Monday, October 19, 2009

Jinnah, India -Partition, Independance, Jaswanth Singh's Book...A Critical View 2

He writes painfully "How did Islam with ease first become Indian, then struggled to become a geographical supernumerary to it, to this great spread of what was their own home. And..."It became the faith of the "separator" of those that divided the land" And...."The League had claimed that it was the true upholder of of Islam's ideological authentication...therefore demanded just a single Muslim medium...and asserting it's identity as a different conceptual 'nation',claimed a separate land for itself which is why this agonising question continues to grate against our sensibilities......tragically Nehru and Patel and the Congress party had assented, Jinnah in any event having demanded adopting to just such a recourse.
The pain, the agony ,the sense of bieng utterly let down by Nehru and Sardar Patel is clearly evident in this para, which to me explains the crux of the writing of this book, probing the historical context, the mindsets, the fights as in that moment which he describes as a vivisection. He asks painfully as to why..."how do you divide a geographic (also geopolitical) unity?

There are several questions in this painful why.India has never really accepted division and the existence of Pakistan . At least this generation that Jaswanth Singh belongs to. The mindset of holding on to this notion of "Akhand Bharat" has led to the massive buildup of armies so much so that nuclearisation of Pakistan has resulted although the Indian bomb was primarily against China.The new generation of Indian needs to move on, accept the existence of Pakistan but is this going to be possible now, earlier? Post 9/11, post Mumbai and now the latest ideas in militant Pakistan paint a bad omen , picture for the future of India -Pakistan relations.
Pakistan itself questions this "Islamic" existence now as the extremist violent groups are creating havoc in it's cities. Just as Jaswanth Singh asks..."relegating such of faith that remained within India to a life of perpetual self questioning and doubt about their true identity."
The agonising reality of partition seems lost on the people as now more and more evidence in the behaviour of "Muslim"groups in Pakistan appears to make the call for a seperate homeland questionable for Indian Muslims. Why was the Bangladesh created? He will ask later. The answer seems apparent! The sociopolitical divide is mainly of economic and empowerment struggle. Race, tribalism, religion, ethnicity are the rallying points of struggling groups in order to distinguish themselves and assert their identity and existence.A very clear example is to become "American" even of such diverse people as Chinese, Mexican or Indian.
I still do not understand what Mr. Singh means by "Indianisation"of Islam. Is this a cultural context or what?(Continued)

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