North obsessed with Pakistan?

Baldev Singh

Feb 18 2015 

According to Union minister Kiren Rijiju, the northern part of India is obsessed with Pakistan due to historical reasons and it is overriding our attitude. “We don't need to bring in Pakistan in all dimensions”. His statement took me through two old memory lanes.

One, at the time of the 1965 war with Pakistan, I was pursuing my Ph.D. at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Those of us who are now around 70 remember that almost everyone in North India had contributed to the National Defence Fund either in cash or in the form of ornaments. After the war one of my colleagues went to his home town in South India. When he returned I asked him whether his parents had contributed to the war fund? He replied, “No, not a single person gave anything and when I asked my father why has he not contributed, he told me bluntly that this war was between the Punjabis of Pakistan and India. He further elaborated that the Punjabis are in the habit of quarrelling and creating problems for themselves and others.”

The other day when I shared the remarks of Mr Rijiju with a friend who has retired as a Major-General, he said, “Baldev, I narrate you my own experience. During the 1965 war I was posted in Poona and the people there were least bothered, they had night parties and celebrated Diwali and other festivals with usual gusto as if the country was not on war.”

Two, in 1995 my wife and I went to South India for sight-seeing. One day when we were praising the architecture of Meenakshi Temple of Madurai, a local gentleman asked me, “Sardar ji, do you have such magnificent temples in Punjab?” “No, we don't have,” I replied. He said again, “It confirms we South Indians’ general impression that the Punjabis by and large are not fond of fine arts like classical music, painting and architecture.”

I said, “Sir, it is not that we don't have a taste for fine arts and architecture, our problem was the frequent invasions of India by foreign invaders. Every time they had to pass through Punjab and as a result Punjabis had to bear the brunt through loss of lives and materials. Not many people know that several invaders plundered India in different periods — Mahmud Ghazni invaded India 17 times and vandalised the famous Somnath temple of Gujarat in the 12th century. Muhammad Ghauri attacked India five times from 1191 to 1206, while Ahmad Shah Abdali did it four times between 1749 and 1789. It was only when Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled from 1799 to 1839 and whose empire covered territories from Amritsar to Peshawar and Jammu to Kashmir, came on the scene that the invaders stopped raiding India. Now sir, you decide for yourself whether under these circumstances, it was possible for the Punjabis to build elegant and expensive temples”.

The gentleman replied, “Mr. Singh, I am lucky to meet a person of your knowledge and vision, otherwise I would have never known this facet of Indian history and the sacrifices made by the Punjabis to bridle the foreign invaders.”

I think the three prominent habits of the Punjabis — working hard to earn more, eating well and spending lavishly — seem to be the outcome of uncertainty and fear they faced from these invaders. The following lines from a folksong of that horrible era confirms it: “Khada peeta lahae da/ Baqi Ahmmad Shahae da” (Eating and drinking are the gains, the rest belongs to Ahamad Shah).