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Undiminished Scars of 1971 Tragedy Part-3 by Brig.Gen(Retd) Asif Haroon Raja

Undiminished Scars of 1971 Tragedy

Part-3

 

“Refusal to learn from history is not unique to a particular ruler: It is a general failing of governments and people”. George Hegel

 

Asif Haroon Raja

 

UN Resolutions vetoed by USSR

After 4 Dec, all the resolutions moved in the UNSC were vetoed by the Soviet Union. On 8 Dec, Bhutto as Vice PM had been sent to New York to find a diplomatic solution to the East Pakistan (EP) crisis by arranging a ceasefire. He took a circuitous route and reached there in 3 days. He chose a leisurely course and took things lightly when EP was falling. On 14th December Poland presented a draft resolution that obviously had the backing of the USSR. It called for the transfer of power to the elected representatives, followed by a ceasefire, withdrawal of forces and later evacuation of Pakistani forces.

On 15 Dec, Bhutto made an emotional speech that was hardly relevant and then rejected the Polish resolution in a theatrical fashion, tore his notes and walked out of the meeting in a huff. Lt Gen Jacob stated later on that passage of the Polish resolution would have been disastrous for India and that it was Bhutto who saved the day for India. (Lt Gen Joseph Jacob, Surrender at Dacca, p 146).

Dying Moments

Indian Eastern Command intercepted the flurry of confusing signals transmitted between GHQ and Dacca from Dec 7 onwards and directed Commander Communication Zone, Maj Gen Nagra on 15 Dec to race for Dacca and pull a fast one on Gen Niazi that the game was over. All the major Indian formations were behind the rivers. Not a single Pakistani formations/units fighting the war had capitulated.  

Nature had given Gen Niazi a chance to stand up to the threat and enter his name in the golden Islamic history as a real tiger. He chose to give up under the plea of saving the lives of thousands of soldiers. Maj Gen Tajammul Hussain, my Brigade Commander on the Hilli front, who had given me a smashing war report, wrote is his book, “The Story of My Struggle, 1991, p 159, “Niazi was basically not a coward but he was made a coward by the cowards around him”.

No results could be achieved by the counter offensive launched on the western front where a ceasefire came into place.

“No General can vindicate his loss claiming that he was compelled against his better judgment to execute an order that led to the defeat”. Field Marshal Von Manstein

East Pakistan

 

 

 

     

The Aftermath

 

Biharis Abandoned

 

After the surrender, 35000 Pak Army all ranks and non-combatants serving in units and HQs, 13000 EPCAF and Police personnel and 48000 non-Bengali civilians including their families were taken into safe custody of the Indian Army and later shifted to already established PoW camps in India. The Biharis were left to fend for themselves. Gen AA K Niazi and his negotiating team didn’t insist on including them in the repatriation list. They were left at the mercy of marauding Mukti, Qadri, Mujib and several other Bahinis who massacred them brutally and raped their women. The occupying Indian Army made no effort to stop the bloodshed since they were busy in looting, in carnival pleasures and nocturnal merrymaking. Hundreds of mass graves were dug to dump their bodies. The dried wells were filled with their dead bodies. Brutalities of the MBs were lumped on Pak Army.

 

10% Bengalis wanted independence

 

According to Professor G.W Choudhury, a Bengali member of Yahya’s cabinet and a fellow of Columbia University writes in his book, (The Last Days of United Pakistan, Oxford University Press, p. 167), ‘The vast majority of the Bengali Muslims were not prepared to see Pakistan dismembered and their homeland become again a target of domination by the ‘Bhadralok (elite) from Calcutta. They were interested in having genuine regional autonomy. In fact, their basic demand was for the improvement of their economic lot. Mujib captured their imagination because he promised them a ‘golden Bengal’ if they would only vote for his six points —‘

 

Propaganda War

 

The bizarre figures of 3 million Bengalis killed and 300,000 women raped by Pak Army in 9 months were dispelled by several western and Bengali authors including Sharmila Bose in her book ‘Dead Reckoning. She said that during her ground investigations, despite her best efforts she couldn’t get any evidence that soldiers of Pak Army had targeted Bengali women and children. In her view the highly exaggerated figures were given to arouse the sentiments of the public. She also negated the story of mass killings of students in Dacca University saying her probe revealed that all schools, colleges and university were closed and no one was living in the university hostel except for AL militants who had stacked big dumps of arms and ammunition and used to impart military training to the students.  

