Tale of two cities ripped apart by Partition

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: The Centre''s latest peace initiative with Pakistan has rekindled hopes of a new future—which might see the restoration of the Mumbai-Karachi ferry service—and has revived memories of an era gone by when people routinely sailed back and forth for work and play.<br /><br />Writer-in-exile Salman Rushdie recalls childhood voyages in his essay, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Step Across This Line</span>."The steamers plying that route were a pair of old rustbuckets, the Sabarmati and Sarasvati.<br /><br />The journey was hot and slow, and for mysterious reasons the boats would always stop for hours off the coast of the Rann of Kutch, while unexplained cargoes were ferried on and off—smugglers'' goods, I imagined eagerly, gold, or precious stones. (I was too innocent to think of drugs.)"<br /><br />Under colonial rule, Karachi and Sindh were part of Bombay Presidency.<br /><br />The business-savvy Sindhi community had always criss-crossed the region, but during empire, other communities like the Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Parsis and Goans also made their way to Karachi for business and employment.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">When the British decided to build a port in Karachi they brought in labour from Mumbai, which perhaps accounts for the fact that the dock areas of the two cities look quite similar. <br /><br />"The people who built Bombay port went to Karachi and many stayed on," says Nandita Bhavnani, a researcher of Sindhi history.<br /><br />There are other affinities. Both cities are commercial capitals and cosmopolitan ports (although Karachi has a vast desert hinterland and is now ridden with sectarian violence) and have a similar architectural expression. <br /><br />"The colonial architecture of areas like Ballard Estate and Crawford Market are replicated, so in some places you feel you are in Mumbai," says architect Neera Adarkar, a member of the Pak-India People''s Forum.<br /><br />In the sisterly relationship, Mumbai was the dominant sibling. "Karachi was always shadowing Bombay, which was the role model," says Ms Bhavnani.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal">Adds sports writer Omar Kureishi, who grew up in Mumbai and moved to Karachi, "Karachi did not have the hustle of Bombay. It was, by comparison, a city that lacked an identity."<br /><br />Partition put paid to comparisons, made them memory. Ahilya Dattatrey Dhoble, 75, was born in Karachi and remembers sailing to Mumbai in 1948. <br /><br />"It was a tough journey, all sky and sea," she says. "And when I landed in Bombay? The crowds, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">baap re baap</span>."<br /><br />During those bloody months, the steamers were the safest mode of passage. "You couldn''t be attacked at sea," says Ms Bhavnani, adding that when Bombay was saturated with refugees, the ships would divert to Porbunder and Oka.<br /><br />Incredibly, the Mumbai-Karachi steamers continued to ply until the mid-''60s when the war broke. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal">By this time, the cities were already growing apart as if, Rushdie writes, the new borderline had cut through the landmass "as a taut wire cuts through cheese".<br /><br />Meanwhile, the migrant Sindhi community, much of which was settled in Ulhasnagar, prospered and gave Mumbai colleges like Jai Hind, K.C. and H.R., hospitals like Jaslok and Hinduja, and remarkably, the concept of today''s cooperative housing society, which they set up to cope with their huge housing needs.<br /><br />What will reviving the sea route do for the two cities? Peace activists have largely welcomed the move. <br /><br />"It''s a fine way of resuming people-to-people contact," says Admiral L. Ramdas, dismissing as a bogey the notion that terrorists will be able to infiltrate the country more easily.<br /><br />Instead, liberalising contact will expose citizens on both sides to the truth of the other and give the lie to demonised differences. "That''s when the real Berlin wall will fall," he says.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section5"><div class="Normal">"It''s exciting news and highly overdue," agrees Teesta Setalvad, co-editor of ‘Communalism Combat'', adding, "However, it needs to be sustained. The government has been alternating between hawkish and soft positions for the last year, so I hope it''s not cosmetic." <br /><br />Already, Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray has said that he will oppose both transport links and cricket matches between the two countries.<br /><br />Others say such efforts won''t help unless consulates are also opened up in the two cities and visas made easily available.<br /><br />Says Ms Advani, "It''s too much trouble to go all the way to Delhi or Islamabad to get a visa. And why should we?"<br /><br />Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan''s ‘Friday Times'', welcomes the restoration of any links but says that "it''s important for India to offer dialogue and without pre-conditions".<br /><br />He adds that the ferry is unlikely to materialise in the short term. "We''re still stuck on the issue of air and rail links, so where''s the question of a ferry?" he says.<br /><br />"To be taken seriously, governments must ensure that these ideas don''t evaporate in six months."<br /></div> </div>