DEFEATING THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN-------- by Dr Khalid Muqueem

We Indians love to hate Pakistan. We revel in the idea of defeating Pakistan. We have a lot of confidence in our military prowess, that if a definitive war beaks out, we will definitely defeat Pakistan. A logical question still remains, is war the solution for this problem. Have we not defeated Pakistan in a number of times previously? Still the solution is eluding us.

Many of us still believe that Pakistan only understand the language of power, and a punishing military defeat will tame Pakistan. If defeating Pakistan permanently solves the border or the neighbour issue, it is better to go for an all out war, and win it. In the best case scenario we can annex it and close the chapter of partition once for all.

But a logical question arises, what will be the gains from this victory and at what cost? Whether defeating an enemy and annexing the enemy country will solve the problem? Will it not become a bigger Kashmir, with bigger insurgency and a bigger headache and a bigger liability in the long run? This may be one of the reasons, why our army is reluctant to finish this chapter. Because, it may lead to the beginning of a number of new chapters.
On the contrary I will present here an idea, an approach, a strategy to win over our arch-enemy, rather than to defeat it. The strategy is not to defeat Pakistan, but to defeat the idea of Pakistan !!

 Pakistan came into existence on the back of an idea. And Kashmir problem is the adverse manifestation of that idea. And if that idea is defeated, then Pakistan will be won by us, without even waging a conventional war ! When Pakistan is won by us, Kashmir (the whole of it) will be the trophy and the jewel in our crown. Is this not the ultimate dream of every Patriotic Indian? Yes, this is my ultimate dream too.

But this war of ideas require us to think out of the box, willingness to walk on the untrodden path, rather than taking the same worned out routes. That includes, recognition of our -- till now-- untapped, demographic and cultural dividend and make the best use of it to antagonise, and ultimately demolish the idea of Pakistan. And the biggest weapon to defeat the idea of Pakistan will be the Indian Muslims !! Yes, we Patriotic Indian Muslims. Many of the readers will be surprised by this assertion, but I hope, they will be convinced as they go through the explanation. Indian Muslims are looked down upon by many of their co-citizens. They are a favourite punching bag. They are seen as the extension of the enemy. They say Indian Muslims cannot be trusted upon, in our fight with Pakistan. Their patriotism is suspect. They are a Pakistan within India. They should be crushed, tamed and their separate identity should be blurred and they should be culturally assimilated with the majoritarian culture . They should not live in this country with assertiveness and proud of their heritage. If they assert themselves, there can be only two places for them-either Pakistan or Qabrastan (graveyard). Indian Muslims have heard and are hearing such painful statements from their fellow citizens since a long time. Sometimes such sentiments are articulated explicitly, but many a times it is conveyed implicitly. But our fellow countrymen should understand that the idea of Pakistan (and hence Pakistan itself) can only be defeated with the help of Indian Muslims.!

Flawed ideology of Pakistan.

To understand this, we have to go through the pages of recent history. Why was a seperate country of Pakistan demanded ? and why was India partitioned? What is the ideology behind the formation of Pakistan? Sometimes we have to go backwards and find a new route to go forward. We need not go too far, to understand the present. A little probing will fetch us the answer.

Pakistan was demanded on the basis of the following arguments,

•  Muslims as a community is a separate 'nation' and their co-habitation with the non-Muslims is impossible.

• In a democratic set up, Muslims being in minority, will be dominated and sidelined by the Hindus.

• Muslims cannot compete with the Hindus politically, economically and educationally.

• The rights of the Muslims will be violated

• The Islamic culture will be under threat from the non-Muslims etc etc

Hence a separate homeland for Muslims was demanded and unfortunately, granted.

