OPEN FORUM
New Delhi, 31 August 2006
Hinduism Vs
Islamism
MIND AND PLAN OF PAKISTAN
By Bal Raj Madhok,
Ex.M.P.
Fiftynine years have passed
since the British quit Hindustan after dividing it between Hindu India and
Muslim India, called Pakistan, on the basis of religion as demanded by the
Muslim League which got total support of Muslims of Hindu majority parts of the
country in the crucial election of 1946.
Total exchange of the Hindu and Muslim population left behind in Muslim
India and Hindu India, as demanded by the Muslim League was, according to Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar, the “logical corollary of partition”. The Congress
leadership accepted the partition, exchange of civil servants, armed forces and
even prisoners in jails, on the basis of their religion, but opposed the
exchange of population for reasons that now stand fully exposed.
But Pakistan
had its way; it cleansed Pakistan
of its Hindu-Sikh population by force.
The slogan that then rang in the streets of Lahore,
“hans ke liya Pakistan
larke lenge Hindustan” (we have got Pakistan
at no cost, we will get Hindustan by force), gave an explicit indication of the
mind of Pakistan. The Pak invasion of Jammu
and Kashmir in October 1947, desertion of the Muslim jawans and
officers of the state army, en block to Pak invaders, and the forcible
religious cleansings of Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) exposed the mind and plan of
Pakistan
in regard to Hindu India, which had become “Darul-Harb” for Muslims.
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel was the only top Congress leader who learnt the lessons
of partition and tried to give nationalist orientation to the policies of free India. It was informally accepted that no Muslim would
be given sensitive posts of Chief of Staff of the three wings of the armed
forces and Home and Foreign Secretary of the Government of India.
As Vice-Chairman of the study team on defence, appointed by
the Government of India in 1967, I had the opportunity of interacting with the
heads of defence forces on defence-related problems, on the basis of their
experience of wars with Pakistan
in 1947-48 and 1965. At that time, the
border of Gujarat and Rajasthan with Pakistan came under the purview of
the Southern Command with its headquarters at Pune. I wanted to know about the experience of the
armed forces about the conduct of Muslims living on the border areas. The Commanding Officers were reluctant to
answer but when I insisted on getting a candid answer, I was told: “Exceptions apart,
they could hardly trust a Muslim”.
With the growing communalisation of national policies in
favour of Muslims, under the name of secularism in the recent years, things
have become worse. The frequent reports
of infiltration of Jehadi into the armed forces and defence-related establishments,
including those connected with research, have therefore not come as a surprise
to me.
Worldwide resurgence of fundamentalist Islam, expanding the
field of operation of Jehadis in the context of declaration of leaders of the
Al-Qaeda, about bracketing Hindus with Jews and “crusaders” i.e. Christians, as
the main targets of Islamic Jehad, has made it clear that this worldwide Jehad
has nothing to do with specific grievances in regard to Kashmir or Palestine.
It is, therefore, wrong to think that Jehadi activates in India will stop if a settlement of Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of Pakistan is
arrived at. It is wrong to think that
such activities are the handiwork of some misguided and unemployed youth who
act as agents of Pakistan-backed Jihadi organizations at a price. Jihadis have
a world view and clear objective of establishing the sway of Islam and
imposition of Islamic laws and values opposite of democratic and humanistic
values, which uphold freedom of thought, religion and guaranteed peaceful
existence.
Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the U.K., has spelt
out in his speech at Foreign Affairs Council at Los Angles, US, his assessment
of the developing situation. According to him the conflict is
multi-dimensional. On the one side it is between what he calls “reactionary Islam”,
and “moderate” and “reformist Islam” and on the other between humanism and
Islamism. President Bush has called his “Islamic fascism”.
Talk about reactionary Islam and reformist Islam is an
exercise in self-deception. Islam is
bound to and guided by letter and spirit of Koran which does not permit any
kind of reform. The movement for modernization and reforms of Islam started by
Kemal Pasha is now in retreat in Turkey itself. Fundamentalist and reactionary Islam is
gaining ground all over the world. Policy makers of India, drive by vote bank politics,
have been ignoring these hard realities. Their policies favour jehadis.
This has encouraged Islamic separatists and fundamentalists
to gain ground and widen their base in India. The rapid growth of Madrasas and so-called
minority institutions, particularly Aligarh
Muslim University
and Jamia Milia Islamic at Delhi,
are playing a dangerous role in this respect.
Their products are more reactionary in their outlook.
As things are, the world is moving towards a third world war
which is bound to become a war between Islamism and Islamists on the one side
and humanism and humanistic values on the other. India with its long tradition of
freedom of thought and worship coupled with the fact that over 95% of Indian
Muslims are progeny of Hindu converts to Islam are therefore blood relations of
Hindus could have given a humanistic-orientation to Islam and moderation and
reformist look to Indian Muslims. That has not been done. Rising generation of
Indian Muslims is therefore becoming more prone to Islamic fanaticism than ever
before. That is why local support base
of Jihadi terrorists is expanding.
Unless effective
steps are taken to check this, it may go out of hand. War with Pakistan is
inevitable, any kind of softness
towards Islamists and Jehadis would be disastrous. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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