India and Pakistan, ‘the land beyond the Indus’ and ‘the land of the pure’, are connected through time and space, the world this year celebrated 70 years of our birth. And we celebrated seven decades of facing repercussions of a brutal partition that separated us in our minds and hearts and rooted the seeds of hatred and fear. The history has stood as the supreme spectator of the bond that our nations share and time has been and will always be the greatest master of the fate that our lands bear. We share a connection that is beyond the boundaries that divide us. It is beyond the religions that separated us in the first place. It is past the wars that we’ve fought and the lives that have been lost. It is far more than the words and decisions of a ‘few’ men of faith and politics that have governed, misjudged and miscommunicated our thoughts and emotions.
We have together experienced eons of history which have seen great empires rise and fall. We have seen our culture grow and flourish into grandeur. Our heritage that has left the world rapt in awe is unparalleled. Urdu and Hindi are just two different languages with the same soul, one took the Arabic script the other Devnaagri. The ‘wah-wahs’ for Urdu shaayris are as loud and passionate here as they are there. In fact, a lot of Urdu words have found their place in Bollywood songs. We share the Punjabi fervour and the devilishly delicious Hyderabadi Biryani. There were streets and towns in India where a Muslim mother recited to her kids the adventures of Lord Krishna and a Hindu Mother narrated the stories of mercy and compassion of the Prophet. If it existed once, it can exist again. For god’s sake, we have been eternally linked through the marriage of Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza. If you are a victim of Shah Rukh Khan’s romantic magic, then we are head over heels for Fawad Khans’s charm. And even though it’s not very easy to admit, swallowing our pride we openly acknowledge the well-established fact that your Coke Studio is a tad better than ours. We have fallen in love with your melodious music and simplicity of your daily soaps. If you have danced to the Bollywood numbers, then we have hummed along with the tunes of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam. The India vs Pakistan cricket matches are as exhilarating as ever. They drive us to the teetering edge of our seats. With our hearts pounding hard and fast, and the rage building up, we both add to our vocabulary of abuses fiercely ready to barrel them towards each other but the only victim at the receiving end is our poor idiot box.
If we all look in the right places, we would notice that you and I are more alike than we are unlike. It is unfortunate that we have grown up in societies where we are wired to not like each other where our differences are shoved under the spotlight and the similarities are thrown into oblivion where all the bad that happens remains and the good, well, we hardly get to know about it. We keep knocking on to each other’s ‘borders’ for an exchange of bullet shots, blazing bombs and raging patriots. Instead, we must have an active dialogue, where we can exchange ideas, books, a cup of tea, food, poetries and songs and every little thing that makes life beautiful. The time has come for the Pakistani and Indian youth to unite and break the shackles of hatred that the social, political and historical monsters have bound us in because if we grow above it, the future of our nations is going to be brighter than the Sun.
Our struggles and our victories are same. Let us remember that we are humans, young, wild and free, with dreams that touch the sky and voices that are so loud that they are meant to be heard in every corner of the world no matter which side of the border we belong to. We are all bundles of joy and love and that is what we are first, before being a Pakistani or a Hindustani, before being a Muslim or Hindu. So, let’s embrace the positivity that resides within us. A future where a Pakistani having ‘aloo ka parathas’ in an Indian dhaba and an Indian savouring ‘biryani’ in a Pakistani restaurant should not seem like an impossible thought, where ‘dilli ke raaste’ and ‘Lahore ki galliyan’ tell stories of camaraderie that is lost but still alive somewhere in our hearts. To start with, think of a future where we are not enemies but rivals who can be friends. Just imagine the things we can achieve together.
So, when we celebrate the 71 years of our Independence next year, let us remember the yesterday that binds us together, let us rejoice in the tomorrow that will bring with it a promise of friendship, love and hope. Let us prove to the world that they can’t divide us anymore. That we can be a great example of peace and prosperity, staying true to the colours of our flags. A friend once told me that the existence of India and Pakistan is imperative for each other because it unites its denizens against a common foe. I say let the existence of India for Pakistan and vice versa be important to unite its citizens among and with, but not against each other. India and Pakistan are two names that are always going to be taken together for eternity to come, so let it be for all the right reasons because a peaceful forever awaits us.
By Tania Mishra
Tania is an Economics student at University Of Delhi