IN spite of a long history of struggle and cooperation between Egypt and India, very few people in either country, especially young people, can recall any of this. Some may recall the Nasser and Nehru meetings, while others can even hardly remember the Egyptian-Israeli wars. But there's an old Indian politician and activist who will happily take you back to the good old days. Bhim Singh, who has visited 120 different countries, is one of the very few people in India who can tell you how the two nations were once able to shape world politics. Astonishingly, he can even recall some of Egypt's national songs and tell you exactly how the Egyptians used to deal with foreigners forty years ago. It wasn't only the two leaders who made these two peoples get to know each other well at the time; what helped was that each nation was aware of the struggle the other was going through. 'For me and many other Indians, Egypt wasn't a faraway country. It had some kind of romantic significance. I and many other young Indians like me dreamt of travelling to Egypt and cruising down the mighty Nile. “The struggle of the Egyptians against the imperial powers inspired us," says Singh, who is also an advocate of the Palestinian and Arab causes, adding that the world's leaders today lack the charisma of the likes of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and late Indian Prime Minister IndiraGandhi. "If the world still had Nasser and Indira, the problems in Iraq and Palestine would never have happened," explains Singh, who has visited Iraq, Palestine and Egypt several times. In 1967, Singh and a friend of his toured the world on a motorcycle to call for peace in the Middle East. They ended up in England, where Singh established the Afro-Asian Students and Youth Movement in London. "At that time, young people in India were aware of the Arab cause and we were against the autocracy of imperial powers," comments Singh, who admits that, over the past two decades, a gap has developed between the Arab world and Indians. "Very few of the younger generation [in India] know much about the causes in the Arab world," adds Singh, who still remembers his days in Egypt and Palestine, when he looked for a solution to the Palestinian cause. Thanks to a motorcycle accident, Singh was grounded in Egypt for nearly two months and was treated at a Cairo hospital for free. "This obligatory stay in Egypt was a turning point in my life. In hospital, I was able to get near to the Egyptian people, who were not interested about my race, religion and nationality. “Every day, visitors brought me sweets and fruit. They just came because they knew that I was a stranger without any family there. Even the Indian Embassy in Cairo at the time didn't assist me in the same way," recalls Singh, who recently visited the same hospital where he stayed forty years ago. "For me, the Arabs are the nearest people to us. I'll never forget being taken in a wheelchair, accompanied by the then Indian Ambassador, to listen to one of Nasser's speeches at Cairo University,” he added in a recent interview with the Egyptian Mail in New Delhi. "It was in 1968, shortly after the defeat in 1967. Nasser didn't seem happy. And even Arab countries had begun to annoy him. He kept saying that he wanted Egypt to be a socialist Islamic country. He said this more than ten times," Singh recalls, while quoting Nasser in Arabic and even imitating his charismatic voice and expressions. For the past fifty years, Singh, who has been an advocate in the Supreme Court since 1973 and is head of J&K National Panthers Party, has been defending justice and freedom, both in various parts of the world and in Jamo and Kashmir, which he calls home. Although he's got more than enough work to keep him busy at home, he has never forgotten the Arab world. He still visits different hot spots in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, meeting many Arab leaders and discussing peace with them. Singh's views of half a century ago haven't changed. He still believes that there can be peace in the region, if Israel fully withdraws from the occupied territories. "The world should also work together to end the problems in Iraq and reunite this great nation," explains Singh, who is currently involved in legal efforts to try and have Iraqi ex-Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, who was recently sentenced to death, released from prison. Singh himself was detained 54 times between 1959 to 2009, spending a total of eight years and four months in jails and police lock-ups. He recalls that he began his journey with only 3 pounds in his pocket. "I was fortunate to have my accident in Cairo, where I was treated for free; if not, it would have been a big problem for me," he says. “I wish every young Indian and Egyptian would look at the history of these developing countries and realise that they can only have an effect if they are united and have one voice.”
