August 15: Devon Street in Chicago's midtown Loyola area is one road that adopts two names. Further west towards Lincolnwood, Devon Street is called Gandhi Marg. And down east towards Lake Michigan, it is named Jinnah Road. The twain meet at the 2600 block. The story goes that some years back, when the Indian community in Chicago wanted Devon Street, with its profusion of shops and stores from the sub-continent, to be named after the Mahatma, the Pakistani contingent popped up with a demand that half the street be named after the Quaid-E-Azam.

Fortunately, no blood was shed on the issue. The city council decided to honour both leaders and humour both communities. After all, in the city maps, Devon Street still remains just that Devon Street. And not even Indians and Pakistanis refer to their joint pocketborough by any other appellation.

Indeed, all down the two-mile stretch that constitutes Devon, Indian and Pakistani stores co-exist side-by-side. Dasaprakash Hotel (pure vegetarian) is right across the street from Halal Specialty. And Saheli Boutique rests alongside Shere-e-Punjab restaurant. On the eve of the Pakistani and Indian golden jubilee celebrations, flags of the two countries flutter randomly atop sundry establishments. There are no loudspeakers. No one has cast a first stone or desecrated anything. Devon Street hums with commerce and the resultant ringing of the cash registers. Everyone is on the make.

So it is across much of the US where Indians and Pakistanis are largely at peace, immune from the pap and propaganda that seems to poison so many minds back home. In fact, in New York city, Indians and Pakistanis dominate the cab trade, having cornered more than 60 per cent of the city's 12,000 cabs. As their short-wave radios crackle with banter and friendly abuse in their native Punjabi, it's hard to say which side of the border they come from, especially since so many Indians are clean-cut Sikhs. In any case, it does not seem to matter.

Unofficial estimates put the Indian population in the US at 1.5 million. The Pakistanis are an estimated 200,000. Although Indians were the first to take advantage of the liberal immigration policies of the 60s to come to the US in droves, helped by the fact that they were a well qualified white collar work force, Pakistanis have been streaming in steadily in increasing numbers of late.

According to the 1990 US census, while the New York area had some 200,000 Indian residence, the Pakistanis were only about a tenth of the number at 22,000. But since then, for every two Indians, one Pakistani is coming into the area. City officials say from 1990 to 1994, some 7,500 Pakistani immigrants have moved in compared to 14,500 Indians, thanks to special quotas for Pakistan under special immigration categories.

That would still put the Indian immigrant population way ahead of the Pakistanis. But all across the US, the two communities co-exist peacefully, often side by side, often interdependently. In many cases, Indian organisations and associations go out of the way to invite Pakistani participation and often expand their outfits to incorporate all of South Asia. When Indian professionals from the Washington area wanted to start a chapter of a nationwide network, they preferred to call it the Network of South Asian Professionals (NET-SAP) instead of the NET-IP rubric in many cities. Likewise the New York-based South Asia Journalists Association. Even an organisation devoted to sexual preferences fell in line, calling itself the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association (SALGA).

In many cases, Indian and Pakistanis establishments are interdependent. Most Pakistanis shop in Indian grocery stores, and many Indians prefer Pakistani basmati rice to their own. In Washington, one of the favourite hangouts for Indians is Islamabad Cafe, a dinky Pak joint on U street that makes fingerlicking good kabobs. In New York's Sam and Raj, a pioneering Indian electronic goods shops owned by orthodox Gujaratis and which sell 220 volt appliances to Indians returning home, the store manager is Atif Hasan, a Pakistani who joined the store in 1973 as a salesman.

Of course, there are the occasional brushes. Students at Virginia's George Mason University still talk of a cricket match between an Indian and Pakistani eleven on the campus that ended in blows and flying rugby tackles. But such occasions are rare. These days, with cable outfits telecasting live one-days from any part of the world, Indians and Pakistanis sit together and watch their teams being creamed by the Sri Lankans. Another big unifier is music and movies. The big Hindi movies like Mrityudaata, Yes Boss and Mrityudand are simul-released in the US and Pakistanis line up with Indians to enjoy the trash. Says Sarfaraz Ahmed, who came to Washington DC from Lahore via New York and drives a cab: "As long as we do not discuss politics, we are like brothers."

