The second bloodiest dispute and the most volatile issue on Planet Earth - Kashmir tussle; and as usual everybody has an opinion about it and no prizes for guessing that I have an opinion too.
Common man of India and Pakistan fume at the name of his neighboring country and their patriotism is directly proportionate to the hatred towards their betenoire nation, thanks to the structural programming of historians, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats and media on both sides of the border. But there are a lot of things which are conveniently forgotten and deliberately avoided.
A conflict doesn't arise by bad moves by only one side and Indo-Pak issue is a perfect example which resulted in decades of mistrust, animosity and hatred despite common culture, tastes, social issues and thought process. The fact that simmering Kashmir dispute is a residue of Partitioning British India doesn't need any mention. Looking back at the facts:
Pakistan has been divided from India on the pretext of Muslim sovereignty to balance Hindu domination on the minority. But the history says otherwise. Islam's advent in India dates back to 10th century AD and for a millennium, muslims became a part of India, Indian culture, tradition, contributed to the heritage, ruled the country; Yet there was not an iota of religious discrimination against Muslims.
Muslims were as much responsible for attaining freedom as Hindus were. Iqbal penned the omnipresent "Sara Jahan Se Acha, Hindustan Hamara" in the very 20th century and Md.Jinnah himself was a vocal freedom fighter which shows the religious unity amongst all Indians irrespective of their faith. Then where did this religious intolerance against Muslims come in all of a sudden in a span of few months ?
Yes, the answers are personal ambitions, egos and mutual mistrust and of course British's divide and rule policy. MK Gandhi in an attempt to pacify one side, became a victim of another side; provocative speeches, negative instigation played its part and rest is the history. Nehru and Jinnah are the culprits and anybody with some grey matter in their mind would agree to this.
A newborn country was torn into pieces just on the basis of religion. But ironically the number of Muslims in India are almost equal (or maybe more) as those in Pakistan and the proportion of land and resources which got divided too refuted all laws of proportion. India got a raw deal. Partition saw the bloodiest massacres of human history and the mutual hatred was nothing but imminent.
Darkest era of South Asian history was only at its dawn yet. the worst was yet to come.
Race among annexing states started and Pakistan got the raw deal here. Hyderabad, Junagadh were forcedly annexed into India though police action because the population were largely Hindus, though the rulers resisted. But Kashmir's decision was left to the Hindu ruler and not Muslim majority population. This again refuted all principles of justice. This is a scar on Pakistan's self respect, identity which denies to fade away for decades. Further India's beloved PM Indira Gandhi interfered into Pakistan's internal politics to break Bangladesh away which was a catalyst to the already bruised situation.
Today for Indians, Pakistan is a country which was broken away from their motherland for people following a foreign faith, a country which is now trying to usurp Kashmir from them, sending infiltrators, terrorists to their country. For Pakistanis, India is a country which tried to inflict insults and wounds before partition through domination and then forcefully wrested Hyderabad, Junagadh, broke Bangladesh from Pakistan and now committing atrocities on Muslim majority Kashmir which should belong to Pakistan.
Can we blame anybody? No !!! Both sides have been demonstrating their evil face and the result is before our eyes.
Now anything that happens in India is squarely blamed on ISI and anything that happens in Pakistan is blamed on RAW (and most of the times, true). Pakistani military, Jaish-e-Mohd, Lashkar-e-Toiba are villains for India whereas Indian Military is so for Pakistan (and most of the times, true).
A coin has two sides !
Common man of India and Pakistan fume at the name of his neighboring country and their patriotism is directly proportionate to the hatred towards their betenoire nation, thanks to the structural programming of historians, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats and media on both sides of the border. But there are a lot of things which are conveniently forgotten and deliberately avoided.
A conflict doesn't arise by bad moves by only one side and Indo-Pak issue is a perfect example which resulted in decades of mistrust, animosity and hatred despite common culture, tastes, social issues and thought process. The fact that simmering Kashmir dispute is a residue of Partitioning British India doesn't need any mention. Looking back at the facts:
Pakistan has been divided from India on the pretext of Muslim sovereignty to balance Hindu domination on the minority. But the history says otherwise. Islam's advent in India dates back to 10th century AD and for a millennium, muslims became a part of India, Indian culture, tradition, contributed to the heritage, ruled the country; Yet there was not an iota of religious discrimination against Muslims.
Muslims were as much responsible for attaining freedom as Hindus were. Iqbal penned the omnipresent "Sara Jahan Se Acha, Hindustan Hamara" in the very 20th century and Md.Jinnah himself was a vocal freedom fighter which shows the religious unity amongst all Indians irrespective of their faith. Then where did this religious intolerance against Muslims come in all of a sudden in a span of few months ?
Yes, the answers are personal ambitions, egos and mutual mistrust and of course British's divide and rule policy. MK Gandhi in an attempt to pacify one side, became a victim of another side; provocative speeches, negative instigation played its part and rest is the history. Nehru and Jinnah are the culprits and anybody with some grey matter in their mind would agree to this.
A newborn country was torn into pieces just on the basis of religion. But ironically the number of Muslims in India are almost equal (or maybe more) as those in Pakistan and the proportion of land and resources which got divided too refuted all laws of proportion. India got a raw deal. Partition saw the bloodiest massacres of human history and the mutual hatred was nothing but imminent.
Darkest era of South Asian history was only at its dawn yet. the worst was yet to come.
Race among annexing states started and Pakistan got the raw deal here. Hyderabad, Junagadh were forcedly annexed into India though police action because the population were largely Hindus, though the rulers resisted. But Kashmir's decision was left to the Hindu ruler and not Muslim majority population. This again refuted all principles of justice. This is a scar on Pakistan's self respect, identity which denies to fade away for decades. Further India's beloved PM Indira Gandhi interfered into Pakistan's internal politics to break Bangladesh away which was a catalyst to the already bruised situation.
Today for Indians, Pakistan is a country which was broken away from their motherland for people following a foreign faith, a country which is now trying to usurp Kashmir from them, sending infiltrators, terrorists to their country. For Pakistanis, India is a country which tried to inflict insults and wounds before partition through domination and then forcefully wrested Hyderabad, Junagadh, broke Bangladesh from Pakistan and now committing atrocities on Muslim majority Kashmir which should belong to Pakistan.
Can we blame anybody? No !!! Both sides have been demonstrating their evil face and the result is before our eyes.
Now anything that happens in India is squarely blamed on ISI and anything that happens in Pakistan is blamed on RAW (and most of the times, true). Pakistani military, Jaish-e-Mohd, Lashkar-e-Toiba are villains for India whereas Indian Military is so for Pakistan (and most of the times, true).
A coin has two sides !
1 comment:
let us hope for a golden age of good relation.... if every body analyses like this some body will come forward one day...
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