NEW DELHI: A group of young citizens from Karachi and Mumbai have come together to organise cultural exchanges between the two, including a joint campaign to convert the Jinnah House in Mumbai into a hub of peace.

The Mumbai-Karachi Friendship Forum is being promoted by the well-connected Obser­ver Research Foundation-Mumbai, its chairman Sudheendra Kulkarni announced on Tuesday.

“Our latest initiative is the establishment of the Mumbai-Karachi Friendship Forum, which seeks to revive the rich shared history between the two Gateway Cities of India and Pakistan,” Mr Kulkarni told a news conference in Mumbai.

“There exists much scope, also a pressing need, to strengthen the common cultural lineage, social bonds and potential business cooperation between the two cities,” he said, brushing aside protests by the Shiv Sena. Its workers had attacked his car and shouted “Pakistan murdabad”.

The objective of the new forum will be to promote and support the ongoing efforts of the two governments to usher in peaceful ties.

“We urge immediate resumption of the bilateral dialogue on all issues — including elimination of terrorism and religious extremism, and peaceful resolution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir,” Mr Kulkarni said.

“However, we also believe that normalisation of India-Pakistan relations cannot be left to governments and diplomats alone; people-to-people contacts and dialogue also must be expanded in a big way,” he said.

The ORF is promoted by the powerful Reliance group. The new group believes that peace, prosperity and stability in the entire South Asian region depend on early normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan.

“The Mumbai-Karachi Friendship Forum is a small step in this direction,” Mr Kulkarni said.

The forum’s first-of-its-kind peacemaking project is called ‘Tasveer-i-Mumbai’ (Images of Mumbai) and ‘Tasveer-i-Karachi’ (Images of Karachi). Under this project, ORF has sponsored five eminent photographers from Karachi to come to Mumbai and five eminent photographers from Mumbai to visit Karachi.

The Pakistani contingent arrived in Mumbai on June 20 and will return on June 30. The Indian contingent is expected to travel to Karachi in the first half of July.

Their photographs will be curated by a panel for exhibitions to be held simultaneously in the two cities during the fortnight of the Indian and Pakistani independence days — 15th and 14th August.

The participating photographers are: Chirodeep Chauduri, photo editor, Nat Geo (India); Malika Abbas, photojournalist, Dawn; Indranil Mukherjee, senior photojournalist, AFP; Farah Mahbub, fine art photographer and educator; Prashant Nakwe, photo editor, The Hindu; Amean J., fashion photographer; S.L. Shanth Kumar, photojournalist, Times of India; Mobeen Ansari, photojournalist and storyteller; Harkiran Singh Bhasin, documentary photographer; and Malcolm Hutcheson, documentary photographer.

The Pakistani photographers spent a week exploring the city of Mumbai through their creative lens. They were able to witness first hand Mumbai’s thriving Urdu culture at an inter-faith iftar organised at Bhendi Bazaar by Urdu Markaz and ORF Mumbai.

They got a glimpse of Bollywood through an interaction with director Kabir Khan, maker of the super-hit film ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, and by attending a film shoot at Mehboob Studio.

Some of the planned activities of the forum are Marathi/Gujarati/Urdu/Parsi Festivals in Karachi in cooperation with the respective communities living there.

A campaign to demand the opening of the Indian consulate in Karachi and the Pakistani consulate in Mumbai is also planned.

A similar campaign will seek to convert the Jinnah House in Mumbai into an India-Pakistan Friendship Centre, Mr Kulkarni said.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016