Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Gold Coast, April 18
Men and women from India and Pakistan worked together to secure Australia’s Commonwealth Games. Hundreds of private security guards worked with police and other government agencies to keep peace at CWG. A very large proportion of them were of Indian or Pakistani origin — the number could be in the 40-50% region, estimates Daljit Singh, originally of Nawan Shahr, Punjab.
If previously there was an India vs Pakistan sentiment among the immigrants from the Subcontient, being thrown together in Australia has shredded it. The childhood training of disliking and distrusting the ‘other’ has been shredded by the economic imperative.
The ‘other’ is not a demon, they’ve realised. More pertinently, they’ve realised that new immigrants such as them must hang out with each other to form a support system in an alien country. They’re frequently mistaken for each other — Pakistanis might be called Indian, or vice versa — and they don’t mind it one bit.
No hard feelings
On our way to the shooting venue, we met Arun Kumar and Haji Syed, security officers for a CWG transport facility at Carindale in Brisbane. They insisted that Indians and Pakistanis are the same people. “Partition was not a great idea, because we had lived together for centuries. But after the people were divided, this enmity between the two new countries has destroyed peace,” said Syed. “Also, division of people on the basis of religion is not a modern idea. It’s a backward idea.”
Kumar nodded in agreement with Syed, and says he could have travelled freely all over the Subcontinent to religious places. Kumar then adds a twist to the tale: “I do wish I could travel to the temples in India.” It turns out that Kumar is from Karachi, Pakistan. “And my friend here, Syed, is from Hyderabad in south India!” he said.
Patiala connection
Rao Ehsan Kaleem mentions vaguely the names of places he’s heard of since his childhood. He’s not sure of how they’re pronounced, but he knows that’s where his roots lie. “Gulhad… in Bhawanagarh, in Patiala,” he says. “It could be Bhawanigarh too, I’m not sure.” That’s where the paternal side of his family came from. “My mother’s family moved from Rohtak,” he said, and then, surprisingly, broke into a bit of Haryanvi: “Ghar main hum sab tanne-manne hi boley hain! In public we speak Urdu mostly, but at home it’s still our mother tongue.”
He says right from childhood, the kids of the family and clan are aware of their roots — the villages and towns and districts their forefathers came to Pakistan from. “We’re Rajputs… Toor or Rangars,” he adds. He says he’s Pakistani but can’t ever forget his roots.
Aman, a Pak fan
We met Amandeep Maan from Bathinda on several occasions at different places. Among the flags pinned on her accreditation front is a Pakistani flag. “Koi bhi aur country ki flag ki pin maang lo, magar Pakistani flag nahin doongi,” she says. “I’ve been interacting and working with Pakistani people here for a long time. I’ve never had any problems with them; in fact whenever I’ve needed help, they’ve offered it. I think Pakistani people here are just great.”
Another Indian origin man, Jaideep Singh, narrated how his Pakistan friends are always there for him. “My car broke down last year some 40km out of Brisbane at night,” he says. “My friend Saif, who is from Pakistani Punjab, drove all the way out and brought me back to the city. And I’d do the same for him quite happily.
We heard similar stories from tens of Indians and Pakistanis working to secure CWG. There was no negativity against each other.
Indians and Pakistanis have figured out that in essence, they’re the same; there’s their shared history and culture, but there’s one greater imperative: They’re all recent immigrants, they need to make money; some of them are working two jobs while studying. They can’t let something as insignificant as sentiment come in the way of something concrete like money.
Recent Subcontinental immigrants in Australia are not secure enough to get into an India-Pakistan conflict here. They must work hard for financial security. When immigrants come to a new country, they seek sameness in each other; but once they settle down and are secure, they start discovering more and more differences.
Will Indians and Pakistanis, or their progeny, drift apart once they’re settled and financially comfortable? Time will tell.
Making good money
There was good money to be made for the security officers on duty at different venues. Work included standing guard outside venues, checking accreditation passes of athletes and media, and then doing a security scan of their person and equipment. In short, wherever a venue or site needed to be guarded, private security guards were placed in operation. “I’ve been making around Aus$450 each day,” said Parveen Sharma, a migrant from Punjab. “I’d buy my children air tickets to visit home.”
