Mukti: Free to be Born Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and Liberation of the Faithful -- Book

Dear Friend:

            I am pleased to inform you that my book, Mukti: Free to be Born Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and Liberation of the Faithful, has been released in the U.S. by Author House. It is a 684 page book available on hard cover, soft cover and as eBook. In the US it is available in bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Author House, ISPaD: Partition Center Office in Jamaica, Queens, NYC and more. Attached is a copy of the front and back covers.

Here is a bit from the book’s Preface, “Mukti is a product of love and pain of at least three decades. It is a byproduct of over three decades of field work, social work and travel in the 1947 Partition-affected Bengal –Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), West Bengal State of India – as well in the neighboring states…….During my travel in Muslim-majority Bangladesh I have come across the term ‘mukti’ from many, especially indigenous pre-Islamic Hindu, and lately Buddhist, families as they pray for liberation from their suffering….The book is directed towards Western readers many of whom may have heard of India, yet very little is known about post-partition Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Hindu-majority West Bengal, the effects of Indian Partition on the people of the Bengali-speaking region, the former mixed Hindu-Muslim Bengal Province of Colonial British India……Yet the privileged-caste Hindu-refugee elites quickly rose to power in two Hindu Bengali-majority states in India: West Bengal and Tripura. They would champion liberal, left and Marxist ideologies but refused to show solidarity with the oppressed, mostly belonging to Hindu oppressed castes [whom they left behind]… Seeds of Mukti was first sown in early 1990s when many of my friends and associates asked for translation of my Ai Bangla, Oi Bangla (This Bengal, That Bengal.)…..The Bengal of British India was known to be a relatively-tolerant mixed Hindu-Muslim society where both Hindu and Muslim nationalism played significant role. In a surprise twist of history after Partition of Bengal and India in 1947 both Bengals took stride towards intolerant politics, one…Islamism, the other….Leftism, led by Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Muslims and Bangladeshi (East Pakistani) Hindu, albeit refugee. The book delves into that ethos and contradiction, although politically incorrect and, at times, impolite…..I have no power to protect individuals and families who have shared their deepest feelings to my family. I have no power to protect their villages either. As a result I have not used the real names of individuals, villages and neighborhoods….”

Here are some sites on the Internet where the book is listed: 

Price of the book: $35/$30/$5 for hardcover/paperback/eBook; (At Partition Center Office in NY only paperback is available.)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mukti-Partitions-Subcontinent-Islamism-Liberation-ebook/dp/B0178DD6BG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448802232&sr=8-1&keywords=mukti%3A+free+to+be+born+again

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mukti-sachi-dastidar/1122834558?ean=9781496944832

Other book sellers,
Ispad: Indian Subcontinent Partition Center Office, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, www.ispad1947.org and Phone: 917-524-0035.

 Sachi G. Dastidar

Radio Interviews in the U.S.:

With Cheryl Nason: http://webtalkradio.net/?s=INSIDE+THE+WRITER%27S+CAFE

With Stu Taylor: https://www.dropbox.com/s/blp2967jcuncsok/663916_mp3.mp3?dl=0 

With J. Douglas Barker https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrpttxpayoirj4o/663916.mp3?dl=0 

TV  Interviews in the U.S.
With Ashok Vyas of ITV of New York https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOFyuoEa2K8&t=136s   
  

Here are a few of the comments:

Dr. Dastidar: 

Have a great Thanksgiving, Sankaranti, Pongal and all clustered festival. A safe one. My warmest congratulation on a magnum opus. I had some ideas on Bangladesh Issues (as one deep rooted in Anthropology for many years) but have become intensely sensitive (after learning from conversations and review of Prafulla Mukerji's efforts in this area). 

Congratulations again,

            Hari Om,

            Dr. Akkaraju Sarma, U.S.A.; November 26

            Congratulation. As you know I am working very much in this area. Let us keep in touch.                     Manasda

            Prof. Dr. Manas Chatterji, U.S.A.; Nov 26

            Dear Sachi,

            Happy Rush Purnima and Thanksgiving to you too. And congratulations on the release of your book. I will most certainly look into it.
            Namaskar,
            Sunil
            Prof. Dr. Sunil Kukreja; U.S.A. Nov 26

            Sachi da

            Can I buy 5 copies of the book? 

            Milita Chanda, U.S.A.; Nov 26

            Dear Dastidar, 

            Pl accept our heartiest congratulations on the new publication, May GOD bless you all, With fond regards, 

           Verma

            Brig. Gen. S. Verma, U.S.A.; Nov 26

           Congratulations, Sachi for the fulfillment of your four decades of work in bringing this book     out for the Westerners, especially.

