Can an Indian professor live in Lahore and teach human rights to students of Punjab University? Can a Pakistani professor live in Delhi and teach human rights to St. Stephen’s College students? The other day I met a Greek tourist in Delhi at Humayuns Tomb who teaches human rights to Turkish students at Bosporus University in Istanbul. Greece and Turkey are historical enemies, like India and Pakistan.
Sitting on a bench, I ask Ms Banias, who was on a sabbatical in Delhi, on how challenging it is for a Greek person to live in Turkey. Living in Istanbul was an idea I never thought of, Ms Banias said. My father was Turkish-born of Greek descent. The Turkish-Greek war of the early 1920s resulted in a chaotic exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey (just like India-Pakistan!) and my young father like so many others had to flee for his life. He and his family suffered great losses. So, you know, I had no desire to go to Turkey. Children inherit the pain of their parents.
I was interested to find out that what made Ms Banias live in Turkey, a land she had all the reasons to hate. Could we Indians and Pakistanis learn from this Greek woman on how to negotiate with past discords and be at peace with a traditional enemy? I also wanted to know what she thinks of Delhi when most of the world press is in love with a rising India story.
A few years ago, Ms Banias’s friend moved to Istanbul and she kept convincing her, who was then living in the US, to visit Turkey. After a lot of efforts to persuade her, she decided to visit her for four days in 1999. It was my lifes most dramatic experience. From fear and apprehensions, I came to love Istanbul and its people. I felt that something was changing in me. As if an outer skin was slipping off from my body and soon I was left with no bitterness towards the Turks. Could Indians and Pakistanis ever undergo a similar transformation in their attitude towards each other?
During that short stay in Istanbul, the friend invited a few colleagues for dinner. One guest, a professor in Bosporus University, was sitting across Ms Banias on the dining table. During the conversations, she suddenly asked Ms Banias, Will you like to live in Istanbul and teach human rights? No one is teaching that course presently?
Stunned by the unexpected offer, Ms Baniass said, Isnt it absurd to ask a Greek woman to come and teach human rights in Turkey?
The professor replied, It is not absurd at all.
In India-Pakistan context, the idea could be absurd to many.
In 2000, Ms Banias shifted to Istanbul.
How did Turkish students take to a Greek woman teaching them human rights? Turkey is a very proud nation and very sensitive like India and Pakistan about foreign critics pricking it on delicate issues of the present and the past, such as its role in the massacre of the Armenian people in the last century. Students were so open and accepting. They were very eager to talk to me, to discuss sensitive issues, to find out more about me. At times we would continue the conversations we had started in the class. I have developed warm relationship with some of my students.
Has this healthy osmosis ever happened in an India-Pakistan context?
In her course, Ms Banias would cite references from the various judgements of the Indian Supreme Court. Im impressed by some of the clauses in your constitution, for example, the right to life which has been interpreted by your courts to include the right to livelihood. In other countries, you dont have a right to establish a community on a sidewalk where so many are able to find jobs nearby.
Climbing the stairs to the tomb, Ms Banias turn to me and says, Economical and social rights are not considered fundamental rights in many developed Western countries such as the US. This is one thing that piqued my interest in India.
In the tomb chamber, Ms Banias said, Although the laws are there in the books, the extent of poverty in Delhi is overwhelming. Courts alone cannot rectify it. Ive seen poor and homeless people in the US and everywhere I have been. The look of the homeless is the same everywhere. Empty gaze, filthy clothes, disoriented consciousness. But the lack of any kind of effective measures to address poverty on a large scale reflects the priorities of our societies.
Delhi is becoming intense for Ms Banias. The density of the population, the abject poverty, the content of the rich, the destitute and the comfortable living side by side, the great diversity of peoples and cultures, the magnificent monuments all this is so overwhelming.
As a human rights scholar, is there anything here that makes her angry about Delhi?
I do perceive a resentment of those who are well-off towards those who are living on the streets. I just sense it though I have no proof. But I also see people who reach out to the poor and give.
Are these observations on the Indian capital made by a foreign woman, true for Lahore or Karachi too?
Mayank Austen Soofi lives in a library. He has one website (The Delhi Walla) and four blogs. The website address: thedelhiwalla.com. The blogs: Pakistan Paindabad, Ruined By Reading, Reading Arundhati Roy and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos.