If you partition east and west UP today … as two separate nations … even over a decade … differences are bound to occur … (may be you are not aware about the gulf of Lucknowi Tehzeeb and Delhvi tehzeeb and their differences) … and just as these differences are bound to widen if separated on India-Pakistan line … these differences are bound to disappear if rejoined on East and West Germany style… think again …!!!

I am a Roman Catholic, born in Goa but have lived in Delhi all my
life. My daddy left Portuguese Goa and was a Government servant.
Being a strong nationalist and a staunch Christian, he gave each of
his six children an Indian name and a Christian one. Thus I came to
be named Maria Fatima, after Our Lady of Fatima, however, the Fatima
took care of the Indian side I guess. As we lived in government
colonies, we had friends of every religion, community and hue and
never, ever did our parents try to instill in us that we were
different because we were Christians or insist we have Christian
friends as well, though I must confess that wasn’t always the case in
the convents I studied in.

However, my daddy would have never dreamt that the name he gave his
dearest daughter would end up being the bane of her life. I have
never felt, more than now, that you don’t have to be a Muslim or a
Christian to be looked upon with suspicion and disdain, you just need
to have a name that represents either religion. Over the years, I
have had my name struck of the electoral list twice, for being I don’t
know who, a muslim or a Christian. A policeman once asked me how a
‘musalmani’ could have a brother with a hindu name, an old lady, a
hindu, wanted to know how my parents could do me the gross injustice
of naming me ‘Fatima’ and ‘Chi, Chi’, I should change my name
immediately! While travelling abroad once, I was asked by the
immigration official, when was the last time I transferred money from
Kashmir! I was very surprised obviously and asked why Kashmir and to
where? The last time I travelled to Australia via Malaysia I was
stopped by the customs officials for what they called a routine
questioning of travellers picked by some random system. Though my
destination was Australia, they kept harping on why via Malaysia. Are
they so stupid - I was travelling Malaysian which stops at KL! I
understood fast enough it had something to do with my name and the
lady who questioned me, nodded silently when I asked her about it at
the end. It was only when they saw the place of birth on my passport
did they realise I was a Christian and till then at least, no one
wanted to burn or kill us. All this and more.

I was so scared that night, I could have looked guilty for no reason
at all. Over the past few months, I have started feeling insecure for
the first time in my life and tend to choose which part of my name I
should introduce myself with depending on whom I’m meeting. I have
very often enough thought of changing my name, the old lady would
smile wherever she is, except that changing paperwork of 54 years is a
deterrent - an what the heck, I love my name!

Fatima Pais

it is true that punjabi liberals often make this noise about Indians and Pakistanis being the same people. it perhaps enables (indian) Punjabis to claim a larger community than just that of Indian Punjabis.

but what you is condescending. it is in fact kicking a man when he is down. we all know pakistan is going through a difficult time…and this is not the time for beggar-thy-neigbour talk.

let me deal with the trivia first. This story about Gulzar / Sampooran Singh, and why he took that name. He is a poet and that’s his pseudonym. i think the story of making up for hate is just romanticizing something. The word gulzar is an urdu word. In Punjab it has nothing to do with Muslim/ Islam. He comes from the punjab which (on either side of the border today) has an urdu influence. Firaq Gorakkpuri (from the cow belt) .. another famous poet / shaayar.. his name was Raghupati Sahay, and Firaq had no story of hate.

One must also remember , in India, Sikhs are in no way a minority in the same way as Muslims are.

So we see iqbal singh is a common name in punjab . our own old favourite from bollywood .. dara singh.. derives his name from emeperor darius of persia and later dara shikoh… aurangzebs brother. My own father was named Fateh (meaning victory in urdu and persian) as was one of the kings of Mewar/ Rajputana : Fateh Singh. So this is the influence of the Mughals and urdu.. no specific love for Islam or Muslims.

now lets talk specifics
the slum dog story… you use this to say we don’t care in India whether a person is a Hindu or a muslin. the fact is that we do very much care. if a Muslim once in a while rises to prominence, we hoist that like a flag for the world to see and acknowledge that we are a “secular” society. we so love our Muslims when they are successful.. we did it when we made APJ Kalam the president. But Vir Sanghvi probably wont lift a finger when Varun Gandhi badmouths the Muslims.
In contrast to what Sanghvi says, I feel that Hindus today are a lot less tolerant of Muslims than they were at the time of Independence. It may have to do with the tragic story of the partition, the 3 wars with Pakistan , Kashmir and Islamic terrorists. But it CERTAINLY has to do with our political parties dividing us for votes. And the main culprits here are Congress and BJP (including its earlier avatars)

And here is the story of why Dilip Kumar changed his name. (http://movies.indiainfo.com/tales/0611_dilip-kumar.html) Back home Yusuf decided she wasn’t interested and was wondering whether to start another canteen when he got a letter from Bombay Talkies. Devika Rani wanted to meet him again. Reluctantly, Yusuf dragged himself to the studios and was shocked when Devika Rani greeted him with a piece of paper that turned out to be a contract. He was being signed by Bombay Talkies to play the lead opposite a new girl Mridula in their next film, Jwar Bhata. There was only one condition. He’d have to change his name. Devika Rani had three names waiting-Jehangir, Vasudev and Dilip

No… it wasn’t fear of prejudice . One of the alternatives Devika rani offered was Jehangir. Yusuf probably chose Dilip because that name was associated with royalty in the area that yusuf was born.. Maharaja Dilip Singh of Punjab.

The attack on the Srilankan team. I don’t see the logic of claiming Indians and Pakistanis are NOT the same people (and by induction that Indians are superior) just because no foreign cricket team has been attacked in India. We have multiple flashpoints in India too: Naxalbari, Telengana, North east, Godhra. In the name of religion, ideology, community, caste and race, Indians kill more Indians every year than possibly any other people. Hindus kill Hindus in caste conflicts , Hindus kill Muslims (Godhra, Malegaon) ), Hindus kill Christians (Orissa), Muslims kill Hindus (terror attacks in Bombay, Gujarat, Hyderbad, Jaipur, Delhi, Varanasi). Now Mr Sanghvi you will refer to the foreign hand (read ISI Pakistan), but the fact is that the people who actually carried out the terror attacks were Indian. But I wonder if you would then say that Muslims are not Indians !!

So , Mr Sanghvi, let us not gloat and stand on moral high ground of dubious foundations. Before we caste stones at Pakistan, let us turn our gaze inwards. As I mentioned before , we have , since Independence, actually moved away from religious equality.

Yes, the Pakistani’s have taken the wrong direction in their development as a Nation: Religion and nationhood have been at conflict down the ages. Unfortunately, they started on thier journey to “Nationhood” by demanding separation on the basis of religion. And they continued on the same path. (actually they intensified that course over the last two decades in response to other societal failures).

The Pakistanis are our estranged “Cousins” nonetheless. Gone astray, yes.
But should we gloat over it (Hindi Film Style) or watch the developments apprehensively, and just wring our hands? Or lend a helping hand Or may be even bring them back into the warmth and comfrot of the larger “Joint family” or Biradari?
These are some of the choices that will be made in the coming years - again with their respective consequences!!!