Notion by Jal Framji, that India and Pakistan should unite (Asian Voice of 27-1-2018), is not new. Mr. M. Jinnah soon regretted partition. British government also mentioned that it was unaware about life threatening illness of M. Jinnah, or it would not have allowed partition. Many Muslims in India and abroad yearned for merger soon after partition. Pre 1947 there were more than 40% Muslims civilians and in police and army. Also Mr. Jinnah was asked to be first Prime Minister of India. Muslims would have dominated whole India. By insisting on partition, they missed this opportunity.
But any sane persons’ blood would boil when one recalls slaughter of more than 5000 Hindus on Direct Action Day to back demand for partition. Add to this anti India stance till now eg repeated wars, bomb blasts, 100s of cease fire violations, resulting in deaths of India’s soldiers and civilians.
Mr. Framji statement that religion had nothing to do with partition is incredible. The whole basis of partition was that Islam is diametrically opposed to Hinduism and needs a separate homeland. That ethos continues even today when Muslims hyphenate Sanskrit language with religion. They ignore fact that in Muslim majority Indonesia, Sanskrit names are given to children; photos of Ganesh appear on currency notes. Muslims alsi ignore fact that Switzerland’s CERN (Hadron collider agency) hyphenates Shiva with nuclear energy. One can only shudder to imagine if such anti-Hindu and anti-India neurosis multiplies after merger. The answer to India-Pakistan merger would be an emphatic NO.
But, Indian government has not yet severed umbilicus with Pakistan; India does not need Pakistan. Yet India still maintains sports, cultural, diplomatic and commercial ties. Bollywood imports artists from Pakistan. Till now Indian soldiers offered sweets too soldiers of Pakistan.
Ramesh Jhalla
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