by SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI
F C Kohli, founder of TCS, passed away at age 96. He deeply desired India-Pakistan cooperation in the technology sector.
In these days when India-Pakistan relations have gone into deep freeze — the longest and chilliest period of hostility in recent decades — we Indians recently read a heart-warming news from Peshawar. We were thrilled by the decision of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protect and renovate the ancestral houses of two proud sons of this historic city — Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, Bollywood’s greatest stars of yester-decades. In some fundamental ways, the heritage of Bollywood belongs as much to Pakistanis as it does to Indians. Sadly, the fanatical Hindutva forces in our country are now trying to erase not only its Pakistan links but also the Muslim contribution to its evolution and phenomenal worldwide reputation.
Lahore’s links that bind India and Pakistan are more numerous. Nobel laureate physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born in Lahore, and so was O P Nayyar, one of Bollywood’s greatest music composers. Another Nobel laureate, scientist Hargobind Khorana, studied in Lahore’s iconic Government College, and so did Dev Anand, a much-loved Bollywood hero. One can name many more, and yet the list would be incomplete.
But how many Pakistanis — specifically those from Peshawar and Lahore — have heard the name of Faqir Chand Kohli, the father of India’s information technology industry, who passed away in Mumbai on November 26 at the ripe old age of 96? Perhaps not many. Pakistanis take a lot of interest in the goings on of India’s movie industry. This is only natural. But at a time when Pakistan’s IT industry and its young IT professionals are realising their own tremendous growth potential, it may help to know a bit about the life and legacy of someone who was born and brought up on their soil, made it big in India, and who, moreover, fervently believed in peace, friendship and cooperation between India and Pakistan.
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