Do we really know about ourselves? As a people we are well over 20,000 years since settling on the riverbanks, let alone building cities on mounds to avoid massive floods. This year the floods have shown us why we live on mounds.

This piece is the result of a three-day conference at Cambridge University on ‘South and Southeast Asia’ in which some of the world’s finest researchers and scholars presented papers from archaeology to constantly changing borders over time and the reasons for such changes, to the role of water in history.

At the end was a workshop: “Thinking of Borders without Borders”. The role of religions and castes and floods were discussed at length.

There were scholars from all over the world: from Britain, India, Bangladesh, France, Holland, USA, Portugal, Norway and even Burma, now known as Myanmar. The only Pakistani besides yours truly was Dr Munir Kamal, former Dean of LUMS and now a Pro-VC of Cambridge. Where have Pakistani scholars gone and why are they not researching and writing about their own land and waters? But then it is a worrying thought even though given our social and political-cum-military construction it is not surprising. Thinking and analysing can get you in trouble.

Attending this delightful conference brought forth several issues to my mind. Do we really know enough about who we are? At the conference I met a brown cloth clad Buddhist scholar-cum-priest with books and files in hand. He looked scholarly. We met with a broad smile and hearing of Lahore he immediately said: “Oh, Lahore, they have no experience of Buddhism”. I immediately retorted: “The sole religion of Lahore for 700 years was Buddhism under the Mauryans, that is till the Huns butchered them”. He stood there in a state of shock. Priests will be priests. I call them the ‘pretenders’.

It is not that we – almost 99.9 per cent of scholars and researchers – are unaware of our past, let alone the people more worried about making a living. But then what surprised me was that over 70 per cent of the topics at the conference touched in considerable detail about the ‘water problems’ of the sub-continent and Iran and Afghanistan, and how over time Empires collapsed because of them.

One Indian scholar dwelling of the rivers of the Himalayas put forward the proposition that the ‘South Asian Waterscape’ created cities like Lahore, Agra and Lucknow. During question time I asked if he was aware that all rivers ‘meander’ as they keep changing course. His diplomatic answer was: “Initially the river mattered, but then river courses do change”. (!!)

But then the well-known scholar Dr Cameron Petrie of Cambridge’s archaeology department and a Harappa expert, put forth how the ‘waterscape’ has moved over thousands of years and how it today lies, and how climate change is going to wreak havoc in the years to come. “We must prepare and not build riverbed colonies”. He gave the example of the ‘extreme havoc’ the Punjab and Sindh of the sub-continent are facing.

In the break after his talk, I met Cameron, and he immediately touched on two topics. First was the Ravi Riverbed Project. “Gosh, just how did Lahore’s planners allow such a disastrous project?” he said in a surprised mode. My answer was simple and truthful: “Politics in the sub-continent is all about making money, the people be damned”. His answer was interesting: “Sounds familiar”.

The second topic he discussed at length was the archives of the Punjab Archaeology Department. “Their chief just refuses to talk about it, forgetting it is an international tragedy”. I added: “Cameron, the Punjab Secretariat Archives are lying in a horse stable with urine flowing through it”. He beat his forehead and moved to one side. “Gosh, bloody hell”. I immediately retorted: “Even the devil would be ashamed”.

As the conference chugged along the other speakers discussed borders and how over time – thousands of years – they tended to shift depending on water paths, now faith and political preferences. The role of the media in promoting an ‘open society’ found many takers. The role of castes and tribes and ethnic politics was shown as major political changers.

But of interest to me was a talk by Dr Syeda Sana Batool of Falmouth University on: “The politics of belonging and the anti-Shia violence in Pakistan”. The reasons and statistics shocked everyone. Even a media person-cum-historian like yours truly was surprised, if ‘ashamed’ is not a better description. She had proof of everything she said. Her conclusion was that unless all believers become tolerant, the entire structure will collapse. But then she left this as an open-ended question, like good scholars do.

The conference concluded with nine of the finest and respected scholars from Oxford, Cambridge and London’s University College, all specialists in South Asian affairs providing food for thought on the main topic: “Thinking Borders Without Borders”. It was very clear that in order of priority the climate needed special attention and physical changes to protect the growing population, which itself needed to be reduced.

Next in importance was the need to promote tolerance of all other beliefs, let alone follow the path of reason. For this the rulers of all the lands need to follow and promote laws that tolerate divergent views. In this the examples of Pakistan and India came to the fore, which is understandable.

In all there were 32 talks, each of 15 minutes followed by 15 minutes for questions. It was clear that Wolfson College, where the conference was held, had very skillfully planned the whole conference. The tea and lunch and dinner breaks were very simple, like tea and snacks. It reminded me of my own book launch in LUMS in August 2025 where tea and ‘khatai’ – a Lahori must – delighted the full hall.

My take on this conference is that we must concentrate on climate change, make strict laws to enforce them, save our riverbanks, plan climate-friendly cities and villages, educate the entire population and, most importantly, free the media and public discussion of the evil of force.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2025