 

R.J. Rummel in his book ‘Death by Government’, writes about the atrocities committed by militant Bengalis against on-Bengalis: “In the whole of EP, non-Bengalis were attacked and were subjected to torture and ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Muslim families were wholly eliminated; women were raped and their breasts were cut with specially carved knives. The children of the victim women were also not spared. Thousands of surviving children had to live a torturous life. In Chittagong, Khulna, and Jessore, dead bodies of 20,000 Biharis were discovered. A cautions guess gives a figure of 2.50 lacs non-Bengalis killed at the hands of MB”.  

 

Between 1972 and 1974, Indian military and civil writers with the assistance provided by the Indian government published 270 books on the 1971 War and this trend continued over the years. The purpose was to justify Indian military’s intervention into EP, hide their crimes against humanity and build a narrative to prove that the myths of slaughter of 3 million Bengalis and rapes of 300,000 Bengali women by the Pak Army were true, and that the numbers pitched against Indian Army were 93000. 

 

Sustained Indo, Russian, Western propaganda together with publication of large numbers of books by Indian, western and Bengali authors helped India in portraying the Pak Army soldiers as bloodthirsty monsters and rapists and in convincing the world that Gen Yahya Khan’s regime and Pak Army were responsible for the dismemberment of united Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh (BD).

 

Their false narrative gained authenticity since Pakistan first remained mum over the slaughter of Biharis and non-Bengalis in March 1971, fearing that disclosure of the news would result in a backlash in West Pakistan (WP). After the surrender, Pakistan again chose to remain tightlipped till the leakage of Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report in 2001. Our silence helped India to convert their lies into truth. Our muteness and absence of authentic information gave rise to speculation, fabrication and distortion of facts by vested interests.

 

Looting by Indian Army

 

Soon after the creation of BD, the Indian Army went on a looting spree like hungry parasites. They took away war munitions, heavy guns, army vehicles, private cars of West Pakistanis, household items including bathroom fittings, fridges, ceiling fans, TVs, radios, electronic items, factories machinery, food grains, jute, yarn, canned food etc. Trains and thousands of trucks were looted and it was estimated that the loot was valued $ 2.2 billion. (Martin Woolla cott. The Guardian, Jan 22, 1972). Others who wrote in detail about the plunder were Sunil Gangapadhyay in his novel Purbha Pashchin, Maj MA Jalil MB 9 Sector Comd in his book (Araksmita Swadhinata-e-Paradhinata), Maj Shawkat Ali, MB 5 Sector Comd, Zainal Abedin in his book Rape of Bangladesh, J.N. Dixit in his book Liberation of Bengal: Indo-Bangladesh Relations.   

 

In the truncated Pakistan, Lt Gen Gul Hassan and Air Marshal Rahim Khan forced Gen Yahya to resign and Bhutto sitting in New York was given a call to come and take over the reins of power. After taking over, Bhutto wore three hats of President, CMLA and Chief of Armed Forces. Yahya was interned and a probe under chief justice Hamoodur Rahman ordered the mandate of which was confined to the military debacle in EP, making the postmortem controversial. Mujib was released from jail on 8 Jan 1972 and sent to Dacca. Lt Gen Gul Hassan was appointed COAS but he and Air Marshal Rahim were sacked four months later on charges that they had Bonaparte tendencies. Superseded Lt Gen Tikka Khan replaced Gul. After fascist rule of Bhutto, he was ousted by Gen Ziaul Haq in a military coup in July 1977 and Bhutto was hanged to death on 4 April 1979. After General Zia’s death in a C-130 crash in Aug 1988, Benazir Bhutto was elected, but the ten-year democratic era saw power changing between the PPP and the PML-N under Nawaz Sharif four times. Gen Musharraf’s 9-year rule couldn’t upturn the economic fortunes of the country. Thereon, the 5-year each rule of PPP under Zardari and of PML-N under Nawaz dipped all the economic indicators of the country and exacerbated moral and social issues. So far the incumbent PTI regime has been unable to cure the diseases of Pakistan and the economy is declining and provincialism has gained ground.         

 

In Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib carried out witch-hunting of Bihars and patriotic Bengalis favoring One-Pakistan, and sought trial of 195 WP officers in alleged war crimes. He could survive for a few years only and on Aug 15, 1975, he along with 22 other family members were killed in a military coup led by Maj Farooq and Maj Rashid. Khondkar Mushtaq after remaining in the president’s chair for two months was deposed in another coup on Nov 3, 1975 which brought Brig Khalid Musharraf to power. After 4 days, he was toppled in a military coup and Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman was chosen to lead the country. After ruling for six years, he was assassinated and Gen Hussain Ershad ruled the roost till he was defeated by Mrs. Khalida Zia in elections in 1991. In the 1997 elections, Sheikh Hasina Wajid won and ruled for the next five years. She sentenced 15 army officers to death in Nov 1998. After another stint of Khalida, Hasina again came to power in 2008. She is still in the chair and has made impressive socio-economic improvements.         