Many of our non-Muslim brothers does not know that, the above sentiments were not shared by all of the pre-partition Indian Muslims. A large percentage of Indian Muslims staunchly opposed the above theory. They said Muslims have lived with Hindus and other communities in India since many centuries, more or less peacefully. They said, the above sentiments were given the religious colour, as a disguise to hide the real issues. The real issues were, Indian Muslims due to their own peculiar reasons had lagged behind in educational and economic fields. The affluent among the Indian Muslims, who were till now used to the patronage and special treatment by the British, feared that after independence, they will lose all the privileges. Hence they wanted a separate land where they will be spared the competition with an educationally and economically superior community. Although many Muslims (including some prominent Ulama) got swayed by the apparent religious colour given to the rhetoric, the ideological flaw in this was not hidden from the penetrating vision of many of the Muslim scholars and Muslim leaders. The prominent among them were Maulana Abul Kalam Azad  and  Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani and large number of their followers. They dissected this idea of separate homeland and exposed the flaws in it. But unfortunately, the colonial powers and majority of educational and political elites favoured partition, which was also supported by many of the short-sighted among the Hindus. The later thought it as a good riddance.

An illogical partition.

Although the demand for Pakistan started with a flawed idea, the same flawed idea gained legitimacy after the actual creation of Pakistan. The partition was arbitrary, unnatural, illogical and unreasonable. Those Indian Muslims who favoured partition and went to Pakistan should have understood that, they would not be able to carry Taj Mahal along with them. Charminar and Gol Gumbaz with them ! Not to mention Red fort with them. Whether the tombs and the graves of such  prominent sufi saints like Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti and Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya can be uprooted and carried along with them? The lovers of these and many more sufi saints went there but their revered saints remained here ! The Tableeghi people went there but left behind the Markaz (head quarters) of Tableegh here. The Deobandis and Barelawis went there but they could not take with them the towns of Deoband and Bareilly. The educational elites, educated at Aligarh Muslim University went there, but left their Alma Mater here. Similarly the greatest poet of their National language Urdu, Mirza Ghalib is left behind in Delhi. The greatest reformers or Mujaddids of Islam in the 16-17th and 18th centuries AD, namely Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi (also called as Mujaddid Alf Thani) and Shah Waliullah Dehlawi  remain here. They can only read poingnantly in the books the surnames Sirhindi and Dehlawi, but they left behind them Sirhind and Delhi. We can give many more of such examples.

 In short we can say that, the soul is left behind and their umbilical cord is here and only a part of the body is dismembered and taken away.

The Anti-thesis of the idea of Pakistan.

Pakistan was created on the premise that it is impossible to live peacefully and flourish under Hindu domination. Islam will be threatened and Muslims will be persecuted when Muslims are in a minority and a lesser player in the government. And an average Pakistani lives with the above assumption. The moment he come across a religious, educated, prosperous and proud Indian Muslim, the whole pseudo-structure of his ideology crumbles. This is experienced many a times by proud Indian Muslims, when they come across any Pakistani in the Gulf or during Haj piligrimage or in the Western countries. A prosperous, educated, religious and proud Indian Muslim is the anti-thesis of the idea of Pakistan ! 

Indian Muslims are the custodians of the Islamic heritage of the sub-continent.

Recent history of South Asia has taken such a peculiar turn that, apparently the most unfortunate and disadvantaged population after the partition of India happens to be the custodians of this invaluable Islamic heritage of the Sub-continent. This advantageous position of Indian Muslims vis-a-vis their partitioned counterparts is not fully recognised, even by the Indian Muslims themselves. I will not write here about the lamentable position of Indian Muslims, for which they themselves are mainly to be blamed. But in this article we will look into this issue through a different perspective.

Can our Country use Indian Muslims and their Islamic Heritage as a tool to defeat the Idea of Pakistan?

This is a fresh perspective and a logical way of thinking. Indian Muslim population is slightly more than the population of Pakistan. To understand this, if we add the population of all the countries of North Africa (countries shaded in dark green in the figure below, not the light green), i.e Egypt (86 million), Sudan (35 million), Libya (6 million), Tunisia (11 million), Algeria (38 million) and Morocco (33 million), it comes around 209 million, which is roughly the population of Indian Muslims !!

The countries shaded with dark green colour are the official North African countries, according to UNO.

