I wrote this article as a response to one of the comments on our chat room ” namaskar” online -where I posted it
26 December 2019
Building Bridges
It is always nice to be positive .
With all the discussions on the subject of Citizen Amendment Bill in India – a lot has been said and finally we are encouraged to ” In this SEASON OF GOODWILL, all our efforts need to be directed at UNITING and NOT DIVIDING people. Let us build bridges to unite peoples rather than barriers to divide them.” by Mervyn Maciel in his post on “Namaskar”.
This is an exceptional thought .
However , being a Professional Civil Engineer and also having designed and built a few bridges , I can vouch that to build a good and safe bridge one needs good foundations at each side and a bridge which is correctly designed and built . That need a lot of effort and also various techniques / technology .
In my outlook, for those of us who are of Indian ancestry , there are two main bridges which need to be built .
1) Between Pakistan and India and
2) between the majority community (the Hindus) and minorities (mainly Muslims) in India.
Note : You will all agree that the issue of relation between a majority community and a minority is an burning issue in all countries of the sub-continent but only in India -this is discussed freely as it is an open society and mature democracy and politics plays a part leading to everyone getting on the bandwagon tooting his or her opinion with a clarion call. No other country in the sub-continent (including Pakistan) allows unbridled free expression .
Building bridges
For the subcontinent the two shores 1) Pakistan and 2) India are ” seemingly ” fractious and weak in their perception of reality – depending on from which side the problem is looked at. So to build solid foundations at each shore — one requires special preparations and different approach . That requires special knowledge and experience of previously built bridges elsewhere.
All other countries of the sub-continent are small and remain aloof in helping to build the most important bridge – that is the friendship between these two big countries.
We need the Indian sub-continent to move towards peace and prosperity .
- There is a lot of history in the partition of India , before, during and after. I cannot cover all – as it is the my article (given below) is long and thus I have not touched on nuclear weapons , Chinese assistance to Pakistan for its nuclear and missile capabilities , and betrayal of Vajpayee after his visit to Pakistan for peace ( remember the Kargil invasion by Pakistan) etc. In India, many riots resulting in many deaths .
We only hope that peace will happen and bridges will be built by overlooking the past and thinking of the future and progress of all the South Asian countries. Some adjustments are needed and some patience is needed and elimination of terrorism is a must – willingly rather than by use of force. Extremism in religious dogmas in 21st Century is a pain in the rear end.
Now let us look at the ground reality – as I see it .
Unfortunately , I am not an expert nor an academician to properly or correctly assess or talk about this reality. What I have learnt is from many years of following events and issues of the sub-continent . Again my understanding may be coloured or prejudiced from my being a Jain/Hindu and a descendent of an Indian Kenyan – whose roots were removed from India almost a century ago. Remember , In Kenya – all Indians ( pre-partition) remained friendly and supportive of each other without wearing their faith/religion or caste on their sleeves. Same is true for those who migrated (away from East Africa) subsequently to other countries especially to western countries.
Right now , it appears that a possibility for building a bridge between these two countries is remote though not impossible . They have gone a long way opposite from mutual trust and confidence in each other .
The India partition is the British Empire’s Child .
In my opinion , India should thank United Kingdom for its imperialistic move towards partition of its Indian domain. At the time of independence , this was not visible or perceived as most Indians ( mostly Hindus) were dreaming of ” Akhand Bharat ” – their ancient country many millennium ago. Akhand Bharat (or Akhand Hindustan) is an irredentist term meaning “Undivided India” .
However, after over now more than 70 years of Independence , it is realized that if India had remained undivided territorially at independence , the whole country would have exploded and splintered into many parts -as Muslim population would have numbered more than 35% of the total and they would have created a very chaotic mayhem – aided by their Muslim brothers in Middle East and elsewhere . Besides imperialistic Britain would have dipped its fingers into the chaos and found a renewed footing in the sub-continent . Complicating the situation , there would have been disputes galore between many small kingdoms ( headed by a “raja ” or a “sheikh” ) and linguistically different states -all pulling for their own selfish bonanza.
So in short , India should remain forever thankful to Pakistan for its creation – it took away the fundamentalist and arrogant Muslims away from India and concentrated in a confined space which can somehow be managed – at least that is the outcome most desired. There were a sizeable Muslim population which remained in India at independence – which is believed to unfortunately have not harmoniously assimilated in the Indian ethos or nationalistic fervor and viewpoint.
