Building Peace in South Asia

In the Global Forum program linked in here, Tariq Ali and Sanjoy Banerjee, a professor of international relations, discuss how peace can be built in South Asia with moderator Dr. Agha Saeed. Tariq Ali sets out the broad political and economic contours of the South Asian Union idea - with each country enjoying a veto in decisions internal to the Union (so that a large country like India cannot dominate). His vision includes visa-free travel and free trade, and he visualizes the external relations of the Union being conducted jointly. He also spells out how a region like Kashmir could be given special autonomous status within the South Asian Union, and how the Sri Lankan Tamil issue can be similarly addressed.

Sanjoy Banerjee argues that an economic union is certainly possible in the near term, but that a political union along the lines Tariq Ali suggests is at least several decades away. He argues that the different countries of South Asia are currently in different stages of political development, and until they all reach a similar stage, the goal of a political union will be difficult. Tariq Ali agrees that it will take time, but that it does not mean one should stop working toward this goal.

The video I link here is Part 1 of 5 clips. Other clips in the program deal with Afghanistan, Tibet, the role of China, and other related issues.

Citizens Express Spontaneous Goodwill and Desire for Friendship

We live in a world flooded with official media images, sounds and words. But what do real everyday citizens feel about the India-Pakistan relationship? Here are a random group of Indian travelers - train passengers on a trip from Mumbai to Delhi sharing their views on Pakistan: food, politics, language, culture, sports - all is covered, the feeling of mutuality and fellow-feeling is spontaneously expressed, by young people of all ages! Check it out yourself:

Pakistan and India: Toward a Reconciliation

Forgiveness is essential before India and Pakistan can move toward reconciliation and abiding peace. Noni, who runs the OpinionatedPakistani channel on youtube has a wonderful video just up that I thought I would blog immediately. This is Black History Month in the US and Canada, and Noni talks about the Martin Luther King Memorial that began construction in Washington DC in December 2009. The memorial will be made from granite blocks shipped from China, and the statue of Martin Luther King will be designed by a Chinese sculptor.

it will be bigger than the 19-foot statue of Jefferson in the Jefferson Memorial, the 19-foot 6-inch statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and the 19-foot 6-inch statue of Freedom on the U.S. Capitol dome.

Noni also mentions this letter in the Washington Post:

The site of the memorial is flanked by cherry trees, gifts from Japan, the archenemy of China in the 1930s and '40s and the United States in the '40s.

Noni points out that if China, Japan and the US, who were each others' arch-enemies in the 1930s and 40s (China and Japan); 1930s and 40s (Japan and the US); 1950s and 60s (China and the US), could thus cooperate in the making of the Martin Luther King memorial, then surely India and Pakistan can also put the past behind, forgive each other for what they each did in the past 60 years, and move ahead in peace and reconciliation? She also asks us to remember how far race relations have come in the US in the past 50 years. Yet, she asks, India and Pakistan still seem stuck in the past. Why?

Hey, you're just like us, aren't you?

One of the goals of the Aman ki Asha campaign launched by Pakistan's Jang Group of Newspapers and India's 'Times of India' group is to encourage greater coverage of human interest stories from India and Pakistan in the other country's media, and to encourage more people-to-people contact across the border. The underlying assumption is that if citizens of each country came to see the other's citizens as they actually are, rather than through stereotypes, then the mutual desire for peace could overwhelm any official apathy, foot-dragging at the government level. While citizens of both countries often view the other through stereotypes, and while the education system, (particularly in Pakistan) plays a big role in creating and sustaining these stereotypes in the minds of impressionable young children, this can occasionally reveal a comic side.

A Pakistani disc jockey visiting India with a theatrical troupe, Ayesha Khaled, writes in the Times of India, that

every Indian was curious to meet the delegates from Pakistan. It is this curiosity that makes us friends with every year. I recall this little Indian boy who came to us and politely asked us if we were from Pakistan? Then, very hesitantly, he asked one of our groupmates, "Can I touch you?" We thought he was joking but after seeing the mixed expression of seriousness, interest and nervousness on his face, my friend replied, "Yes, sure you can." He cautiously touched him with his index finger, as if fearing my friend would grab him and take him to some strange place. He shouted happily, "Hey, you are just like us... aren’t you?"

Read the full article.

A Valentine for Dr Shazia of the ShaziaZenab Show

This Valentine's Day I would really like to recognize someone who has deeply influenced my thinking and outlook, indeed, also someone who actually inspired me to begin writing this blog: Dr. Shazia, of the ShaziaZenab show on youtube. Over the last few years, but particularly in the last few months, it has been my great pleasure and privilege to watch her shows. Her shows cover a number of issues relevant to both India and Pakistan - both the home and the diaspora communities, but a particular theme has been Peace and Development in South Asia, the subject of this blog.