           Hope you are doing well.

           Sincerely,

           T.K.Mani, U.S.A.; Nov 26

           Dear Mesho Uncle,

           Congratulations on the book. I just downloaded on Amazon and look
forward to reading it.
            Best regards,
            Udayan 

            Udayan Chattopadhyay, U.K.; Nov 26

            Dear Sachi

            Glad to note that you have wrote a book on such an important subject.

            When an opportunity arises I will certainly go through the book.

            Congratulations.

            Vaskarda

            Partha Roy, India; Nov 26

           Congrats Sachi 

           Looks and sounds interesting. It's a life time of good work by you.

           Tom

           Prof. Dr. Tom DelGuidice, U.S.A.; Nov 27

           Congratulations dada ! 

           It is a remarkable achievement of your dedication to our community. I will collect one copy for myself. 

           Enjoy your upcoming holidays with your family and friends. 

          With the best 

          Selima Ashraf, U.S.A.; Nov 27

          Thank you Dada. 

           I like to buy one of your book with soft cover. Also you can share this in Facebook may be more people will be interested. Should I email to other people who will be interested to have as they are in other countries?

           Thanks again.

           Mousume Sarker, U.S.A.; Nov 27

           Hello Sachi,

           Happy Thanksgiving.

           It is wonderful that you and Shefali could find time from your busy schedule to write two books regarding the partition. It seems "Memoirs of Homeland" is available in Kolkata only.

           Thank you and congratulations.

           Regards,

          Amitabhada 

          Amitabha Chatterjee, U.S.A.; Nov 28

          Congratulations dada.!!!

          Dr. Helen Roy, U.S.A.; Nov 28

          Congratulations!

          I too am one of those who knows almost nothing about this.

          Best regards,

          Edi

          Prof. Dr. Edlslav Manetovic, U.S.A.; Nov 29

           Dear Sir,

            Thank you. Preface of the book is very much interesting of historical perspective. How can I collect one copy?

            Regards,

            Ajoy Kumar Bose, Bangladesh; Nov 28

            Dear friend Sachi:

          Congratulations.  I am sure your publication will be received eagerly by research scholars  all over the world .  

           Best wishes.  

           V. Subramanian, Nov 29

           Dear Sabyasachi

          Congratulation for  the publication of your new book-Mukti. We shall look forward more contribution from your hand.
          Chittada
          Prof. Dr. C. R. Pathak, India; Nov 29

           Dear Sachi,

           Congratulations on this great accomplishment!

            Best,

            Rita

            Prof. Dr. Rita Colon-Urban

           Friends

           This book is an eye witness account of my friend, Dr. Sachi Dastidar, a Bangladeshi Hindu refugee.

          You might be interested in reading what happened to Hindus of Bangladesh.

          Bal K. Gupta, U.S.A.; Nov 29

          Congratulations!!!!!

          Khusi

          Dipika Basu, U.S.A.; Nov 29

          

         Dear Dr. Dastidar,

         Namaskaar.
         Congratulations on the new book !

         Would like to know if this would be available in India payable in INR? If so, when? Kindly let me know at your utmost convenience.

         Thank you sir.

         Best regards,

         Rajiv

         Rajiv Verma, Nov 29

         Congratulations!

         Judy

         Prof. Dr. Judith Walsh, U.S.A.; Nov 30

         Congratulations!

           Prof. Dr. Santanu Datta, U.S.A.; Nov 30

           Dear Sachida,

         Have you considered sending this blurb to the online (and print) magazine Swarajya (www.swarajyamag.com), which is an ideal outlet for the promotion of your ground-breaking work?

May I forward it to them? (I think it is better that you do so yourself. I believe they will be honoured to hear from you.)

          Dileep

          Prof. Dr. Dileep Karanth; U.S.A.; Dec 3

          Great News. Congrats

          Jaydeep Biswas, U.S.A.; Dec 8, 2016

           Sachida,
           Great work; on this subject. How we can listen to that? Can I get an
original Bangla book 'Ai Bangla, Oi Bangla'?
           Make a Book publishing ceremony in  ISPaD: Partition Center Office in Jamaica,
           Sincerely,
           Khourshed

           Khourshedul Islam, U.S.A.; Nov 27, 2016

Dear Dr. Dastidar

We wish you and your family a Very Happy, Healthy, Safe and Prosperous New Year 2016! 

We were in California with our son Dr. Rajesh Gupta and his family. 

