Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thaw In The Thar: New Train

By Yoginder Sikand - Countercurrents.org
20 February, 2006

Cries of 'Long Live India-Pakistan Friendship' rend the air as the Thar Express streams out of the Jodhpur railway station on the evening of the 17th of February, heading for the Pakistan border. The next afternoon, a train bearing the same name crosses into India from Mirpur Khas in Sindh and chugs into Munabao, a desert settlement in Rajasthan's Barmer district, barely two kilometers from the border, being warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand people. 'May the Thar Express become the Yar (Friendship) Express bringing India and Pakistan ever closer than before', exclaims the compare of the function held by the Indian Railways to inaugurate the resumption of the railway link between Rajasthan and Sindh, which was terminated in the wake of the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

Many of the passengers on board the Thar Express to Pakistan have relatives across the border whom they have not met for decades. An elderly Muslim man from Barmer tells me about his grand-daughter in Sindh whom he has never seen although she is twenty now. 'I'm going to attend her wedding', he beams with excitement. 'Had it not been for this train I would not have been able to travel to Pakistan, because the other route--through Punjab--is simply unaffordable for a poor peasant like me'. A middle-aged Hindu woman, who migrated to India from Sindh twenty-five years ago, says she's going back to her village to meet her son whom she has not met ever since she left Pakistan. Another Sindhi Hindu, who now lives in Rajasthan, tells me he is going to meet his guru in Sindh, whom he saw for the last time fifteen years ago.

At the railway station in Jodhpur and in Munabao activists of the Jodhpur-based Seemant Lok Sangathan ('Border Peoples' Organisation') distribute leaflets hailing the train as a major landmark in promoting people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan. Says Hindu Singh Sodha, President of the Sangathan and himself a migrant from Thar Parkar in Sindh, 'Rajasthan and Sindh have had close historical, cultural, religious and trade links and the resumption of the train service will once again bring these two regions close to each other'.

An elaborate cultural programme presented by employees of the North-Western Railways outside Munabao station drives home the same message of communal harmony, uniting Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis. A traditional Rajasthani dance drama depicts a local folk hero, venerated by Hindus as Ramdev and by Muslims as Ram Shah Pir. This is followed by a musical recital of verses composed by Sindh's most well-known Sufi poet, Shah Abdul Latif. And to further stress this plea for Indo-Pak bonhomie, the official compare of the function piously announces, as the train from Pakistan trundles into Munabao station, the noble goal of 'uniting the message of the Gita and the Quran'.

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Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thaw In The Thar: New Train
By Yoginder Sikand - Countercurrents.org
20 February, 2006

Cries of 'Long Live India-Pakistan Friendship' rend the air as the Thar Express streams out of the Jodhpur railway station on the evening of the 17th of February, heading for the Pakistan border. The next afternoon, a train bearing the same name crosses into India from Mirpur Khas in Sindh and chugs into Munabao, a desert settlement in Rajasthan's Barmer district, barely two kilometers from the border, being warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand people. 'May the Thar Express become the Yar (Friendship) Express bringing India and Pakistan ever closer than before', exclaims the compare of the function held by the Indian Railways to inaugurate the resumption of the railway link between Rajasthan and Sindh, which was terminated in the wake of the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

Many of the passengers on board the Thar Express to Pakistan have relatives across the border whom they have not met for decades. An elderly Muslim man from Barmer tells me about his grand-daughter in Sindh whom he has never seen although she is twenty now. 'I'm going to attend her wedding', he beams with excitement. 'Had it not been for this train I would not have been able to travel to Pakistan, because the other route--through Punjab--is simply unaffordable for a poor peasant like me'. A middle-aged Hindu woman, who migrated to India from Sindh twenty-five years ago, says she's going back to her village to meet her son whom she has not met ever since she left Pakistan. Another Sindhi Hindu, who now lives in Rajasthan, tells me he is going to meet his guru in Sindh, whom he saw for the last time fifteen years ago.

At the railway station in Jodhpur and in Munabao activists of the Jodhpur-based Seemant Lok Sangathan ('Border Peoples' Organisation') distribute leaflets hailing the train as a major landmark in promoting people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan. Says Hindu Singh Sodha, President of the Sangathan and himself a migrant from Thar Parkar in Sindh, 'Rajasthan and Sindh have had close historical, cultural, religious and trade links and the resumption of the train service will once again bring these two regions close to each other'.

An elaborate cultural programme presented by employees of the North-Western Railways outside Munabao station drives home the same message of communal harmony, uniting Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis. A traditional Rajasthani dance drama depicts a local folk hero, venerated by Hindus as Ramdev and by Muslims as Ram Shah Pir. This is followed by a musical recital of verses composed by Sindh's most well-known Sufi poet, Shah Abdul Latif. And to further stress this plea for Indo-Pak bonhomie, the official compare of the function piously announces, as the train from Pakistan trundles into Munabao station, the noble goal of 'uniting the message of the Gita and the Quran'.

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