The Solution: Education and India's tour to Pakistan

I was working my way through the difficult assignment when the cellphone rang. Two expletives dripped from my filthy mouth as I reached out to look at the number and decide to take the call. The number was not displayed and I assumed it was an international call. I picked it up expecting to be greeted by a familiar Indian voice. The caller said "Hi, this is Ajmal (name changed). Thanks for the number". "Hi, ...", I said with a feeling not known to me. "This is the first time I am talking to someone actually sitting in Pakistan." I said, still trying the absorb the weight of my words. "Yeah, same here, but your voice is very familiar."

This was an applicant to Stanford University and sought some answers regarding the admission procedure. The conversation was not very long but at the end of it, I paused for a moment ... came out of my house and sat in the park. A perfect example of over-reacting to a situation.

I bring up this point to fit the missing piece in my blogs thus far. My previous post "The terrorist god" made me realize how unworthy element of this society I am. As many commented, I simply found solace in form of human-god and vent my rage on it. It irked me as a writer but I took the point. I should try to point some solutions. These solutions are pretty idealistic, will never be adopted in this real world but if you ask me, this is what I have to offer.

Education. This is my solution. As much as the media believes in it, war on Pakistan is not the solution. It never was, it never will be. If we go to war at this moment, we would have given terrorists exactly what they want... A cause to hate Indians.

We should try to glimpse over the total situation. Why does Pakistan, or rather some rogue elements from Pakistan are so desperate to sail across the Indian Ocean and kill innocent people. to spray bullets on people with whom they never even shared a conversation. People who have life stories very akin to their own, of poor parents and a to be married sister. At this moment, we should look back and ask ourselves how come a nation so close, which shares language, rivers, food and culture with us is so hostile that even the cold winds from mighty Himalayas fail to cool them down.? Or is it really so? Do you really think that if Injamam-ul-Haq scores a double century, I wouldn't clap? or people in Pakistan don't admire Madhuri Dikshit?

My point is that a major portion of Pakistan doesn't hate India. This perception may be wrong as I have never been there and, except for a few occasions, never had a chance to talk to the actual residents. But I can't easily believe it.

Can we fight this war with bullets? The first task before one goes to war is to identify the enemy. Who are we fighting against? Is it the Pakistan army? And if we go to war, will we not reap seeds of hate one more time, will we not give winds to the dowsing flames of anger?

Isn't Pakistan our enemy? My answer is: No, I am no enemy of Pakistan, as a nation, for it is not an enemy of mine. Pakistan is not a terrorist nation but rather the most severe victim of it in disguise. Think about this, how uneducated the people have to be so that they can be easily convinced that this world is materialistic and irrelevant, and rather by killing the 'kaafirs', they would serve the 'Allah' and will be rewarded in after-life. If only one could see the difference between wrong and right, for which education is necessary, if not sufficient. The extremists will find it extremely hard to recruit an educated mind, one which can evaluate the consequences of one's actions and smell the reek of personal interests.

We should have programs in school which extend the hand of prosperity, of love to our neighbor. Exchange programs in each school which take students from Indian schools to Pakistan and vice-versa. If as children, we see that people in the other side of border are not demons but humans like us and feel a similar warmth in their society, perhaps the seed of anger will die out with time.

This is precisely why I believe that the Indian team should visit Pakistan. I am not afraid of their security for if I were to randomly choose 11 Indians for a Pakistan trip, the safest would be the cricketing 11. The terrorists will never attack the cricketers since that would cost them the support of the entire society...and would ban any sort of cricketing tournament in Pakistan for a long long time. Security is thus not my concern. The next argument is that by not sending the team, we should covey a strong message to Pakistan. My point is that by continuing the tour, we would have sent an even stronger message. Terrorism can not be bigger than our cause for prosperity and that's the message our team will convey when we play in Islamabad, and Karachi, and Lahore. That we are not your enemies, we never were... and when it comes to terrorism, you are a victim bigger than us. Our children, for the most part, can't and won't be misled to holster AK-47 and carnage people of another nation.

Education is the solution to all. A rational mind can differentiate between interests of his own and of others. We should rather open up NGO's to set up schools in villages of Pakistan like we do in Indian villages.

If there is one solution to terrorism, it is unity through education. The war against terrorism will be hard to fight with bullets. Atleast the history seems to suggest that. The more we ban trade and commerce with Pakistan, the more we isolate ourselves from it, the more we will demonize our neighbor. It is dramatically incomprehensible to believe how big a difference one fictional line, the border, created by the British Empire can inflict between the two nations.