Quote:Lahore, Pakistan



On Friday, I went to attend the book launching ceremony of Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah and the Partition of 1947 at a local private golf club. As I had read the book when it was first launched, a question lurked in my mind about what the future held for the ‘sub-continent of hate' that we live in.



As the book launch was consigned to ‘partial chaos' as participants launched, on invitation, into tea and cakes before the ceremony began, it was best to quietly leave and ponder over the suffering the partition of 1947 had brought to the poor of our land.



As the posh of Lahore tucked into sweet delights, outside the heat beat down harsh and fast. My thoughts swayed from my usual Sunday article to focus on the outcome of a remarkable person we are researching with regard to the events of 1947, a ‘holocaust' the sort the world has seldom seen, definitely the largest exodus in human history and one that our elders are still ashamed to discuss openly. For this I condemn my elders, for they have not been truthful about our past.



That is why what Jaswant Singh has to say in his book needs much deeper and honest appreciation by all, especially Indians.



Sadly, both sides have their eyes shut tightly to the reality of partition.



Let me dwell on my research subject, and as she lives on the edge of Lahore, her story needs to be described. We must not make the mistake our elders have made. We must confront the truth, and face it for a better future.



Last month, while on a research visit to a village near Cheechon-ke-Malian, just 18 miles outside Lahore to the west, I set off in search of an old woman a worker in my place of work described as a ‘Sikhnee'. The description had an allure to it, and as we are researching the subject, it made sense to meet this ‘Sikhnee'.



At first her son, the bearded village ‘mullah', refused to let us talk to the old woman. After a considerable persuasion, we managed with the promise not to direct others to their house, and that we would not name him or his mother. To this promise we stick.



We met this old woman, aged approximately 78 - if our calculations are correct - whose sun-tanned skin had freshness to it. The wrinkles on her face depicted her silent suffering. Maybe it was a thought in my mind. She was not bent as old women tend to be, but was a strong, well-set healthy woman used to working hard in the fields and in the house.



Her name now is Fatima Bibi. Her husband was also the village ‘mullah' and she married him in 1947. He died almost six years ago. "Jeth de pehli nu moya si," said Fatima Bibi. 'He died on the first of the month of Jeth."



She served me with a cold drink, and her great grandson also got one in the bargain.



Her story goes like this.



Her real name was Jindan Kaur and her father's name was Heera Singh Bhatti. They belonged to a village outside Sheikhupura just before Jandiala a hundred yards from the main ‘moogha' (water channel) as she put it.



In August 1947, their village was attacked by a Muslim mob. A few Sikh elders - aniticipating the usual brutalizing of women by the mobs - killed their daughters before the mob could reach the young girls. Ultimately, they were saved by the army who came in two trucks full of soldiers. The entire village of Sikhs was taken to the Sheikhupura railway station and they were put into a railway bogey stuffed like animals and bound for Lahore, from where they were to go onwards to Amritsar in the new India, their new home.



Jindan then described the blood-curdling event of how their train was attacked near Cheechon-ke-Malian railway station. Every male member, as well as children and old women, were hacked to pieces.



"Tottay kar ditay sadday!"- We were hacked into little pieces!



The young Jindan was taken away by the local toughs and they did what frenzied men do. "Javani lut lai-ee. Kakh na chaddaaya. Rool ditta. Jeenday jee maryaa ve nahi." - They looted our youth. Didn't even leave its ashes. Ruined us. Left us neither living nor dead!



There were no tears in her eyes, for mine had welted on listening to her description of events. She looked at me and said: "Baoo, athroo da koi faida nai jaddon mera bapoo tottay ho gay"- Sir, what's the point of tears when even my father was hacked into pieces!



The fate of her dear father had sealed time for her. She was the 15-year old Jindan when she talked lovingly of him. Her son was getting uneasy as she started to open up. I changed the topic to calm him. The ruse work well. After a while I started off again to listen to what happened to Jindan Kaur alias Fatima Bibi.



The train had about 105 women, most of them young. Jindan was then a mere 15-year old.



She was raped by a number of men, she does not recall the number. The young village mullah took her to his house after the ‘animals' had satiated their lust. He nursed her to health. He then advised that she convert to Islam and he would marry her.



