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archive: It's their war too

It's their war too

Swapan Dasgupta
India Today
July 19, 1999


    Title: It's their war too
    Author: Swapan Dasgupta
    Publication: India Today
    Date: July 19, 1999 
    
    For the 500 or so villagers of Jaati Umra, the ancestral village of
    Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Punjab's Amritsar district,
    history is moving a bit too fast.  In March, they had assembled before
    their gurdwara to offer prayers for the success of Prime Minister Atal
    Bihari Vajpayee's bus diplomacy with Pakistan.  Last month, they
    gathered again before the gurdwara but this time the mood was
    belligerent.  "It's not time for prayers now but for preparing
    youngsters for war, " said village elder Arjun Singh.  At the village
    school, the children carefully copy "Kargil hamara hai" and "jai
    jawan" on their slates.  "This is the only relevant lesson now," says
    school teacher Naajar Singh.
    
    Jaati Umra was once a hotbed of Khalistani terrorism.  Yet, today, its
    residents spout the rhetoric of Hindustan Ki Kasam.  That's how Kargil
    has changed the popular mood.  Throughout the country, from Ladakh to
    Nagaland, India is engulfed in a patriotic frenzy.  From 34-year-old
    Hemal Rajpopat, managing director of a Mumbai entertainment company,
    who is obsessed with countering Pakistan propaganda on websites, to
    23-year-old Shibani Mishra of Cuttack who donated her wedding
    jewellery to the war effort, Kargil has become the people's war.  From
    yesterday's separatist to today's global citizen, the conflict has
    forced a rediscovery of India.  The jawans righting against heavy odds
    in the inhospitable terrain have brought about a heady emotional
    binding.  The national feeling, which many assumed was lost in a sea
    of chicanery, cynicism and disgust, has suddenly resurfaced.  "It is a
    tremendous feeling to be a part of this war," says the Assam
    Regiment's Tinu Naga, 22, from Mongkolamba village in Nagaland, "You
    are single-minded like never before."
    
    Documenting this emotional upsurge is daunting.  Al-most every
    locality in the country has a touching story to tell.  Of valour,
    sacrifice and solidarity.  INDIA TODAY correspondents travelled
    through the country to record a small fraction of how the war is being
    fought on the home front.  Of how it has taken a war to make us
    realise a basic truth-that we love India.  Our India.
    



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