Maulana Azad on Partition of India

This is a historic speech from a well known scholar and a National leader of India. If we listen to it calmly and with an open mind, we can understand most of what he perceived earlier was right, whatever be the reason division can only bring more division. That is why I adore Abraham Lincoln and his fellow leaders of America that they never accepted division of United States, though it was an easy option. I wish our leaders (weather from Muslim League or Indian National Congress)could have that far sightedness, broad vision, tolerance and lesser egos and of course a lesser appetite for power.

Those who put forward state of current Indian affairs as an argument in favor of communalism which include emergence to power of Far right political parties like BJP or RSSS, and the communal violence against minorities; they tend to forget to look on the other side of picture which includes the secular parties and a past (more than a thousands year now) and present in which Hindus and Muslims still live peacefully together, shall I put forward examples of Kerala and Soorat? There is no violence against Muslims or any other Minority in many states of India. Communal problem has many aspects which need research and a policy of tolerance before one can embark on commenting or forming an opinion. If you start from 'Nay' you are not expected to reach any where, as Naysayers always do in all walks of life.

In Pakistan, major problem is how history is written and 'preached' to the younger generations, they have never been thought tolerance, our history as well as literature is full of wars and ultimate success. We are not told that war has a price, which we all have to pay, we have not been told about the masses who suffered during wars (holy or not), the people who were massacred, the women who were raped or enslaved, the man who were killed, their families who suffered from hunger and devastation, they are all out of our history, even if they were our own.

So as the communal problem in India, if Hindus were that bad how come our ancestors managed to live with them for more than thousand years, how came most of us are off springs of Hindus who embarrassed Islam, why not they were killed by their relations and how was this tolerated by the society? India was ruled in a decentralized way by Muslim Sultans and then Mughals, their administrative framework was geared to keep the treasury full, they never bothered to alter the Indian society hence their influence on common people was negligible and most of people in their armies and administrative work force were Hindus. Islam spread amongst masses not by force but due to other more peaceful reasons, by force it was not possible convert India to Islam and hence it was not tried otherwise what was better than that? The first Arab Governer in India Muhammed Bin Qasim never tried a mass conversion of Indian masses to Islam, as he was not ordered to do so and that was not the policy of Arabs. All Muslim rulers who came in to India after him, followed same policies. SO how was it possible that we lived and prosper for more than thousand years in Hindu majority India and all changed within hundred years of British arrival? If we see India at the time of arrival of western powers, it was by no means a Muslim ruled country, as Mughals were declined and most of India was ruled by independent rulers (both Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs), there was a communal identity but not a division.

History has been thought to Pakistanis from a communal point of view so that they can not look at the big picture which serves the interest of our ruling elite.

And forget about the Muslims of India, we do not have to do anything with them now, just like we do not have to do anything with the Bangladesh and its people. Consequences of this mentality are appearing brightly as we now have nationalist movements inside Pakistan. No matter how hard we try to blame others, it is our deed and we have to resolve or we will have to face the consequences.

"I have saved this answer to a foreign friend in answer to her question 'where we see Pakistan stand in future?' it was immediately after release of some brutal videos in which people were seen get slaughtered and then that incident in Sawat when a girl was beaten in public."

Well from my own understanding of the history and politics of this region, Pakistan do not stand aloof from rest of sub-continent, i.e. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, you may also count in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka (Nevertheless we have got a new name 'AfPak' which is a hint in itself). The point I am trying to present is simple, this area as a whole is always part of the 'great game' played by empires since last few centuries, secondly Muslims of the area form an entity which is different in terms of culture, tradition and languages from rest of Muslim world, but for sure it is influenced by and it has influenced the Muslim thought since a long time. Some of the examples are Jamal-ud-din Afghani, Iqbal, Moudodi, Maulana Ilyas, Ghulam Ahmed Pervaiz, and Dr. Hameed-Ullah.

Deoband the origin of famous school of thought 'Deobandi' from which the Taliban belongs, is in India, so as Bareli the origin of most practised one 'Barelvi' amongst the Muslims of this region. History has been distorted in a way that it has become very difficult for someone living today to understand that Muslims of Indian Sub Continent had their own identity, and they still do. This truth however is not in interest of any of the parties involved in current game, most importantly India, Pakistan and US. Governments of India and Pakistan throughout the time have played a major role in destroying history to suit their motives and interests. Another important factor is movement of 'Hindutva' in India, which has influenced and changed the total behaviour and thought of new generations in the region.

When generation are cut off from their past in that way, they go into darkness, and look here and there in search of their identity. Pan-Islamism is just one of solutions of this identity crisis for most of us; an easy solution may be, as it is in line with our belief as Muslims. What we tend to overlook

However is that culture and religion are two separate forms of recognition and belonging. In our daily lives, we try to be within our cultural circle, we(when I say we, it means Muslims) tend to marry within our own type, we cannot communicate with each other if we do not know some of global languages, we cannot like to eat some of the foods(halal) of other regions. Pathan cannot eat rice regularly :), and Bengali cannot live without it. Still we are Muslims, and we observe Islamic customs and laws. So where is the problem? Muslims of this region started to look outside for their cultural identity or they were forced to do so, it is where the doubt is, and it is where the peace is. Cultural unity and a common history (even if it is full of conflicts or interpreted as full of conflicts) is the biggest threat to anyone who does not want peace in this region. Why? Because when we look at common culture, not only Muslims but the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis; everyone who

lives in this region, becomes closer to each other, I am sure if any one who is longing after power in this region, can tolerate such unity, or any traces of such unity amongst the masses.

You should have asked where we want Pakistan to stand in future instead of where it will stand. At present, we do not want anything but chaos!