ISLAMABAD – Gujarat in India, Gujrat in Pakistan; Hyderabad here and alsothere; Delhi Gate in Lahore and Lahori Gate in Patiala. Then there is thefavourite sweetmeat of many Indians, the Karachi halwa, while thePakistanis relish Bengali samosa.
Some names have withstood the uneasy decades since Partition, standing outlike little beacons of oneness in a landscape fraught with hostility butalso hope between two neighbours sharing a border and age-old cultural ties.
India-Pakistan, locked into a hyphenated relationship of a shared historyand a divided present, is not just about rift but also about the manyvestiges of unity that have survived seven decades.
It’s about the names of streets, shops, monuments, food and more, sayhistorians and others on both sides of the border.
With the recent escalation in tensions following the Pulwama terror attack,this legacy has come under increasing strain.
The spotlight of unwelcome attention fell on the Karachi Bakery inAhmedabad and Bengaluru after the February 14 strike, which prompted thefirst aerial combat between the two countries since 1971 and led to thecapture of an IAF pilot by Pakistan on February 27. Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman was released almost three days later on March 1.
The managements of the two stores were told by vigilantes to hide Karachi’,Pakistan’s buzzing commercial centre, from their signboards. Forced to showtheir Indianness, they also put up a tricolour along with posters readingthat the brand was established in 1953 by a Sindhi, Khanchand Ramnani, whomigrated to India after Partition and is “absolutely Indian by heart”.
The ripple effect of fear could be seen in other cities, including in thenational capital, particularly the historic walled city.
“All I can tell you is that we are as Indian as anyone standing or doingbusiness in the street out here. Anyone judging our loyalty for this nationby the name of my shop, which is there for over good 50 years now, isdespicable,” said an Old Delhi based trader.
Scared that he’ll be the target of vigilante groups, he spoke on thecondition of anonymity.
Changing existing names alluding to Pakistan is neither nationalism and noran act of valour, said experts.
“India has Gujarat (state), Pakistan has a district in Punjab calledGujrat. There is a city called Hyderabad in Sindh. India, too, hasHyderabad. Even surnames such as Bajwa, Sethi, Rathore, Chaudhry etc. areused by several people from both countries. We cannot change geography orerase the shared past,” Amit Ranjan, editor of the recently released book”The Partition of India”, told PTI.
Recounting many delicacies, places and shops named after cities inPakistan, cultural historian Sohail Hashmi said many places “predatePartition” and the creation of Pakistan.
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“There is a locality in Paharganj called Multani Dhanda — now Multan is inPakistan — it predates the creation of Pakistan. Just because the part ofIndia is now Pakistan, these places have to change their name now? We mustunderstand that people carry place names with them when they migrate.
“… Also, there is a specific kind of halwa, which is known wherever it ismade as Karachi halwa only. What are you going to do with it, call it Delhihalwa or Patiala halwa?” he asked, referring to the gelatinous sweet madeusually of cornflour, sugar and water and quite different in texture fromother halwas’.
A quick search on food app Swiggy in New Delhi showed up over 15restaurants offering dishes such as Chicken Peshawari, Chicken Lahori,Pakistani Chicken Biryani, Paneer Tikka Multani; and a casual stroll in theby-lanes of Old Delhi was enough to come across shops and places namedafter Pakistani cities.
This is a part of the subcontinent’s intangible history that nothing canerase.
Flagbearers of the deep cultural ties on the other side of the borderinclude Madras Jewellers with branches in several cities and Karachi’sDelhi Colony. There is also the upscale Bombay Chowpatty restaurant withbranches in Lahore, Islamabad, Gujrat, Faisalabad and Karachi.
“There is also Amritsari Sweets in Lahore, while Bengali samosa inIslamabad is supposed to be the best samosa in town. In Lahore, there isDelhi Darwaza while in Islamabad there is a restaurant by the same namethat serves the best nihari in the city. These are just a few that I knowfrom the top of my head,” Haroon Khalid, the Pakistani author of “ImaginingLahore”, told PTI in an email conversation.
According to Altaf Hussain Para, the Srinagar-based author of The Making ofModern Kashmir , the anger has its roots in the emergence of a new cult of”muscular nationalism” being seen in India for the last few years.
“…Expression of anger through street justice against terror isdangerous,” he said.
Khalid, who denied any recent incidents of backlashes in Pakistan over”Indian names”, said the Pakistani state is now “increasingly conscious ofits soft image”.
He also referred to the recent sacking of Pakistan’s Punjab provinceinformation and culture minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan for makinganti-Hindu remarks.Giving his perspective, Hashmi was also clear that he isno fan of the Pakistani state and their way of doing things.
“The mobs there (in Pakistan) are doing their work, their focus is not onthe names right now, they might shift to this tomorrow and these fellows(mobs in India) might shift to some other agenda.
