Journeys to democracy

“Wish both India & Pakistan had friendly relationship I would have pledged all proceeds from the sale of book for the victims of disastrous floods in Pakistan” tweeted Raminder Jit Singh (@ramindersays), a “Sikh from Jammu & Kashmir” who has recently published a book titled Immaculate Thoughts. The scale of destruction “leaves one benumbed”.

How tragic is it that people who want to help, can’t.

The catastrophic floods in Pakistan have already claimed over 1,000 human lives, over 700,000 heads of cattle and destroyed millions of acres of crops. The situation makes it all the more urgent to ease restrictions between countries of the region and allow food aid and trade to take place. 

The destruction has caused food prices to rise, to the extent that Pakistan is considering opening duty-free import and even reviving imports through the land border with India.

The previous government headed by Imran Khan had cancelled trade ties with India in protest against the Modi government’s revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019. There have been only two exceptions since then: to import pharmaceutical products during the COVID-19 pandemic and to allow India to ship 50,000 tonnes of wheat as humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Modi has tweeted his condolences to Pakistan for the losses caused by the floods and expressed “hope for an early restoration of normalcy”. This “normalcy” needs to include something that hasn’t been normal for the region – good neighbourly relations. Let people of the region meet – allow visa-on-arrival or a visa-free Southasia, like the European Union, or US-Canada as envisioned by Pakistan’s founding father.

Also read Neel Kamal’s article in TOI: Many hands rising from Southasia for flood-marooned in Pakistan – includes a mention of Sapan, the Southasia Peace Action Network that aims to make this happen.

Why should politics come in the way of people helping each other?

Please see and share this petition and bring friends, family and colleagues on board.

#FloodsInPakistan #Pakistan #India #Southasia 

02 Sept: Updated post to correct the figure of cattle lost to floods, had missed a zero.

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The latest syndicated pieces from our Sapan News Network: A report on peace pilgrims from Pune in Pakistan, a call to free political prisoners, an oped on why Bhutan needs a peace and reconciliation movement, an analysis of the early years of Independence, and a report on the poet Gulzar’s visit to the USA. Enter your email at the Sapan website www.southasiapeace.com to get the pieces sent straight to your mail box. For now, read on:

1. On eve of 75th independence anniversary, peace pilgrims from Pune bring message of love to Pakistan: The three crossed Wagah border on 22 July for the first peace pilgrimage from India to Pakistan in a quarter century. After a week in Karachi, Shikarpur, and Lahore each, they return to India today after celebrating Pakistan’s Independence day with Pakistani friends at Wagah border. By Priyanka SIngh and Beena Sarwar. Read more here

2. The world’s ‘happiest country’ needs a peace and reconciliation process – “Bhutan’s much-touted happiness rating lies atop a bed of pain. The pain of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin. I know, because I am one of them,” writes Suraj Budathoki in this groundbreaking oped. Read more here.

3. “Free them all!” A call of solidarity with political prisoners in India, America, and beyond – Revolutionary poet Habib Jalib’s iconic 1962 poem Main Nahi Manta (I refuse to accept) still resonates beyond Pakistan. A report on a discussion on “Political Incarceration and Resistance in India and the USA organised by the Boston South Asian Coalition recently in conjunction with the Boston branch of the Jericho Movement. By Padma B. and Beena Sarwar. Read more here.

4. The years that were: Let lessons from the past inform the present, argues Tridivesh Singh Maini. “…f we just look back and study the 1947-1965 phase in our own region in terms of people-to-people exchanges as well as economic linkages, there is a lot to learn ” Read more here

5. A Southasian poetic giant tours North America – Siraj Khan in Boston reports on Gulzar’s visit to several North American cities, in conversation with the writer Rakhshanda Jalil, and a talented musical team rendering his poetry. Read more here.

Subscribe to Sapan News Network by entering your email at http://www.southasiapeace.com to stay up to date with Sapan offerings.

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Inspiring, uplifting and thought-provoking event, part of Sapan’s series themed Imagine: Neighbours in Peace, held on the last Sunday of every month. Coming up: Love, activism, Southasia solidarities with Saif Samejo, Parvathy Baul, and others… Watch out for updates at http://www.southasiapeace.com

Southasia Peace Action Network

NOTE: This feature report produced by Sapan News Service is free for publication with credit to Sapan, www.southasiapeace.com. Editors may trim content to their own needs.

By Sushmita Preetha and Priyanka Singh

Feb 3, 2022: “In dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing, about the dark times”

Iconic German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s words continue to echo and remain relevant, particularly in South Asia, as underscored by prominent artists at Resisting Together: Art and the Artist in South Asia, an online gathering across time zones.

Dozens of participants at the online session enthusiastically endorsed Sapan’s call for a visa-free South Asia, a demand enshrined in the regional coalition’s Founding Charter jointly presented at the meeting by the activist couple Lalita Ramdas and former chief of Indian Navy Admiral L. Ramdas, both founder members of Sapan.

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Beena Sarwar

The tragedy of a fisherman who died of Covid-19 while imprisoned in India, far from his family in Karachi, highlights the link between geopolitics and climate change – issues being deliberated at the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow.

In November 2017, Amir Hamza was among the crew of a Pakistani fishing boat arrested by Indian security forces across the maritime border.

Fisherfolk along the Arabian Sea coast shared by nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India know that they risk such arrests, as well as sea storms, if they stray across the invisible line. But it is a risk they take, driven by declining fish populations.

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Wrote this curtain raiser a couple of weeks ago together with a colleague in India, published in Aman Ki Asha 20 September 2019.

By Neel Kamal and Beena Sarwar

The world’s largest India-Pakistan golf tournament will take place in Los Angeles early October, even as relations between nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan sink to a dangerously low levels.

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