is narrated in first person by Panipat (the place) itself. It is about Muslims uprooted and driven out. Their Hindu neighbours are desolate and bereft. Panipat mourns at the destruction of her Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb.
Two days ago there was a memorial meeting for a person who stood tall for Hindu-Muslim unity and for composite culture. His name was Sumit Chakravartty, who passed away last month. Over the last 35 years he was part of the people-to-people contact on both sides of the Wagah border, of Pakistanis and Indians who tried to bridge this chasm by extending the hand of friendship. Today, once again, groups like Hind-Pak Dosti Manch, Aaghaz-e-Dosti, SAFMA, Folklore Research Academy and others are struggling in this toxic air to create a bond between human beings on both sides of the border.
Many years ago I remember going to the border with Nikhil Chakravartty (Sumit Chakravartty's father), Kuldip Nayar, Bharti Nayar, Mohini Giri, Krishan Mehra and young men like Satman Singh Manak, Ramesh Yadav, Ram Mohan and many close friends and fellow travellers. I remember people from this side like Nirmal Mukherjee, Tapan Bose, Admiral Ramdas, Kamal Chenoy and Rita Manchanda walking across 'no man's land' to meet Justice Dorab Patel, I.A. Rehman, Asma Jahangir, Mubashir Hasan and many others with warmth, with music, with theatre, any way to wash away the bitterness created by the powers on both sides. The people of Amritsar on our side and people of Lahore across the border joined in the celebration of Indo-Pak friendship, Indo-Pak cooperation and Indo-Pak amity. Hans Raj Hans on this side and Lahorians on the other, their ears glued, and Abida Parveen praying for peace in Data Ganj Shakar Dargah in Pakpattan.
To quote Hind-Pakistan favourite poet, Ali Sardar Jafri:
Tum aao gulshan e Lahore se chaman bardosh
Hum aayein subah Benaras ki raushni le kar
Himalaya ki hawaon ki taazgi le kar
Phir uske baad ye poochhein ke kaun dushman hai?
You come bearing on your shoulders, the gardens of Lahore
We come bearing the dawn of Benaras
The fresh breezes of The Himalayas
Then is the enemy?
Syeda Hameed is a writer and the founder chair of the Muslim Women's Forum.
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