With Pakistan moving towards radicalization from the very onset of partition ( immediately after the death of Mr. Jinnah – their independence leader ) and its coveting desire for annexing Kashmir prematurely led to wars with India. Pakistan was under belief that Hindus are weak – one Muslim is stronger than 12 Hindus – that was the idiom they had proliferated .
Most in Pakistan were (and are even now) so radicalized that they did (do) not want to associate at all with India and looked to Arabs as their ancestors and dumped their Indian heritage – even though most of these have been converted from Hindus by coercion and by inflicting major torturous atrocities on Hindus by various Muslim invaders and their ilk . Many Pakistanis have propagated themselves as descendent of these cruel invaders .
That’s the rub – How can a bridge be built?
In Pakistan , History books were changed since many years to reflect this false narrative for young Pakistanis to be completely removed from their association from India .
Further, Pakistanis were also mesmerized by the call for Pakistanis to retake India from the weak Hindus The ambition was to reestablish Muslim rule in India – similar to what was before during Mughal time.
India should thank Pakistan for this unfortunate/unusual call – as this probably resulted in Sardar Vallbhabhai’s success in persuading almost every princely state to accede to India. Sardar Patel was the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. He led the task of forging a united India, successfully integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces that had been “allocated” to India. Besides those provinces that had been under direct British rule, approximately 565 self-governing princely states had been released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act of 1947.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had a predominantly Muslim population but a Hindu leader, shared borders with both India and West Pakistan. The argument over which nation would incorporate the state led to the first incursion by Pakistan forces into Kashmir which led to India-Pakistan War in 1947”“48.
Now most of the Indian forces were diverted to Kashmir sphere – with the backdrop of India’s foreign policy of non-alignment along with effort to develop friendship with China and the coinage of “Hindi-Chini bhai bhai ” dictum. However, China betrayed that dictum and attacked India in 1962 over border dispute and defeating India badly .
This encouraged Pakistan to start a war with India in 1965. The conflict began following Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. No one won this war but with Line of Control established dividing Kashmir into two parts.
All that pushed Nehru’s doctrine of peaceful friendly relations with nations of the world out of the window. So with Gandiji’s pacifist doctrine and Nehru naiveté –India was not prepared for wars and its army was ill-equipped. This all was finally dumped and India moved to procure sophisticated armaments and equipment including air force planes. Of Course America was NOT happy to help India and that led to India – Soviet Union coming together on military supplies. It must be realized that Gandhiji’s constant refrain in favour of Pakistan after the partition led eventually to his untimely and unfortunate assassination by a Hindu zealot in 1948.
Gandhiji ‘s motto always was to Hindu Muslim amity and he had integrated Alla in his prayers along with Jesus and Ram. in !915 he started the India’s struggle for India’s independence with many twists and turns but always keeping human dignity and love for all as the pillar of his struggle, Unfortunately, most Muslims of India ( and that include those in present day Pakistan & BanglaDesh ) never quite reciprocated his call for amity. They used his humanity as a joke and played to have a separate homeland and ridicule Hindus for their so-called weakness. Gandhiji was a non-violent & peace loving person and not like Mao of China or Stalin of Russia who knew who were their enemies and eliminated them . Gandhiji would go to any length to placate the Muslims so a united India can be had. These people fooled him and also Nehru too. So the partition .
After partition , the Pakistan’s political situation was shaky and military government took over . Pakistan has spent several decades under military rule (1958 ”“ 1971, 1977 ”“ 1988, 1999 ”“ 2008).
Gen. Ayub Khan — 1958 – 1971
General Zia-ul-Haq —- 1977-1988
Gen. Pervez Musharraf —- 1999-2008
During Gen Ayub Khan’s time – the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of 25 March 1971. It pursued the systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, religious minorities and armed personnel. A genocidal attack on their own people ! Indian military intervened and aided the Pakistani Bengalis to fight the barbaric attack on civilians. The war ended on 16 December 1971 with some 91000 Pakistani soldiers s surrendering to the Indian military. This was despite American siding with the genocidal regime in Pakistan .
