Tiny rays of peace and hope

By Kuldip Nayar

This year the Government did not give us permission to go to the Wagah-Amritsar border to light candles on Independence Day. It always did in the past - for the last six years when we began the candle-light vigil ceremony on the midnight of August 14. We, the NGOs from different parts of India, forming an umbrella organisation of the Hindu-Pak Dosti Manch representing various cultural and literary bodies in Punjab, have embarked on the task of shattering the darkness of the India-Pakistan relationship with even tiny lights.

Our counterparts in Pakistan have never been able to make the border at midnight because the Government as well as the fundamentalists in that country have joined hands to stop any people-to-people contact at the border. Still, this time some 200 women vainly sought formal permission from the Government and came within a few kilometres of the border and lighted the candles at that very spot.

However, at the time of Retreat when national flags of both countries are hauled down by the border police on both sides of the border at sunset, they were at least 5,000 in strength. The Retreat is a strange spectacle of the military mind. The soldiers deliberately show hatred on their faces and take hard offensive strides when they march. Sitting in a newly-built gallery, the people from Pakistan were different: laughing, cheering and singing, defying the sticks of the Pakistan Rangers, for displaying their reciprocity to the movement of people-to-people contact.

We were only 2,000. But both sides expressed through their presence a desire to meet and to travel, to trade and exchange views without the fuss of restrictions and regulations. They knew that if the good people did not speak out, the bad people would take over.

Our candle-light vigil journey began from Jallianwala Bagh on August 14 evening. Standing before the torch burning there, we lit our torch. We took it through the bazaars of Amritsar, opposite the Khalsa College and the Guru Nanak Dev University, to the border, a distance of 35 km.

A sea of humanity welcomed the torch with slogans like: Long Live India-Pakistan Friendship, People-to-People Contact Zindabad. People burst into singing and dancing. And for the next three hours, different artistes from Punjab participated in the programme. Leading them was the famous Punjabi artiste, Hans Raj Hans, who rendered a special poem on the summit at Agra and the thaw in the relationship has begun.

People had come from all parts of India to participate in the function. Two buses of college girls came from Delhi and many from the different districts of Punjab. They were disappointed that after travelling long distances they were not allowed to go right to the border. The Delhi girls travelled all the way in rain, 500 km. All of them lighted candles on the outer gate, some 800 yards from the border. None tried to break the wall of policemen. Nor was there any such programme. They were confident that one day the border would be soft.

The crowd wanted to express its love to the Pakistanis through the candle lights which emitted tiny rays of peace and hope. They plan to hold a one-day peace mela at the border for the Indians and Pakistanis to celebrate on 14-15th August to celebrate their independence together.

As I saw them retreating, I looked at their faces, radiant with hope and confidence and defiant with determination to go on in their endeavour to generate goodwill. It was as if they were saying: ``We will return. We shall overcome.''

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