They gave me your book "Mukti" as a Christmas gift. We came back to-day and will start reading it from to-morrow. 

Kusum and Bal Krishan Gupta

Dear
Hare Krishna!

"Apart from his eight principal wives, Krishna is described to have married several junior women, he rescued from the demon Narakasura. The Bhagavata Purana and the Harivamsa (appendix of Mahabharata) state that 16,000 women were rescued. (Ref. Wikipedia)

Demon Narkasur had forcibly married all the kidnapped girls. When Lord Krishna killed Narkasur,they became widows. But Lord Krishna married them all with Hindu rituals and took them to Dwarika.

Lessons: Lord Krishna started widow marriage and marriage of kidnapped girls. ISKCON and other Hindu sects, should follow Lord Krishna and start marriages of  Hindu widows and that of kidnapped Hindu girls in Bangladesh. I am sure they can achieve a target of 16,000 by Krishna Janamshtmi. (Hindu and Sikh refugees from of Pakistan in 1947, performed hundreds of thousands [lakhs] of such marriages.)

You may forward it to Hindu leaders in Bangladesh and ISKCON devotees worldwide. May Lord Krishna bless you in rescuing Bangladeshi Hindu women!

Bal Krishan Gupta, USA

February 29, 2016

************************
I am reading your book now. It's an absolute masterpiece.

Dr. Arvind Chandrakantan
April 3, 2017

         

************************

Sachida,

I meant to ask you this question for a while - just did not know what you would think so I did not ask you earlier. Will you please consider making the book available online in PDF format? I think that book will be an eye opener for lot of people, as it was for me. Your writing changed my perception 100% - and I am  sure it will affect others also. Please consider this request - people need to read this book. You can have it on ISPAD site or FB or we can create a new website for you as an author (sachighoshdastidar.com). I want to show your site and work to people and make them aware of your work. 

Please let me know what you think - I can help in any way I can

Thanks,
Milita

October 3, 2017

*************************************************

Hi:

I am a slow reader and it will take a while, but  enjoying it so far.

Saumya
Chicago
8/25/2018

**************************************************
Dear Professor Ghosh-Dastidar:

I am Rudranath's mother. I read your book and was really impressed. I will be happy if you could please discuss the book with me whenever you are free.

Best wishes,
Monica Talukdar, Uttarkhand, India
January 25, 2020

***********************************************

Hi,

This is I wrote Amazon reviewing your book.

Dr. Sachi Dastidar's monumental work - Mukti: Free To Be Born Again - is an intensely personal but extraordinarily researched book and one integrating an amazing range of knowledge of post-1947 India with his own family's history. It is simultaneously both informative and horrifying, documenting a tragedy ignored almost equally by the world as well as most of his fellow Indians. Mukti focusses, in particular, on Dastidar's native Bengal, a part of pre-partition India ripped apart twice, once after Britain relinquished power in the late '40's and again in 1971 when the area, then known as East Pakistan, was attacked by West Pakistani forces as the new nation of Bangladesh struggled to achieve independence. 

     It's subsequent history is an appalling saga of the ongoing effort to eradicate the Hindu population of Bangladeshi Bengal by forced removal, massacres, and continuous persecution by Islamist elements. The age-old Bengali culture one that had both Hindu and Moslem

features, is being slowly eradicated.

 

     In some ways, the worst aspect of this decades long tragedy is how most of the expatriate Hindu population, refugees from East Pakistan/Bangladesh, many of them now secularized members of Calcutta's elite, have abandoned any concern for their poorer, rural Hindu relatives left behind in the mass immigrations since 1947.

 

     Dr. Dastidar passionately defends the integrity of the traditional Bengali culture, praising it's reverence for nature and the environment, while criticizing it's negative characteristics, such as the

vestiges of the caste system and the ahistorical nature of the Hindu faith. He  laments the failure of late 19th and early 20th Century reform movements like those of Aurobindo and Gandhi to forge

 

     Dr. Dastidar's work is epically long (668 pages), requiring a dedicated perseverance to travel it's length. And, as a personal journey taken with numerous family and friends, it can be confusing at

times in terms of the frequent change of characters, with their Indian names necessitating concentrated attention. Nevertheless, the account with it's remarkable record of a decades long pilgrimage, along with much colorful detailing of places, cuisine, costumes and. customs,

and the dreadful history it so vividly documents, makes reading Mukti a compelling but disturbing experience.

                                             

Lorne

Long Island, New York, U.S.A.

