IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 51 (CULTURAL AWARENESS)

 IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 51 (CULTURAL AWARENESS)

“Khalse, your religion doesn't believe in co- existence," said a senior from South India.

"What makes you feel so, sir?" I inquired.

"Your people chant in Gurudwara, Raj karega khalsa baki rahe na koi."

I smiled and said, "In this it is not Baki but Aki which means impure. So, the sentence means that the pure (can be from any religion) will rule and the impure will cease to exist."

He didn't speak for a few seconds and then said, "I feel bad because I ill-treated some of the Sikhs when I was deployed in Punjab post 1984. I was carrying that bias in my head."

"Don't worry sir. "

 

I could still see regrets on his face so I said, "In 1994 I was deployed in South Kashmir. On a cold morning I asked a man moving on foot with his daughter, "Khidhar ja rahe ho (Where are you going?)"

 I was on road sensitization duty 2 kilometers South of Anantnag town. It was my fourth day in Kashmir. 

 

"Islamabad ja rahe hain (We are going to Islamabad)," said the man

My ego was on the boil I thought the man is taking advantage of my politeness. He is showing arrogance and defiance by saying that he is going across to Pakistan. I shouted at him for being anti national and asked him to go before I got angrier. When they were out of hearing distance my Havildar said,"Saab locals Anantnag ko Islamabad bhi bolte hain. (Saab, locals call Anantnag as Islamabad)"

I realised my mistake and shouted for the civilian to stop. I walked up to him and said, "I am very sorry that I shouted at you unnecessarily in front of your daughter."

The man was stunned and didn't say anything. I asked him to move on.

 

A few days later I got a letter in the complaint box placed outside my post. It was written by the girl who was with the man whom I apologised. She wrote that, when I scolded her father for no reason, she wanted to kill me but when I came back to apologise, her respect for me increased. From that day she would often drop a letter forewarning about offensive plans of the terrorists. She never met me in person.

While laying cordon of an isolated house in Kashmir at night, I saw a person (silhouette) coming out of the house. I thought our move into the stops has been detected. But I asked my soldiers to sit tight. Then the individual came near and started urinating. After urinating he hurled something towards us. Initially I thought that it is a grenade but nothing happened after it landed. I was about to shoot at him but held myself as no one from my team reacted. Later during the debrief I came to know that the locals after urinating rub the last drop of the urine with a stone and throw it. Thank God my team knew about it.

In the North East India there is a particular set of people where the women pee while standing.  

A patrol while searching a Shia village saw the photograph of General Qasem Soleimani of Iran in a few houses. They thought it is the photographs of some Pakistani General and started tearing those. This led to some protests by the locals.

 

We  often distribute toffees to the children while on patrol. I don't think it will ever happen but if we are deployed in Canada people take offense to any eatables offered to their children. Touching a child and clicking the photograph of kids is a problem. Worst is if address the female dog as 'bitch', the polite Canadian owner can be very impolite for they prefer the dog to be called a boy or a girl.

In Sri Lanka as per our Indian tradition one of our company offered drinking water to a local guest and he didn't like it because as per their tradition plain water is not offered to the guest.

Such cases of ignorance on the part of the soldiers can lead to a lot of problems while operating in counter terrorist operations. A lot of effort is made during the pre-induction training to teach about the culture, customs and traditions but there is a limit up to which a soldier can absorb. Sometimes the practical aspects are lifesaving. Again a data bank of such sensitivities / peculiarities should be cached and discussed time and again to refresh the memory of the freshly inducted.

-Brig PS Gothra (Retd)