The Yar Express of Thar

There are many railway links from British days that crisscross the present frontier between India and Pakistan, and India and Bangladesh. For decades, these have been dead-end lines on each side, and the hope has been that some day these lifelines of yesteryear would be revived to generate people-to-people contact among common folks. Air travel clearly does not contribute so much to building confidence, as evident from stagnating relationships despite the decades-long existence of air links between Karachi, Bombay, Lahore and Delhi.

A train link has three benefits: the common people get the opportunity to travel into the other country; it revives the contiguous crossborder contact, which is all-important for building inter-country empathy; and lastly, the volume of travelers will be at a quantum level higher with rail rather than with air (visa regimes permitting).

And so we were happy that on 17 February, the Thar Express began service between Munabao, in Rajasthan's Barmer District, and Khokrapar in Sindh. The master of ceremonies suggested that the service be called the 'Yar Express', which is a good idea because train services build friendships. The service had been halted with the 1965 war.

The existing Atari-Wagah rail crossing at the Punjab-Punjab point has always been seen as the minimalist contact point kept open by the two countries, grudgingly. The militaristic daily ritual at Atari-Wagah, with stomping boots and scowling sergeants, gives ample indication of this. Also, Atari-Wagah has always been seen as a nation-to-nation meeting point, whereas what the Munabao-Khokrapar line does is link up two secondary regions, away from the bilateral limelight. The fact that this line connects Sindh and Rajasthan shows the levels of confidence in New Delhi and Islamabad to allow linkages and contacts outside their strict control. This is extremely positive.

Hindu Singh Sodha is President of the Jodhpur-based Seemant Lok Sangathan (Border Peoples' Organisation). What he told a colleague at the train inaugural, we could not agree with more. He suggested that visas should be available locally rather than in New Delhi or Islamabad. He also emphasized the need to raise the frequency from the current once-a-week service (which is a travesty), and the starting of a maalgaadi (goods train) to promote trade between Sindh and Rajasthan.

The understandably enthusiastic employees of the North-Western Railways staged a Rajasthani dance drama in Munabao to mark the opening. They depicted a local folk hero, venerated by Hindus as Ramdev and by Muslims as Ram Shah Pir, which was followed by a recital of verses composed by Sindh's best-known Sufi bard, Shah Abdul Latif.

The vibes were good on the Munabao-Khokrapar line last month, and the trend towards upgrading this link through more trains, goods trains, more visas, more truncated lines opened — all this must happen. This is the least that can be done to undermine the undercurrents of distrust — which must, if possible, be kept stifled while the people make good.