Who divided India?

Continued from yesterday

Latheef FAROOK

Even after the partition) then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru,in his landmark centenary speech (1957), described how Hindus and Muslims had fought shoulder to shoulder against the British who had entered the country under the pretence of commerce but usurped the throne in Delhi.

He also said that, unlike the British who exploited Indian resources and left, other foreign "invaders including Aryans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans and Mughals had settled down in India permanently and made it their homeland."

So much so legendary Muslim freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's emotional outburst was unprecedented when he said that: "a Muslim will abandon the cities in which he dwells,will move into the forest,will make friends with serpents and scorpions, but will not make peace with the British government."A strong supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity, though forgotten now, Maulana Abul Kalam declared: "I will surrender the demand for swaraj but I will not give up unity for, if there is delay in gaining swaraj, the loss will be that of India only, but if our unity is destroyed then it will be a loss for the entire human race."

The question is how this enviable unity turned into enmity leading to the division of the country itself.

Is it Sir Allama Iqbal, one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, Mohamed Ali Jinnah or the caste oriented Hindu mindset that refuses to accept Muslims as normal human beings leave alone as equal citizens?

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad were three leading Muslims who influenced the thinking of Indian Muslims during the first half of last century.

They all firmly believed, long before partition was even thought of, that Muslims could harmoniously blend their religious and cultural identity and patriotism to live with dignity, equality of rights and opportunities.

So much so in his poem Allama Iqbal proudly said " saray jahan sae acha Hindustan hamara" meaning "our Hindustan (india) is better than entire world". By describing India as Hindustan, he recognized the Hindu majority of the country. However, unfortunately for India in general and for Muslims in particular Hindu extremist Dr K.B.Hedgewar ,a great admirer of Benito Mussolini formed the RSS in 1925, along the lines of Italian fascism.

Their demand was that all Indian Muslims should give up their religion and embrace Hinduism or leave the country. This destructive ideology, in total violation of Hinduism itself was, further defined by M.S.Golwaklkar who became head of the RSS in 1944 under the theme "We, or, Our Nationhood Defined".

The growing hostility of RSS towards Muslims convinced Sir Allama Iqbal that only a separate state could guarantee the rights of the Muslims.Thus he mooted the idea of a separate state for Muslims in his presidential address of All India Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930.

Iqbal died in 1938. However, the idea he mooted for a separate state for Muslims did not disappear as the Hindu hostility pushed Muslims to think deeper into their future plight and endorse Iqbal's idea of a separate state.

Like wise Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a member of Congress who later joined the Muslim League as well and remained a member of both parties. He too was an ardent advocate of Muslim-Hindu unity and was the main force behind Lucknow Pact of 1916, about Muslim-Hindu unity.

However, it did not take long for him also to realize that Hindus were playing double game with the Muslims. By sheer experience, he concluded that the Hindus were not sincere and cannot be trusted. Thus, Jinnah too changed his mind. After all this, change of minds did not come at the spur of the movement but developed over a period.

As a result, he left the Congress and started working towards a separate state for Muslims. The result was the passing of Lahore (Pakistan ) resolution in 1940 in which Muslims of India decided unanimously to work for an Independent country under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam.

Little bit of wisdom on the part of Hindu extremists then to respect the desires of Muslims to live in peace and harmony with equal rights and respect would have prevented the break up of India even at that stage.

To be continued