By Nadeem Omar Tarar

Citizens as Diplomats

akistans checkered history of civil rights is limited by its ability to critically reflect on its past struggles. Often, when social movements recede, they leave few organised records of their endeavours. Historical documentation defeats collective amnesia by leaving the footprints of peoples struggles on the ephemeral terrain of history. In the context of a fragile peace process in South Asia, this is precisely what the editors, the late scholar Smitu Kothari and physicist Zia Mian, an amply qualified duo by virtue of their long standing commitment for peace in South Asia, have set out to achieve in Bridging Partition: Peoples Initiative for Peace between India and Pakistan. With 21 essays, divided into five thematic sections, the book offers critical reflections on the possibilities and limits of a social movement for peace and democracy in South Asia by recording diverse experiences of peaceniks and civil society activists. It contains the right mix of academic and policy papers, personal and political essays and reflective and position pieces, written by activists, journalists, writers, business people, retired government officials and soldiers both from India and Pakistan. Dr Mubashir Hasan, who leads the citizens diplomacy from Pakistan, provides an overview of efforts for organising people to people dialogue. He also chronicles the success of citizen-based cross-border alliances, coalitions and networks informing state policies. In a complimentary essay from a post-colonial perspective on state and civil society in India, Sumanta Banerjee, explores the (ad)ventures of inter-people relations and the states response to counter-hegemonic discourses. An older generation of writers, journalists and peace activists like Kuldip Nayar, Anand Patwardhan, I A Rehman and Pervez Hoodbhoy offer revealing accounts of the peace process by focusing on their personal experiences . A section on womens education and labour brings together essays written from a feminist viewpoint. If veteran scholar-activist Kamla Bhasin remembers her quarter century of building bridges between India and Pakistan, then journalist Beena Sarwar meditates on the role of women in building peace through women-led initiatives in Pakistan. Lalita Ramdas explores how the myths of hostile nationalism in textbooks can be exploded through peace education to create more tolerant perceptions of identity among the younger generation in India and Pakistan. Jamila Verghese dwells on her struggle to forge institutional linkages between educational academies in both countries. Karamat Ali and Amrita Chhachhi document their efforts for creating South Asian labour initiatives. Writing on culture, contributors try to bring down the cultural divide between India and Pakistan by stressing shared cultural and artistic heritage that continues to inform contemporary arts in the two countries. Indian literary critic Nirupama Dutt surveys literature produced by literary giants in India and Pakistan only to find short stories, novels and poems motivated by the spirit of inter-communal harmony. Her observation that there is no literature of hatred in South Asia that can be challenged by referring to popular Urdu Islamic historical fiction, pioneered by Saadat Hasan Mantos contemporary Nasim Hijazi in Pakistan. Narendra Panjwani uses Bolloywood cultural imagery to argue how a complex South Asian composite culture has been created through Indian cinema which defies any political

marks of territorial identity. Pakistani classical dancer, Sheema Kermani, theatre activist Madiha Gohar and band manager Shehryar Ahmad deliberate over their emotionally emancipatory experiences of working with their South Asian counterparts. Building on the enriched understanding of a multilayered peace process in South Asia, the last section highlights the lessons, explores the limits and points out the way forward. The retired Indian naval chief turned peace activist Laxminarayan Ramdas outlines the challenges posed by the military in India and Pakistan. While mapping the terrain of citizen diplomacy, the editors are celebratory yet critical of the peoples peace process. They hint at the inability of the citizens movement to look outside of itself in terms of its constituency which is restricted to an urban educated elite and non-governmental organisation intelligentsia. For a sustainable peace movement to take root, the next generation of peace activists have to be more inclusive and broad based. What is required is the consolidation and institutionalisation of crossborder citizen networks for peace and cooperation, initially created on the basis of deep personal relations nurtured by the exiting generation. I
Bridging Partition: Peoples Intitiatives for Peace Between India and Pakistan Edited by Smitu Kothari and Zia Mian Orient Black Swan India, 2010 Price: 995 rupees

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The Herald, October 2010