 

To be continued

 

The writer is Brig, war veteran, defence analyst, international columnist, author of five books, sixth book under publication, Chairman Thinkers Forum Pakistan, Director Measac Research Centre. [email protected]

  

 

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Undiminished Scars of 1971 Tragedy Part-1   Brig.Gen (Retd) Asif Haroon Raja

Undiminished Scars of 1971 Tragedy

Part-1

 

Asif Haroon Raja

 

“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it”. George Santayana

 

 

The 1971 War fought between the two arch-rivals India and Pakistan fifty years ago is an account of painful memories for Pakistanis particularly those who were in former East Pakistan (EP). Severance of the eastern limb of Pakistan was a great national tragedy the anguish of which is still felt by the veterans and the patriotic Bengalis and Biharis and the civilians who had witnessed and undergone the whole trauma. With so many facts hidden under the massive Indo-Western propaganda having now surfaced, it can be surmised that Pakistan was made the victim of a methodically planned conspiracy.

 

Besides India and the rebels of EP, the USSR, USA, UK, Israel and Afghanistan had supported the Bengali rebels instigated by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his cohorts. The whole world, including Pakistan’s close friends, quietly and helplessly watched the agonizing dismemberment process from 25 March to 16 Dec 1971.      

 

Background History

 

After the unjust Boundary Award by Radcliffe at the behest of Mountbatten in which half of Punjab and Bengal including Calcutta were awarded to India, India was partitioned and Pakistan came into being on 14 August 1947. The British allowed India to annex all the 565 Princely States including two-thirds Kashmir which was annexed in Oct 1947. The Muslim League (ML) under the sagacious and resolute leadership of Quaid-e-Azam MA Jinnah translated the feelings of the Indian Muslims into a political reality. Although a moth-eaten and truncated Pakistan, it was the largest Muslim nation in the world.

 

The Muslims of Bihar adjacent to East Bengal didn’t want to be part of Hindu dominated West Bengal and opted to move to Muslim majority East Bengal. Compared with Muslim Bengalis, they were fair coloured, educated, skilled and talented due to which they managed to monopolize the public sectors, banking and railways. It caused resentment to the original inhabitants. There was a better understanding between Hindu and Muslim Bengalis. The phenomenon was similar to Karachi where the Muhajirs were initially welcomed by the Sindhis but gradually they harboured ill feelings against them on account of taking control over all the public offices and business etc. the Sindhis happily co-existed with Hindus.  

 

India didn’t reconcile with Pakistan’s Existence

 

Bharat detested the two-nation theory and didn’t reconcile to the birth of Pakistan, which also became an eyesore for the former USSR and Israel since it was created based on Islam. To disprove this theory, and to undo Pakistan step by step, India made plans soon after the partition to subvert the minds of Bengalis EP and sever the eastern wing from the concept of Pakistan.

 

EP was chosen as the initial objective due to its vulnerability of being 1000 miles away from West Pakistan (WP), surrounded by Indian Territory from three sides, the heavy cultural influence of West Bengal, and differences in dress, diet, habits and culture of Bengalis from WP. 13 million Hindu Bengalis in EP had been directed by Nehru to stay put so that their insidious influence could be best utilized to subvert the minds of Muslim Bengalis against non-Bengalis and Biharis.   

 

In a matter of 23 years, the Muslim Bengalis that were at the forefront of the Pakistan movement were led astray and were filled with so much hatred against West Pakistan that they opted to gain independence. They accepted India as their mentor and saviour from whose shackles of freedom was achieved after so much agony and labour.

 

Subversion of East Pakistan

 

The audiences selected by the Indian psychological operators in EP to subvert their minds were the youth, politicians, Awami League (AL), education curriculum, religious moorings, art & culture, stage dramas & theatres, print media, TV & radio, writers, journalists & intellectuals, non-Bengali heavy civil administration. Secularism was promoted and religion downplayed. The language issue was fomented, history of Bengal was distorted to paint Muslim rule in India in poor light. Hindu festivals were celebrated, school textbooks were printed in Bengali in Calcutta Press. 90% of school teachers and professors were Hindu Bengalis who sowed the seeds of hatred among the students. Dacca University became the stronghold of AL where its militant wing was first created. ML was discredited.

