I hadn’t seen the international
border between India and Pakistan before. Until then, an Indo-Pak border evoked
two distinct images in my mind, undoubtedly implanted by Hindi movies. One during
peacetime is a lonely isolated place, a no-man’s land, a desert with soldiers wearing
broad solo-hats while riding slow camels, on the lookout for fully draped intruders
who are supposed to be carrying guns and drugs. The other is a typical war zone
with guns and cannons blasting across a barbed wire fence, soldiers running helter-skelter
for cover, with radio transmitters passing quick messages and of course the quintessential
loudspeakers blaring towards the opposite army. Both images until now had held
a rugged charm in my mind; that this was a dangerous place and therefore justifying
a desire to flirt with it. Foolhardy as it may sound, the joke turned on me. I
saw unfold in front of my eyes another image of a border which involved
tractors tilling the land within meters of the barbed wire fence (thankfully
the fence from my image was present as the essential commonality representing
the border) and a typical village with human and animal habitation, with a school
hospital and motor vehicles. Yeah, the soldiers of the BSF were also there in
the middle of this normal milieu. It was a classic so near and yet so far
moment for me that there was no other option but to became wiser.
It was obvious that people had
been living all along the border before the fence was constructed and long
before the border was decided. Politics intruded on them, upsetting their regular
lives and they have just accepted the new situation as always. Infact below the
surface, I could sense that politics had to take a back seat and accommodate the
will of the local population living on the border who would not give up on
their land even for lofty idea like national security nor for ordinary idea
like protecting themselves from gunfire. Though some people have been displaced
others have taken their place. It seemed to me that the human spirit had triumphed
over some narrow-minded considerations. It has always been intriguing how various
lifeforms have been drawing lines on this planet calling something as their
personal space. We humans take it a bit further. Not only do we have personal
space but beyond that we also have community space and then national space. It
highlights and celebrates our differences. We have gamed our psyche to accept
that marking lines on the land would secure us our future.
I was in Rajasthan this month and
wanted to visit the Naggi War Memorial. It was a first for me in terms of visiting
borders. On way to Naggi my driver stopped at Bhullars place to take some local
person along so that our visit could be fruitful. Bhullar is a VIP of the
place, huge and burly with handle bar mustaches, who happens to be a big time farmer
and at the same time a construction contractor as well as a construction
material supplier. There is a huge
framed picture of his along with the previous Chief Minister of the state in
his home office. It so happened that over the past couple of days some drug
movement had been detected and confiscated on the border and therefore the BSF
were not too keen with strangers. Bhullar diverted me to another village a
little further away but right on the border and called up a resident of the
village to be with me. That was a boon. A local resident is known face and worked
like a charm in getting conversation rolling with the BSF. I spent an hour at
the BSF camp and border fence. I wanted to write in detail about my visit to
the border but the words of two wonderful BSF jawans requesting me not to go on
social media with specifics ring in my ears. That they were Bengalis also weighs-in
its appropriate share. They were extremely courteous and helpful to me but were
worried about adverse impact from publicizing. The border at certain places
like Wagah have become a tourist destination however respecting the wishes of
my BSF jawans I shall try to go into a few facts without divulging anything
which they wouldn’t appreciate.
Here are a few nuggets from the
fence;
- - The Zero line or the Radcliffe line is a trench
and represented by pillars of 4 - 5 feet each placed every few kilometers. The
maintenance of these pillars is done by both the sides. The pillars are
numbered, while one side looks after the even pillars the other side looks
after the odd ones.
- - The barbed wire fence is placed within 100
meters from the zero line on the Indian side with farming permitted upto the
Zero line. The fence runs through farmers land but they have been compensated. While
the farmers on the Indian side are not permitted to grow tall crops in excess
of two feet near the fence the farmers on the Pakistan side have no such
restrictions. There are no trees on the Indian side of the Zero line too.
- - A BSF camps placed every 5 kms on the border with
its watch towers has an intense patrolling schedule all around the clock. The BSF
uses night vision equipments and flood lights all long the fence during the
nights, the light from which is used by the Pakistani farmers to work on their
farms during the night. Previously services of horses and camels were utilised
but now it is motorized. The intensity on the Pakistan side isn’t visible
atleast in Rajasthan. Their presence on the border is minimal though I learnt
that they have a huge army base about 5 to 10 kms inside their territory.
- - The BSF camps keep their portion of the fence
well maintained and employ locals for grass and shrubs cutting mainly through the
NREGA scheme. They inspect the Zero line frequently for telltale footprints of
infiltrators and meet up with their Pakistani counterparts regularly over civilized
conversation.
- - Our conversation threw up an interesting
comparison between the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh
border has Muslim population on both sides while on the Pakistan side it is so
only in Kashmir. That makes the borders in Bangladesh an unfriendly place while
on the Pakistan side barring Kashmir the rest of the Border States is friendly
and co-operative. On the Bangladesh side the population on both sides of the
border are related to each other through family ties while this isn’t so on the
Pakistan side barring Kashmir. On the Bangladesh side the border infringement
is mainly on account of cattle, textile and human while on the Pakistan side it
is drugs, arms and terrorists.
- - The BSF watch tower near the fence is a two
storied structure which offers unrestricted panoramic view on all sides to
detect and monitor every type of movement near the fence on both sides.
Returning from
the border a few more interesting things struck me.
Some of the
villages near the border in Rajasthan have alpha-numeric names like 5 SA, 11
FA, 9 FD, etc. The villagers call themselves by such alpha-numeric names and it
comes as a surprise initially. It is as if the original names were coded and
the person who coded them couldn’t retrieve their real names. The reason for such alpha-numeric names was
not clear to me and someday I hope to understand this.
Rajasthan is an
extremely arid and dry place with little rains and extreme weather. However in Shri
Ganganagar agriculture is the major occupation and every inch of land is
utilised. The soil here is almost powdery and clayish. Bhullar tells me that
the nature of the soil is such that it has a great capacity to retain moisture.
Agriculture in Shri Ganganagar being all canal fed, the farmers are able to take
four crops in a year. Wheat needs to be watered only twice before harvesting,
cotton only once and mustard needs no water at all. I found that to be amazing
and it is no wonder that farmers prize this land and are unwilling to let go
inspite of strained relationships between the two countries.
Kalibangan is a
small town near Shri Ganganagar and is an archeological site belonging to the
Indus civilisation about 4000 to 5000 years ago. The ASI Museum at Kalibangan
possesses some jaw dropping exhibits collected during excavation. The Saraswati
River mentioned in the Vedas used to flow near Kalibangan before it was
disrupted. The entire region was also rain fed and supported a huge and rich civilisation
which traded with Mesopotamia and Egypt. The river basins of the past fed and supported
the population and contributed majorly to the richness of the soil.
Due to the
river system and strong flow, the excellent properties of the soil go a couple
of meters below the surface as well. One can see farmers selling a couple of
feet of their top soil to brick kilns in the region who are several in numbers
and baking bricks in huge quantities. Bricks have been the basic construction
material for over thousands of years all across the Indus civilisation as can
be seen from Lothal, Dholavira and Mohenjo-Daro.
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