It was a noble deed by any reckoning. He took her glazed eyes and her silence as acceptance for his offer. A year later, soldiers came to the village and offered all kidnapped Hindu and Sikh women to get on an army lorry to be taken to India. They, however, warned, that Sikhs were killing all their own women who had been dishonoured. [A ruse to terrify such women further - tens of thousands of them - so that they would not avail of the bi-national exchange scheme and opt for staying in Pakistan!]



Life continued to offer no choices.



Jindan was pregnant. She had no family to go to. Life did not offer a choice. For her life began and ended that fateful day. The rest has been mere existence and she waits for the day when she will be released from her mortal remains. The old Punjabi woman described her fate as only she could:



"Baoo, mera akhri saah barra mitha hoyay ga." - Sir, my last breath will be a very sweet one!



Her son scolded her for the remark.



The victims of 1947 abound in the villages of Punjab.



In 2010, they are forgotten.



The description ‘Sikhnee' is a slur that she bears without malice. Her four sons and five daughters do not like the way people call her. Hate has an unforgiving element. Inconspicuous references hide a story, often one of pain and suffering.



If only she could again call herself Jindan Kaur with pride and without feeling guilty. That day will surely come, of this I have no doubt.



There are thousands like her in Pakistan and India. They are the forgotten people our elders shut their eyes to. That is why preserving the truth of 1947 is critical if we are to claw our way back to normalcy.



That is why what Jaswant Singh has to say matters too.



That is why I left the ‘tea and cakes' mob to think about Jindan Kaur.



Life still does not offer her any choice.



http://www.sikhchic.com/partition/a_sikhnee_called_fatima_bibi

Quote:Friday, June 13, 2008

INTRODUCTION TO SINDHI REFLECTIONS

SINDHI REFLECTIONS



LATA JAGTIANI



INTRODUCTION





A little while and you will have forgotten everything:a little while and everything will have forgotten you... Marcus Aurelius







"Somebody should write about our Sindhi elders and their Partition experiences before we lose that history forever."





This is what many Sindhis were saying until last year. I wondered why nobody was writing a book on the experiences of Hindu Sindhis. The subject kept re-surfacing online. From Dr. Nargis Awatramani (USA) to Govind Jhangiani (U.K) from Arjan Daswani (Singapore) to Shewak Nandwani (Thailand), the question was practically a refrain. In Mumbai, it was me saying--Somebody, write the book before its too late! But there were no volunteers.





I began work. Now that I have collected true stories of Hindu Sindhis, do read the book and preserve it for generation next. This is a serious work of research, of historical significance for all Hindu Sindhis.







The journey through this book has been interesting, to say the least. Sometimes, to my surprise, I met total strangers who welcomed me warmly, at other times, with sadness I interviewed elders with multiple aeging troubles; and then, I met many who were too cynical to "waste their time" being interviewed for something which promised no monetary returns. Access to the rich and famous was often blocked off by over-zealous secretaries. One day I was shocked, another day delighted and on a third day, depressed, it was a real roller-coaster. I often asked myself why I should continue. I lost count of recorded interviews that became useless with one phone call. One 85-year old told me of all the mischief he had done, after the Partition. He became embarrassingly rich, divorced his wife, and sailed through life. I watched him agape, as he really walked into the sunset with a spring in his step, towards his girl friend and chauffeur-driven expensive car. I wrote the account out, and a week later, he said he would prefer to keep his life private.







I kept my focus on ordinary Hindu Sindhis and their experiences during the Partition. However, these 100 plus accounts and profiles are a very small number when one compares it with the 12, 25,000 Hindu Sindhis evacuated from their homes between 1947 and 1950. I am one of those who believe that big oak trees grow from small acorns, and I offer you my tiny, hopeful acorn of a book.







Subjected to communal cleansing in Sindh, with the tacit compliance of Jinnah's Muslim League, most Hindu Sindhis had only one option: leave. A friend told me the story of a Papadawaree (a lady who sells Papads door-to-door). She was a woman living in Sindh and had several children. Her teenaged daughter was sitting outside in the back of the house, sunning herself and wara paee sukaye (drying her wet hair.) Suddenly there were shouts, telling the woman to run, there were riots, and people were coming for them. Along with her several children, she ran to the station, practically with one chappal, and boarded a train leaving Sindh. However, it was only on the train that she noticed the absence of her teenaged daughter. It was already too late. What happened to the girl? For long, nobody knew. Then years later, she got news. A Muslim family had adopted the abandoned teenager, raised her to become a well-established doctor. A meeting was arranged between the daughter and the mother in Ulhasnagar. After the initial joy at the re-union, they parted and returned to their lives, the mother back to selling papads in India while her daughter healed the ill in Pakistan.