India is such a large country with 1.2 billion population, with such diversity and variety of languages, culture, religion that, it creates lot of practical problems if we try to view it in terms of a single ideology and particular point of view. To compare, the population of India is equivalent to the population of whole of the African continent ! Why not think India in terms of a large continent, population wise and on the basis of its cultural diversity? Continent here doesn't mean that India should be a conglomerate of different soveriegnities. There is no question of India compromising on it's soveriegnity, unity and integrity.  We have to be tough and strong, but we have to be smart too. Being strong doesn't mean that we should be reckless. Smart use of our soft power, sometimes give us more results than what we can gain by utilising all of our military might.

For that, we have to start seeing the distinct Islamic heritage of India as a cultural dividend, which Pakistan can only dream about, and start using it for a grand and noble purpose.

For example, when we want to have good relations with countries with a huge influence of Buddhism, we try to use our Buddhist heritage of Bodhgaya, Nalanda etc to press forward our National interests.With the Buddhist countries, the effect of using Buddhist heritage will be different from, the effect of using Indian Islamic Heritage with Pakistan. It will be like striking at the very foundation of  the idea of Pakistan. The Islamic Heritage of India is also very important for other coutries like Afghanistan and even Uzbekistan (the native country of Moghals), and can be used to our advantage. But the effect on Afghanistan and Uzbekistan will not shake their foundations, because  these countries were not created on the back of a particular ideology. But Pakistan was formed on the basis of an assumption. Proving effectively that assumption wrong, will be the defeat of the ideology which led to the formation of Pakistan.

How to go about it?

First and foremost we have to stop thinking Islam and Islamic heritage as a threat to Hinduism and Hindu culture. The Hindu culture is very resilient and it's adherents are sufficiently large in numbers to be affected in any way. Secondly, a healthy give and take, cultural interaction will enrich each other. Thirdly, we can draw strict lines for each community, that they will not cross those lines and each will flourish in their allotted circles, without infringing upon the sensitivities of others.

If the distinct Islamic Heritage of India is given some patronage and this heritage inturn is utilised by our Government positively as a diplomatic and a cultural soft power, this can serve our National interests very positively and will earn our Country a lot of strategic and diplomatic windfall.

For example, the Darul Uloom of Deoband is a world renowned seminary, with its followers all over the world. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and among Muslims of South Africa, Great Britain and North America. Similarly Barelwi ideology is quite popular among Muslims of many countries including Pakistan. Tableeghi Jamaa't with its markaz (centre) in New Delhi is active in all the countries of the world. If Darul Uloom is allowed to recruit foreign students from the above said countries including some deserving students from Pakistan (by checking their profile and background), and allowed to study here, what impact it will have on the ideology of Pakistan, when these graduates go back to their country and get into influential positions? If the Markaz of Tableeghi Jamaa'at is allowed to host its important international delegates in it's markaz at New Delhi, including few delegates from Pakistan, these Pakistani delegates will start doubting the ideology of Pakistan and futility of partition. Similarly if the Dargah of Hazrat Moinuddin Chisti and Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya are declared as National Heritage by the Government of India, and the lovers and followers of these and other Sufi Saints from all over the world and specially from Pakistan are invited to pay a visit, the Pakistanis will definitely realise the mistake of seperating from their Mother Country, with the majority of shared heritage within her.

If Indian Muslims are allowed to maintain their heritage and identity and allowed to flourish under the patronising umbrella of a benevolent Indian Government, and Pakistani citizens of various affilliations are allowed to interact with their respective cultural and heritage connections (under close surviellance and under Governmental control), this will go a long way in defeating the ideology of Pakistan. Once its ideology gets diluted, the public support for its military and government wanes. There may come a time when Pakistan acknowledges the primary importance of India and it's heritage and asks for peace. If that occurs, two enemies will become freindly neighbours like USA and Canada or like Australia and New Zealand, and that will be a phenomenal event in the World history.

And by the way what will happen to Kashmir?

Well, Kashmir will cease to be any problem at all. Pakistan will buy peace with her Mother India, even at the price of forsaking Kashmir !! Because, when partition as an ideology is defeated, the adverse manifestation of partition (i.e Kashmir) loses it's importance. That will be a proud moment for all Indians and more so for Patriotic and Proud Indian Muslims. Jai Hind.

“Do I not destroy my enemies, when I make them my friends?”                                                                     ― Abraham Lincoln.