This week as the UN General Assembly convenes, the British PM speaks of stronger borders in Europe and Donald Trump talks of stronger borders to prevent Syrians entering, we recall Uri and the terrorist attack on the world’s largest democracy, India, from Pakistan.
I thought I would look on Twitter, on the accounts of Pakistanis with followings of tens of thousands, of Pakistani media commentators and politicians to see how they see India and their perspective. Well, I was horrified. You would think that someone with a large following, a media commentator or politician from Pakistan would not think of India any worse than say Trump thinks of Mexico. Remember I am not talking about the average village idiot here. I am talking about educated Pakistanis.
To summarise their views – check for yourself – “Indians are dogs. Indian soldiers are cowards. India is an artificial country which was only ever the home of slaves of Islam, and ruled by Brahmin Hindus. One day Pakistan will include all of India, war is coming. Should we nuke India?”
Do not right this off as a few voices. Dozens, hundreds of them – they have tens of thousands of followers. ISIS uses the same language. Taliban use the same language.
There is no point arguing with these small minded individuals. Remember they are in the media, and have tens of thousands of followers. I cannot find an Indian equivalent. I tell you now, to every liberal minded person like me, Pakistan is a global threat to world peace. I have seen how their intelligentsia think. Their ‘leaders’ are holding back a bunch of barbarians – and the barbarians, like the Taliban, want blood.
The country must be divided into smaller pieces – Balochistan must be Independent. America must occupy every strata of that country as it had to Afghanistan and Iraq. India must help America do this. The Chinese, as with their love affair with North Korea, are not our allies in this battle.
Expect more and more terrorism from Pakistan. Jinah wanted an Independent Pakistan not because of what he feared from Hindus who led the non-violent Independence movement, but because he knew his own followers would provoke violence unless segregated from others.
Had my grandmother’s uncle not been busy bringing Hyderabad into the Union in 1947, leaving Kashmir to Nehru, there would not have been a divided Kashmir either. I’ve yet to meet an Indian who believes that Sardar Patel, should not have been India’s first Prime Minister, instead of its first Deputy Prime Minister. Sardar should have refused the Mahatma’s request to give the Premiership to Nehru.
I wrote a few years ago after visiting the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistani Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in Kashmir and also the Wagha border with Pakistan in Amritsar.
Let me tell you about the difference between India and Bharat.
In Bharat there is no line of control. In Bharat we look at the Himalayas of Kashmir and know for 5,000 years without dispute, they are a part of Bharat. Governments, invaders and imperialists come and go but Hindustan is eternal. As Kennedy said 'ich bin ein Berliner' (I am a Berliner) so we say 'I am a Kashmiri’. Before all of you this land was mine. By lineage this is my land. I claim it by birthright. This is my land. To those squatting upon the land of my Fathers, I claim it. By precedence this is my land. I claim it. Shame on you to desecrate the consecrated. My Gods live on this land. For the ashes of my Fathers and the temples of my Gods I claim it. All of us everywhere in the world who have suffered at the end of an invading sword or imperial pen, we are all Hindustani Kashmiris.
That is how we think in Bharat, in Hindustan. I don’t care to know how they think in India. I know that is how Narendrabhai Modi thinks too.
