The Spirit of Indus Valley

Villages form the warp and waft of the social fabric of south Asia. Years back, I visited my own native village on a marriage of my mother’s cousin. The ceremony was short, festivities elaborate and interesting. During the long hours of dancing, loud music, shrieks of kids, a woman came and sat near my nani. She started whispering, in her ears. I was curious, and scared at the same time. After few minutes, the woman left walking towards the shade where other women were busy distributing sweets.

The incident went into oblivion. Later travelling back to my hometown, my nani started narrating the story. Sherika had killed her elder son. Poor woman is living with her brother, what a life.

Shreika was not a new word. All the major conflicts in Punjab revolve around the three words "zan", "zar", "zameen". People kill, have century old feuds because of these reasons. However, in major cases “sherika” refers to the immediate family members who share the family wealth, which in most cases is land.

The oldest epic in our history revolved around these three things, describing the heroism of normal beings making them deities. And in today’s world Mahabharat is the major plot of small feuds in Punjab.

The journey, the silted lands with dead fields, “Marasons” singing on dholki, the food all became part of my long forgotten memory.

Years later doing research for my graduate program, Mahabharat and the three words became my trail to one of the biggest rivalries of the world. I was working on development and war budgets of third world countries. Pakistan and India were definitely the text bookcases. However, during the 3 months long semester, my lengthy readings, and conversations with my supervisor I was unable to define the conflict between the two nations.

Most of the researchers have given lengthy explanations about the “hindu nationalism”, the anti muslim stance of India and the Kashmir to be the root cause of the conflict.
All the arguments had strong counter arguments. Indian nationalism gained its strength in late 1970’s .By that time Pakistan and India had fought the war of 1965. The whole argument about muslim hate was groundless since India enjoys strong trade relations with other Muslim countries and has a huge Muslim population. It was an egg and chicken case. I was using causality tests with faulty results.

By the end of the semester I had submitted my paper with lengthy empirical details, and political reasoning. But as a curious researcher I still don’t have a valid answer.
Every year both nations spend a huge chunk of their budgets on maintaining their expensive armies. The weapons are sold by the west, and these western nations donate funds for poverty y alleviation and sustainable development.

The most ugly facet of the Indian and Pakistani tale is the demise of average person living in that area. Both nations have laced their armies with the deadliest weapon on earth but they are unable to provide a basic health infrastructure, clean water and in some cases basic law and order. Both India and Pakistan have major internal conflicts based on ethnic or religious stances of their people.
The list of problem is long and in most cases similar. The green of Pakistan and saffron of India has been the major de stabilizer in the region. Fundamentalism is also local, where riots on micro level disperse peace in daily life.

However, from the last 62 years we are unable to define our major conflict. Pakistan alleges India of occupying Kashmir and thus stealing the major water resource. The conflict is much more economical than religious or political.During all the rhetoric both countries forget their past and their roots. Both are the basin of Indus valley civilization. There are more similarities than disparities between them.
Other than the religious dichotomy Indo Pak culture has a similar centre. The music, dance, food, and even major languages are similar. Writing Hindustani in Arabic or Sanskrit script does not change the soul of the language.

In the 60 years old conflict, we have forgotten to celebrate the spirit of the dancing girls of Mohanjodaro. The ragas coming out of the sitar, and the bewitching story telling movements of Kathak dancers. We had involved the mediators in the conflict who have strong economic interests in the region. If economically there is an enemy of India in the region than it is definitely China not Pakistan.

Today, at the eve when we ceased to be the burden of white man, the word Shreika is still haunting me. I trace my roots to the forts of the Jaisalmir, in the myth of Ramayan and the warlords of Somnath. My surname is as old as this land. In a century where we are looking at secular ideas, integration and global trade conflicts are dissolving into economic ties.

Only if we can learn our lesson. But then the war is always between the family, between relatives, between the brothers.

It is not Mahabharat because I still cannot define the evil, but yes it will turn into a doomsday if we would not come forward to end this violence.