CALL OF FREEDOM. Extending an olive branch through language, culture

Thousands of stories can be written on how each of us came to know our neighbour nations. As 20-somethings, we formed our ideas from our grandparents’ recollections, history books, cricket matches, poetry, music, food and so many other factors on which we share common ground.

Yet, Pakistan and Bangladesh always seemed somewhat alien – rivals, even – despite the proximity. The feeling of alienation is not without reason. We were exposed to prejudices in the atmosphere – during occasional sporting events, family meals, casual conversations and serious discussions.

Then again, there are the political initiatives and backdoor discussions that strive to flatten the uneven historic topography and convey the feel-good message that “we’re essentially the same”.

Amid the confusing signals, getting a clear picture is somewhat difficult. So, when Riti Sharma, a post-graduate student from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, visited Lahore for a conference, many surprises were in store, starting with a shopkeeper complimenting her Urdu. She was bewildered as she had been speaking in what she thought was Hindi. And Hindi and Urdu, in her mind, were always two mutually exclusive, though similar languages.

Recalling her experience, crossing the Wagah border, she says, “If it weren’t for the formal ambience and the BSF, I would’ve thought that I was just crossing the street in my hometown.” It is this incongruity, perhaps, that brings home starkly the sense of imposed reality we have been living with for decades.

Riti was in Lahore from April 14-16 to present a paper at the Department of English in Government College University (GCU), for its First International Conference on Language and Literature.

The University is celebrating the completion of its 150th year. She faced a volley of questions from the students there, who happened to be avid Bollywood buffs. She told them she hailed from the city depicted in Vidya Balan’s Kahaani (Kolkata) and that her mother tongue (Tamil) was that of Deepika Padukone’s character in Chennai Express .

Her puzzlement regarding Urdu and Hindi being interchangeable names for the same language was addressed at the session titled Politics of Language: The Case of Regional Languages , where Prof Tariq Ali discussed at length what went into the making of language politics and created the distinct identities of Urdu and Hindi. “I spoke to him after his paper, and he said: The two languages are the same right now.”

Riti has fond memories of the warm, hospitable people of Lahore who are “so much like us,” and, made her feel like she was one of their “own.” On an IM chat with Business Line , Zain ul Abdin, a student of the Department of English, GCU, Lahore, who did a class project called What if the Partition never happened? echoes this sentiment. “Our identities are so strongly related to each other that mere political fuss cannot separate us,” he types out, adding a “:P”, which is perhaps open to further interpretation.

The conference tackled a various topics through sessions such as Fictional Historiography and the Case of Pakistan ; Language, Culture and Gender representation ; Partition: Memory and Nostalgia ; and Feminism . Replying to an e-mail query, Ana Ashraf, a lecturer and one of the organisers of the event, said: “More people are realising the need to focus on research. As a developing nation, we lack in latest research credentials.”

When asked if the Partition was an awkward subject to broach, given the different politically-motivated stances people across the border adopt, Ana says it was rather the other way round.

“At one session, Dr Furrukh A Khan, scholar in post-colonial studies, presented a paper on Partition fiction and played videos of Partition survivors narrating their experiences. The audience was awed by the scholar’s idea that truth might have several facets than the one presented by the State.”

Riti affirms that, placed alongside modern fiction by writers such as Saadat Hasan Manto and Bhisham Sahni, the archived voices, which are also a part of the living oral tradition, impress upon one how the shared cultural and linguistic relationships survive even after such strife. Such exchanges will only help nurture fruitful dialogue.