Doon Online - India - Pakistan: Old School Ties Survive Three Wars

By Beena Sarwar

Old school ties forged before the subcontinent's bloody partition in 1947 have endured three wars and a persisting cold war between India and Pakistan.

Former students of the then Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (RIMC) who went on to become army generals and political and business leaders in their separate countries met in this Pakistani city last month.

One of the chief organizers of the 10-day "private" reunion of "Rimcollians" in Pakistan was Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar, a retired major general. The visitors included ex-Indian army officers, one of them a former army chief.

The RIMC in Dehra Dun, India, was renamed the Rashtriya Indian Military College after India gained independence from colonial British rule. The departing British divided the subcontinent to create Pakistan.

Relations between the two countries have always been tense, but old school loyalties seem to have weathered the ups and downs.

Last November, greying "old boys" (called Doscos) of the Doon School from both sides of the border gathered together at their alma mater, also in Dehra Dun.

In fact, many of the subcontinent's influential people born before 1947 have been schooled in these elite English-language public schools set up by the British while they still ruled India.

At least 10 of the visiting Rimcollians went on to become Indian Army generals. Their leader, retired Major General Virendra Singh, said his hosts "laid out the red carpet." Inter Press Service, April 9, 1996

Thanks to Pakistan's interior minister, himself a Rimcollian, the tedious process of issuing visas was expedited, and as a special gesture the Indian visitors were exempted from having to report to the police on arrival and departure, a mandatory requirement for travellers from both sides of the India-Pakistan border.

"We overcame another difficult hurdle, that of crossing the border by road," exulted India's Colonel (Retd.) Jasbir Khurana, who recently revived the Old Boys Association Newsletter.

The Indians travelled in two vans from Amritsar to the Wagah checkpoint, where their hosts were waiting to transport them to Lahore. It is only 50 kilometers from Amritsar to Lahore, but travellers are allowed to cross the frontier only by train or by air.

Among Pakistan's Rimcollians are former Foreign Minister Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, former air marshals Nur Khan and Asghar Khan, ex-Foreign Secretary Shahryar Khan, former army chief Gen. Gul Hasan and at least two former state governors of general rank.

Though strictly "non-political", the reunion set some new precedents. For the first time, enduring old school ties enabled ex-officers of the rival armies to meet in their own countries.

And considering there is no love lost between their governments, it is significant that both Islamabad and New Delhi allowed the reunion of Rimcollians in Lahore.

"It is a breakthrough," declares retired Major General Ashok Mehta, who led the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s. "We never thought all of us would get permission."

The Indians stayed at the home of their Pakistani hosts, many of whom they were meeting for the first time. This is not the first time Rimcollians have been to each others' countries, but previously the visits were in small groups or as individuals.

The first significant contact was in 1983 when "three or four" old boys visited Pakistan for a cricket match on the invitation of another Rimcollian, former Air Marshal Nur Khan, who headed the cricket board at the time.

In 1990, 18 Pakistani Rimcollians, many of them with their wives and children, went to India for a school reunion in Dehra Dun, when an old boy, General V.N. Sharma, was Indian Army Chief. Interestingly Pakistan's Foreign Inter Press Service, April 9, 1996

Minister at that time, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, was himself a Rimcollian.

A year later, Brigadier Mukhtar Karim, who runs the Adventure Foundation in Pakistan, was invited to attend an international Hot Air Balloon Mela (fair) in New Delhi. "Both the Indian and Pakistani balloons rose together," he said, showing a photograph of the occasion.

What do visits like this accomplish? Better understanding, besides preparations for the visit of Pakistani Rimcollians to India in 1997 for RIMC's platinum jubilee celebrations at Dehradun, say the Rimcollians.

Does this mean that the acrimonious relations between India and Pakistan are finally thawing?

Saber-rattling politicians on both sides continue to keep tensions high. But small groups of people on both sides of the border like the Rimcollians are trying to bridge the divide.

"Politics isn't our mission," said Indian Rimcollian Bikram Singh, whose family owned Lahore's prestigious Civil and Military Gazette daily before the Partition. "But this visit can definitely be considered a CBM (confidence building measure) which may clear the way for peace."