KARACHI: “The failure of both Pakistan and India in resolving the Kashmir issue is one of the major reasons contributing to the adversarial stance between the two. We must make Kashmir a bridge between our two countries and not consider it as a barrier,” said Sudheendra Kulkarni at the launch of his book, August voices: what they said on 14-15 August 1947 and its relevance for India-Pakistan-Bangladesh Confederation, on Saturday, the second day of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF).

According to Kulkarni, who served as a close aide to former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of the most horrendous bloodbaths that humanity has seen during the partition in 1947 did not bode well for ties between the two countries.

“This bloodbath was completely avoidable, and of course, we have contributed towards making matters worse. However, the main culprit is the British Raj and the manner in which they divided the country.”

According to him, people on both sides of the border lack comprehension of the history of the freedom movements.

Quoting examples from Gandhi, Jinnah and Iqbal, Kulkarni — a columnist and independent socio-political activist — elaborated on his controversial idea of an ‘alternative’ partition that members of the freedom movement struggled for.

“There was a demand for the creation of Pakistan, no doubt. But even the top ideologues of the Pakistan movement were thinking of a very different Pakistan,” he said.

Sudheendra Kulkarni’s book launched at KLF

“Allama Iqbal, while addressing in 1930 a session of the All-India Muslim League in Allahabad, said he wanted a Muslim India within India which would provide Islam the opportunity to rid itself of the stamp of ‘Arab imperialism’.”

Kulkarni’s thesis of a confederation, he said, envisaged India as a common motherland, with Hindustan and Pakistan as two nations.

He said that Jinnah’s vision, on many instances, also put forth the same concept of a confederation.

The session was moderated by Prof Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed, director of the Pakistan Study Centre, who did a commendable job of weaving together the historical narratives of both countries and at the same time roping in historian and anthropologist Matthew Cook’s perspective.

Cook, a professor of South Asian and post-colonial studies at the North Carolina Central University, said there was a perception that “history can be used as a mechanism for building walls. Between Pakistanis and Indians, there are invisible walls which have obscured many of the commonalities they share”.

“As someone who has travelled to both countries, the commonalities between the two countries are striking. When I get off the plane in Bombay or in Karachi, the first thing that comes to my mind is that they smell the same. There is an immediate recognition of these two locales,” he said.

Cook encouraged the transgressions of this “invisible wall from people on both sides of the border and we have many examples of this effort in place”.

Kulkarni reiterated the stance shared by the Indian high commissioner at the opening ceremony of the KLF, and said that India envisioned Pakistan to become a “united and stable state, at peace with itself and with the world.

We hope the country moves into the direction of stronger democracy and India and Pakistan can find a path towards reconciliation and peace”.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2017