Most well-meaning people regard peace in South Asia as a political problem, as something that could be achieved if only the countries of South Asia (India and Pakistan, in the main) could summon the political will, settle their politico-geographic boundaries, and just get on with the business of developing their societies. Yet clearly it is not so simple, and it is in analyzing this at a deeper level that Dr. Shazia, a practicing physician, has made a deep contribution - one that I at least have not seen done by anyone else. She diagnoses the problem of achieving peace in South Asia as involving the healing of a number of pathologies that occur at various levels: at the individual, familial, social, and finally national level, of which the political situation is merely a symptom, even if a conspicuous and rather pronounced symptom. In this view of the problem, addressing the political problems alone would be tantamount to treating the symptoms of an illness, and thus would be a classic error. Just as health is not merely the absence of disease, so also peace is not merely the absence of conflict, and must therefore be achieved by simultaneous resolution of a number of ills.

Dr. Shazia offers a complex diagnosis, which would need several blog posts to properly summarize. Indeed, I hope to do that myself in the course of writing this blog. The archive of videos from her show should certainly be viewed by all those with an interest in the subject. Among other things, that archive is also testimony to her phenomenal indefatigability, enormous dedication and sincerity, and total fearlessness. I offer only a bare-bones summary here.

Dr. Shazia suggests that among the many ills underlying the hair-trigger hostility that the two main nation-states of South Asia often find themselves expressing, is a rather aggressive macho culture, one that dominates and oppresses women, creates an artificial concept of female honor, in supposed defense of which no level of aggression and hostility would be too much (up to and including homicide). She then suggests that the male-dominated societies of South Asia are creating an analogous and equally artificial concept of 'national honor', in defence of which, again, no amount of aggressive action would be considered too much. Thus, delegitimizing the concept of 'female honor' (and by implication, the constructed concept of 'national honor') and thus also improving the status of women in South Asian society - in other words, bringing in female empowerment, is not only needed as a desirable end in itself, but would also have the effect of significantly moderating the tendency for recurrent hostility and conflict in South Asia, and would be a major step toward abiding peace.

She suggests similarly that the main religions of South Asia have departed significantly from their original tenets which empowered women, and have now become ideological tools for those who would wish to perpetuate female oppression. Justification for the 'female honor' principle is now often sought directly in religion. Therefore it is essential that religion itself be correctly interpreted, and furthermore, that it become a personal matter, so that it ceases to influence social and political matters as much as it now does. The articles of faith that underlie much religious belief (and distinguish it from what is often called merely 'spirituality') are just that: matters of blind faith, and they should be recognized as such. Religion should thus retreat into the personal sphere, and society should become secular, with no state religion, and no discrimination on account of religious belief.

Apart from her deep diagnosis of the problem and the enlightened steps she suggests for an all-encompassing solution, Dr. Shazia also has a charming sense of humor, an absolute delight for her viewers. Her incisive intellect, and her lucid, articulate and powerful speaking manner has very deeply influenced me, who have known her only through her videos on youtube. I can only imagine how deeply she must influence those she comes into contact with more directly.

The wonderful positive messages for all South Asians that come through on each of her shows are all Valentines in themselves. In fact, in the very first video of hers that I saw, which got me hooked she said out loud: I love Indians and I love Pakistanis!

What a wonderful and positive message, Shaziaji! And we, your viewers, love you too! In ending may I just say in the words of another shaayar:


Yeh ghazal mayri nahin, yeh ghazal hai aapki.

Main ne toh bas woh hi likhaa, jo kucch likhaayaa aapne.

India + Pakistan = Peace!

This video clearly speaks for itself!

Introductory Post

This is a blog by an ordinary citizen, i.e., myself, a member of the South Asian diaspora in North America, in which I plan to offer my own views, opinions and commentary on developments in South Asia. Peace and Development will be the two main topics, but since virtually all other aspects of South Asian societies impact these two, there is likely to be a fairly large spectrum of issues that I hope to discuss.

I believe ordinary citizens in South Asia have an important role to play in the South Asian peace process - in promoting positive dialogues, developing and sustaining the right mental attitudes, and in creating a continued pressure for achieving tangible progress. But the South Asian diaspora (in North America and elsewhere, i.e., people like myself) also has these roles, in addition also to being able to offer the perspective of experience in the adopted societies.

I must note one thing at the outset: Dr. Shazia, whose show on youtube I have been watching, breathless and spellbound over these last few weeks, has been just a tremendous inspiration. The full extent of her impact cannot be acknowledged in just a couple of sentences - I hope this blog itself will be testimony thereof.

So here goes.