The Hindu : National : Making peace with the land of the Mahatma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

National

National

Making peace with the land of the Mahatma

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 8. Capt. Suleiman Mahtab, formerly with the Pakistan Navy, had a special reason to feel proud when he stepped inside the Mani Bhavan today.

He found out that he shared a birthday with Mahatma Gandhi. "I felt so honoured; I wanted to tell everyone," he said excitedly.

Capt. Mahtab served the Pakistan Navy for over 20 years before migrating to Canada. As part of the first peace and goodwill mission of non-resident Pakistanis (NRPs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) to visit India and Pakistan, he and 11 others were on a special visit on the last day of their trip, to the Mani Bhavan in south Mumbai, where Gandhiji spent 17 years of his life.

Now, the chief of fire and rescue training in the province of British Columbia, Capt. Mahtab, is part of the South Asia Network for Secularism and Democracy and keenly working for peace in the subcontinent — like Mohammed Munaf Zeena, who originally hails from Bardoli and is chairperson of the Council of Indian Muslims (UK).

Mr. Zeena, despite initial misgivings about being part of the delegation, felt it was the best decision he had made in his life.

"The way the Indian Government is going forward in its relations with Pakistan, stressing on trade and personal relations is the best way forward," he told The Hindu. "It's the people who count, not governments," he said. The delegation visited the camps where Kashmiri pandits were living in Jammu and found the conditions shocking.

The delegation started out in Karachi on December 27 and visited several cities in both countries and met leaders, including Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani Prime Minister, and Sonia Gandhi, Congress president. Karachi-born Niloufer Ahsan, who now lives in Chicago, U.S., said the idea to have a joint delegation was mooted three years ago.

"The aim is to bring together people working on peace issues in their adoptive countries. The people in the diaspora are engaged and concerned about the tension between India and Pakistan and feel the need for peace and to support those working on peace initiatives," said Ms. Ahsan, who is part of the Chicago-based South Asian Progressive Action Collective, formed in 2001 to bring together South Asians.

The Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy, which played a major role in organising this visit, has been working for 10 years to promote better relations.

`We are friends'

John PrabhuDoss, now a U.S. citizen, and executive director, Policy Institute for Religion and State, Washington, said the delegation was historic in the sense that it was for the first time that people who were living outside their countries, were making a pitch for peace.

Allahabad-born Toufail Ahmed, now living in the U.S. for 30 years, said, "We need a movement like that of Gandhiji for both India and Pakistan. There can be no better place than Mani Bhavan to launch this movement to bring progress to the two countries. Peace is a lifelong mission and it will not be leaders who will bring peace but the people."

Members of the delegation were also concerned about the events in Gujarat, Gandhiji's home State. Ali Nawaz Memon, who hails from Sindh, said peace was necessary to promote the welfare of people and now that both countries have done nuclear tests, it was time to "risk" peace.

Twenty-three-year-old Rati Tripathi, who works for the United Nations Development Programme in New York, said she was overwhelmed with the reception in Pakistan which she was visiting for the first time. "People there had a message that they were ready for peace. It's our job to pressure the leadership to keep up peace efforts."

Several efforts are under way in the U.S. and other countries to promote peace between India and Pakistan. Dr. Pritam Rohila, who is now based in Oregon in the U.S., organised a joint celebration of Independence Day of India and that of Pakistan last year in various cities in the United States.

The retired neuropsychologist, who moved to the U.S. in 1967, has witnessed communal riots in India and vowed to work for peace since then. He formed an Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) in 1993 after demolition of the Babri Masjid.

"There should be no more events like the Partition of 1947 with its bloody aftermath or Gujarat. Our message is very clear: We'll make a tsunami of peace," he quipped.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National