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The Rediff Special Virendra Pandit

A journey too far

Abdul Karim is finally ready to take a 3,000 km detour to meet his family on the other side of the India-Pakistan border, even though they live just 50 km away.

Travel restrictions between India and Pakistan have forced Karim and others from his village Banni in Kutch district of Gujarat to take a circuitous route. First, he has to travel north through the lush green landscape of Punjab and then double back through the vast inhospitable desert stretches of Sind to reach his destination - -which, ironically, is just across the international border, less than an hour's drive from his home.

Karim, a nomadic Maldhari tribesman (cattle breeder), is one of the victims of Partition. ''Half my family was caught on the other side," he reminisces, tears flowing down his aged cheeks.

The recent thaw in Indo-Pak relations have provided some cheer for Karim and thousands of others like him caught in a similar predicament. The news of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision to board a bus to Pakistan this Saturday has kindled hopes that the world's longest 50 km journey will shrink a little.

Karim hopes that the two countries will agree to open a new entry point for people wishing to travel to Sind. This will cut both costs and travel time.

Memories of the fateful day that changed their lives are still fresh in their minds.

''We woke up one morning only to find that we could no longer roam freely with our cattle up to karachi,'' Karim recalled.

For generations, his tribe had been on the move from one place to another in a vast piece of land now designated as Gujarat in India and Sind in Pakistan. They carried their village with them, always in search of greener pastures.

''But out of the blue, nomads like us were forced to grow roots and we found ourselves settling down in Hindustan while our relatives were caught on the other side,'' he said.

''The stringent restrictions on travel and the prohibitive costs have added to our woes,'' Karim said.

''It is a cruel turn of fate. We can see from Kala Dungar (the black hillock) the villages -- Dhorda, Haji Peer, Utuma -- where our loved ones die a thousand deaths hoping to see us again... But we cannot even participate in their last rites,'' says an elderly villager who lived through the trauma of Partition.

"But now we manage to send across audio-cassettes and messages," he says with a smile.

Banni -- the last major grassland in Asia, 70 km from the district headquarters of Kutch -- is inhabited by 14 communities. Ninety per cent of the population comprises tribal Muslims like Abdul Karim who normally refrain from taking their disputes to the police and the courts and settle it among themselves.

Muslims here are truly secular in their approach to religion, regularly visiting the Rudra Mata and Dattatreya temples which they also revere as the Peer Pachhmai shrine -- in the memory of a saint who once lived there.

Being cattle-breeders, they also worship the cow and refrain from eating beef.

''Pakistan's ISI was quick to spot the pain in our hearts and tried to exploit our love for our relatives across the border, but we did not let their designs succeed,'' Karim said.

The ISI tried to infiltrate the area to foment trouble, but the Banni people refused to shelter them, Karim said.

Abdul Karim and Aga Khan Savlani, both leaders of their respective tribes, long to re-establish relationships with those across the heavily guarded borders. But there is many a battle to be won and many a tear to be shed before they can come face to face.

The wait at the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi is excruciating and clearance for travel is granted by draw of lots. The lucky few who are allowed to undertake what is probably the world's longest short journey carry a hundred messages of love and hope, and as many gifts for relatives and friends across the border.

Karim's only visit to Pakistan was before the 1965 Indo-Pak war when restrictions on travel were not quite as harsh. ''A new generation would have grown up now without knowing us or the pain in our hearts,'' he says.

Sind, unlike Punjab, did not witness much bloodshed in the wake of Partition and ''till 1965, we could travel at will but the war changed all that,'' he said.

The war led to the introduction of the visa system to check spying and people-to-people contact was restricted.

A fourth of the Kutch's 120,000 people is Muslim. The border district is bigger than Kerala and Haryana and at 20 persons to a sq km, has very low population density.

It is not the Muslims alone who long for a reunion with their loved ones. The Hindus share their pain and the longing to visit the lands of their forefathers.

Madhav Joshi Ashq, a poet, and Madar Singh Sodha, who owns one of the greenest tourist resorts in the arid district, wonder if they will ever be able to make the trip.

''We could walk across in a few hours, but I wonder if we will live to see the day,'' they said.

They have not heard from their friends and relatives since they arrived in India as refugees during the 1965 and 1971 wars.

Geographically, ethnically and linguistically, Kutch in general and Banni in particular is close to Sind -- Kutchi Gujarati is very similar to Sindhi.

The government constructed a 70-km-long road from Bhuj to Banni more than three decades ago. Karim and his people are waiting for the construction of another short road to facilitate direct travel from Banni to Sind and save them the arduous 3,000 km journey.

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