March 28, 2020

         
*********************************************

Wagha, Punjab – Atari, Punjab, India-Pakistan Border Crossing

Wagha, Punjab – Atari, Punjab, India-Pakistan Border Crossing

Sachi G. Dastidar

The fallout from the 1947 British-created Muslim League-demanded India-Pakistan border can be witnessed firsthand in the Wagha, Punjab and Atari, Punjab border crossing of Pakistan and India. This border crossing was created when British India’s Punjab Province was partitioned to (west) Punjab Province of Pakistan and that of (east) Punjab State of India. In that process almost the entire Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian minority was wiped out of Pakistan (after the 1947 partition.) In case of India although her Muslim population went down a bit after 1947 partition as most of her Muslim-majority areas became part of Pakistan but it has risen faster than the majority Hindu-Sikh-Jain-Buddhist-Christian population in spite of huge influx of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Pakistani Kashmir and Afghanistan.

The saga of the divide can be seen when one crosses the border line – if one can really cross it. This has been the sole border crossing for over six decades between the second-most and the sixth-most populous nation on earth. As Dastidars tried to cross the borders from Pakistan to India, their first attempt failed as they reached the crossing at 3:15 PM. The officials told them the border is open only for five hours till 3 PM, unless you are a very important person for whom it is open till 5 PM; which Dastidars were not. All attempts of their Pakistani hosts to prove to the border officials that their guests were important failed. Thus they had to make a second trip to cross the border.

But, as you see in the pictures below, the entire crossing was given to them as they were the only travelers trying to get to the other side.

The travelers were invited to stay till 5 PM to witness the spectacle of border closing ceremony – many locals call it tamasha – whereby the border guards do a dance-march to officially close the border gates and finally shaking hand with the other side! Dastidars refused to attend that ceremony because the border is supposed to be for people and good to pass through, not for dance-march.

One non-Hindu, non-Hindi speaking minority Indian told the visitors that a few years back in a gesture of friendship Indian and Indian-Punjabi officials gave over 500 visas to Pakistanis for watching a cricket game played across the border in Indian Punjab. According to that official at the end of the prescribed period several “guests” did not return back to Pakistan, and a few of them engaged on terror activities in India.

But the twin jewels of Punjab, cities of Lahore and Amritsar, barely 50 miles apart are worlds away. In one speaking the native Punjabi is considered almost “uncultured” for Urdu, a language of North India, whereas in the other Punjabi language has been saved through teaching in classrooms and writing in Gurmukhi script. In one city killing of any animal for food is almost non-existent whereas in the other even the breakfast starts with animal flesh. In one city women jostle with men in public transport, whereas in the other city public transport is almost non-existent for women. One of the cities has become linguistically homogeneous speaking only Urdu, while in the other one frequently hears along with Punjabi and Hindi, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu and many more languages. In Lahore, Pakistan there are certainly more women drivers than a so-called liberal city of Kolkata (Calcutta) in India. Lahore was a Hindu-majority city before 1947 partition with many famed Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras (temple.) The visitors asked their taxi to take them to a Hindu temple. After hours of search he came back with sad face, “Sahab, Sir, I was told the last Hindu mandir (temple) called Jain Mandir was brought down two years back.” Then he took the visitors to a “Hindu temple” which was an abandoned Sikh gurdwara maintained by a Muslim guard paid for by the British Sikhs. The driver took them, along with their host Didiji and Shakeela to Harappa – where they were the lone visitors. The small unkempt sign to Harappa ruins in Urdu was barely visible from the highway as the driver missed the turn. Seeing the visitors ordering each copy of their English booklets, the salesman commented, “Sir, you must like to read.” Dastidars also visited Nankana Sahib, the Birth Place of Guru Nanak, and the Founder of Sikhism. The guard first said “Only Hindus and Sikhs are allowed in,” but relaxed the rule for their local Muslim companions as they were coming with Hindus. Absence of religious diversity in Pakistan has affected its intellectual heritage too. The beautiful British-era National Museum of Lahore contain some of the precious gems of Indian civilization, e.g. statue of starving Buddha, lion pillars of Asoka, old manuscripts, marble footprints of Jain, ancient statutes of Hindu deities and more. But an old Bengali manuscript is identified as Sanskrit, while a Sanskrit manuscript is depicted as Tibetan, and statue of Goddess Lakshmi (of wealth) is identified as goddess of music and dance (Saraswati.) On the other hand some of the old places are saved in exemplary form including the British-established Government College University, the Mall, Foreman Christian College, the canals, Lahore University, Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort and more.

