Kesava Menon's 'Never Tell Them We Are The Same People' is about our hostilities, and sameness

Sandeep Dikshit

PUNJAB is hardly a stranger to Pakistan and therefore the book’s opening line, “they are a ferocious people, aren’t they”, the question put by an elderly gentleman in Chennai to the author, will get a wry smile in these parts. Unlike South Indians, Punjabis in India have not only had the measure of Pakistanis on more than a couple of occasions since Independence but, as the cliché goes, they have the same roots as well.

Kesava Menon recalls the bygone era of the 1990s when he was posted as a journalist in Pakistan; diplomats are the other category of Indians permitted to live in the neighbouring country. In that Internet-less era, a journalist was always on the phone or meeting people. That was a time when Indian journalists were allowed to travel in Pakistan, though phones were tapped and spooks were constantly on the tail. This provided Menon with a much richer tapestry of experience about cities, its super-scenic mountains and society than would be the case today had there been an Indian journalist in Islamabad.

Backed by this stint and another in Bahrain, besides considerable rumination afforded by his years at the headquarters of The Hindu and Mathrubhumi, Menon turns insouciant and reflective as he, in turns, holds up and ridicules the two mainstream opinions about Pakistan — it will be always hostile to India, and both are the same people.

The common ancestry might someday improve ties but the Pakistani army, even if professional and religiously moderate, will not be soft towards India. What differentiates India and Pakistan, says Menon, is their directness of approach, combined with an all-or-nothing effort to get what they want. Some would say that about the Punjabis on this side of the border as well! The book, especially for readers close to the border, is more of an Indian’s window into a world that is shut for them.