That's a tough order though, particularly in a place like the World Bank cafeteria, where Indians and Pakistanis occasionally jaw-jaw over Kashmir and disagree heartily. In fact, this has been a particularly hard week for the Pakistanis. There has been a surfeit of coverage on the region's golden jubilee almost all of it centering exclusively on India. The few references to Pakistan, always in the context of India, have cast the country in poor light. While this is understandable to many because of the conditions under which Pakistan was created, it has embittered many second-generation Pakistanis here. It is almost as if we were inconsequential.

Everything about the region is so negative, fumed Rahal Mueen, who works with an NGO organisation in Washington. Still, that has not stopped many Indians from joining in the Pakistani celebrations. Last Sunday, some 10,000 subcontinentals gathered at New York's Battery Park for the Pakistani Day festival. And come this Sunday, an India Day parade will make its way down Madison Avenue with Amitabh Bachchan as the Grand Marshal. Indians and Pakistanis may find it difficult to meet even at the Wagah border. But out here in Manhattan, no problem.

Echoes in the South-EastÎPREMA VIHSWANATHAN®August 15: Echoing the celebratory mood in New Delhi, Indians in South-East Asia marked the golden anniversary of India's Independence with a fervour that was far from ritualistic.

Whether it was Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, the crowds that turned up at the respective chanceries this morning to witness the hoisting of the tricolour were conspicuous by their huge numbers.

Despite the fact that it was a working day, as many as 500 turned up in Bangkok, 450 in Jakarta, 400 in Singapore and 200 in Kuala Lumpur -- more than twice the number that had marked its presence on earlier occasions. An equal number -- and in some cases much more -- turned up at the receptions hosted by the ambassadors and high commissioners. In contrast, the Pakistani National Day celebrations in these cities were rather low key -- a reflection perhaps of the relatively small proportion of Pakistanis in these countries.

In addition to the singing of the national anthem and the intoning of the President's address by the Indian ambassadors and high commissioners, in several capitals, the gathering gave vent to its nationalistic sentiments by dipping into India's vast repertoire of patriotic songs. In Bangkok, Ambassador Ranjit Gupta paid tribute to three freedom fighters -- former officers of the Indian National Army who had settled in Thailand -- and introduced them to the gathering of expatriates and NRIs after the flag hoisting ceremony.

In Singapore, the huge turnout at High Commissioner Prem Singh's residence last night included Minister Teo Chee Hean, several foreign dignitaries and the creme de la creme of the Indian and Singaporean business community.

A commemorative volume titled, India; A New Vision, sponsored by the High Commission and published by Resources Venture Pte Ltd., was distributed among the guests.

The celebrations in Kuala Lumpur saw an unexpected feature this year. For the first time ever, the Independence Day Parade from Rajpath to Parliament House was carried live by DTH Astro. The three-hour programme took the uplink from Doordarshan but was anchored in Kuala Lumpur by none other than the TV personality-turned-deputy high commissioner Deepak Vohra. In Jakarta, the India-Indonesia Friendship Association joined hands with Ambassador S.T. Devare to organise a reception-cum-cultural programme, where the guest of honour was Indonesia's Foreign Minister Alik Alatas.

Major newspapers in all these cities carried special commemorative supplements to mark the 50th year of India's Independence.

There was also considerable coverage in the editorial columns of the print media and the local TV channels in most South East Asian countries, with the high commissioners and ambassadors being interviewed by radio and television on their perception of where Independent India was headed in its golden jubilee year.

The celebrations were kicked off on August 13, when a visiting cultural troupe from New Delhi performed Bharata Natyam and sitar recitals in the City State. In Kuala Lumpur, High Commissioner P.S. Sahai played host to several VIPs, including two Malaysian ministers.

Today's proceedings mark only the beginning of a year-long series of programmes that include cultural performances and seminars, as much to celebrate the historic event as to reforge the close links that India has developed with the region.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.