Yet there is hope! On that visit, as Dastidars were traveling from Peshawar to Lahore in a modern air-conditioned Daewoo coach, they were befriended by two young ladies – professor Shakeela and her younger sister Shabnam – who “kidnapped” them to take them to their home in Sabzazar neighborhood of Lahore by canceling Dastidar’s hotel reservation. (Two ladies had cell phone, but Dastidars did not.) Their mother, Didi or sister for Dastidars, born in East Punjab, India would repeatedly mention that they were blessed to have the first ever Hindu mehman – honored guests – in their home. Shakeela’s poor brother Rizwan was delighted to drive their “Hindu uncle and aunt” to the border twice in two days!

  

The Empty Wagha-Atari Broder Crossing

 

 

Waiting To Cross the Divide; Send off by (Muslim) Pakistanis

 

 

The Line that Divides the Partitioned Nations

 

The Broder from Indian Side

 

 

(Hindu-Sikh) Welocme in India

 

Didi (left) saying Good Bye to her Hindu Guests

 

 

Sabzazar Neighborhood Park

 

Goverment College University, Lahore

 

 

The Sikh Gurdwara; the Muslim guard Explaining

 

Lahore National Museum

 

 

The Lion of Asoka; Symbol of Government of India in Lahore National Museum

 

 

The Fasting Buddha

 

 Marble Footprints of Lord Jain

 

 

Statue of Ma Durga, Goddess of Strength

 

Old Stone Tablet at Lahore National Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Will the Maitree Express turn out to be a train to nowhere?

MYTHIC CONSOLATIONS
- Will the Maitree Express turn out to be a train to nowhere?SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080419/jsp/opinion/story_9145828.jsp


The romance of the railroad generated confidence long before strategic
writers recognized connectivity as an essential element of bonding.
One of history's best-known examples is British Columbia's refusal to
join the Canadian federation until the Canadian Pacific Railway was
built. But romantics on either side of the Bengal-Bangladesh border
would be well advised not to be carried away by the heavy symbolism of
the flower-bedecked Maitree Express running for the first time in 43
years on Poila Baisakh.

True, India has no major political problem with Bangladesh, like the
Kashmir dispute with Pakistan or the border with China. But the state
of mind that generates mistrust is the most dangerous of all dividing
factors for it can breed monsters out of trivialities. So, when Pranab
Mukherjee told the Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo, that "the depth of
political relations between our two countries is now as deep as it
should be", it sounded like a realistic admission that, train or no
train, there never can be a return to the euphoric high noon that
animated the two Bengals in 1971. The external affairs minister's
compliment to the interim government for cooperating with India is
even more revealing. Despite its achievements, this government is not
politically accountable. It is an executive regime that can take
sensible decisions regardless of grassroots reactions but enjoys no
popular mandate. Precisely for that reason, it may also run counter to
the popular mood. An election may not uphold its values and virtues.

A small detail like the Maitree Express's change of engine and crew at
the border, however cordially carried out, highlights the absence of
trust between the two countries. Born on the rail track, as it were,
and bred in railway saloons and station retiring rooms, I have a nose
for these minutiae. For all the bickering between Singapore and
Malaysia, the train from Kuala Lumpur drives right into Singapore's
heart. The quaint little station at Tanjong Pagar, the tracks, rolling
stock and staff all belong to Malayan Railways. The same crew and
engine serve the entire route. There would be no train if Singapore
demanded proprietary rights. In the early Fifties, the vivid green
Parbatipur Express, with its huge white Arabic lettering, swept past
our bungalow in Kanchrapara as a mobile manifestation of Pakistan's
Islamic personality. I doubt if the engines and crew were Indian.

As a reporter covering Ireland's Troubles in the late Sixties, I often
rode the train from Belfast in British-held, fiercely Protestant
Northern Ireland to Dublin, mellow capital of the predominantly
Catholic Irish republic, and back. No one was aware of when and where
we crossed the border. Yet, those were the days when the Provos, the
murderous Provisional Irish Republican Army, and the Royal Ulster
Constabulary each defended its pitch with the fervour they devoted to
god and Caesar. The railway could be ignored because the substance —
Protestant supremacy, Catholic emancipation — mattered more than the
symbol.

For Bengalis, the symbol always takes precedence over the substance.
The tearful passengers on the train were refugees of the spirit,
dwelling nostalgically on the innumerable plates of chicken curry they
had devoured (or had heard of being devoured) on the pre-partition
Goalundo-Narayanganj steamer. Their objective is not sound political
and economic relations between the Republic of India and the People's
Republic of Bangladesh with an 89.7 per cent Muslim population whose
'state religion' is Islam. They yearn for the consolation of a mythic
East Bengal where hilsa was sold as a whole fish, not chopped into
pieces, and a goat slaughtered for meat.