 

 

 

 

So powerful was the influence of Indian psychological operators that the coercive rule of the Hindu Mahajans and landlords who had reduced East Bengal Muslims into serfs in the latter half of the 18th century after the battle of Plassey in 1757 was forgotten and ‘hate everything non-Bengali’ phobia was accepted. It is an irony of fate that the very people who were in the vanguard of the Pakistan Movement took up arms to destroy the country they had helped to create.

  

Simmering in East Pakistan

 

In EP, the Biharis governed by a superiority complex lived in separate colonies and got closer with WP bureaucrats (mostly Urdu speaking) due to which the desired integration between the two communities did not develop. Likewise, the ML governments and the ten years of Ayub Khan’s military rule didn’t pay any intention towards socially integrating the two wings on ideological grounds.

 

The gulf between the Bengalis and Biharis and between the two wings were widened by the AL under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Maulana Bhashani, well-heeled Hindu Bengalis and India’s intelligence agencies. These elements together with Hindu teachers and professors injected hatred into the minds of the Bengalis against non-Bengalis and portrayed India as a well-wisher under a calculated program plotted by India.

 

Bengali nationalism was stirred up based on socio-economic grievances and domination of Punjab. Maximum provincial autonomy for EP was underlined as a panacea. Nationalism heightened during the 1952 language riots followed by the defeat of the ML at the hands of the Jugto Front led by Fazlul Haq in the 1954 provincial elections. Thereafter, ML never regained balance and became dependent upon the bureaucracy and the military to stay in power.  

 

One-Unit Scheme

 

The merger of provinces and six States of WP into a single province in 1954 was motivated by the fear of Bengal’s domination over Punjab. The One-Unit scheme put aside the question of autonomy. Under the parity formula, the country got a constitution in 1956 after labour of nine years. However, it was never put into practice due to President Iskandar Mirza’s disdain for democracy and the parliamentary system. As such, the One-Unit rather than integrating the two wings caused greater polarization and mistrust. Palace intrigues of Ghulam Muhammad followed by Iskandar Mirza and failure of political institutions to build a stable political system led to military intervention in politics in 1958.  

 

Ayub Khan’s Military Rule

 

After the abrogation of 1956, dissolution of assemblies and imposition of martial law by President Mirza on Oct 7, 1958, power was wrested by Gen Ayub Khan on Oct 28. Apart from initiating a host of reforms and introducing the Basic Democrats system, he framed a new constitution envisaging a presidential form of government in 1962.

 

Death of Suhrawardy in 1963, the last bridge between the two wings, gave the reins of AL to Sheikh Mujib who started playing on the theme of inter-wing disparity. No effort was made to put the record straight that in 1947, Bengal was the poorest province of India and EP most underdeveloped part of Bengal.

 

In 1962, Sheikh Mujib had written a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru requesting assistance for an armed insurrection in East Pakistan (The American Papers – Secret and Confidential India. Pakistan. Bangladesh Documents 1965-1973, The University Press, pp. 243-244). He followed this up by taking a delegation to Agartala in 1963. The details of his involvement with India can be seen in Asoka Raina’s book, Inside RAW: The Story of India’s Secret Service, p. 48.

 

After Effects of 1965 War

 

The 1965 War in which Pakistan gained an edge over India, bred insecurity in the minds of people of EP. Willful propaganda was launched that if the security of EP rested on Chinese deterrence, why should its people contribute towards the defence budget. It was propagated that WP was prospering on account of foreign currency earned from the export of jute produced in EP, and the latter had become a colony of WP. The Bengali leaders ignored the massive reforms and uplift programs initiated by Ayub Khan in the EP.  

 

Sheikh Mujib ranted grievances and espoused his six points to emancipate the deprivations of Bengalis. It became the rallying cry of Bengali nationalism, but in reality, it was a doctrine of secession. ZA Bhutto after creating PPP in 1967 falsely accused his mentor Ayub Khan of selling Kashmir by signing the Tashkent Declaration which he had drafted and raised the slogan of Roti, Kapra, Makan to alleviate the poverty of the masses in WP. The two demagogues never clashed with each other since their objective was to oust Ayub Khan. They launched politics of violence in the two provinces duly bolstered by India, which gave rise to provincialism and secessionist tendencies. Ayub’s reforms to narrow down east-west inequities were drowned in the sea of negative propaganda.

 

Agartala Conspiracy

 

In 1968, Sheikh Mujib was arrested on charges of conspiracy along with 34 other civil and military bureaucrats and put on trial. His trial made him a hero in the eyes of the Bengalis instead of a traitor. This was a time of political unrest in the country that was being exploited by politicians including Maulana Bhashani, Bhutto and Air Marshal Asghar Khan to dislodge Ayub Khan. They mounted a campaign for Mujib’s release without giving it much thought that he was conspiring with India to break up Pakistan. Students’ agitation in WP had become volatile. Under intense pressure, Ayub withdrew the case against Mujib and released him.

