[A final version of this is published
as 'Talking Literature' in EPW, 28 Dec 2013, p.142)
For years now, many of us including
this writer have written opinion articles pleading for a federation
or a EU like structure in South Asia with open borders across India
and Pakistan. It was nice to be reinforced on these lines being in
the audience for the Hri Research Institute for Southasian Research
and Exchange, a unit of the Kathmandu-based Himal Sothasian magazine,
session on trans-National writings across South Asia in Bangalore
Literature Festival (BLF). The session hosted Kanak Dixit, editor of
Himal, Babar Ayaz and Mira Hashmi from Pakistan, Farrah Ghuznavi from
Bangladaesh and Ashok Ferry from Sri Lanka. There were other sessions
hosting writers from the different countries of South Asia, including
one with Nighat Gandhi, who claims a multi-National identity.
To be honest, I have always wondered
why the lit-fests are not called the city-English-lit-fests.
Typically, these have a couple of sessions in what is now called
'Bhasha' (BLF was pleasantly better than the typical with several
sessions on Kannada poetry, literaure and also other languages like
Tulu, etc.) and otherwise mostly it is a show by the Englishwallahs
for the Englishwallahs, the ones with the burden of looking modern
and yet carrying the remnant provincial feudal values on their
shoulders and living under the illusion that just because they share
the English language with so many others across the globe, they have
a global character. But then being only marginally away from them, I
go to these melas and end up finding something or other that makes me
feel good. The HRI session conducted by Laxmi Murthy was one such
thing. Kanak started with referring to the post-national South Asia
(Shivam Vij recently wrote an article on the idea at
http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130927&page=9d,
wondering if it should be called pre-nationalism), and he strongly
argued that we need to look beyond the lived half-century of
Nationalism in South Asia. The session was mostly on writing,
focussing more on the increasing set of names from the non-India
parts of South Asia, as Laxmi put it. Then as usual there was some
talk about writing in Bhasha and about translations (Navanita Dev Sen
from the audience pleaded for awards for translators). The day
before, the well-known poets and critics Ashok Vajpeyi, K.
Satchidanandan and others had nearly exhausted the Bhasha issue. I
wondered if these were enough to take us to post-national South Asia
scenario.
There is a measured silence in most
discourses on development and politics in South Asia on the impact of
military expenditure in subverting development efforts. In India,
there are the usual arguments, with Pakistan and China around you,
how can you cut down on defense. Similar arguments prevail in
Pakistan and China. In a recent analysis, published in this magazine,
of the National budget and military expenditure, Gautam Navlakha
points out that 19% of the budget is spent on defense. This is, of
course, what is revealed. There are expenses like maintaining the
intelligence agencies, the production and maintenance of nuclear
weapons and secret purchase deals of highly expensive modern
conventional weaponry, etc., which are not subject to audit and are
not revealed to public eyes. Compare that with the near 10% on
education and similar amount on health-care. Is it really possible to
have any meaningful development without diverting funds from the
military? And without an educated aware people, is it possible to
counter elements of jingoism? The answer to both these questions is
no and hence 'post-National South Asia' remains an unfulfilled dream.
The writers can only do their bit but the material realities of an
insane world are far too overwhelming.
So the writers told us about realities
that are common to the entire subcontinent. Kanak Dixit asked for
'the courage to critique one's own state and ... to have empathy for
the other states'. Farah Ghuznavi, while talking of difficulties in
publishing a book in the USA, mentioned the family as the only social
service agency available to deal with mental health patients. The
context was about the pressures from publishers to change her writing
– one publisher wanted her to talk about mental health services in
villages in her novel, and she refused because none exist, and the
publisher then refused to publish her book. Babar Ayaz's book 'What
is wrong with Pakistan' was released during the HRI session, and
talking of the defects of the Nation-state Pakistan and the terrorism
in and beyond Pakistan, he also mentioned the Hindutva and the
Sinhalese chauvinism. Laxmi Murthy rightly asked when will we write a
book titled 'What is wrong with India'. Mira Hashmi, in words full of
wit and humour talked of the love for Hindi cinema. There was a lot
of cinema talk in the fest including the presence of the great Gulzar
himself.
To meaningfully talk of a post-National
South Asia, we need to raise our voices against expenses in South
Asia on external and internal security heads. Our arguments are
simple. The territorial disputes have to be resolved by negotaitions.
We can use the international bodies, the United Nations and the
international courts and agree to come to terms. Once settled, with
GPS and what not, there could be a permanent open border surface
trade between India and China all the ensuing benefits. Perhaps the
situation with Pakistan is more difficult. And yet, there are
multiple solutions, if only there is a desire to seek them. For
instance, consider a twenty-five year moratorium on arms in Kashmir
followed by a referendum for a free Kashmir. In the mean time, a UN
peace-keeping force can monitor the situation. Perhaps with open
borders the Kashmiris will agree to live the way they are today, a
part in India and a part in Pakistan. Perhaps they will seek a
unification of the severed body and independence. In any case, with
open borders like acoss the several countries in EU, it hardly
matters how the administration is managed. Living within a 'National'
paradgm, this will never make sense. But then how do we counter the
jingoism, the 'Kashmir hamara avichhinn ang hai' rant! One way
to do that is to demand significantly higher levels of investment in
quality education and a far greater emphasis in education on theory
of knowledge acquisition, and the ability to distinguish prejudiced
beliefs from justified true beliefs. Granted that education per se is
no guarantee that jingoism will disappear but education is certainly
a requirement. Not sufficient but a necessary condition. Where will
the money for such investments come from? There is no alternative to
reclaiming what is lost to militarism. An often asked question is
'does China spend any less on military?' No, they spend more, but
that is for the Chinese people to fight against. And is there any
reason to doubt that there are as many pacifists in China as anywhere
else on the planet! Besides, the human development indices for China
are more than a few decades away for us to catch up with.
Back to the question of English, I
wonder what would be the probability of Babar Ayaz turning up here if
his book was written in a Pakistani zubaan? Very little, really. Such
is the nature of these fests. Living in times when translations sell
in no less numbers than the original, it is a shame that there are so
few translations available. Aiyaz Sahib was very happy to learn from
me that for more than my life time, transliterated versions in
Devnagari of the likes of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri have
been available for us to read. It was nice to see that in spite of
speaking in fluent Hindustani, Gulzar probably drew the largest
audience. But then it is not literature alone, but much more the
cinema connection that brings people to him.
Shabnam Virmani and her co-performer
Vipul of the Kabir project fame ended the festival and that indeed
was a gala event. A soulful evening in the open space of that
otherwise far from literary Crowne Plaza warmed up the Deccan chill.
