Let’s bury the past and move on!
Disclaimer:
What has happened has happened and what’s done can’t be undone. Whether partitioned, divided or secular – India is India and Pakistan is Pakistan. Whether Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the so-called founding father of Pakistan, fathered Pakistan or not – how does it matter, now? What matters is this – India and Pakistan are separate countries, separate political entities and independent nation-states. And we must respect this.
What Jinnah said, did or didn’t do before or after the partition is past. Jinnah is history. Partition is history. 1947 is history. It’s time we accept that partition is ancient and it must be buried than be remembered.
I have many friends who are not Indians but Pakistanis, settled in India but have their roots in Pakistan. Similarly, Pakistan too has Indians who aren’t Pakistanis but settled there, living on an ‘alien’ soil.
I was not born when partition took place. I do not know what Jinnah did to father/develop/create Pakistan. I have nothing against Pakistan as a country, but why do I have to know Jinnah when I have no interest in knowing Pakistan.
“Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.”
-- Stanley Wolpert
The book Jinnah: India-Partition Independence by India's former foreign minister and former finance minister Jaswant Singh has already received flak from various sections of the media, historians as well as various political leaders. Singh wrote the book as an individual and not as a politician. I believe what's written in the book are Singh’s own views. Why to question someone’s individual views? Why?
It's quite unfortunate that India got divided. Sixty-two years after the partition, after we achieved Independence, we do not have a Jawaharlal Nehru, M K Gandhi or Mohammad Ali Jinnah to narrate the 1947 saga. No doubt that Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah made their contributions in shaping the events of 1947, but what’s the need to dig skeletons out of the mud?
To me, it was no surprise that India was divided on the lines of religion, hatred and vested political interests of the few. My 86-year-old grandmother, who has worked with Nehruji, Gandhiji and Indira Gandhi, narrates her own experience. (Something in her own words): "Bharat mein katl-e-aam hogaya tha. Azaadi se pehle ka woh samay aisa tha ki aurton ki koi izzat nahi karta tha. Peeli Kothi ko bhi jalaa diya gaya tha. Gandhiji ne pehle kabhi aise lafz nahi kahein the -- par jab har jagah maar-kaat thi toh unhoney kahan tha -- 'Karo ya maro'. Peeli Kothi, jo ki 1942 ('Bhaarat Chhodo Aandolan' -- Quit India Movement) mein jalaa di gayi thi, ke aage se Lahori Gate jaane ka raasta tha... Mujhey tere dadaji ne zewar, asharfiyaan, zameenon ke kaagaz dekar bachon ke saath meri maa ke ghar bhej diya tha. Woh samay aisa tha ki hum apni jaan bachaakar bhaagey the, sab log bhaag rahe the... Laashon ke dher lagey dekhein the humney... Jamunaji poori laal hogayi thi... Woh maar rahe the aur lashon ko Majnu-ka-Tila se Jamunaji mein bahaa rahe the... 6-7 logon ko maarta dekha... hum sab naya bazaar bhaag gaye the... Unn logon ne naa Hindu ko dekha na Musalmaan ko.. bass unpar toh katl-e-aam ka bhoot sawaar tha... Batwaanra hua kyunki sab chahte the ki angrez Bhaarat chhodh kar chalein jayein... Ismein kisi ka koi 'apna' swarth nahi tha... Hum sab angrezon se azaadi chahte the... Jab 'Bhaarat Chhodo' hua toh Gandhiji ghanton ke liye Nizamuddin station par atak gaye the... Angrezon ne unhe aage nahi jaane diya tha... Mainey Jinnah ko dekha hai... Jinnah ke lecture sunne ke liye pitaji mujhey apne kandhon pe bithaakar lekar jaaya kartey the... Hum sab ek the... Hindu-Musalmaan ek the... sab saath rahtey the -- par jab batwaanra hua toh humney dekha ki kaise kuch log trainon mein baithkar Lahore ki taraf chalein gaye... " This narrative may be disturbing and depressing to read, but after discussing about Jinnah and partition with my grandmother, I don't need books to know about India's freedom struggle. I don't need books to relate to my grandmother's (and many more like her) misery and suffering.
However, it is not only Jaswant Singh who has praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Historians like Ayesha Jalal and H M Seervai too asserted that Jinnah never wanted Partition of India. It is also asserted by various historians that Jinnah only used Pakistan (demand for a separate nation) as a method to mobilize support to obtain rights for Muslims.
Why didn't BJP expel the well-known Hindu political leader, the so-called 'Lau Purush' Lal Krishna Advani when he called Jinnah 'secular'? Why is he still in Sangh fold? Is the treatment mooted out to Jaswant Singh correct? Singh was in support when Advani praised and called Jinnah a ‘secular leader’ few years back. Singh in an interview said: "I think we have misunderstood Jinnah because we needed to create a demon. We needed a demon because in the 20th century the most telling event in the subcontinent was the partition of the country." But where is Advani to support Singh, now?
History repeats itself but where is Jinnah to propagate the “two-nation” theory, again? Where is Jinnah, Nehru or Gandhi to do a repeat? They aren’t anywhere. None of us want a repeat of what happened in 1947. None of us wants to live in the past. Jinnah is dead and buried. So is Nehru and Gandhi.
L K Advani might have taken a lesson from his Jinnah episode but there’s a larger controversy now – whether the founding father of Pakistan was really secular or not? Similarly, Jaswant Singh’s book – Jinnah: India-Partition Independence raises several doubts and has created a furore in the Sangh Parivaar.
“Some confusion prevails in the minds of some individuals in regard to the use of the word ‘Pakistan’. This word has become synonymous with the Lahore resolution owing to the fact that it is a convenient and compendious method of describing [it].... For this reason the British and Indian newspapers generally have adopted the word 'Pakistan' to describe the Moslem demand as embodied in the Lahore resolution.”
-- (Jinnah's definition of 'Pakistan' in 1941 at Lahore)
Singh’s book has started a controversial debate on the origin and creation of Pakistan, on Jinnah's political lineage, India’s Independence and partition. Will his book be able to change the mindset of the many Indians or Pakistanis who have been ‘affected’ or ‘not affected’ from the partition? Can his book right the wrongs of 1947? Can his book heal the sufferings of many Hindus and Muslims who sacrificed their lives for freedom? Can his book change the hatred for Jinnah into a liking or vice-versa? May be we need to question this on a larger scale.
I am not against Jinnah, but division. I am not against Jinnah, but partition. If, even after 62 years of partition we'll keep discussing Jinnah and remain engulfed in our past, then how are we going to progress as a nation, as a democracy and uphold our dignity and integrity as a sovereign, secular and socialist republic?
It is time we bury the past and let Jinnah rest in peace. It is time we think and worry about other issues like global warming, terrorism and recession, than questioning Jinnah’s ideology.
