Pakistan floods: Awash in suffering

The scale of devastation caused by floods in Pakistan is so huge that the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has flown in personally to express his solidarity. Soon after his arrival, he tweeted an appeal for “massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe”. It is clear that all eyes are on India to take the lead, given the geographical proximity, the historical ties, and its ability to help.

On August 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended “heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the injured and all those affected by this natural calamity” but his tweet did not include any mention of monetary support for flood relief efforts.

Mr Guterres has described the floods as “monsoon on steroids”. The climate catastrophe has killed more than 1,000 people and submerged much of the country. In a video message before flying out to Pakistan, he made an impassioned plea to “stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”

Will the UN Secretary General’s fervent appeal push India to do more than just “hope for an early restoration of normalcy”?

In April 2021, when India was struggling to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, and people were dying for want of hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen, and medicines, the Karachi-based Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation had offered to send a fleet of 50 ambulances, along with emergency medical technicians, office staff, drivers and supporting staff. India declined this generosity even as social media platforms kept buzzing with hashtags like #IndianLivesMatter and #Pakistanst andswithIndia.

Pakistani journalist and Aman Ki Asha editor Beena Sarwar in an interview back then told me, “When there were floods in Pakistan, doctors offered to come in from India but they were not allowed. My friend, Dr Geet Chainani, who was born in Bombay, and now lives in New Jersey, was in Pakistan to visit a friend when the floods struck Sindh in 2011. She stayed on for over three years to help. We got visa extensions for her with great difficulty.”

Now, it may be time for India to demonstrate what good neighbourliness looks like. Might is no good without compassion. Perhaps we need to take a cue from Indian films to expand the idea of what is possible.

Putting aside the language of realpolitik, they put humanity at the centre. Hanu Raghavapudi's film Sita Ramam (2022), Kabir Khan’s film Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and Yash Chopra's film Veer Zaara (2004) are the ones that immediately come to mind. What these movies have in common is an Indian saving a Pakistani’s life, and being thrown into a Pakistani jail under false charges. Eventually their sacrifice is recognised, and they are hailed as heroes. The setting, characterisation and directorial vision differ from one film to another but all three leave audiences with the message that humanity goes beyond territorial borders.

Anindya Jyoti Majumdar and Shibashis Chatterjee’s book Peace and Conflict Studies: Perspectives from South Asia (2020) published by Routledge India, has a chapter titled “Bollywood on the No-Man’s Land” written by Sudeshna Banerjee. She focuses on Bajrangi Bhaijaan, wherein an Indian man — Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi (played by Salman Khan) — looks after a speech-impaired Pakistani girl named Shahida Aziz (played by Harshaali Malhotra). He saves her from a child trafficking racket and takes her home to his mother.

Ms Banerjee writes, “The ordinary citizens of India and Pakistan may often actually be thinking/acting at variance with the statist rationalisation(s) of the hostile border.” This is true because regular Indians and Pakistanis are not as invested in hating and hurting each other as war-mongering politicians from both countries might like us to believe.

She adds, “In contrast to adult rationality, intelligence, and hyper-masculinity of the state-produced border, the movie invokes the tropes of childlike innocence, irrationality and femininity as an implicit counterpoise.” She interprets Bajrangi Bhaijaan as “a call to the awaam (common people) on either side to mobilise and reclaim the border” and she views “the muteness of a child and her subsequent recovery of voice” as emblematic of the reassertion of civil societies against the hegemony of statist border narrative(s).

In Veer Zaara, an Indian Air Force pilot named Veer Pratap Singh (played by Shah Rukh Khan) saves a Pakistani woman named Zaara Hayat Khan (played by Preity Zinta) during a bus accident in India. She returns to Pakistan and he follows suit to rescue her from an unhappy marriage. In Sita Ramam, an Indian army officer —Lieutenant Ram (played by Dulquer Salmaan) — saves the life of a Pakistani girl named Waheeda who grows up to be Afreen (played by Rashmika Mandanna). Films do trade in the world of make-believe but they are not disconnected from reality. They urge us to imagine, and see with new eyes.