Amit Kushari (IAS Retd)
I was amused to read a news item in the news paper that the government has issued an advisory to ZEE channel regarding the contents of its serial,”Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam”, aired on Zindagi TV channel. Reportedly some viewers had taken exception to the airing of this serial because it showed the Pakistani view point on the partition of India. View points of two nations need not always be the same and one should have at least a minimum degree of tolerance to each other’s different view points. In fact we should we should be able to respect and appreciate the view point of others. I along with my family have watched this interesting serial and we found nothing objectionable in it. The serial depicts how the Muslims living in Ludhiana (East Punjab) suffered in 1947 when riots broke out after the partition. What is objectionable in that? Everyone knows that Muslims in East Punjab and Hindus and Sikhs in West Punjab suffered very badly. While Hindus/Sikhs were squeezed out of West Punjab, so were the Muslims of East Punjab,with the only exception of Tehsil Maler Kotla where the Muslims were not touched because the Nawab of Maler Kotla had once given protection to a Sikh guru. Truth should always be respected. In this serial the Pakistani actress of great repute, Sanam Baloch, is the heroine who is kidnapped and forced into marriage by a Sikh. Many such things had happened in 1947 and there is no need for us to be offended by such depictions. A few years back, I had seen a Hindi movie, Gadar, a love story- which had an identical theme. That movie had also an identical theme of a Muslim woman (Amisha Patel) marrying a Sikh boy (Sunny Deol). Nobody took exception to this movie in India because the Sardarji was portrayed as a loving and caring husband and the Muslim woman was portrayed as an obedient and loving Sikh wife/mother, always eager to put sindoor on her forehead much to the dislike of her Muslim parents settled in Pakistan. If Muslims in Pakistan had watched this movie they could have also been offended because the main theme of the movie was to show how bad and fanatic the Pakistanis were and ‘look how good’ the Indians were.
The Muslims fought for a homeland for Indian Muslims and they achieved a homeland, their cherished goal(manzil e muraad)where their political rights would be protected. Nobody can question their political desire, but what is objectionable in Pakistan is that they threw out almost the entire minority community and those few who remained back didn’t have the same rights of voting along with the members of the majority community. They could vote only for seats reserved for minorities. The Hindus and Sikhs became second class citizens without voting rights and article 2 of the Pakistani constitution mentions that Islam would be the religion of the state as a consequence of which no Hindu or Sikh could become the President or Prime Minister. I was happy to know that many intellectuals in Pakistan are objecting to this system. Even the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, Justice Nasir ul Mulk, also commented recently while hearing a petition ,” Can article 2 be amended to make Pakistan a secular democracy?” The Supreme Court bar was of the opinion that to make Pakistan secular a new constituent Assembly would have to be elected and a referendum would have to be conducted in Pakistan.
Since the Muslims in Pakistan have achieved what they wanted, the question arises whether Hindus/Sikhs/Jains can also have a similar desire and demand in India? They too may desire that religions of Indian origin should have supremacy over foreign origin religions, like Christianity and Islam. They too may have a desire to declare conversions from Indian religions to foreign religions null and void on the same lines as conversion from Islam is illegal in Pakistan. Competitive fanaticism is bad for every one and this should be understood by all Indians, specially those Muslim clerics and leaders who spew venom and try to denigrate all political aspirations of Hindus. In this connection I recall a conversation which I heard in a train between two UP based Muslim gentlemen.
The two gentlemen were discussing what a big mistake their grandfathers had done by not migrating to Pakistan. They said their grandfathers didn’t want to leave their land and property in India and go to Pakistan as landless mohajirs. Their fathers had argued with their grandfathers that it would be stupid on their part to rely on the caste divisions within Hindu society. Hindus may not remain divided for ever on caste lines and a time may come in future when Hindus will be politically united sinking all their caste divisions. If that happens in future and all Hindus start voting for Hindu minded political parties, what will happen to the Muslims, they discussed. Will India become a Hindu state? Will Muslims be safe and secure in such a country? I could appreciate the worry of the two gentlemen. I tried to assure the duo that they had no reason to worry as India had a secular constitution and secularism was non negotiable in our society. They weren’t quite convinced and quoted a few utterances from Hindu sadhus and sadhvis who dominate the Parliament. In a very despondent way they said, “Mahoul badalne mein zyada der nahin lagti.” We have to get rid of this atmosphere of mutual suspicion and start respecting each other and wishing each other well.
(The author former Financial Commissioner, J&K Feedback to the author at 09748635185 or amitkus@hotmail.com)
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