UCAN report
“Muslims should not be treated as different people … consider them your own,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told party workers at a national executive meeting in the southern state of Kerala in 2016.
Five years down the line, he announced on the eve of India’s Independence Day that Aug. 14 will be now observed as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” to commemorate the sacrifices of millions who were displaced or who lost their lives during the partition of the subcontinent after the British finally left in 1947, creating a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan.
“Partition’s pains can never be forgotten,” Modi tweeted even as his detractors pointed out his alleged “doublespeak and hypocrisy.”
“He [Modi] offers platitudes while he and the toxic ecosystem he has nurtured do everything to polarize and divide, to spread venom and hate, and to use fear and intimidation as instruments of grabbing power and derailing governance,” opposition lawmaker Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said in a tweet.
Others agreed. “Since 2014 when Modi came to power, I am yet to come across any initiative that unites the citizens. This announcement of the prime minister will only further create distance and the unwanted gap between Hindus and Muslims,” Delhi-based Christian leader A.C. Michael told UCA News.
Vidyarthi Kumar, a political analyst, said talking about partition after 74 years was “a sheer communal ploy.”
Modi’s rise in Indian politics has been in parallel with increased antagonism toward Muslims in the country. The 2016 statement at a party workers’ meet in Kerala was merely to project a moderate face to the world. After all, Modi is the prime minister of a country that has the third-largest Muslim population in the world.
Despite partition, many Muslims decided to remain in India, placing their faith in India’s age-old civilization strength of maintaining communal amity.
But many Hindus still harbor a serious grouse against Muslims for the division of India. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its sister organizations championing Hindu identity question the patriotism of Muslims.
It is not without good reason that Muslim League leader E.T. Mohammed Basheer said: “Muslim army personnel have fought wars against Pakistan and attained martyrdom. But the tag of partition has remained, especially in northern India."
Muslim bashing has fetched votes for the prime minister and his party in the past. Modi’s anti-Muslim rhetoric since the 2002 riots in Gujarat has endeared himself to the majority's voters.
Social media posts from supporters and members of the ruling establishment also sought to target what the BJP calls the “Muslim appeasement politics” of opposition parties, particularly Congress.
“Partition is something we cannot forget. While Muslims migrated to Pakistan, we received the heads and bloodstained corpses. The 60-plus years of Nehruvian [referring to India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru] policies was taking India to another partition,” said one post on social media.
This group believes that Hindus are still being victimized in India and minority communities like Muslims and Christians continue to pose a threat to the nation’s unity.
But there could be another reason behind the Indian prime minister’s announcement, which comes against the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and the takeover of the Taliban, raising old specters in the region.
The birth of Pakistan was a result of Islamic fanaticism. Its founders swore by pluralism and secularism but the last 74 years of its existence have been marred by rabid Islamization. Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state accused Pakistan of keeping "snakes" in the backyard.
Afghan governments repeatedly slammed Pakistan for backing insurgents. So, Modi was merely reminding the world of the regional complexities, explained a key BJP leader on condition of anonymity.
Partition Remembrance Day: Modi's sense of timing and Af-Pak region
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sense of timing actually makes a deeper point than the sheer announcement of observing August 14th as the Partition Horror Remembrance Day.
This declaration could not have been better timed than circa 2021. August 14th is also Pakistan's birthday. Happy birthday to the neighbour, but reminding the world of a historical mistake made in 1947 is also strategically important as the world is now grappling on how to deal with the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
Modi's Sense of Timing: Neighbour's envy
The blunder in 1947 was to presume that only 'religions' could be a ground for bifurcating one civilisation and creating two nations.
The western Afghan experts are these days already throwing the questions - Is this the second Vietnam ? Is Afghanistan already lost?
Modi's all important missive is actually a Master Stroke. It tells the world, 'look this is Pakistan you all know, this is the Pakistan that helped Taliban adding to your nightmare, and do not forget, THIS IS HOW PAKISTAN WAS
BORN'.
Well, a nation created with all the ingredients of 'hatred' and 'passions' could not be teaching about milk, honey and love thy neighbour principles.
Now, a look at the history - After the war, Clement Attlee’s Labour government in London recognised that Britain’s devastated economy could not cope with the cost of the over-extended empire.
And hence the need to retreat, or today's more familiar word - 'withdrawal'.
Do you sense the 'similarity'?
In 2021, the US and other western allies too 'cannot cope' with the expenditures.
That's the hard reality.
In March 1940, the Muslim League’s “Pakistan” resolution called for the creation of “separate states” – plural, not singular – to accommodate Indian Muslims vis-a-vis a nation of Hindus (that is India/Bharat).
While Pakistan was born as a single entity - perhaps thanks to visionary works of the likes of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, in just 24 years, Pakistan had split and Bangladesh was born.
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| Partition Protagonists |
More splits on cards ! That's a different chapter.
But on August 14, 2021, Modi's message was - Do not presume Afghanistan as a nation in isolation specially when one has to deal with Islamic extremism. The birth of Pakistan was also result of that fanaticism.
The moot point is - if you want to handle Afghanistan differently than it has been catered to so far; it is imperative that all neighbours of Afghanistan are 'studied' with all their complexities and assets.
So, if you want to handle Afghanistan, first prepare yourself to handle Pakistan.
And handling Pakistan can be always easier if you know its history, the history of its birth. The Left-Liberal intellectualism would not appreciate this.
But that's Moditva.
An attempt has been made in a newspaper article -"Which logic will we embrace — freedom or Partition?" (Indian Express).
The question does not seek an answer. It wants to guide one towards a specific journey - just forget the stories of 'partition'. That's 'desi' point of view. Jump to big words like - universal citizenship, 'communalism always breaks nations' etc etc.
The writer only betrays his 'jaundiced' view and thus poses his question to both India and Pakistan. Again the idea is put the two distinct cases in brackets!
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's tweet only strengthens my argument.
Going back to history, in March 1947, Britain announced a new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten.
His mandate - 'find a speedy way' of bringing the British Raj to an end. On June 3, he announced that independence would be brought by August 1947 and also that there will be creation of two separate states. Note the speed.
The plans were sinister right from the beginning.
And as the saying goes, as you sow, so shall you reap !
If in 2021, Afghanistan - that is Taliban in Afghanistan - aided and supported by Pakistan has added to global woes, well, the world has taken a big round and you have Natural Justice.
Thus, Modi's message is - crystal clear. To handle Afganistan, you need to handle Pakistan in the language and manner it deserves.
Sorry to say on its birthday, but Pakistan's bluff must be called in the big picture paradigm of War against Terror.
In early 1946 or even sometime before that, even Nehru and Sardar Patel were convinced that 'Partition' - that is the birth of Pakistan - would ultimately lead to 'Balkanisation' of India.
They feared the violence also, but Churchill was in no mood to listen.
London's only priority was quick end to British Raj and to ensure that both India and Pakistan should remain in Commonwealth.
ends
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