Friday, August 25 2006 11:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Despite occasional ups and downs, many more people in India and Pakistan today (Aug 25, 2006) desire peace between the two neighbours, says noted journalist Kuldip Nayar.

From the time when 12 years ago the annual candle lighting event began at the Wagah border, the number of people attending the event has swelled considerably, said Nayar at a book release event at the India International Centre. The National Book Trust has published Anita Inder Singh's 'Partition of India'.

This year, there were over 500,000 people from both countries to light candles for peace between the two countries on the midnight of Aug 14/15 - the intervening night of the days when they celebrate their respective independence days.

The crowd was shouting "India-Pakistan Zindabad", despite the shadow of the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai that killed around 200 people and which cast a strain on India-Pakistan ties.

It was the Indo-Pakistan Friendship Front headed by Kuldip Nayar that started the candle lighting ritual at the Wagah border.

"The responsibility is ours (India's). There is no option other than good relations with our neighbours," he said.

"We should think in terms of South Asia and take pride in being South Asians, not as Indians, Pakistanis or Bangladeshis," he said.

Nayar, who is from Sialkot (now in Pakistan's Punjab province), recalled his early days in Pakistan when partition of British India was looming.

"I have been through the partition period. I was in Law College in Lahore. Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Muslim League leader who became the first governor general of Pakistan following partition) came to the college in early 1947 to address Muslim League students. I asked him two questions," he said.

"'I see so much hatred wherever I go Hindus and Muslims killing each other. What would happen if partition takes place?," he said.

Jinnah's reply was: "We will then be the best of brothers, like Germany and France who fought for years but are now best of friends. Blood is thicker than water."

"My second question was: 'If a third country attacks us, then what will happen?' Jinnah replied: 'Then we shall be fighting by your side against the third country. After partition comes into being, all this (hatred) will be forgotten. We will be like America and Canada, prosperous brothers," he said.

"If the bitter experience of partition has taught us any lessons - it is of the values of secularism and democracy," observed Nayar.

He recalled how his extended family, comprising of about 100 people, had been sheltered by a Muslim friend of his father for more than a month - between Aug 11 and Sep 13, 1947 till they managed to flee to India safely.

"My father offered him money but he refused to accept it. There were innumerable people like that among Hindus and Muslims who saved the lives of their friends belonging to the other community. It is time someone writes a book on such brave people," he said.

"We (Indians and Pakistanis) have lived together for centuries. Now our future is of South Asia free and secular," he said.

According to him, many people in Pakistan are now talking in terms of secularism and democracy in their country.

"I see that in Pakistan, after so many years, people in the middle classes are thinking of a state like India, with democracy and secularism," he said.