I agree that the article title is provacative, and two points are valid i.e. reagrding Muhajirs and Terrorism
First of all, Muhajirs from Indian side of Punjab arn't considered as Muhajirs practically speaking. We are talking of people mainly from UP and Bihar who were the real minds behind Pakistan.
If Muhajirs had been treated so nicely from the beginning, there would be no need to form MQM, and no need to have a false Jinnahpur led operation. Pakistan would have accepted the Biharis who were stranded in Bangladesh as its own citizens, which it has'nt done even till today. It has not recognised even those Bihari muslims who somehow made it to Pakistan.
Home - Stranded Pakistanis, Biharis, Stateless in Bangladesh and Pakistan
Sure I agree there maybe some success stories. But what Im saying is from my personal experiences as well. Its not that they dont want to be Pakistani, but they are a minority in Pakistan and have all the associated problems with it.
And just to clarify, millions died during parition BECAUSE of it, not FOR it. People killed their neighbours BECAUSE partition happened. Not because they WANTED partition. They were forced to move. Subtle but an important difference. Infact many people were not killed, but died because of exhaustion and starvation to their journey on the other side of the border!
Ofcourse this was confined mainly to the Punjab province which was very bloody. This comprises about 40% of present day Pakistan so obviously the scar runs deep because of its enormous clout in government. On the other hand in India its abour 4-5% and although the pain is felt, it didnt affect India as much as it did Pakistan in the long run.
So saying that the partition happened because millions were killed in the partion and thuis we can't live with such people is a circular argument which is invalid.
Fact of the matter is that despite continuous provocations from Pakistan to "save" muslims and later the "sikhs", the Hindu majority in India has not thrown us or members of other minorities out of Civil Services, Armed Forces, the judiciary, trade, commerce, business and industry. There are Muslim Ministers in the Union and State cabinets, Muslim Governors, Muslim Ambassadors, representing India in foreign countries, Muslim members in Parliament and state legislatures, Muslim judges serving on the Supreme Court and High Courts, high-ranking officers in the Armed Forces and the Civil services, including the police. Muslim scientists in Defence and Space Agencies. Muslims have large landed estates, run big business and commercial houses in various parts of the country and have their shares in industrial production and enterprise in export and import trade. Our famous sacred shrines and mosques, world renowned centres of Islamic learning and places of cultural interest in India. All the great cultural contributions of the Mughals, Nizams and other muslim rulers of India are in India and are given due protection as historical monuments.
Not that our lot is certainly happy, that we are living in Jannat and we have NO problems. I wish some of the state Governments and politcal parties showed a little greater concern to us in the field of education and employment. And certainly do a lot more to prevent outbreak of communal violence and check factors that lead to it. Mainly things like false reporting and rumor mongering in papers like Hinudgujarati and partiality of low level police officers and constables.
Still under the law of the land, our religious and cultural life is protected and we are sharing in the opportunities open to all citizens to ensure progress for the people of this country. The civil society and judiciary has done a commendable job to fight communalism and ensure social harmony. The Babri Masjid and Gujarat riots are a blot most definitely. But we along with the mainstream civil society can and are fighting this. Wether it be taking up cases against Gujarat government or cooperating with the sants and sadhus in Ayodhya.
Although I understand that some Pakistanis dont want anything to do with India including Indian muslims. There is a large section of Pakistanis who want just that. The problem is over the past few decades with groups like LeT, Hizb e.t.c supported covertly by intelligence and army have been espousing ideology of "saving" Indian muslims. This has been extended by some cult personalities like ZH to include saving all minorities from "brahmin" domination. If these people can just leave us alone and not "save" us then things would be fine.
Most recently you had the 26/11 attackers coming all the way to mumbai and claiming they are from "Deccan" and claiming to fight for Indian muslims. Why would these Pakistanis attempt to do that? Isn't that blatant interference in our affairs? This is just one example. Then who is to blame for this if not Pakistan. Fine, the average pakistani doesnt approve of things like the mumbai attacks. But there is a large chunk of the pakistani population who are stuck in fantasies and selfish interpretations of the "Ghazwa-e-hind" and some vague couplets of some shah waliullah.
Until Pakistan stops this false concern for Indian muslims, it will be one of the reasons for their problems. Case in point is looking up reports from papers like Hindu Gujarati and youtube clips to "proove" that Indian muslims waive Pakistani flags which was never shown by mainstream media. Ofcourse you can conveniently ignore buning of the same flags to protest against Pakistani most recently in Mumbai.
Ofcourse its not the average Pakistani who can do anything about it even if they wanted to. There are elements in the military establishment in conjuction with extremist organisation who don't mind scapegoating and killing muslims in India wether they be in Kashmir or Mumbai to get some sort of statisfaction.
We have a lot of other problems regarding our education and employment, which I don't think need to blamed on Pakistan. MJ Akbar is wrong in that. Insecurity among muslims as well (although partly related to terrorism) is an internal problem that India has to tackle and Indian muslims have to come out of their comfort zones to remove misunderstandings like they have done in UK and US. There have already been some of these sort of steps taken although media should be roped in to give more widespread coverage and it should be a continuos instead of a one off process. On the other hand, Hindu groups led by sadhus and sankacharyas have also come forward in this regard. But still the GoI has the most important role to improve this situation and thanks to democratic institutions in India, Im optimistic we can achieve this.
The only way forward is to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan and make so strong that they can then direct the foreign policy with regard to India as well. India and Pakistan are seperate countries and we are not going to go back for a merger even if the partition theory is accepted as false by everyone. The majority of people on both sides want peace but if elected representaties dont have the power to deliver that, and we have "autonomous" groups back stabbing the peace process, we will keep having this problem.
