We sat under the stars and watched the play ‘Ankhian Waleo’. The venue was an open-air theatre at Preet Nagar, 25 km from Amritsar. The play was in Punjabi and the artists were from the Rafi Peer Theatre Group of Lahore, Pakistan. People from nearby villages had turned out in large numbers. It was rare that a theatre company and that too from Pakistan came to perform in their pind. It was a political spoof that centred around three blind youth, sitting on a bench and a boulder lying on the road, which had become the stumbling point for all passersby.
The three friends mused over the accidents that befell ‘ankhian waleo’ (people with eyes) who invariably fell over the stone. From an inanimate nuisance on the road, the stone became the bone of contention for passersby, representing every segment of society. From the far right Mullah party to the Awami demagogues, everyone jumped in the fray to fight over who would lift the offending stone. The public kept falling on its face, breaking limbs and bashing each other while the blind men ‘watched’ the human circus of ‘ankhian waleo.’
The event I am talking about was South Asia Foundation’s Peace Festival, which was organised in October 2009 in Amritsar with artists from Pakistan and India. SAF is the brainchild of Madanjeet Singh, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, who has devoted his life and considerable fortune to his dream of forming a rainbow coalition of eight countries of South Asia – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. My association with SAF goes back to its inception in 2000, when I.K. Gujral was the India Chair.
The SAF Peace Festival ran in two venues, Amritsar and Preet Nagar. Madanjeet Singh calls Preet Nagar his spiritual home. This place was established by two writers, Gurbaksh Singh and Nanak Singh in the 1930s. They dreamt of an artists’ utopia in the heart of Punjab, a township that was at equidistance between Amritsar and Lahore, a place where artists, poets, writers, philosophers would live together and create a better society. The famous Punjabi magazine, Preet-Lari, was started by Gurbaksh Singh encapsulating the life and literature that was created here. Writers from Punjab and elsewhere flowed through Preet Nagar: Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sahir Ludhianvi, Hafiz Jallandhari, Upendra Nath Ashk, Kartar Singh Duggal, Balwant Gargi, Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, the list goes on. Over the years, Preet Nagar’s glory faded as fewer people came through. Then Uma Gurbaksh Singh and her brother Hridaipal Singh met Madanjeet Singh. Together they dreamt of making it the hub of art and theatre.
While this was one ‘lari’ (strand) in the festival of peace, there were others. There was Saanjh, the joint venture of two people from the two Punjabs: on the Indian side Manveen Sandhu, and on the Pakistan side Faizaan Peerzada. Manveen Sandhu ran Springdales School, which began as a tiny seven girls school set up by her mother in law, Devinder Pal Sandhu in 1934, which has grown into a centre of excellence with over 5000 students. The Peerzada family is world renowned for the Rafi Peer Theatre in Pakistan; its first international theatre festival took place in the year 1996 and brought together over 175 delegates from all over the world. It was a spectacular event in Lahore. It has been now an ongoing event despite threats and coercion from extremists. Punarjyot, the Centre for Preservation and Promotion of the Heritage of Punjab run by Manveen and Shivinder Singh Sandhu, was the overarching strand. Then there were three other supporting bodies outside Punjab: NAPA (National Academy for Performing Arts, Pakistan), NSD (National School of Drama) and ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations).
The rich fare was presented before an audience from rural Punjab. On the second day, two dholias from Pakistan, Goonga Sain (dumb master) and Mitthu Sain (parrot master), struck their drums. Goonga is deaf and mute and plays to facial gestures from his brother. Then came Baba Chand, the descendant of Guru Nanak’s disciple Bhai Mardana. A frail old man in white lungi, white safa placed on his head, voice flowing like ‘panch darya’ of Punjab. He sang the famous shabad - Awwal Allah noor upaya qudrat de sab bande. Ek hi noor se sab hi upje – kaun bhaley kaun mandey. The audience was in a trance. And finally, there was Sain Zahoor, singing Bulle Shah, his voice scaling the heights of mountains. Dressed in a heavy sequined glittering chogha, his fingers, arms, neck and chest covered with glittering jewels, he held in his hand the most decorated ektara in the world. He sang about direct union with God, which has nothing to do with ritualistic religion. It’s between my God and me, “Arrey logon, tumhara kya main janoon mera rabb jane.” He said “I am a rustic, I know Punjabi and nothing but Punjabi. So all you big people from cities, please join me in praying for the children of the Sandhus” (both Manveer and Shivinder were killed in a tragic accident last year). We all raised our hands in prayer.
Images of SAF 2009 were haunting. Madanjeet standing before a village audience saying, “I only hope I will live long enough to see my dream fulfilled; a borderless South Asia and a common currency for South Asia.” Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal sitting beside me for almost three hours, listening silently to the music flow; Usman and Faizaan Peerzada, artists par excellence and emblems of courage in the vortex of violence, reciting their poetry and presenting their actors.
It was the youth of Amritsar, mostly students of Springdales School and BBA DAV College for Women, Amritsar, who gave us reason to hope even as tensions arose on both sides of the border. Then suddenly, Government of Pakistan ordered the schools to be closed, in the wake of the attack on the Islamic University of Islamabad. As a consequence, the children’s painting event, which was to be a highlight of the festival, had to be cancelled. This was the idea of Salima Hashmi, chairperson of SAF Pakistan. Two hundred children from each side of the border were all set to paint a long canvas on each side on the theme of peace. The two pieces would then be joined by velcro and become the backdrop for the festival. The cancellation meant many disappointed girls and boys on both sides, when the announcement was made.
Since 1994, when I became personally involved in the peace process, I have watched many groups who have tried to bridge the chasm between the two countries. Every group had a dream. With SAF, the dream continues and even as the going gets tougher, we try.
To quote Robert Browning:
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp
Or what’s a heaven for?”
(Dr. Syeda Saiyidain Hameed is a writer, Member of the Planning Commission, Government of India, and Vice Chairperson of the SAF-India chapter.)
