KARACHI: Trade and a peace dialogue are the only way to resolve the conflict between India and Pakistan, said renowned journalist Jatin Desai while speaking at the Pakistan-India Forum for Peace and Democracy on Monday.

Compered by journalist Wusatullah Khan, the event was organised at the Jinnah Medical and Dental College to discuss ways to get rid of “overwhelming war-mongering on both sides”.

Speaking through Skype from Ahmedabad, Mr Desai said: “India and Pakistan need to realise the fact that their rivalry is affecting smaller countries in the region. Indirect trade between the two countries is earning traders and small businesses around Rs2.6 billion.

“Imagine what a direct trade would do.”

In order to achieve that, leaders of both countries would need to show statesmanship that he said: “we don’t see any more. We need to see relations with Pakistan beyond technicalities and interpretations.”

While overlooking the trade aspect that he said was the forte of the leaders on both sides, writer Amar Jaleel said the partition of the subcontinent divided the people into two classes, the common people and the ruling elite.

“For decades, the ruling elite on both sides have decided the course of talks between us that was nothing short of a disaster in itself,” he said.

About interpretations, the writer said: “If you want to know about a country read its literature, and not the history, because history of the subcontinent has been a paid job, and nothing that we can quote unabashedly.”

Mentioning decades of war-mongering on both sides of the border, he said little effort had been made to set the record straight. In this case setting the record straight would mean “accepting things we did not do. For instance, not many people made huge sacrifices to get the homeland. The term sacrifice has been misused when it comes to partition.”

According to him, recounting the details of ‘sacrifice’ creates a “superiority cult that is used to gauge the patriotism and love of different sects, ethnicities, and classes in a country. This mentality creates more rift than it resolves.”

Film director Mahesh Bhatt, who spoke from Mumbai via a video link, said there was an “ample proof of the fact that people on both sides want peace. It was there for all to see when Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan was a massive success in Pakistan.” At this point, Wusatullah interrupted the director to add that when the same director made another film, Phantom, it received a very different reaction from the audience and the people. “But you have to see,” added Mr Bhatt, “which one of the two films did well. In this case, Phantom flopped and Bajrangi Bhaijaan was a success. This is a huge factor to take into account.”

In the same vein, Mr Bhatt added, “Historically we are in a much better position now than ever before. The success of a pro-peace film, for instance, is an indication and contrary to negative perception that people want something else. They want peace.” He said that pro-peace groups on both sides could be “mocked for romanticising, idealising and foolishly following a failed idea. But it is these positive human gestures which are, and should be, our hopes. There’s no other route apart from looking for ways to come together.”

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2015

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