I say 'mythic' because there are far more East Bengal zamindars in
Calcutta today than ever existed in real life east of the Padma. But
real or imagined, that lifestyle presumed a communal hierarchy —
Muzaffar Ahmed of the National Awami Party called it the "two-hookah"
culture — that played no small part in East Bengal's choice in 1947.
Beneath the bravado, Bangladesh lives in neurotic fear of attempts to
undo that decision. So does Pakistan. When a sentimental Bengali
gushed during the Calcutta visit of Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Pakistan's
suave former high commissioner, that the British mischief of partition
should be undone so that India could be united, he saw it as further
evidence of Hindus still not being reconciled to Pakistan.

There are some similarities with Russia's complex-ridden relations
with Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia. They have little in common with
each other but are strongly united in their suspicion of Russia, of
which they were once a part. Azerbai- jan's breakaway region of
Abkhazia, the secessionist Tskhinvali area of Georgia and Ukraine's
flirtation with the North American Treaty Alliance would not have
looked like serious casus belli if it had not been for underlying
misgivings. But there is a difference with the subcontinent. Russia
aggressively cuts off gas pipelines, threatens Nato missiles and makes
open overtures to breakaway regions. India is placatory, overlooking
even an estimated 12 to 18 million illegal migrants in our midst.

That does not appease a people who may now have revised their
liberation history, but who are haunted by the fear that what was done
in 1971 can be done again. That apprehension surfaced within months of
Mujibur Rahman's return to Dhaka, to the disgust of India's first high
commissioner, Subimal Dutt, who was a member of the Indian Civil
Service but also from a modest Chittagong family, and culminating in
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's visit in August 1974, months before the night of
Dhaka's long knives. Visible linkages like trains do have a place in
diplomacy, but mainly to impress and involve the populace in official
goodwill initiatives. That counts for little among an effervescent
people whose quick changes of mood are woven into my childhood
memories of Direct Action Day when it was "Allah ho akbar!" one moment
and "Hindu-Mussalman bhai-bhai!" the next.

Even if the next set of elected Bangladeshi politicians retains the
present regime's efforts, there is no guarantee that political
exigencies will not tempt them again to change course. Paradoxically,
the Bangladesh-India relationship is part of the equation between the
two Bengals that is subject to all the emotional vicissitudes captured
by Muzaffar Ahmed's two-hookah analogy compounded by the village-city
complex. Dhaka may long ago have far outstripped Calcutta, as rich
Bangladeshis never tire of reiterating, but objective fact does not
exorcise subjective reaction rooted in the past. If Bangladeshis had
not been so mercurial, Inder Kumar Gujral would not have warned, when
he was in office, against buying Titash gas direct even from Hasina
Wajed's government, suggesting that only a multinational middleman
could absorb shocks. New Delhi's insistence even now on protecting the
train and Mukherjee's "as deep as it should be" are reminders of
strictly limited expectations.

The emotional Bengali public is another matter. Large sections of it
imagined in 1971 that Epar Bangla Opar Bangla were about to unite.
Even if that hope was belied, they expected free travel without the
fuss and bother of passports and visas. That, too, was just wishful
thinking, as any Indian who had suffered the indignity of the
foreigners' registration office in Dhaka's Lal Bagh should know.
Bangladeshi uniforms have replaced Pakistani uniforms, but the men
inside are still the same.

Some caveats must be entered. There has always existed in Bangladesh a
substantial, reasonably liberal constituency that harbours only
friendly feelings for India. Greater interaction, courtesy Maitree
Express and other follow-up forms of communication, may strengthen
this lobby and help to dissolve Bangladeshi reserve. On the other
hand, too many people from Calcutta, especially non-Bengali traders,
may again arouse economic fears. Also, the understandable and
unavoidable ambivalence of Bangladeshi Hindus, about 9 per cent of the
population, is a permanent irritant. The Maitree Express is an
attractive idea, but no one should be surprised if it turns out to be
a train to nowhere.