 

Crucial Round Table Conference

 

Bhutto stayed away from critical negotiations between Ayub Khan and the opposition leaders in Feb 1969 during which Ayub had accepted all their demands except for six points and repeal of One-Unit. Bhutto was responsible for the failure of the Round Table Conference (RTC) on March 10-12 by boycotting it. He maintained secret links with Gen Yahya Khan and other conspiring senior army officers wanting to depose Ayub Khan and hand over power to Yahya Khan.

 

Transfer of Power to Gen Yahya Khan

 

Fast deteriorating internal disorder forced Ayub Khan to resign and give the reins of power to Gen Yahya Khan on 25 March 1969. He abrogated the 1962 Constitution, declared martial law and ran the country on a Legal Framework Order. The changeover and the newcomer’s inclination to appease the Bengalis at all cost provided a golden opportunity to India to put its plan of subversion of EP and its detachment from Pakistan into action. 

 

Policy of Appeasement

 

Being politically naïve, Yahya Khan first step was to announce his intentions to hold general elections on 5 Oct 1970 based on the adult franchise to pacify the politicians. Turning a blind eye to the records of Bhutto and Mujib he opted to befriend them. He pandered to each legal and illegal demand of Mujib since he wanted to keep him happy. He undid One-Unit Scheme and divided WP into four provinces while keeping EP intact. Doing away with the parity formula left him with no munition to bargain with Mujib over the issue of autonomy. He replaced separate electorates with joint electorates to enable AL in EP and the PPP in Sindh to garner Hindu votes. 10 East Bengal Regiments (EBR) with 100% Bengalis were raised. Political prisoners were released and cases against criminals were withdrawn.  

 

Ignoring the warnings about the sinister intentions of Mujib, Yahya kept doling out political concessions to the Bengalis, thereby guaranteeing their victory in the elections. He, however, remained under the delusion that the outcome of elections will be a split mandate.

 

Yahya also lent receptive ears to the counsels of scheming Bhutto and mistook him to be his sincere political adviser. The then governor of EP Admiral Ahsan opined that it may have been because Mujib had promised to retain Yahya as the president and Bhutto had no objections. The two ambitious and wily politicians made him play into their hands.

 

Dr Kamal Hossain, constitutional advisor to Mujib recorded in his book, (Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice p. 89) Therefore it was decided that the position to be taken should not be an explicit declaration of independence. To exert pressure on Yahya, specific demands should be made and the movement sustained in support of these demands, with independence as its ultimate goal’. 

 

The writer is Brigadier, a war veteran, defence analyst, international columnist, author of five books, sixth book under publication, Chairman Thinkers Forum Pakistan, Director Measac Research Centre. [email protected] 

 

To be continued 

 

 

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Anti-Muslim-Anti-China Article in Japan Times                                                                    By Sajjad Shaukat

 

 

It is sad that as part of the Indian venomous propaganda campaign, in his article, published in Japan Times on April 14, 2020, under the caption “The other contagion: Political and religious fanaticism”, Indian writer Brahma Chellaney has shown misconceptions about the Muslims, some Islamic countries, including Pakistan and China in relation to the Coronavirus outbreak.

 

Brahma Chellaney wrote: “Just as fascism led to World War II, communism has engendered the greatest global health catastrophe of our time. The Chinese Communist Party, by initially covering up the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, helped unleash the world’s worst pandemic … [China’s]…authoritarianism can ravage the entire world…the pandemic is another extremism—one grounded in religion…Meanwhile, a transnational Islamist movement, the Tablighi Jamaat (“Proselytizing Society”), by holding large gatherings in Malaysia, Pakistan, and Indonesia, helped export the pathogen to multiple countries extending from Southeast Asia to West Africa. This Sunni missionary movement also held a session in New Delhi that helped spread the virus across India. Through its large events, the Tablighi Jamaat—which has long served as a recruiting ground for terrorist groups—has emerged as the super-spreader of COVID-19…the organization will be remembered for the deaths and suffering it caused in many communities. The lesson is that religious fanaticism, like political despotism, is often deadly. Indeed, the blind faith of religious zealots has been a significant trigger in spreading the coronavirus, as Iran’s case underscores”.

 

While, spreading disinformation in line with the fanatic Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling party BJP, including other religious extremist groups, the writer has ignored the ground realities.

