The Kashmir Problem:
Kashmir is not a problem at all; it is the symptom of a problem. The main
problem is the mistrust between the estranged brothers. These brothers were
estranged by the division of India by power hungry politicians. If the mistrust
between the estranged brothers is solved, then Kashmir will find its own
solution.
Indian Sub-continent
has developed a mixed culture
The Sanatan Dharma, popularly known as the Hindu religion,
naturally developed in the Indian sub-continent and its surrounding countries
over thousands of years. The Adivasis of India are still maintaining their own
cultures and their cultures are older than Hindu cultures; but a lot of
exchanges have taken place. Many outsiders came over long periods of time,
conquered some parts, settled down here and got mixed. The Jews also came to
India and settled here. The Orthodox Christian missionaries arrived in the
southern parts of India within 100 years of resurrection of Christ and started
preaching. Islamic preachers came to India many years before Islam came here as
a political force in the beginning of the eighth century, and were allowed by
Hindu kings to preach. This is how the subcontinent developed a mixed culture
over many centuries.
Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti is revered by both the Hindus and the
Muslims in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Kabir had both Hindu and Muslim
followers. The Baul singers of Bengal belong to both the Hindus and the Muslims
as well.
Many Muslims are experts in “Sastriya Sangeet”. Some of
them start their programs by performing “Swaraswati Vandana”. The great monk
Swami Vivekananda proclaimed: “India will prosper only when an Indian will have
a Muslim brawn, a Hindu head and a Christian heart”.
The great poet Iqbal sang: “Hindustan is the best country in
the world”. The great poet Kazi Nazrul Islam sang: “We the Hindus and the
Muslims are two flowers in the same stalk; the Muslims are the eyes of the
nation and the Hindus are the soul. As the Sun and the Moon play on the lap of
the mother sky, we Hindus and Muslims also play on the lap of mother India; we
have the same blood in our veins and we have the same umbilical chord”.
Syed Muztaba Ali was a great Bengali litterateur, a scholar
in several classical languages, a widely travelled man and he taught in several
foreign and Indian universities. In one of the books he wrote: “The inhabitants
of North West Frontier Province and Eastern Afghanistan are the most civilized
people in the world”.
The politicians and religious bigots have turned these
wonderful places into killing fields.
“Madhuban mein Radhika nache re” was composed by Naushad,
the lyricist was Shakeel Badauni, it was sung by Mohammad Rafi and the lips
were given by Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan). What a beautifully woven
multi-cultural fabric! But power hungry politicians and religious obscurantists
have turned the Indian sub-continent into a killing field.
Urdu is an Indian
language
Urdu originated in North India and spread to other places.
My senior colleague Mukherjee-da a Bengali Hindu was born and brought up in
pre-partition Lahore. His father was a science teacher in a Lahore college.
Mukherjee could read, write and speak Bengali with proper Bengali accent. He
could also read, write and speak Urdu with proper accent. He told me: “We Bengalis
think that Bengali is the sweetest of all the languages in the world; but being
a Bengali myself I am of the opinion that Urdu is much sweeter than Bengali”. I
was very surprised.
Ghazal devolved out of Urdu and it is enjoyed in both India
and Pakistan. This cultural link shall have to be strengthened. Before
partition both the Hindus and the Muslims of North India felt a strong affinity
towards Urdu and many Hindus considered Urdu as their mother tongue. But after
the blood letting partition, a chasm has developed in this affinity. This chasm
can be bridged by increasing the frequency of Ghazal performances by artists of
both countries performing both in India and Pakistan.
Terrorism across
India Pakistan border
States must not sponsor cross-border terrorism; it backfires
and seriously hurts the sponsoring country. It is indeed grievously hurting the
sponsoring country. Still the sponsoring is continuing unabated due to narrow
shortsighted political strategy.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh shall have to learn to be
good neighbours for their mutual benefits. I very much hope that the younger
generations of these countries will take the lead and normalize the relations.
Cultural, educational, commercial and industrial cooperation will benefit all
of these neighbours.
Floods and draughts
in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
These occur annually in these countries and cause
devastations. These can be controlled by connecting rivers in these countries
through canals, construction of reservoirs and rain water harvesting. Water is
a very scares resource. Joint river commissions compromising experts from these
countries ought to conduct joint river surveys during summer, monsoon and
winter and devise water sharing mechanisms for their mutual benefits. For
sharing the Brahmaputra water, China has to be involved. To achieve this, state
sponsored terrorism shall have to be stopped.
Indus river water treaty between India and Pakistan has
survived several wars between them. This is a beacon of hope in an otherwise
very ominous environment. I very much hope that the younger generations will
establish good relations between them for their mutual benefits.
Religious intolerances
and obscurantisms in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
These are very serious problems in these countries. These
problems are also seriously affecting the Middle East, parts of Africa, China,
Europe and other regions of the world.
“Dharma” in Sanskrit means the rules that maintain law and
order in the society. During the cave age, there were few rules because cave
age people did not have evolved social interactions. As the human brain
developed in the course of thousands of years, wise persons among them devised
certain rules to control individual lives and maintain order in the society.
These rules grew into formal religions in course of time. All sane persons know
about it. As the formal religions became rigid, they created havocs and led to
killings of human beings by fellow human beings all in the name of the Creator.
What a heinous crime to commit in the name of the Creator. This heinous crime
is still being committed in the modern Internet age. Does it not strike your
minds as absolutely nonsense?
