Kartarpur's lesson for Ayodhya

Ayodhya and Kartarpur represent contrasting themes Ayodhya harnessed history to cast a forbidding shadow on the present The Kartarpur Corridor symbolises the possibility of people living on either side of the Radcliffe Line in Punjab to overcome their traumatic past Before and after the Line was drawn in 1947 to partition Punjab nearly a million people perished Pakistans Punjab was ethnically cleansed of Sikhs and Hindus and Indias of MuslimsDelhi justifiably suspects Islamabad of exploiting Kartarpur for nefarious purposes But what is beyond doubt is the growing bonhomie between the Sikhs and Muslims of the two Punjabs The inauguration of the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9 was just the occasion to fathom why they daggers drawn 72 years ago have reforged bonds Alas the Ayodhya verdict delivered on November 9 as well blanked out Kartarpur from discussionsLanguage is said to have threaded the two Punjabs again after 1947 This linguistic affinity has worked because it has a cultural and spiritual wrap Sikhism like Islam is monotheistic opposed to idolatry and emphasises the equality of all human beings It also shares attributes of Hinduism but also radically differs from the latter at least scripturally because of Guru Nanaks position on casteAn uppercaste Khatri Nanak took to agriculture in the last 18 years of his life in Kartarpur His choice challenged the division between manual and nonmanual work the principle underlying the Hindu caste hierarchy as sociologist Paramjit Singh Judge has written Caste equality was further reinforced through langar or community dining a Sufi practice that Nanak adapted for his religion This must have had a special appeal for Punjabs 16thcentury farming community including Muslims which had low social status because of their occupationThe degree of sameness between Islam and Sikhism was why during Nanaks lifetime Muslims considered Nanak as waliullah or friend of Allah This was cited by historian KS Duggal to explain the continued popularity of the saying Baba Nanak Shah Faqir Hindu da Guru Musalman da Pir Baba Nanak Shah the Mendicant Guru of the Hindus and Pir of the MuslimsShared spiritualism was reflected in Punjabs hugely popular genre of qisse or romantic tales in verse such as SohniMahival and HeerRanjha These narratives emphasised saint veneration and rejected rigid religious identities Ranjha for instance follows yogic practices As academician Farina Mir notes This qisse was a form of piety that all Punjabis could participate in irrespective of differences of religion class or casteQisses pull was tellingly portrayed during the 1940 trial of Udham Singh who had assassinated Michael ODwyer for perpetrating the Jallianwala Bagh massacre In the witness box Udham gave his name as Ram Mohammad Singh He refused to swear on the Koran the Gita or any of the Sikh scriptures maintaining as academician Alyssa Ayres writes that his allegiance was tohellipHeer Ranjha qissa of the poetsaint Waris ShahYet Punjabs syncretism could not become a bulwark against the Partition largely because community identities were sharply drawn now to lay claims to territorial sovereignty based on population Separateness was emphasised over sameness The publication of Kahn Singhs We are not Hindus in 1899 was followed by the expulsion of Brahmin priests from gurdwaras These differences were papered over as Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab were targetted by Muslims who were ethnically cleansed in East PunjabThat traumatic past seems denuded of emotions as the Sikhs and Pakistans Punjabi Muslims tango today Some ascribe this to the lingering feeling of betrayal among the Sikhs over the Operation Blue Star which saw the Army enter the Golden Temple in June 1984 to flush out the militants The Hindu became the Sikhs otherYet the old wounds in the two Punjabs could not have healed without the change in their demography postPartition Muslims constitute 193 per cent of Indias Punjab In Pakistans Punjab the Hindus and Sikhs are not even one per cent of its populations they cannot be a threat politically or economically to Pakistans Punjabi Muslims nor can the Muslims be to the Sikhs in Indias Punjab Reworking of the horrific Partition legacy became irrelevant for political mobilisation The present was delinked from the past The Partition memory lost its sting for at least three generations of Sikhs and Muslims in Punjab who did not learn to hate each otherSeparated by space and time the Sikhs and Muslims have rediscovered the sameness they shared a sameness which once gave their collective selves remarkable cultural vibrancy beauty and coherence The impulse to piece together fragmented selves has emanated from the Punjabi diaspora where the Sikhs and Muslims have experienced anew the bonds of spiritualism and culture mdash particularly music literature and food mdash tying them togetherAs the political spotlight shifts to Ayodhya Kartarpur tells us to emphasise the civilisational sameness instead of separateness to ensure our collective self does not get fragmented and become warpedThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates