Will Indo-Pak relations ever be good? (Part 5)

Pakistan was created as a safe haven for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, more specifically, those who were inhabitants of British India. This is what Pakistani historians, intellectuals and journalists pointed out to Rafique Zakaria who had come up with a biography of their Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Zakaria had sought to expose Jinnah for never having been a practising Muslim for a better part of his life. It is a well-known fact that the Oxford-educated barrister ate pork and drank liquor.

It may not be so well known that the man was an agnostic till he began to identify himself with Islam and the Musalmans of British India as the leader of the Muslim League because it was politically expedient to do so. Anyway, Zakaria’s biography raised serious questions about Jinnah’s locus standi in taking up the cause of Islam when the man was, for the most part, hardly a practising Muslim himself. This was, prima facie, a perfectly logical argument. However, the Pakistanis were up in arms and quick to point out that Jinnah did not create Pakistan as he thought Islam was in danger, but to protect the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.

It was another matter altogether that the most vociferous demand for Pakistan came from the Muslims of Muslim-minority states of the erstwhile British India. However, ironically, it was precisely these Muslims who were left out of the orbit of Pakistan when it came into existence. And, that is what triggered the mass exodus of Muslims from this side of the border northwestwards after partition, which vitiated the communal atmosphere irrevocably and resulted in the bloodbath that followed. So, the very birth of Pakistan was a difficult one. It left indelible scars on the psyche of people on both sides of the border even though the wounds healed with time.

These scars have never allowed the people of both countries to forget the horrors of partition. While Jinnah got demonised in India and the separatist movement he so ably spearheaded consistently denounced in the history text books succeeding generations have read in India, Pakistani historians have not lagged behind in blaming the Indian National Congress and its ‘Hindu’ leaders for making Pakistan necessary. This one-sided, tendentious account of historical events on both sides has ensured that every succeeding generation in both countries is bred on suspicion and hatred of the other. Is it any wonder that even a stalwart like L.K. Advani had to pay a political price for praising Jinnah in Pakistan? Is it any wonder that Jaswant Singh was even expelled from a national party for his book on the founder of Pakistan?

* To be continued...