I read a story where a writer, Wali Ram, about one Viundri Tejomal from Hyderabad Sindh, who hid written a note in Sindhi and hidden it her cupboard before rushing away from home. The note read: Vundri Tejomal jo hee kabat jeko kholeendo, un khi pap lagando."(Opener of this Vundri Tejomal's cupboard will be sinning.) Who was she and what became of her during and after the Partition? This is a mystery. Inside the note it appears she expressed a desire to return home to take care of her personal belongings. She might had left her things behind, packed quickly and left the note behind.









Another family that was torn asunder was that of Maama Rupachand Mahtani, a close in-law who had another story. He wanted to cross over to India, but his wife didn't. She and their sons remained in Sindh while he crossed the border. His children went on to become highly qualified professionals, but weren't too keen on meeting with their father. In Mumbai, Maama Rupa's life was full of interesting twists and turns, he was an impish gypsy who spread his grin and jokes from Sindhi home to Sindhi home. He charmed ladies with poetical lines from Shakespeare alternating them with absolutely witty and wicked jokes. He had the Dev Anand debonair air about him and he was a hit with both sexes. He praised the cooking in his tobacco-laden voice, listened attentively to the men, and hugged children affectionately. He brought the house down everywhere. Once he admitted that he missed his family, in a moment of candour, before taking refuge behind his favourite line with a twinkle in his eye, "Sigh no more, man, sigh no more, women were deceivers ever!"









I believe Hindu Sindhis are a wonderful community of survivors. I have presented the journey of this brave and strong Hindu community, forced into poverty and terrorized out of home and hearth. These Sindhis stepped out of inhospitable barracks, wore brave smiles when they went in search of work in new, strange lands. Many had a zero balance after they left Sindh; today, it might be difficult to count the number of zeroes in most of their balance sheets. If the Sindhi community ever gets a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, it would surprise me if Warren Buffett isn't amongst its first investors. Sindhi Hindus are multi-baggers all right.









I would like to add that our elders left Sindh not out of cowardice but in fact, they chose wisdom over foolhardiness--they faced an unpleasant reality and did what was necessary for survival. Imagine a USA and UK where 75 percent of the population is Muslim and the government is Muslim as well. Even George Bush and Tony Blair would run for cover. How could 22 percent Hindus stand up to 75 percent Muslims? And then, matters were deteriorating by the day, with Hindus decreasing and Sunni Muslim numbers rising. When the mayhem began, survival was all everything.







Had Netaji Bose and Sardar Patel been at the helm of national affairs, to my mind, the Muslim League would have failed. The British played their divide-and-rule to the hilt, Jinnah played his, "We are different, we are Muslim" tune, Gandhiji undemocratically by-passed Patel to hand over power to Nehru, and the rest is history. Nehru told Sindhi journalists "Partition, yeh sab bakwas hai!" (Partition, this is all rubbish!), Gandhiji also stated that Partition would take place over his dead body. These remarks lulled Hindus into a dangerous

complacency. Finally, when things got ugly, Hindu Sindhis left.









The Sindhi Hindus paid the highest price. Gandhiji's idealism was expressed when he said, "Aap baithe raho aaram se!" (You stay in Sind, without fears!) In Bombay, Morarji Desai, wanted the refugees to stay on the outskirts of the city and not come into Bombay, treating Sindhis as pariahs or pollutants. Nehru, on his part, admitted he felt little for Sindhis, when he said, `I don't know Sindh. I don't feel attracted to it.'' In a letter he wrote,``The Sindhi people have their good qualities and I rather like them. But they are a curious mixture of the Muslim feudal classes and the Hindu bania class, neither very admirable, as classes go. Still they have push and energy and that is something to be thankful for. They seem to be singularly devoid of any artistic sense. And the colour they sport in their striped pajamas are a trial." If he had tears, Nehru wasn't prepared to waste them on Sindhi Hindus, as Dr. Choithram Gidwani, a Congress leader, discovered, to his dismay.







