25th May 2003
The move for healing the Indo-Pak rupture has affected people of Indian origin in the core of their being. The importance of Indo-Pak relations can be judged from the fact that we already have two responses to the column for 18th May 2003. Both are from the USA and from heretofore or once upon a time Indians.
My parents who lost everything in Lahore in the Partition never wanted to talk about what happened and I learnt very little beyond the curtain of unresolved pain and loss that hid their thoughts.
The Americans and I am now one- are well intentioned people but impatient where old issues need time to heal. The vision of a better future is the driving force here and if Indians and Pakistanis are able to grasp the power of that vision of harmony and prosperity rather than be lured by ancient beliefs then there is a golden opportunity in the present.
The second states
Recalling the events of the past, as well as recognizing their influence on the future course of events, present day politicians have nevertheless to consider their own options to steer the nation to a desirable future and one wonders whether there is serious thought devoted to these.
External factors have to be taken into account of course, at the same time it would be unrealistic to expect them (the USA and the UK) to provide appropriate solutions for which we ourselves have to find solution (s).
Ireland, Palestine, (and) Kashmir have festered as Problems throughout our lifetimes. Are there in History some examples of Solutions?
A sentence in Ayaz Amirs Fare Well Without Arms carried by The Asian Age on 10th May 2003) says
Karachi: Talk of searching for the Holy Grail. Indo Pak amity is harder to find for it requires diminutive men to show greater courage and wisdom than the failed giants who were their fathers.
We are encouraged to return to the decade preceding 1947 where it can be seen clearly that Partition was neither preordained not made inevitable by the communal divide between Muslims and Hindus.
1937 was the year in which the Pakistan ( a separate state for Muslims) idea surfaced in the Cambridge University of the United Kingdom.
Elections to provincial legislatures were held in the same year, 1937 and the adherents of the Pakistan idea, the Muslim League made little headway in gaining power. The Muslim majority provinces of Sindh (created in 1935 by carving the Muslim majority area out of Bombay Presidency), the overwhelmingly Muslim North West Frontier Province and the Muslim majority undivided Punjab elected parties with no ties to the Muslim League.
The Punjab was won by Sir Sikander Hayat Khan and Sir Chhotu Ram of the Unionist Party, the NWFP by the Khan Brothers of the Red Shirt Khudai Khidmatgars and Sindh by Khan Bahadur Allah Buksh of the United Party.
In Sept 1939 War(World War II) was declared by the Allies against the Axis. The Indians were not consulted. The Congress resigned office in protest. Support to Allah Buksh in Sindh was allowed to continue because it was not a Congress government and special circumstances prevailed.
The Pakistan resolution was adopted by the Muslim League in March 1940 in a time troubled by war. This resolution was not accepted by all the Muslims of India. There was opposition to the idea.
Allah Buksh organized the Azad or Independent Muslims Conference in Delhi (27th-30th April 1940). It was held in Begum Bagh , and 1400 delegates came to attend it. The Anglo Indian Press were forced to notice it as an event of importance and the Statesman and the Times of India commented upon it editorially. The Pakistan Resolution was rejected by the Conference.
William Cantwell Smith in his book Modern Islam In India, published in Lahore in 1946 confirms that the Conference organized by Allah Buksh and like minded Muslims reflected Muslim opinion in India. He states
The delegates, representing at that time probably still the majority of Indias Muslims came to protest the Pakistan idea, and against the use made of the Muslims by the British as an excuse for political inaction. (Page 279).
Cantwell Smith was one of the people who helped popularize the Pakistan idea amongst the Communists of India and was no friend of nationalists.
Bihar followed Sindh and on July 2nd 1940 Abdul Majid the Pakistan resolution was opposed at Sonhala. On July 20th 1940 the UP Azad Muslim Conference rejected the two nation theory at Lucknow. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan held an anti-communal conference at Lahore on 9th March 1941 to reject Pakistan.
The Quit India movement saw the velvet glove removed and the mailed fist smash Indias attempt to free itsef. Allah Buksh returned his title to the British. He was removed from office on 16th October 1941 although he still commanded a majority in the legislature. The reason given was that the governor had lost confidence in him! In his place the Governor appointed a wealthy and reliable knight who presently joined the Muslim League, forming a League Coalition Ministry (Cantwell Smith Page 337)
On May 14th 1943 Allah Bukhsh was murdered.
Anil Nauriya of the Supreme Court provided a fact sheet highlighting the contribution of nationalist Muslims and organized a meeting at the park once called Begum Ka Bagh in Shahjahanabad on 14th May 2003 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the martyrdom.
As Allah Bukhsh died for the Akhand Bharat the RSS claims to be the object of their devotion and worship perhaps they will issue a postage stamp in his memory to appear on 16th October to mark Allah Bukhshs removal from office for being a nationalist.
Meanwhile we can hope that the proverb
Tum Hee Neiy durd diyaa, tum hee duwaa deiynaa
You, who caused the pain and suffering and should by rights also provide the remedy
holds true and those who divided the country will help mend fences between India and Pakistan.