End

Xinxiang-Kashmir Karakoram Highway & Crossing

Karakoram Highway Going Under Water

Travel through Karakorum (Karakoram) Highway (KKH) connecting Xinjiang (Sinkiang), China and Pakistani Kashmir (Northern Areas)

Sachi G. Dastidar

In late 1960’s and early 1970s China planned to build Karakoram Highway to connect China with Pakistan. Articles appeared in papers, including the New York Times about the project. After China took over Tibet, then went on a war with India in 1962, then took over parts of Ladakh in eastern Kashmir where they planned this route to form an anti-India axis in the region. They followed an old Southern Silk Route that connected China via Kashi (Kashgar) with India via the high Khunjerab Pass. The pass is around 16,000 feet high. Ever since I saw those beautiful pictures I wanted to visit, however, in those days neither China nor Pakistan was giving visa – much less someone with Indian heritage, and I did not have resources to go there. Yet, every time I would read articles about that route I would reread those old articles. I saved those as if I would actually make that trip.

As I was planning this trip in my mind – which I knew will be long and arduous – many friends gave many other ideas, and a few of those got roped with the trip. One of the first acts was to convince my wife Shefali to join with me. Then Dr. Bangash, a top official of Peshawar University whom I met in the U.S. invited us to present a paper at their upcoming 150^th Anniversary seminar of the First War of Indian Independence, and stay with them at the Conference site. Then we planned to cross India-Pakistan border via Wagha-Atari that we couldn’t do in our earlier trips. And then our Indian Bengali Communist friends suggested that we experience the “wonderful” example of “self-determination” and “saving of indigenous cultures” in China through their “autonomous” regions (as compared to rotten examples of India.) Thus Inner Mongolia was added to our itinerary – Xinjiang was to be another one anyway as we will be traveling through that province. Our Chinese friends suggested that we visit Xian, a beautiful city, ancient capital for 1,400 years, and most famously, home of the Terracotta Warriors just discovered in the 1970s. To this I had to add the 3-day train journey from Xian to Urumqi in Xinjiang.

As planned we visited Inner Mongolia where we were challenged by communist lies as told to us in India as we did not find any traces of Mongols or their culture except in distant places where they were taking tourists on horseback rides. One young Mongol who spoke English told us as matter-of-factly that in 1948 when China “took us over” we were 95% of the population, however, after colonization we are now only 5%. At official buildings there are bilingual signs – Mandarin and Mongol, but no one in the largest city of Hohhot knew Mongol. Mongol’s plight was not that different from Uighurs in Xinjiang until we reached the remote Kasgar where we saw some Uighurs and Kirghiz. 

Karakorum part of the journey began in Kashgar. We took a Chinese bus at the bus station. (Depending on the day buses are fun either by the Chinese or Pakistan governments.) The bus was full of Pakistani men who went to Kashgar to buy goods and bring back for sale in Pakistan. Except for us there were two foreign couples, one Chinese but the woman was party covered, and another Dutch couple who were cycling around but were denied permission to cycle to cross Khunjerab. They had to put their bicycles on top of the bus, as were most of our luggage. The scenery was spectacular from the start. From a relatively flat plateau the road rose to higher heights and the distant mountains seemed to change colors at ease, at times covered with snow even in August heat, at times we were close to melting glaciers only by a few hundred feet. Our bus stopped at a hotel at Tashkurgan a small Uighur village lined with pine and eucalyptus trees, 425 kilometers south of Kashgar. Our Pakistani friends told us where to find Indian food served by Pakistani restaurant owners. (The night before we tried local food in a not-so-upscale restaurant at Kashgar but felt its consequence immediately. Whereas when we needed the help of a local dentist the female Uighur dentist didn’t know a word of English but was excellent in healing.) Next morning the bus took us though some of the uninhabitable-yet-picturesque lands of the world to the Chinese customs and immigration office several kilometers from the Kashmir border. On occasion there were yurts visible at a distance where a lonely family was lived miles away from another family. The bus stopped after a few hours for pit stop as well as where the local non-Chinese residents were selling their handicrafts.