 

Indian writer should pay attention to the fact that Prime Minister Modi’s extremist party BJP had also got a land sliding triumph in the Indian elections 2019, as, during the election campaign, the Hindu majority was mobilized on ‘hate Muslim’ slogans and ‘anti-Pakistan’ jargons. On the basis of the same slogans, the BJP-led alliance won the 2014 elections.

 

Since 2014 Modi-led BJP was already promoting religious fanaticism and the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) by persecuting religious minorities, Sikhs, Christians, and particularly Muslims, including even lower cast-Hindus.

 

In his second tenure, the Premier Modi government accelerated the implementation of the Hindutva agenda, especially targeting the Muslims. Indian fanatic rulers’ various moves such as abrogation of the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir to turn Muslim majority into a minority in the Occupied Kashmir (IOK), continued lockdown in the IOK, the martyrdom of thousands of the Kashmiris there, issuance of a notorious map to bifurcate the Kashmir region into two union territories and introduction of new domicile law to further alter the demographic and geographic status of the IOK against the majority of Kashmiris are notable.

 

Particularly, in the aftermath of the elections 2019, news reports have highlighted different cases in which Dalits and especially Muslims were violently targeted by the radical Hindus.

 

In this respect, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on October 8, 2019: “Bharat is Hindu Rashtra and all Bharatiyas are Hindus.”

 

 

 

India's Nazi's

 

Besides, the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) further exposed the Modi government’s discriminatory policies. The CAA coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is mainly against Muslim immigrants especially from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. It strips 200 million Indian Muslims of their citizenship.

 

Since December 15, 2019, daily mass protests, even by the moderate Hindus have been taking place across every state in India against the CAA and the NRC, which resulted in killing of more than 200 persons and injuring 800-mostly Muslims by the police and fanatic Hindus. But, the Modi-led regime has not withdrawn the CAA/NRC. Since February 23, this year when clashes started in New Delhi between protesters for and against the citizenship law, Hindu extremists of RSS and BJP have burnt properties of Muslims, including their vehicles and mosques, and compelled them to leave the areas.

 

While Indian rulers have been imposing various kinds of restrictions on the Muslims, coronavirus provided them another pretext to increase their hardships. Top officials of the Modi government and the health ministry claimed that Muslims are spreading this virus. Availing this opportunity, Hindu zealots have set off a series of assaults against Muslims across the country.

 

In this connection, The New York reported on April 12, 2020: “Muslims have been beaten up, nearly lynched, run out of their neighborhoods or attacked in mosques…Hindu extremists are scapegoating the country’s entire Muslim population for deliberately spreading the virus through “corona jihad”.

 

Al Jazeera reported on April 16, 2020, “Indian hospitals segregate Muslim and Hindu coronavirus patients…In what many are calling a case of “apartheid” during a global pandemic…made separate wards for Hindu and Muslim patients. It is a decision of the government”.

 

In this context, under the title “It Was Already Dangerous to Be Muslim in India. Then Came the coronavirus”, Billy Perrigo also elaborated the Indian present drastic anti-Muslim phenomena.

 

As regards the Tablighi Jamaat congregations since the remote past, they have been holding congregations. But, now as part of New Delhi’s biased policies, their preachers have also become the main target of coronavirus epidemic.

 

Indian Constitution which declares India to be a democratic state, safeguarding the rights of minorities has been torn into pieces by the Narendra Modi who has changed it into authoritarianism by targeting the minority groups, particularly Muslims.

 

And Brahma Chellaney who also held China responsible for deliberately preparing and spreading the COVID-19 is no more than disinformation. US-supported India wants to counterbalance China in Asia. So, the writer has spoken in the tone of America which has earlier accused Beijing in this regard.

 

Notably, Lijian Zhao, an official spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on March 12, 2020, that the US Army has brought the coronavirus epidemic to Wuhan from where it originated. US athletes participated in the Military World Games which were held from October 18–27, 2019 in Wuhan.

 

So, Washington’s main aim was to check the rapidly increasing economic influence of China in the Afro-Asian countries. And New Delhi is also against the growing impact of Beijing in the region.

 

At present, China has controlled the coronavirus and lifted lockdown in Wuhan. Even, America is seeking Chinese help to eliminate the COVID-19 outbreak.

 

In terms of the above-mentioned facts, Brahma Chellaney’s article is based upon his misconceptions about the Muslims, some Islamic countries, including Pakistan and China. 

 

 

 

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Indian liberalism is a historical myth that must be countered if we want to understand our society

Indian liberalism is a historical myth that must be countered if we want to understand our society

We continue to believe that what is happening today is simply an aberration and long to return to a past that did not exist.