The persecutions of religious minorities are still going on
in the Indian sub-continent. In one country, the religious minorities have
almost been cleansed, even a sect of Muslims have almost been finished. In
another, the cleansing is going on. In India, all politicians are vote hunters
on religious lines and create communal disharmony. Some parts of China are very
much disturbed due to religious obscurantists. I very much hope that the
persecutions of religious, linguistic and cultural minorities all over the
world will be stopped one day by the younger generations.
Some of my Pakistani friends think that if the Indian part
of Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan, all problems between India and Pakistan
will be solved. I think they are wrong and re-dividing the Indian subcontinent
based on religious demography will only pander to the religious sectarianism
and will further diminish the scope of secular principles in India. There are about
200 million fellow Muslim citizens in India and it risks undermining them if
the narrow logic of religious partition is brought forth again.
Why are the Pathans, Balochs and Sindhis agitating in
Pakistan? Why was Bangladesh carved out of Pakistan by sacrificing three
million lives? Why are Arabs fighting among themselves? If all people in the
world become only Muslims or only Christians or only Buddhists or only Hindus,
will peace prevail in the world?
It is in Pakistan’s interest that India does not get further
disintegrated; because, if India disintegrates, it will create a domino and
disintegrate Pakistan too and the Indian subcontinent will become a towering
inferno.
If religious obscurantism and cross border terrorism are not
stopped, the Indian subcontinent and parts of China may end up in a nuclear
disaster. Religious obscurantism may destroy the Human civilization.
Human knowledge has progressed from Cave Age to Internet Age
and is progressing further; but religious beliefs are still mired in myths. It
is very easy to whip up emotions on religious lines. Power hungry politicians
are utilizing these for their hunts for power and the clergy will not allow
people to think freely, because they don’t want to lose their stranglehold on
society.
Muslims are an integral part of the Indian subcontinent
The Arabs, then idol worshippers, have been coming to India
for trading since ancient times. They came as a political force in the
beginning of the 8th century AD; since then Muslims have been coming
to India and settled all over India. Hindu Muslim interactions helped to
develop a mixed culture.
I consider myself to be a Hindu, a Jew, a Buddhist, a
Christian, a Muslim etc. at the same time.
Although overwhelming majority of soldiers and leaders of
the 1857 revolution were Hindus, they declared Bahadur Shah Zajar as the
Emperor of India. It is a sad fact that highly qualified though extremely
nefarious politicians divided India after a prolonged carnage in 1947 and since
then the estranged brothers have been fighting among themselves.
In the Second World War, about 6 million Jews were murdered.
They were usually murdered in Concentration Camps by the Nazis. The Nazis were
an organized force; so they kept the records of the killings.
In the Indian subcontinent, mass killings were started by
goons in 1946 when India was still under the British rule. During this time,
neighbours raped neighbours, neighbours mutilated the limbs before murdering
neighbours. It is reported that about half a million people were killed due to
partition; but this is very much an underestimated figure. This carnage was
usually locally organized; so no records were kept. The casualty was definitely
more heavy, because India was more populous than Germany and its surrounding
countries. Moreover, in the Second World war it was only the Nazis that
exterminated the Jews, whereas during the partition of India, both Hindus and
Muslims were engaged in killing one another. This mass killing is the bloodiest
blot on human civilization in peace time.
When the Jews were being exterminated, the Second World War
was going on; but in India when neighbours started exterminating neighbours, no
war was going on; this extermination took place in peace time.
The Nazis transported the Jews to concentration camps and
subjected them to firing squads or put them in gas chambers. The bodies of
living Jews were not mutilated. But in the Indian subcontinent neighbours
chopped off their neighbours’ limbs before murdering them. Such barbarities
were not committed by the Nazis. The barbarities committed by the goons before,
during and after partition in the Indian subcontinent far exceeded the
barbarities committed by the Nazis on the Jews. The barbarities committed by
the Nazis are still being remembered by the world with horror; but the
barbarities committed in the Indian subcontinent have been forgotten by the
world and even by the people of the Indian subcontinent.
In today’s Indian subcontinent, we celebrate the birthdays
of the very persons who divided India after a genocide to satisfy their hunger
for power. What a queer mentality we have!
My father, a freedom fighter, was firmly of the opinion that
the genocide before, during and after partition could have been avoided or
minimized had the leaders were not so hungry for power. Whenever I am in a
vacant mood and think about the genocide, I seem to hear the cries for help and
the wailing of hapless people being butchered, and I feel an excruciating pain
in my heart.
Conclusion
1 to 9 and 0 were invented in ancient India. The Arabs
learnt these from India and spread these to Europe. Scholars in ancient India
conceived that all objects in the Universe were composed of extremely small
particles called “Paramanu”. Astronomers in ancient India postulated that the
Earth moves round the Sun. So, the Indian subcontinent has a tradition of
knowledge and learning.
Population of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is now more
than 1.6 billion. This vast population’s contribution to modern science is very
insignificant. Only five persons originating in this subcontinent have been
awarded the Nobel Prizes in Science subjects so far. Out of the five Nobel
laureates, only Prof. C. V. Raman was an Indian citizen, two were American
citizens, one was a British citizen and the surviving one is an American
citizen when they were awarded the Nobel Prizes.
“Veda” means knowledge. In the holy Quran the most repeated
word is that of the all Merciful Allah; the second most repeated word is “Ilm”
or knowledge.
How many gold medals does this vast population get at each
Olympic? Do these facts not cross your minds? You are so engrossed in
committing hara-kiri among yourselves that you have no time to think about
these hard facts.
My appeal to the younger generations of India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh is please discard the old baggage, discard the myths present in all
religions, think yourselves as human beings, come forward to solve all the
problems facing India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, so that ordinary people, mostly
poor, of this subcontinent can live with dignity and as good neighbours.
Hail the subcontinent; Hail Mankind!
