Sarhad ki aisi taisi: We’re creating our own pockets of peace


Sarhad ki aisi taisi: We’re creating our own pockets of peace
A musical hand of friendship from India, reciprocated by Pakistan... Aisi taisi

A young satirical writer argues against the “hum ek hain” narrative and urges a more practical, gen-next approach to “this neighbour business”

by Sanjay Rajoura

By Sanjay Rajoura

Over the last two weeks two songs have captured the imagination of the people of two neighbourly nations — well at least those people in these nuclear-armed nations who are fortunate enough to have access to the Internet.

The satirical lyrics sung to the tune of the famous Bollywood song of yesteryear “Mere saamne wali khidki main ek chand ka tukda rehta hai” (across from my window lives a moonbeam) were released on interestingly significant days.

First, Aisi Taisi Democracy (ATD) — a political satire stage show featuring Indian Ocean’s Rahul Ram, lyricist and standup comic Varun Grover and yours truly — came out with a version of this song. Our song looks at the common tragi-comic absurdities that India and Pakistan share and it begins with the lines: “Mere saamne wali sarhad pe, kehte hain dushman rehta hai” (They say that across my window lives an enemy). We released it on India’s Independence Day.

In this song we deliberately wanted to move away from the delusional romantic narrative of “we are the same, we are like brothers” and the misty-eyed sanjha-chulha (home-hearth) nostalgia. Because we – Indians and Pakistanis — are not the same, despite our commonalities. For seven decades, we have struggled to shake off the wounds of division and live like mature neighbours. But we refuse to cure the painful hangover of Partition.

We at ATD are not trapped in that baggage or the consequent tear-jerker idea of ‘sameness’. The song stems more from our pragmatic understanding of the two countries than a conscious decision. So we focus on sameness but without the mushy sentimentality.

The premise is simple – if there is a power outage in your neighbourhood, it’s not just your neighbour’s problem, it’s yours too and vice versa. We are not the same, but we have similar problems and we are both prisoners of mean, corrupt political systems and self-perpetuating dynasties. We both face the monster of religious extremism and intolerance. On one side, the army plays the tyrant but on the other, ‘democratically elected’ leaders are capable of a similar display of power, corruption and abuse,

Every time I visit Pakistan, I get bombarded (pun intended) by the phrase, “Hum dono ek hain, humain siyasatdano ne baanta hai” (we are the same, it is the politicians that have divided us). I hear this phrase ad-nauseum and it has started to irritate me. We have a knack of absolving ourselves of all moral and political responsibility and blaming it on politicians.

I disagree with this “hum ek hain” (we are the same) narrative that only makes us nostalgic and irrational. Nothing has come out of it. Let us be more practical about this neighbour business. Forget what the powers-that-be of our countries do. Let us engage in creating small islands of collaborators.

Let our leaders behave like lunatics and let them keep shouting “war”. Let us create a people’s stake in each other’s countries. For that to happen, we have to question the idea of the nation, and challenge the jingoism that passes off as nationalism or patriotism.

The premise of nationalism is primitive. Your nation is an accident of your life, just like your parents and your religion. You had nothing to do with it, because you exercised no choice. It is then absurd to say that your nation is the best, just like it is absurd to say your religion is the best or your parents are the best. One must examine the empirical data and sample size of those making such remarkable claims. I mean, how many parents have you experienced to come to the conclusion that your’s are the best? It’s the same with religion and nation.

For me a friend in Karachi may be dearer because of their politics and ideas of humanity, intellectual leanings and things as simple as the kind of music they listen to — rather than my next-door neighbour in Delhi who I never speak to, simply because he is a religious bigot. As an individual, I must build a stake in the wellbeing of Karachi. And it works the other way round too. Someone in Lahore may care for Delhi because they have a friend, a lover, or business interest here.

I have friends, on both sides, who are genuinely tired of this Indo-Pak impasse and with good reason. They are bored because this discourse is going nowhere and has been spinning in circles for way too long. They have given up and say we should just ignore each other. It will at least ensure peace. While there is merit in the idea, it is impossible to implement, especially when governments get elected in our countries by selling this mutual distrust and hatred.

Let me offer you an example. Sometimes I think that patriarchy is so deep rooted in our societies, hard wired into our psyche, so insidiously living in our house-holds, that I wonder whether we will ever be able to have a true feminist revolution in our societies. Will we ever be able to treat women as equals and respect them as fellow human beings? One tends to lose hope. When I see rampant misogyny seeped into every institution of ours — family, corporations, education, popular culture, and the political establishment – it is easy to lose hope. But that doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for women’s rights. I will fight on, and ensure that there are at least small pockets of gender-safe spaces in my own world.

Similarly for India-Pakistan ties. We have to constantly thrive to create these pockets of peace.

There have been many traditional constituencies of peace between the two neighbours – art, literature, trade and so on.

Our Aisi Taisi Democracy song managed to create another small pocket, a new peace constituency. After we released the song, our producer told us that the song is exploding in Pakistan. We laughed and said, “Yeah, we need more explosions of the musical kind”. Pakistanis loved the song and so did Indians.

In the video comments online, Indians and Pakistanis started adding lyrics of their own to our song, lyrics that reflected the same spirit as the song. It was exciting and heartening to get this response. Of course, there were also the usual online bullies from both sides, but I must say, very few.

Then some Pakistanis came out with their version of “Mere saamne wali sarhad”, coincidentally released just a day after the National Security Advisor (NSA) talks were called off. It was a double whammy. It was called “Aisi Taisi Hypocrisy” and it took off from our lyrics and laced some of our thoughts with their own humour. We loved the fact that Pakistanis had responded with a similar song. We are too used to listening to responses of the tit-for-tat variety on either side.

Second, and more importantly, as the NSAs failed to meet, here was a parallel but powerful counter-narrative, not trapped in any diplomatic protocols or dossiers, but flying freely over the Internet. And it was different from the usual expressions of peace, like candle-vigils at the border or organised festivals. This exchange of satirical music videos was organic, spontaneous and very next-gen. It was also the first time that stand-up comedians were entering the India-Pakistan narrative in a manner that is evolving in a collectively constructed Wiki-model.

People on both sides have had reservation about the lyrics of the Pakistani version, but what the heck! It is a delightful gesture. It’s a lovely rendition. And that is the most important thing. More power to such exchanges and such conversations.

Let there be more such pockets of resistance and communication. Let the NSAs continue with their myopic agendas and continue hurling dossiers at each other. We will keep chiselling and shaping this new peace-constituency. We will sing to each other, and even serenade each other with satire, sarcasm, and, of course some LOLs.

The writer is a standup artist and member of Aisi Taisi Democracy. He tweets @urbantuccha. A version of this piece first appeared in Beyond the LOC, an initiative of the Asia Society Young Leaders from India and Pakistan, Class of 2014.




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