We went from being a prosperous community, to the new untouchables. There was a push from within--the Muslim League and the Mohajirs wanted us out, and there was a push from without—Indians found us, "chee"(yuck) and a needless burden. Hindu Sindhis were inconvenient on both sides of the border. Who can call the great Sadhu Vaswani a coward? Even a wise man of spiritual depth, had to leave Sindh along with Dada J.P. Vaswani. Can we entertain any doubts on this subject after reading their story?









Doors of Hindus were marked with a red cross, making Hindus sitting ducks for fortune-seekers. Hindus watched as armed bands of people roamed the streets, crying, "Hindu ko maro!"(Kill the Hindu!") All weapons had been surrendered to the government by law, so, self-defense was out. Muslims went to Hindu homes and business premises, with documents declaring them as "Intending Evacuees." They had to vacate since the authorities had chosen to assume they were "intending" to leave; therefore, they had no business to continue living there. Nobody knew on what fact the assumption was rooted, nobody knew who was next. Everything Hindu was up for grabs.







Many Sindhi Muslims protected their Hindu neighbours from attacks by Mohajirs; but there are also stray instances of those that gleefully occupied their homes. Sadly, their glee was short-lived since they soon had to surrender their gains to the Mohajirs. Sufis at heart, many Sindhi Muslims saw their neighbours depart with a tear in their eye.







Now where are the Sindhi Hindus? Rootless, we were now a community, which chose to blend, adapt, and wear masks. We succeeded, full marks to Sindhi Hindus. But, now that we have, why do we continue with those useless masks? Do we have to change our names and surnames? Are we flattered if somebody mistakes us for Punjabis or Parsees? What's wrong with us? If Narayan Murthy and Azim Premji can make it in the world with their difficult names, can't we do the same with ours? But we want to say to the world-- Look, look, I am like you, I am not a Sindhi. And so Harry (Hariram) cries over the shoulder of Sally (Sundari), "Sally, why do Sindhis lack culture?" Sally replies, "Charyo thyo aahen,( are you mad) naturally, it's all about money, Harry!"

One of the subjects of many discussions is the issue of the Sindhi script. I am grateful to Mr. Mangharam Sipahimalani who first educated me on this subject when I interviewed him. But, in a nutshell this is the reality of the script and its history. The original script of Sindhi was not one, but eight, Devnagri, Thattai, Khudabadi, Luhaniki, Memonki, Gurmukhi, Khojiki and Hatvaniki. At the time of Mahmud Ghaznu, Al Bruni found three scripts current in Sindh—all three were variations of Devnagri.







Later, when the British arrived they found the Pandits writing Sindhi in Devnagri. Traders were using the secret Hatvaniki, which has no vowels. The women men were using Gurmukhi and the government employees were using a form of Arabic script. British scholars felt that the Devnagri script would be right for Sindh. Government servants, many of whom were Hindus, favoured the Arabic script, since they did not know Devnagri. A debate went on with Capt. Burton favouring the Arabic script and Capt. Stack favouring Devnagri. Sir Bartle Frere, the Commissioner of Sindh, referred the matter to the Court of Directors of the British East India Company, which favoured Arabic on the ground that Muslim names could not be written in Devnagri. Sir Richard Burton, and local scholars Munshi Thanwardas and Mirza Sadiq Ali Beg evolved a 52-letter Sindhi alphabet. The Indian government recognizes both the Devnagiri and Arabic scripts.







Sindhi is an ancient language, with over seventy percent words in Sanskrit. Professor E. Trumpp in his monumental `Sindhi Alphabet and Grammar' (1812) writes: "Sindhi is a pure Sanskritical language, more free from foreign elements than any of the North Indian vernaculars." The Rev. Mr.G. Shirt of Hyderabad, one of the first Sindhi scholars, considered that the language is probably, so far as its grammatical construction is concerned, the purest daughter of Sanskrit. It has small sprinkling of Dravidian words, and has in later times received large accessions to its vocabulary from Arabic and Persian. Writes Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, Harvard professor of Islamics, and versatile linguist: "Since every word in Sindhi ends in a vowel, the sound is very musical." After understanding the background of the Sindhi script, one can only hope the controversy will be give a decent burial. Sindhi is our mother tongue, Devnagiri is our mother script.









Sindhi Reflections is divided into many equally important sections. Where more than one family member was involved, I have put them under one umbrella heading. All chapters has been edited. Photographs were included practically at the last minute.