Mar 09, 2020 · 06:30 am

Sanjay Srivastava

The last few years have been particularly noticeable for remembering dead and ageing parents. Not just any common garden variety ones, of course, but a very specific kind. These are the parents who, apparently, bequeathed a tolerant, liberal and non-majoritarian India to their children. They embraced religious diversity, resisted various forms of bigotry and promoted the values of constitutional morality. They instilled in their progeny the importance of imagining a post-colonial republic where differences of class, caste, religion and ethnicity would be unequivocally erased.

In media articles and social media outpourings, these parents – narrators of a tryst with destiny – are sorely missed. Over the past six years, everything that the immediate ancestors dreamt of has been, apparently, upturned. In around half a decade, centuries of Indian tolerance – the aforementioned parents being its clearest exemplars – has been wiped out.

The romance of Indian liberalism, fed by the ever-nourishing rivers of historical myth-making of recent origin, needs to be countered if we are ever to undertake the task of taking a good hard look at ourselves – and our parents. Liberal ancestor worship does not serve us well. It certainly does not allow for an understanding of the nature of Indian society either over the longue durèe or in the recent past.

The good Muslim syndrome

The most fundamental aspect of our recent past is that our parents were not particularly committed to the values of religious tolerance that they are frequently credited with as a pre-Modi phenomenon. Their relationship with their Muslim co-citizens was premised on a specific set of circumstances.

Firstly, it had to do with Muslims “knowing their place”. Muslims were to act as mascots of Hindu India’s tolerant culture, rather than exercise an identity that might assert equality with members of the majority community. This was the condition of Hindu contextualism where “secular India” was deeply rooted in the values and public symbolism of Hinduism. Our public functions began (and still begin) with lighting lamps, ships were launched by breaking coconuts and we sang (and now sing with greater fervour) Sanskrit hymns at various national occasions as if these were areligious markers of post-colonial identity.

That is the world our parents grew up in and subscribed to: the “good Muslim” was the one who knew his or her place in a society marked by Hindu contextualism. Even Nehru, perhaps one of the very few who might have understood the meaning of genuine multiculturalism, was not able to counter these tendencies.

Eliding caste

Secondly, there was no India of our parent’s generation that seriously engaged with the caste question. Rather, if we have now come to believe that our parents decried casteism – and that its resurgence is linked to the break-down of their culture of liberalism – this is an entirely spurious view, nurtured by a very Indian culture of filial obligation.

Men and women of an earlier generation – the first and second generation of post-Independence parents – were as deeply casteist as their apparent antithetical contemporary counterparts. What was true of the earlier generation was that – like the Left parties – they pronounced that “in their circles” caste was not a problem.

There is a very common refrain among many now in their seventies and eighties that as school-going students, they had no idea about the caste of their fellow students. This does not, of course, prove that India of the 1950s and ’60s was not marked by caste hierarchies. Rather that in our parents’ generation, there was no occasion for encountering it as those among whom they moved were uniformly upper-caste. The comforts of caste-homogenous social circles ensured that there was no necessity of thinking about caste as a problem. This might only have been the case if different castes encountered each other in the same social milieu.

A soft bigotry

The fact of the matter is that neither was our parents’ time one of a golden age of tolerance and constitutional morality nor is it the case that we have now – in a space of six years! – dramatically changed. The first perspective is misplaced filial obligation and the second is a simplistic understanding of social and cultural change.

Our parents practised bigotry of a quiet sort, one that did not require the loud proclamations that are the norm now. Muslims and the lower castes knew their place and the structures of social and economic authority were not under threat. This does not necessarily translate into a tolerant generation. Rather, it was a generation whose attitudes towards religion and caste was never really tested.

The loud bigotry of our times is no great break from the past in terms of a dramatic change in attitudes – is it really possible that such changes can take place in such few years? Rather, it is the crumbling of the veneer of tolerance against those who once knew their place but no longer wish to accept that position.

The great problem with all this is that we continue to believe that what is happening today is simply an aberration and that we will, when the nightmare is over, return to the Utopia that was once ours. However, it isn’t possible to return to the past that was never there. It will only lead to an even darker future. And, filial affection is no antidote for it.

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Broadening split in India’s Federation By Sajjad Shaukat

 

Since Narendara Modi, the leader of the ruling party BJP became the Indian Prime Minister in 2014, he started implementing ideology of Hindutva ((Hindu Nationalism). Under his regime, persecution of religious minorities such as Dalits, Sikhs, Christians and particularly Muslims, including even of lower cast-Hindus might be cited as instance.

