NEW DELHI, MARCH 20 : India and Pakistan may have got a divided freedom from the colonial rule, but they seem to be in agreement over the subcontinent’s first war of independence — 1857.

The Jamiat Ulema of India and Pakistan are coming together to celebrate 150 years of the first organised and revolt against the British rule that year. The Jamiat groups across the border are in talks and the final details of how to mark the occasion are expected to be worked out when the Pakistan side visits New Delhi next month.

The idea was floated by Mehmood Madani, the national general-secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind and Rajya Sabha MP, during a visit to Pakistan earlier this year.

“We are discussing how to jointly celebrate 150 years of 1857 and will have a definite plan when the Jamiat team from Pakistan visit us next month,” Madani told The Indian Express.

The move suggests that the Jamiat groups on either side are letting go of some past bitterness.

Founded in 1919, Jamait Ulema-i-Hind was the parent organisation. One of the Jamiat leaders, Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, then split from the group in 1937 and formed the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in Dhaka in 1940. The move was in line with the Muslim League’s two-nation theory that was gaining widespread legitimacy in north India during World War II.

Ulema-i-Hind, however, differed in that it was “culture and not religion” that defined a nation. After the Partition, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam went to Pakistan.

Despite Ulema-e-Islam’s hardline image in Pakistan, its Indian counterpart has had no problem in inviting them over as it sees the group only as a “religious” entity. More recently, the bonhomie over 1857 may have its roots in the 2003 visit of Ulema-e-Islam chief Fazal-ur-Rehman to India.