If you are ashamed to be a Sindhi, I hope this book changes you. Do add your comments here or email your feedback



at latajagtiani@gmail.com,

at http://sindhireflections.blogspot.com/Lata Jagtiani



THE BOOK COST: RS 800

NO OF PAGES: 543





Contact Lata Jagtiani for the book in Mumbai 022 22047283/85 and mobile 9820260962.



http://sindhireflections.blogspot.com/2008/06/introduction-to-sindhi-reflections.htm

Quote:> Punjab 1941 districts



VA: The following Muslim majority areas were awarded to India -



> District

> Total

> Muslim

> Muslim %

> Non-Muslim

> Non-muslim%

>

Gurdaspur

> 1153511

> 589923

> 51.14

> 563588

> 48.86

VA: Three of the four tehsils of Gurdaspur were given to India, and

the fourth, trans-Ravi tehsil given to Pakistan. In Lahore district,

the Lahore tehsil as such, on th east of Ravi, was Hindu majority,

but was given to Pakistan along with the entire district. However, a

small portion of the district (or from Montgomery?) south of the

combined stream of Beas and Sautlej, was given to India despite a

Muslim majority.





> Bengal 1941 districts



VA: The following Muslim majority areas were given to India.

Murshidabad has a larger Muslim majroity today than in 1941, while

Maldah has a slight Hindu majority. Nadia has a Hindu majority today,

it is also an important centre of Bengali Vaishnavism, being

associated with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. -



> District

> Total

> Muslim

> Muslim %

> Non-Muslim

> Non-muslim%



> Nadia

> 1759846

> 1078007

> 61.26

> 681839

> 38.74

>

> Murshidabad

> 1640530

> 927747

> 56.55

> 712783

> 43.45



Malda

> 1232618

> 699945

> 56.79

> 532673

> 43.21

>





VA: The following district was partitioned into two, eastern half was

given to Bangladesh and western to India.





> Dinajpur

> 1926833

> 967246

> 50.20

> 959587

> 49.80

>



VA: The following non-Muslim or Hindu majority areas were given to

Bangladesh. Repeated pesecution has reduced Hindus to a minority of

less than 20% in this district now. -



>

> Khulna

> 1943218

> 959172

> 49.36

> 984046

> 50.64

>





> Chittagong Hill

> 247053

> 7270

> 2.94

> 239783

> 97.06



It was criminal to give Chittagong Hill tracts to Pakistan. The

region was 90% Buddhist, and they have now been expelled to India and

have been swamped by Muslim settlers. The region has a heavy Muslim

majority now.



VA: Of this district below, the Hailakandi tehsil (which had a Hindu

majority) was separated from the district and given to India. This

allowed us to have access to Tripura, a Hindu area that would have

otherwise gotten surrounded by Bangladesh from all sides.



> Sylhet

> 3116602

> 1892117

> 60.71

> 1224485

> 39.29



VA:In the western wing, the rulers of Shikarpur (in Sindh) and Kalat

(much of Baluchistan) sent in accession papers to Nehru who foolishly

returned them, and asked them to merge with Pakistan instead. Not

surprisingly, their merger with Pakistan lead to an expulsion of

large Hindu minorities.



Assam earlier had 35% Muslims, but that included the population of

Muslim dominated Sylhet. In 1951, it had around 21% Muslims, but in

1991, the Muslim percentage was 28.5 and now I won't be surprised of

the number has crossed 30%. A large part of lower Assam is clearly

Muslim majority.



Vishal



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivilization/message/31326

Quote:"The textbook says, "Jinnah won and got Pakistan consisting of North-

West Frontier Province, Sind, East Bengal and West Punjab." Was

Baluchistan a later acquisition?"

VA: This is NOT AN ERROR. Much of what is now called Baluchistan was

under the rule of the Nawab of Kalat (aka Khan of Kalat) and he

wanted to accede to India. His accession papers were returned by

Nehru. Incorporation of Kalat into Pakistan required a small army

intervention by the Paki government.



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivilization/message/32988

Quote:In a new light



A.J. THOMAS



"I would not be surprised if this novel turns out to be his magnum opus eventually."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Partitions, Kamleshwar, translated by Ameena Kazi Ansari, Penguin India, 2006, p.369+xi, Rs.350.



