India and Pakistan has formed many peak and valleys in its love and
hate relationship in a span of six decades. At times frenzied emotions
were whipped up to such a level in India that political parties made
open pronouncements to wipe out Pakistan from the face of the earth.
However, when the political temperatures cooled, the same parties
talked about an everlasting friendship with Pakistan.
At this moment there is much talk about the evolving India- Pakistan
relationship that’s moving from eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in
2002 to brothers in arms syndrome. However, little is being written or
said about the human face of this relationship that’s also emerging in
its wake due to people-to people contact between the two countries.
Recently,
two powerful narratives have come to limelight due to the new thaw in
the India- Pak relationship that could melt any one's heart. The fact
that these human relation stories are surfacing even sixty years after
creation of Pakistan following India’s Partition in 1947 suggests that
there exist a human bond that’s much deeper than the geographical
boundaries that divide the two nations.
Two Sikh brothers
Jogindar Singh and Kesar Singh who fled to India during the turbulent
days of Partition were re-united with their Muslim sister Rabia living
on the other side of the divide. They had to wait for six long decades
for this to happen.
Their story goes something like this…
Joginder now 76 and Kesar 72, in wake of Partition left behind two
sisters in Pakistan who adopted Islam and became Rabia and Razia and
settled down in Mirpur town on the Pakistan side of Kashmir. Despite
raising their own families, the desire to meet their siblings remained
alive on both sides of the border. The brothers had first received the
information about their sisters, way back in 1953, but due to tensions
between India and Pakistan they could never establish contact with them.
However,
when a Muslim resident of the Mirpur area recently visited India to see
his Hindu mother, the desire among the Sikh brothers to meet their
sisters once again grew. They made fresh attempts to locate their
sisters through this Muslim visitor and came to know that Razia had
died a few years ago but Rabia was alive.
The brothers finally
decided to cross the border and fulfill the long- cherished desire to
see their sister before they breathe their last. It was an emotional
moment for the divided families to reunite. Thanks to the peace process
that such a reunion could ever materialise.
The brother and
sister story is not an isolated event. There is yet another case which
is more gripping than this. It’s a story of a 77-year-old Indian woman
who has two homelands, two husbands and two religions and who finally
got united with her family after decades of separation, thanks again to
the India- Pakistan peace process.
Harbans Kaur and husband
Banna Singh belong to a Kashmiri Sikh family living in the village of
Pataika, 16 km northeast of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan side of Kashmir.
After partition, Banna went to India alone to find work and a place to
live before he could call his wife over. He left behind his wife with
her father.
But around this time, both countries stopped issuing
visas and Banna could not come back and Harbans could not join him in
India. Soon after, her father died and Harbans was left all alone. The
lady assuming that that she would never be able to see her husband
again, married a Muslim called Hadayatullah and adopted Islam. They had
two children-son Manzoor and daughter, Zeenat.
In 1953, Pakistan
and India singed an agreement for the return of relatives left behind
in each other's country. Banna filed a claim for his wife, and Harbans
was forced to leave for India to be with her husband without her two
children.
The poor ties between the two countries prevented
Harbans from visiting her children in Pakistan. Her son and daughter
grew up with their father and she did not hear anything about them.
Meanwhile, Harbans who re converted to Sikhism gave birth to another
son and daughter, Dalbeer and Manmohan.
For many years, the
members of the divided family did not know each other's whereabouts or
even if they were alive. The Pakistani children did not forget their
mother. In 2000, when a Sikh from Mumbai visited, Muzaffarabad to meet
his Muslim sister, Zeenat, now 53, and her brother Manzoor, 48, sought
his help in locating their mother. To their surprise the gentleman
found their mother living in Ahmedabad and provided her telephone
number. They spoke to her on phone, wrote letters and exchanged
pictures and became desperate to meet each other.
The daughter
invited her mother to Muzaffabad where the latter was born and brought
up. But India and Pakistan were then on the brink of war following a
terrorist attack on Indian Parliament in 2001, and it was impossible
for Harbans to visit Pakistan. The mother and children remained
separated for another 30 months until the resumed Lahore-Delhi bus
service in 2003 could finally unite them.
After more than 40
years, Harbans crossed back into Pakistan, accompanied by her Sikh son,
Dalbeer Singh, and her daughter-in-law. She was greeted at the Wagah
border crossing by her Muslim children Zeenat and Manzoor, along with
grandchildren and other family members. Later her Sikh daughter
Manmohan also joined them along with her husband and their daughter.
But one person with whom she could not reunite was her Muslim husband
who died some years after she left for India. Her Sikh husband was also
dead.
These are the happy sides of the emerging peace process
developing between India and Pakistan, thanks to the renewed people to
people contact between the two countries. However, there are many
families not so fortunate enough to see such reunion. The hostile
India- Pakistan relation had kept them away from seeing each other
relatives and in the process many have passed away. Some could know the
welfare of their relatives living across the border only through a
common relative living in a third country but were unable to attend the
wedding or funeral at their homes.
However, things are changing
for better now. The second generation of the divided families now want
the borders to be softened enough so that they could freely crisscross
to meet their loved ones. They want India and Pakistan to de-link their
political differences from people’s to people’s contact. The people in
both the countries desire to have a peaceful and neighborly
relationship each other. The general perception is the bridges of peace
and friendship between the people would help the governments of both
the countries to iron out their political differences in more amicable
manner.
The new thaw in India-Pakistan relationship has been a
boon for the divided families of the two countries. There is no count
as to how many of them live on the other side of the border. The
migration from India to Pakistan has taken place from all over the
country. The majority of the separated families however live in the
Indo-Gangetic plains where there is the largest concentration of Muslim
population in India. There would hardly be a family living in this
region that many not have a relative in Pakistan. They hope and pray
that the juggernaut of peace and friendship between India and Pakistan
keeps moving till a lasting peace is established in the subcontinent.
----
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a working journalist based in Chennai, India. He can be contacted at
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Comments (1)
1. 27-10-2008 15:46
There is no count as to how many of them live on the other side of the border. The migration from India to Pakistan has taken place from all over the country. .......(Syed)They hope and pray that the juggernaut of peace and friendship between India and Pakistan keeps moving till a lasting peace is established in the subcontinent.(Syed)
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