HVK Archives: Friends of Gujral in Pak upbeat over Dilli bhai
Friends of Gujral in Pak upbeat over Dilli bhai - The Asian Age
Alistair Lyon
()
12 May 1997
Title : Friends of Gujral in Pak upbeat over Dilli bhai
Author : Alistair Lyon
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : May 12, 1997
Fifty years ago Hindus slightly outnumbered Muslims in Jhelum, then a market town
of 40,000 which traded in salt and timber and served as a military outpost for the
British, who took the area in 1849.
The Hindu community, in which the family of India's new Prime Minister Inder Kumar
Gujral was prominent, left during the bloody upheaval of Partition.
Elderly Muslim townsfolk recall how Mr Gujral's father, a lawyer who headed the
Jhelum Bar Association and supported the Congress struggle against British rule,
organised the Hindu evacuation from this corner of present-day
"His father was the district chairman of the Congress Party and from his attitude
no one could judge if he was a Hindu or a Muslim," said Younas All Shah, 87, a
former city councillor. "At Partition, when many Hindu families had left, the
remaining Hindu families from all over the area came to his house to board trucks
for Amritsar. Avtar Narain (Gujral's father) was the last man to go," Mr Shah
remembered.
The Gujral's modest two-storey home stands on the banks of the Jhelum river, 120
km southeast of Islamabad. In its tree-shaded courtyard, 64-year-old Ehsanul Haq
echoed the hopes of many Pakistanis who believe Mr Gujral's links with his native
land give him extra insight into the bitter India-Pakistan feud and an extra
motive for seeking to end it.
"When he came here on his last trip, he said he wanted to have good relations with
Pakistan and Pakistanis," said Mr Haq. "Definitely he will do something if his
Parliament allows."
After Partition many Hindu-owned houses in Jhelum were allotted to Muslim refugees
from Jammu and Kashmir. These refugees, like most of the Hindus who fled Jhelum,
have never returned to their homes - victims of the Kashmir conflict that sparked
two of Pakistan's three wars with India and remains the main source of acrimony
between the two countries.
"We think our relations with India should improve and our conflicts should end so
that both countries should prosper," said Qazi Hamid Mukhtar, a retired bank
cashier.
"We'll be happy if God gives them some sense that they should live in the same
brotherly as we used to before the Partition."
Mr Gujral also has many friends in Lahore, where he was educated at Hailey College
of Commerce and Government College. They agree it is time to resolve half a
century of rancour with India.
"The biggest problem is Kashmir," said Tahira Mazhar, whose late husband Mazhar
All Khan and Mr Gujral led the Communist-affiliated All-India Students Federation
in the early 1940s.
"We support them (Kashmiris), but we should not stop doing other things."
"Definitely it's a sign of hope," she said of Mr Gujral's rise to power. "I think
Pakistan should move forward... It's a time, a climate and we must make use of
it."
Salima Hashmi, daughter of the famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a friend and
mentor of Mr I.K. Gujral, said "his intelligence and familiarity with Pakistan"
provided a sound starting point.
"I feel this year, not just symbolically, but practically, should he a year of
growing up and acknowledging that there are differences, but also that human
history has taught us that all sorts of issues can he resolved," she said.
(Reuter)
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