Knowledge makes bombs, literature love’
By Waqar Gillani
LAHORE: A new world, full of peace, is needed to strengthen Pakistan-India relations and intellectuals have always focused on this in their writings, said renowned Indian writer Ajeet Cour while talking to Daily Times during her recent visit to Pakistan to attend a “Pen and Peace Conference” in Islamabad.
She came to Pakistan as part of a delegation of Indian writers. Daily Times discussed with the Indian writer the present state of the India-Pakistan relationship, future aspects and the relationship between pen (writers) and peace with reference to India-Pakistan writers.
Talking about peace, Ms Cour mentioned one of her stories “Chutti” (Leave). She said the central character was an old man, who had departed from the world of chaos and pandemonium. He was carrying baggage full of new earth, some pieces of sky, sun, moon, clouds and a number of seasons to fill the new world with peace, love and harmony.
She said the person in the story was carrying baggage of bright hopes at the Indo-Pak border as a symbol of peace and he was aiming to start a new era between the two countries. She said the character’s name was “God” who was the symbol of humanity: wanting love, peace and tolerance.
Ms Cour said language did not matter when the message was clear. “Apart from the difference of languages, the message of Indian and Pakistani writers is always to promote peace.”
She pointed out that history was a witness and the writers and intellectuals always played a vital role in peace. Through their creative writings, they focused on such issues. She said the message of peace had a different meaning in the journalistic parlance but the writers always expressed it through their verses, style and expression.
“The sharing of literature always give a new sense of love, harmony and benefit to the both societies,” Ms Cour.
She said Pakistani languages were equally popular in India. She said Punjab was already a shared legacy but Seraiki and Sindhi were also liked throughout India and a number literary writings had been translated.
She said the Indian film industry was full of Punjabis. “Only Babita Kapoor, the mother of Kirshma and Kareena Kapoor, is of Sindhi origin while most Indian film industry people are from the Punjab.”
She said the doors of the East Punjab were always open for the Punjabi literary figures like Fakhar Zaman, Sibtul Hasan, Mansha Yad, Akhtar Hussain and many others who were very popular in India.
Talking about Pakistan-India relations, she stressed that all issues should be resolved bilaterally. “Writers should be allowed to exchange their ideas, as this would create peace and harmony.” She said that transformation of knowledge had always created bombs, missiles while literature tried to make the world peaceful and loving.
About the 12 confidence-building measures proposed by India, Ms Cour said Islamabad’s response should be more positive than India’s.
The writers had always created magic, she said, such as when the first South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference of writers was being held at the Maldives, Pakistan and India started Dosti (friendship) Bus Service from New Delhi to Lahore. “ History is witness that when people such as saints and true people sit together miracles happen. Tansen used to make rain fall through his music,” she said. Ms Cour also referred to a literary character Nehang Singh, who used to snatch food from the common people. “A poor woman once took Nehang Singh, who was a symbol of aggression, to her home and gave him the whole meal she had cooked. But he turned aggressive. The old lady asked why he turned angry even after getting the food. Nehang Singh said aggression had become his second nature that never changes.”
Ms Cour said India and Pakistan were like Nehang Singh and not softening their positions despite having sufficient grounds for peace because aggression had become their nature. She said they had planned a SAARC writers’ conference in Lahore in January 2004, when the SAARC countries heads’ conference was also expected in Islamabad.
Ms Cour said she first came to Pakistan in 1988 and this was her second visit. “Though I faced some visa problems, the love and hospitality was enormous.” She said this was the first time when she visited Anar Kali where she shopped and attended a reception.
Ms Cour said she always tried to unite the writers of different languages on the both sides of the divide through the SAARC platform. Ms Cour said she was also a human rights activist and rights were always linked with literature.
Ajeet Cour, born in 1934, is an important Punjabi fiction writer. Her work has been widely translated in Indian and European languages. She has published 12 volumes of stories, three novellas, a travelogue, a collection of pen-sketches, a couple of research works and several creative translations of fiction and poetry. Her autobiography “Khanabadosh” won acclaim for its portrayal of a woman’s (her own) struggle in a gender-oriented society and also a struggle with herself. Her autobiography won the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Ms Cour is the brain and the brawn behind the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature (AFAL) and its SAARC literary wing – the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL). She was born in Lahore and has been maintaining close liaison with literary writers and movements in Pakistan.