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NEWS &
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FEATURES |
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IMPORTANCE
OF ACKNOWLEDGING TRUTH
- MPK Kutty |
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Was Jinnah secular? Or was
he the fanatic who caused partition leading to nearly a
million deaths in 1947? It is Jaswant Singh, one of the
founder members of the BJP, who is the latest to hold
the view that Jinnah was not the villain he is pictured
to be in Indian history and the Indian psyche. The blame
for
 the vivisection of the country should be shared also
by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru. This
‘revisionist view’ has irked the party to no end and it
promptly expelled him.
Partition haunts us still. It has entered into the
psyche giving rise to strong nationalism and patriotism
in both nations. BJP, with its strong nationalism,
imbibes the spirit of antagonism against Muslims. Rooted
in the past, the BJP seems to retain some animosity
towards Christians as well as they symbolize the British
who ruled us
Jinnah died more than six decades ago. So what is the
relevance of this debate now?
A communal mindset had prevailed both among the Hindus
and the Muslims despite their compulsion to stand
against the foreign power. It is this that led to all
the blunders that accompanied independence and
partition. Accusations are galore. It is said Gandhi had
a soft heart for Nehru and so preferred him over Jinnah.
Jinnah’s call for direct action is pointed out as the
beginning of trouble for Hindu-Muslim unity.
Among those analyzing motives for writing such a book,
there is this section: Jaswant wants to discredit the
Congress party (then led by Nehru and Patel) as being
responsible for the division of India. No doubt, there
are communal elements within the Congress. .
This communal spirit has given rise to not only Indo-Pak
conflicts but also has provided the means for larger
communal frenzy and disharmony in society. Over the
years, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have
formed militant wings like the Bajrang Dal and the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad . The leaders of these communal
outfits have given further impetus to the communal
agenda. It is paradoxical that the party standing for
Akhand Bharat is the one behind all divisive forces
threatening the country’s unity from within. It is in a
way comparable to the Communist party which stands for
the uplift of the poor and the downtrodden but had been
following policies which in the long run undermined
developmental act6ivities intended to end poverty.
Book welcomed:
Jaswant’s book has pleased many in Pakistan who thought
that the Hindu leaders of India are too short sighted to
appreciate the greatness of their Quaid-e-Azam. At a
time when the two countries are coming together
grudgingly to meet the terrorist threat, and when the
civil society in both nations are becoming vocal in
favour of peace, the new vision promoted by Jaswant
Singh’s book can be an eye opener as well.
Stoking of a false patriotism, which has come to mean
fostering enmity towards the neighbour from early
childhood, has done great harm for both India and
Pakistan. Nuclear submarines and bombs are no guarantee
of security; the real security comes from destroying
hatred and suspicion in the minds of the nationals of
both countries. BJP’s efforts to set right past wrongs
of history could only mean a furthering of vicious
conflicts within and outside this nation.
Jaswant Singh, by writing his controversial book, ‘Jinnah:
India-Partition-Independence, has caused great
turmoil in the party by weakening the causes for its
very existence. Its ideological foundation has developed
cracks as he is second among the co-founders of the
party to argue that its Muslim hatred, particularly
demonisation of Jinnah, is quite unwarranted.
Now it is interesting to watch as to which group gains
from the current turmoil. The recent elections clearly
showed that the majority of Hindus do not go by the
Sangh Parivar ideology. Extremists within the Sangh,
particularly Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, and
Varun Gandhi, MP were blamed for the election reverses.
Modi has already banned Jaswant Singh’s book in Gujarat.
Indications are that the RSS is now emboldened to play a
greater role in the BJP even dictating orders to its
leaders. This will be encouraging to hardliners like
Modi
The recent revelations in the aftermath of the book,
that it was at the instance of L K Advani that the then
Prime Minister Vajpayee had refrained from taking action
against the Gujarat chief minister in the wake of the
massacre of Muslims will strengthen the move to bring
him to book. The revelation might also lead to some
heart searching among moderates within the BJP.
However it is too much to expect that a single book or a
single individual like Jaswant Singh would turn the tide
against the hatred that ruled Indo-Pak relations.
Perhaps the hatred that animates organizations like the
Taliban, RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad has
its roots in history. And they are making a Herculean
effort to right the imagined or real wrongs of history
causing cataclysmic tragedies in the process. If these
seeds of hatred can be rooted out, we would have
achieved peace with Pakistan and communal harmony within
the country.
‘Calling Pakistan’s founder secular is an insult to
those who shed their blood for independence’ commented
Bal Thakre, Shiv Sena chief , commenting on Jaswant
Singh’s book. For Hindutva outfits, there can be no
deviation from their long held anti-Muslim rhetoric.
This comment is symbolic of the extremists who hide
under a false patriotism and refuses to approach issues
with an open mind.
So the issue raised by Jaswant Singh and earlier quite
ineffectively by Advani and many others and relating to
past events of Indian history is important. Congress
leaders like Gandhi, Nehru and Patel and Muslim League
founders like Jinnah were no angels. They blundered
through and had no idea that their rigidity and narrow
vision would lead to barbarity of such dimensions. They
did not visualize then the cycle of hatred and revenge
that would rule the hearts of men as of today.
In his book, ‘Jinnah , a corrective reading of Indian
history’, published in 2005, eminent author, Asiananda
affirmed that a reconciled sub continent is an absolute
pre-condition for Asian peace and development.
Both India and Pakistan will gain immensely if they are
able to forget the past and attend to the task at hand:
providing safe drinking water, education , affordable
healthcare, food and shelter. It is mutual hatred and
suspicion that leads to diversion of vast funds needed
for improving the lot of the masses into arms build up.
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This page
is updated on Sep 18, 2009 |
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