It did not take long for the news of the attack on art of Pakistani artists at Amdavad ni Gufa ( Ahmedabad, India) to go viral. Very soon we could see images of stick welding goons smashing paintings in online reports.

First, it led to disbelief and then sadness, as one realised the damage politics of hate can do to cultural initiatives. This incident that took place on August 18, 2013, was just a few days after 14th August when The Second Floor (Karachi) and Tehelka.com (New Delhi) invited guests to witness the success of a three-month long student collaboration between visual studies department of the University of Karachi and Jamia Millia, New Delhi which is an outcome of a cyber space peace interface between 40 students from both countries. Many students, who were present, spoke of emerging friendships spurred on by a common language and cultural similarities.

The attack on the gallery is particularly unsettling because it brings home the reality how fragile peace dialogue can be in the face of violence. What happened in Ahmedabad and the exchange in New Delhi seems like parallel worlds, one that desires peace and the other that thrives on hate. If you were to ask, which one is the reality, the answer can only be both. As the two nations like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children have for long has had a relationship fraught with contradictions.

In the last decade since the discourse on poverty of war has been mainstreamed and the political experiences of South Asians have heightened awareness that state priorities do not echo their own desire for harmony to herald in progress. From this consciousness has emerged a fledgling peace movement to counter tension between India and Pakistan. Its foundation was laid with massive participation on both sides and a promise to accelerate people-to-people contact. Art like other forms of culture too became a major part of this peace project.

Besides organised exhibitions, India with its stronger art commerce scene has attracted artists, who have been gravitating to art fairs and galleries there. Several institutional exhibitions have also been organised in India and art from Pakistan has been acknowledged by Indian collectors and gallerists alike. In Pakistan mired in our own political and economic problems we have not been able to reciprocate on this scale.

According to the reports, the zealots of Bajrang Dal, who destroyed the Ahmedabad show felt justified because they looked upon it as a patriotic response to the death of Indian soldiers at the recent firing incident on the LOC, but by many it is being seen as a politically driven act for political mileage close to the elections, given the party’s support to communalism and violence.

Despite the large scale destruction of art, the attack also compels us to look beyond the blame game and examine why extremist politics can so successfully hold cultural peace projects hostage.

Amdavad Ni Gufa ( India) and Gallery 6 (Pakistan) both should be commended for their efforts to commemorate the independence days of both countries with a collaborative show despite the volatile environment. It speaks of their commitment to continue the cultural dialogue. There should also be widespread condemnation from Indian curators, artists, critics and galleries to mount public pressure in all available forums, to deny the Bajrang Dal jingoistic narrative a legitimacy.

It’s also imperative that the exhibition be allowed to continue its tour which should be extended to locations in Pakistan, with a changed curatorial brief that makes the photographs of the destruction, destroyed work and whatever can be salvaged of the works, along with a response of other artists, the focus of the show to start and sustain public conversations on why acts of violence cannot be a patriotic act and the reasons why the majority’s desire to end of hostilities are not allowed to triumph. Only with this sustained activity by the art community on both sides of the border we can prevent the destruction of works by 11 Pakistani artists and six Indian artists, from becoming yet another statistic in the crime registers of the law enforcers.

The author is an art critic, curator and art activist. She is a member of the Commission for Freedom of Expression of the International Art Critics Association based in Paris.