At a high point dividing the two countries the bus stopped for picture taking (as well as for open air bathroom break.) The road also transformed from a sleek well-maintained left hand drive road to not-so-sleek road right hand drive, and entered the Karakoram National Park of Pakistan and entered Baltistan-Hunza area of Gilgit region of Pakistani Kashmir, now known as Northern Areas. After some time the bus came to a screeching halt, and the Chinese bus driver told the passengers that the bus can’t go further as the road has gone under water because of heavy snow melt. All the luggage were unloaded from the roof of the bus. Soon one of the Pakistani travelers came to us “BhaiSab and Bhabi, brother and sister-in-law, you just have to climb the mountain and go to the other side and a Pakistani bus is waiting to take you to Gilgit.” After our trouble with food poisoning at Kashgar, and fasting for the entire day to avoid complication while going through the high mountains, Shefali refused to go further, and said that she wants to go back and fly home. Soon she realized that wasn’t possible as we were four days from the closest airport. But the real problem was carrying our luggage at that height over a mountain that was another several feet high for two fasting people. Then came a lean young man saying, “Uncle let me carry your two (carry-on-type) boxes,” but confessed that “normally we may charge a hundred or two hundred rupees but today’s rate is a thousand rupee. I am actually a college student but this I am doing as a summer job.” So he carried our precious belongings over the mountain and vanished. Our problem began carrying ourselves over the mountain. As soon as I climbed 50 feet I had an asthma attack in that altitude with thin air. Our Pakistani co-travelers were eager to help us, wanted practically to carry us. They insisted that we give them the backpack we were carrying to lighten our load. We don’t know how we got to the other side, but we did. Passengers saved the last two seats for us. As soon as we arrived all the travelers cheered and new bus left for the next destination, Sost. At that stop the park ranger came to take park entrance fee from foreigners, but not looking like foreigners, we were asked not to pay. After about an hour or two we came to Sost for customs and immigration, 75 kilometers from the border. There were no letup of Mother Nature’s beauty. At every turn the color changed, but no sign of green as we were above tree line. Our bus ticket was up to Gilgit, but we stopped at Sost.

At Sost as we were waiting for other passengers to complete their immigration formalities, an angelic young man came forward and asked us in Urdu/Hindi if we want to stay in his hotel, to which Shefali said “yes.” We were more than exhausted. As there were no other guests we instantly became guests of the entire village, and got tour of their homes and fields. Men and women welcomed us as “Hindustani” or Indian, not as American. This was a Shia village. No woman covered their head, and many of them worked in the fields. At the dining room all the workers were watching Hindi language 24-hour Indian channel. When ordered hot tea, all three workers came to deliver. Next morning we were at Hunza and had breakfast at the hotel owned by the King of Hunza with breathtaking view of the Karakoram Mountain. From Hunza as well as from Gilgit, and points in between, one can arrange trips to the mountains, hiking, fishing, skiing in winter, camping and mountain climbing. Hunza to Gilgit trip was done in a taxi with 10 to 12 travelers. The long journey was broken by several pit and tea stops. After chatting with Shefali sitting next to her the lady realized that we were “Indian” and at the last stop at Gilgit she insisted that we cancel our hotel and stay with them. Such was the reality and warmth from average Pakistani. (Although we did not stay with that stranger at Gilgit but we were forced to stay with the family of Professor Shakila Sindhu in Lahore as she canceled our hotel reservation in Lahore while we were traveling from Peshawar to Lahore by bus with them. Shakila had the advantage of carrying a cell phone and talking to her mother every few minutes. Her mother, whom we called Didi or sister, is from East Punjab, India, and she was so happy to have a Hindu as their guest.) Although we continued our journey to Peshawar, Abbotabad (years later we would realize that during out tour we passed top terrorist Osama’s house,)  Gilgit was the true end of the KKH. Gilgit is a picturesque city surrounded by mountains, yet it must have been one of the strangest sites for us as on 14^th of August – which is a national holiday as the nation celebrates as the day of partition from India – there was not a single woman in the streets. At the stores when they learned that we are “Indian” shop owners offered us hot tea or cold drink. At the government-run tourist hotel we bought varieties of posters and postcards. There too we were the only foreign guests. The salesman gave us a special break knowing that the posters will reach India. At the Indian customs we indeed declared all the items we bought in Pakistan; no problem. They welcomed us by saying that they do not know when an “Indian” traveled from China to India via Pakistani Kashmir, although we were traveling with U.S. passport. In reality it is not possible for an Indian to travel through that route as there are Pakistani restrictions for travel to Indian passport holders. The trip through KKH was spectacular no doubt, but at times dangerous. We saw corpses of trucks or buses which fell into gorges thousands of feet deep down. For a long stretch the highway followed Indus River, the mother river of Indus Civilization. Sometimes our bus was only inches from barrier-less roadside edge. We wished we were able to take pictures at every turn and every bend, but, of course, the bus couldn’t stop for views to be held in our lenses. That is saved in our memory.

16,000 ft High Khunjerab Pass Border




Xinxiang-North Kashmir Border Crossing




A Highway Stop at Kyrgiz Village (China)




Glacial Mountains along Karakoram Highway (China)

Colored Mountain (China)

Karakoram Highway