A Reflection of the Past, A Vision for the Future

Ayush­man Jamw­al

Grow­ing up in India, a typ­i­cal youth’s per­cep­tion of the world is framed pri­mar­i­ly by fam­i­ly, pop­u­lar cul­ture and the news media. A family’s reflec­tion of the past, their per­cep­tion of soci­ety, the media’s fram­ing of cul­ture and his­to­ry through music and films, and the news media’s por­tray­al of events, all fil­ters into how the youth per­ceives the nation and the world. I grew up in India dur­ing the 1990’s, an era of reg­u­lar vio­lence in Kash­mir, bomb­ings in Mum­bai and to top it all off, the Kargil war. The intel­lec­tu­al and emo­tion­al envi­ron­ment in India was marked with a sharp ani­mos­i­ty for Pak­istan. Fam­i­lies across the nation mobilised nar­ra­tives of past wars and the Kash­mir dis­pute, and the news media com­plied. Pop­u­lar cul­ture thrived on nation­al­is­tic imagery cre­at­ing empa­thy for front­line sol­diers while paint­ing the Pak­istani state and its peo­ple as the ‘oth­ers’, bent on sub­du­ing the Indi­an mil­i­tary and hold­ing an alien right to the land of Kash­mir. At a very young age, my gen­er­a­tion inter­pret­ed the real­i­ty of our two coun­tries in such a bina­ry frame.

When the 21st cen­tu­ry kicked off, India was put on the fast track of becom­ing a suc­cess sto­ry of glob­al­i­sa­tion. As the Indi­an econ­o­my opened up and west­ern con­sumer cul­ture flowed in, Indi­an cul­ture devi­at­ed from a bina­ry vision of the world to a sense of cul­tur­al sol­i­dar­i­ty with the West. Pak­istan has become a fringe actor in the view of Indi­ans, as aspi­ra­tions to study and live in the West and adhere to its cul­tur­al stan­dards have over­run the nation. Pakistan’s image only flares once India is rocked by vio­lence in Kash­mir or ter­ror­ism, when the old bina­ry sen­ti­ments come into play. It remains in our sub­con­scious even as we have grown as a nation, sus­tained by a resilient yet neg­a­tive image held by old­er gen­er­a­tions.

Yet, when Indi­an stu­dents come abroad, they are exposed to a har­mo­nious mul­ti­cul­tur­al soci­ety. In a for­eign land when search­ing for com­pa­ny and com­mon con­nec­tions in a glob­al mix of stu­dents, Indi­an and Pak­istani stu­dents become the best of friends. We speak the same lan­guage, enjoy the same food, films, music, and share the same tra­di­tions, cus­toms and the aspi­ra­tions to suc­ceed through our stud­ies to make a name for our­selves. In my four years study­ing at Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty, I have enjoyed the friend­ship of many stu­dents from Pak­istan, inter­act­ing with them dur­ing lec­tures and sem­i­nars, at cul­tur­al events, shar­ing meals or a shisha, or going on trips to see dif­fer­ent parts of the UK. We share our mem­o­ries of fam­i­ly, school life and pop­u­lar cul­ture, as well as our expe­ri­ences inter­act­ing with peo­ple from dif­fer­ent coun­tries and adjust­ing to a new way of life, be it buy­ing gro­ceries, pay­ing bills or the self-study cul­ture the uni­ver­si­ty thrusts upon us. While shar­ing the cul­tur­al diver­si­ty of India, I have learnt much about Pak­istan. From the region­al cul­tures of Sindh and Pun­jab to the dif­fer­ing norms, cus­toms and com­mu­ni­ties in the cities of Lahore, Islam­abad, Karachi and Rawalpin­di, I have gained a deep under­stand­ing of the com­plex social make up of the coun­try. I have also gained an insight into what Islam means to the peo­ple of Pak­istan, how their tumul­tuous his­to­ry has shaped their way of life, and how they just like Indi­ans yearn to live in peace and strive in hopes to rid their soci­ety of cor­rup­tion and the per­verse brand of ter­ror­ism. Liv­ing in India one can­not see or under­stand life on the oth­er side of the Line of Con­trol. It is only when we come abroad that we can keen­ly look into each other’s worlds with a sense of ease and com­fort. While as a jour­nal­ist it’s an infor­ma­tive expe­ri­ence to learn of Pak­istan in such an in-depth man­ner, as an Indi­an it is enrich­ing to under­stand my neighbour’s cul­ture through the bonds of
friend­ship.

How­ev­er, if there is one draw­back I have con­sis­tent­ly seen to rela­tions between Indi­an and Pak­istani stu­dents, it is when dis­cussing Indo-Pak his­to­ry or issues, both sets of stu­dents refrain from being can­did with each oth­er. Be it pol­i­tics, pover­ty or con­flicts, both groups of stu­dents are broad­ly unable to dis­cuss them with­out draw­ing com­par­isons between the coun­tries. They indulge in a lim­it­ed debate even though it’s no secret that both nations suf­fer from sim­i­lar prob­lems. When Indi­an and Pak­istani stu­dents dis­cuss com­mon prob­lems, there is a per­sis­tent cul­ture of ‘one- upman­ship’ where both aim to frame the oth­er nation’s sit­u­a­tion as worse. It is essen­tial that we address this atti­tude. We need to be able to hon­est­ly dis­cuss and under­stand each other’s sit­u­a­tion because we are neigh­bours with com­mon roots and because it is the only means by which we can rid our soci­eties of the ani­mos­i­ty that has thrived for too long. Be it in a sim­ple dis­cus­sion, a high pro­file debate or just through writ­ing, an hon­est dis­cus­sion of the sit­u­a­tions and issues in our nations will fil­ter into our per­cep­tions, our con­ver­sa­tions, and dis­cours­es back home. As the future of our nations, the change in atti­tude can be the step­ping stones to achieve a revi­sion of nation­al sen­ti­ments, a chal­lenge to the apa­thy sur­round­ing India-Pak­istan rela­tions, and hope­ful­ly one day a change in the polit­i­cal per­cep­tions of our coun­tries.

Gand­hi once said that anger and intol­er­ance are the twin ene­mies of cor­rect under­stand­ing. The emo­tion­al envi­ron­ments in our nations do not sup­port the dis­cus­sion required to intel­lec­tu­al­ly chart a way to har­mo­nious rela­tions. Yet, we are the future gen­er­a­tion of our nations and look­ing into our­selves we under­stand that we do not deserve the anger and hatred of the past. We deserve to live in peace as friends and aid each oth­er in attain­ing pros­per­i­ty. To achieve that vision, we must take up the oppor­tu­ni­ties for­eign edu­ca­tion and for­eign soci­eties offer us to fear­less­ly peer across the bor­der even when a hun­dred miles away.

Ayush­man Jamwalis a MA Polit­i­cal Com­mu­ni­ca­tion stu­dent from Cardiff Uni­ver­si­ty describes the per­cep­tions of Pak­istan in India and his expe­ri­ence of inter­act­ing with Pak­istani stu­dents in Britain