 

In this regard, the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), passed by the Indian Parliament further exposed the discriminatory policies of the Modi government. The CAA coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is mainly against the Muslim immigrants especially from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

 

Since December 15, 2019, daily mass protests, even by the moderate Hindus have been taking place across every state in India against the CAA and the NRC, which resulted into killing of more than 100 persons and injuring 800-mostly Muslims by the police and fanatic Hindus. But, Modi-led regime has not withdrawn the CAA/NRC.

 

It is mentionable that more than seven months have been passed. But, Indian extremist government led by the extremist Prime Minister Modi continued lockdown in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). While, Indian fanatic rulers are also escalating tensions with Pakistan to divert attention from the drastic situation of the (IOK), and have continued shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir by violating the ceasefire agreement in relation to the Line of Control (LoC).

 

Indian forces have broken all previous records of gross human rights abuses since August 5, 2019 when Indian Prime Minister Modi’s government ended special status of the Jammu and Kashmir by abolishing articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution to turn Muslim majority into minority in the Indian Held Kashmir. Implementing the August 5 announcement, Indian central government issued a notorious map on October 31, 2019. In accordance with it, Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

 

Besides Pakistan, China also rejected the Indian map. In this regard, China objected to the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories as “unlawful and void”, saying that India’s decision to “include” some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction “challenged” Beijing’s sovereignty. Border dispute between New Delhi and China, which remains unsettled, has increased tension between the two countries.

 

 

 

It is noteworthy that former Soviet Union which had subjugated the minorities and ethnic groups in various provinces and regions through its military, disintegrated in 1991. Learning no lesson from its previous close friend, New Delhi has been acting upon the similar policies in some way or the other.

 

However, India, dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland—Hindutva have been using brutal force ruthlessly against any move to free Assam, Kashmir, Khalistan, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Tripura where wars of liberation continue in one form or the other.

Due to the discrimination against the Sikh community, Sikhs have been fighting for Kahalistan as an independent state.

 

In the recent years, Maoist intensified their struggle by attacking official installments. In this context, Indian media admitted that Maoists have entered the cities, expanding their activities against the Indian union. On 22-23 April 2018, at least 39 Maoists were killed in an alleged encounter with Indian security forces in district Gadchiroli. Maoist uprising is second major freedom movement after that of the Occupied Kashmir. Indian former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called Maoist insurrection, “the single biggest internal-security challenge”, whereas, Home Secretary G.K Pillai had reiterated the magnitude of this threat by saying that the Maoists want to completely overthrow the Indian state by 2050. The Naxalite-Maoists, as they call themselves, are the liberators, representing landless farmers and the downtrodden masses who have been entangled into vicious circle of poverty, misery and deprivation.

 

Tamil Nadu is another area where separatist movements are haunting federation of India.

 

And, the seven states of Northeastern India, which are called the ‘Seven Sisters’ are ethnically and linguistically different from rest of the country. These states are rocked by a large number of armed and violent rebellions, some seeking separate states, some fighting for autonomy and others demanding complete independence. These states which include Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, accuse New Delhi of apathy towards their issues. Illiteracy, poverty and lack of economic opportunities have fueled the natives’ demand for autonomy and independence.

 

As regards the state of Assam, the BJP-led alliance has been targeting the 4 million Assamese Muslims who are being denied Indian citizenship under the NRC. On August 31, 2019, nearly two million people have been excluded from a list of citizens in India’s Assam, raising fears they could be rendered stateless.

 

Undoubtedly, these states have witnessed various sorts of India’s state terrorism, but, did not stop their struggle. Instead of redressing the grievances of the people by eliminating injustices against them, Modi-led Indian regime is depending upon ruthless force to crush these extremist and secessionist movements. Therefore, India’s unrealistic counterinsurgency strategy has badly failed.

 

It is of particular attention that Indian Minister of External affairs Jaswant Singh who served the BJP for 30 years was expelled from the party for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah [Founder of Pakistan] and echoing the pain of the Indian Muslims in his book, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence.”

 

Pointing out the BJP’s attitude towards the minorities, Singh wrote: “Every Muslim that lives in India is a loyal Indian…look into the eyes of Indian Muslims and see the pain.” He warned in his book, if such a policy continued, “India could have third partition.”

 

We can conclude that Modi’s “New India”, which is “Meta Nationalism”, is transforming the country into a “fascist and extremist India”, as Modi is intolerant and inflexible to any kind of opposition. So, Prime Minister Narendar Modi’s extremist policies have broadened the split of India’s federation which will disintegrate like the former Soviet Union.

 

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

 

Email: [email protected]

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