East Pakistan separated from Pakistan and became a new nation – Bangladesh
This resulted in the destruction of the notion perpetrated by Pakistan (and some Muslims in India) that 1 (one) Muslim is stronger than 12 Hindus. What a come down ! This humiliation of defeat and surrender of Pakistani military personnel to the Indian military – is still a strong resenting issue within Pakistan. India should thank Pakistan for this opportunity to remove the myth in their collective narrative.
During General Zia-ul-Haq time – the Russians took over Afghanistan (in 1979) and American wanted to remove them – for this the radicalized Pakistan got an opportunity to join the Americans . The Indians had proclaimed itself to be non-aligned at early years of independence and Americans took it wrongly and bracketed India with Russians.
For Americans Pakistan was a friendlier country and an ally. This led to Pakistan becoming stronger with infusion of latest American weapons and also training of Mujahideen fighters for Afghanistan.
Once the Russians quit Afghanistan in 1989 , the Americans left Pakistan in the lurch – with thousands of Mujahideen fighters left loose. There was fundamentalist development and Pakistan had many these Mujahideen fighters and Pakistan took the opportunity to divert them to Kashmir and sent them as terrorists to disrupt Indian rule in their part of Kashmir. However, the Mujahideen fighters also created havoc in Pakistan with thousands killed within Pakistan – more than what they could inflict on India . This situation In Pakistan was God sent to India because it showed to the Indian Muslims as to the real nature of Pakistanis and it was not worth siding with Pakistan – as the Muslims of India would not be spared from abuse. Already Pakistan under General Zia-ul-Haq had declared Ahmadis as not Muslims and Mohajirs (Muslims from Indian Bihar) settled in Pakistan Sindh province were being harassed and also the shias in Pakistan were killed many times by Mujahideen terrorists.
For some years after India’s independence, the Indian Muslims acted like a 5th Column in India for Pakistan . They would cheer loudly Pakistan cricket teams against India , help in many terrorist activities that Pakistan perpetrated in India and bullied Hindus whenever they desire . They talk with ” in your face ” attitude. They carried on their shoulders – the glow of Mughal rule in India and look down on The Hindus. They missed the part that Hindus are the majority community in India and they are their neighbours and for them to live peacefully it is in their interest to be friendly with the neighbours – especially those who are in power . In fact they went opposite for many years – deliberately rioting, creating mayhem and killings of Hindus -all copy of what Pakistanis were encouraging. However, slowly but definitely Hindus started retaliating , and with Pakistan itself in dire state it did not or could not provide any meaningful support to Indian Muslims . So thanks to Pakistan for their inhuman behaviour -which discouraged Indian Muslims to relay on these monsters.
If Muslims of India consider themselves as Indians than what is stopping them to be Indians. India is free society. There are many political parties in India (including Congress) who are acquiescing to Muslims’ demand for hajj Support, jobs , money for education, Allowances for Imams etc. -all for getting their democratic Votes But what Muslims need is to be fair and go for equal demands for others apart for Muslims only and also fight for the Hindus need.
They cannot be parochial and expect all to look after Muslim interests only . Why can a Muslim not stand up openly and say freely Jai Hind. Why Can a Muslim not stand up openly and say freely that Kashmir belong to India . Why can an Indian Muslim not stand up openly and say that they are annoyed that Hindus from Kashmir have been thrown out by radical Muslims (and terrorists from Pakistan) . Why can a Indian Muslim not stand up and recognize their largest neighbours and their traditions and culture — when living in India. Why an Indian Muslim cannot be an Indian and a proud Indian rather than looking at Pakistan and so called Umma?
The Muslins who got space in India should openly accept if not apologize for Muslim atrocities toward Hindus and Sikhs over millennia and hope that the Hindus have already put that behind them .
Muslims should note of the modern day revival of the Hindu culture and traditions with integrating with modern education and technology and be proud of that development – like they would be proud for the revival of their own culture and traditions within the bound of Indian diversity.
Hindus should follow their age old dictum of ” tolerance” and acceptance of other cultures , of diversity and mosaic of India. Inclusivity is the stepping stone for development and living in modern 21st Century.
Then you will see a bridge being established between the Hindus and Muslims .
And that would, possibly , lead to a bridge being built between India and Pakistan .
And hopefully peace can shower on the Indian Sub-continent.