Malinda Words: Enduring solidarities

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 220th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

Political borders were redrawn and certain assets were divided through the Indian Independence Act 1947. That’s what came to be known as the Partition of India, coinciding with the dissolution of the British Raj in the relevant territory. The logic or otherwise of this act has been debated endlessly since then. Words and bullets have traveled in both directions. All over a line drawn across a piece of paper and, with time, engraved in imagination associated with nation. Let’s not dwell on the bad news which has filled newspapers and clouded the airwaves.

There have been solidarities that have ignored borders. The wind passes over them, the sun minds not the foibles of the species. And, in rare moments, lines are made absolutely irrelevant.

I remember the year 1996. Many Sri Lankans, especially cricket fans, still talk of 1996 and Sri Lanka winning the Wills’ World Cup, defeating Australia in the final played in Lahore. And most of those who were glued to television sets throughout that tournament remember a moment when Sri Lanka was made to feel small by certain countries.

Australia and the West Indies refused to play in Sri Lanka citing security concerns. The two teams would forfeit their respective matches against Sri Lanka. Eventually, Australia beat the West Indies in one of the semi-finals and, as mentioned, went on to lose the final to Sri Lanka. A bit of poetic justice, one might say.

The better, more compelling and indeed indelible poetry came before the tournament started. India and Pakistan virtually said, ‘no, not in our region, we will not let anyone belittle Sri Lanka off the ground.’ A Wills’ India-Pakistan XI traveled to Colombo to play a friendly ODI against Sri Lanka.

Indians and Pakistanis played together, in a single team. They played together against Sri Lanka, that’s what the scoresheet shows. In fact they were all playing together, celebrating the sport they all loved but more than all that, celebrating commonalities that went beyond the game, the idea of a nation and even a region. Borders were crossed, yes, but then again one could say borders were erased.

India and Pakistan would rekindle the rivalry a few weeks later in a quarterfinal encounter. Obviously the citizens of each country would have cheered on their respective heroes. India won and faced Sri Lanka in the semifinal. Again, citizens would have cheered their teams. Sri Lanka won. The final was played in Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. It was as though Sri Lanka was playing at home, because the Pakistani fans overwhelmingly supported Arjuna Ranatunga and his men.

Somehow, somewhere, something had happened that made national boundaries meaningless. Put another way, one could argue that while the cartographers were not troubled and lines written on a piece of paper were not erased or altered, things that were bigger than borders and boundaries had been affirmed.

Notions of a larger South Asian political entity someday in the future, then? No. Nothing like that. It was, I feel, about solidarities that are not amenable to body-checking at borders.

On Monday the 11th of September, 2023, India thrashed Pakistan in a Super Four match of the Asia Cup in Colombo on the back of two spectacular centuries, one by Virat Kohli (122 not out) and K L Rahul (111 not out), and a splendid effort with the ball by Kuldeep Yadav who took 5 wickets for 25 off 8 overs. It would have pleased Indians and made Pakistanis sad.

A few days from now, the captain of either India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (they aren’t mathematically eliminated yet, despite having lost to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka) or Sri Lanka will lift the Asia Cup. The particular citizens would no doubt be thrilled and would feel proud of their team. At some level a few people would cheer something else: a home and home and home and home Super Four, a home and home final and the home team winning a trophy. That’s solidarity that cannot be scripted. That’s solidarity that cannot be legislated. That’s solidarity that endures.

And on that note, for what it is worth, led me add my voice to those who would love to see a full India-Pakistan series including tests, ODIs and T-20: ‘Come, play in Sri Lanka, this time not to send a message to those who willingly or otherwise belittled Sri Lanka, but to affirm a common regional love of cricket and by way of allowing Sri Lanka to say, yet once again, “Thank you India and thank you Pakistan for that memorable gesture 27 years ago.”’

13 September 2023

Enduring solidarities

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