Against prejudice





Beginning with Gilgamesh, the narration proliferates, spanning several centuries of known history with Time and Space as the main characters: Other characters turn out to be rivers and dates like 1947, sharing space along with real and imaginary historic characters. Open the book at random and you are sure to find one shocking revelation or the other, tearing the mask off established history, or bringing to spotlight what has been dimmed or blurred through usage or prejudice. For instance, every Muslim-baiter in this country would harp on the theme of Muslim marauders like Chengiz Khan, Timur and Babur laying waste our motherland. But Chengiz Khan was not even a Muslim. He was a Mongol idol worshipper! Though this is known to historians, the layman has to be sensitised to this fact.



Another incident involves Aurangazeb's sacking of Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Kamleshwar borrows the authority of Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, President of Indian National Congress (1938) to assert that Aurangazeb did what he did to retrieve the wife of one of the Hindu Rajahs in his entourage who had visited the temple and whom some of the priests there had abducted and raped! Scores of such instances crop up in the book.



The brahminical partitioning of the body and soul based on the caste system, in which genuine religion and spirituality are subjugated to cast-iron structures, the Upanishads ending up as apologies for the upper castes — all these come under the scanner in the court of human consciousness.



http://www.hindu.com/lr/2006/06/04/stories/2006060400110300.htm

Quote:‎'Ranjeet Singh's rise led to creation of Pakistan' - The Times of India



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ranjeet-Singhs-rise-led-to-creation-of-Pakistan/articleshow/7439767.cms

Quote:TINDERBOX: The Past and Future of Pakistan

Author: MJ Akbar

Publisher: HarperCollins

Price: Rs 499



Prafull Goradia and KR Phanda wonder why MJ Akbar, while dealing with the creation of Pakistan, ignores the separatist tendencies inherent in Islam



The book under review is a masterly exposition by a journalist distinguished for his knowledge. He is also perceived to be objective in his views on communal issues. With his high credibility, he has tried to put the weight of the blame for Partition on the Congress, especially Jawaharlal Nehru. By implication, he has attempted to free Indian Muslims of all responsibility. If he has blamed any Muslim, it is Mohammed Ali Jinnah.



Like other Muslim authors of the past, MJ Akbar’s book, Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan, puts the entire blame for Partition on the Congress leadership. Akbar writes: “There were five swivel moments in the relations between the Congress and the Muslims before the formation of Pakistan. The pact negotiated by Jinnah in 1916, in which the Congress accepted separate electorates, was widely described as the basis on which the two communities could unite against the British. The second moment, Gandhi’s Khilafat struggle, promised liberation but ended in despair. Jinnah crafted the third opportunity, in 1927 and 1928, when an all-party effort was made to create a constitution for India by Indians; he failed to bridge the League-Congress gap. In 1937, the two parties could have cemented an ongoing understanding with a post-election coalition, but an ascendant Congress underestimated the potential of a disappointed Jinnah. The fifth and the most tantalising chance appeared at the very last minute, in 1946, when the Congress and the League accepted the British Cabinet Mission Plan to retain a united India, but the Congress, fearful of balkanisation, reversed its decision. After this, their separate paths became irreversible.”



Muslim writers, including Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, have blamed Nehru for Partition. He had not agreed to the inclusion of Muslim League candidates in the United Provinces Cabinet formed in 1937. Again, in 1946, it was Nehru who had rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan. Since he did not clarify his stand on these issues, it encouraged Muslim writers to put the blame on the Congress for Partition.



The fact of the matter is that separatism is an integral part of Islamic theology. Islam divides humanity into momins and kafirs. It is ordained in the holy book that momins should persuade non-Muslims to embrace Islam. On their refusal to do so, they should be killed. The imposition of jizya on Hindus (kafirs) by Muslim rulers was an exception. The status of dhimmi or zimmi was accorded to ahle-kitab or people of the Book only. According to the Hanafi law, Hindus had only two options: Convert to Islam or face death. For economic advantage to the rulers, however, Hindus were allowed to survive on payment of jizya.



In short, non-Muslims cannot coexist with Muslims under Islamic rule as equal citizens. What is happening to Christians in Lebanon, Sudan, Nigeria today is a replay of the Armenian Christian genocide by the Turks in the last quarter of the 19th century. The advent of British rule in India deprived Muslims of their privileged status, and reduced them to the status of common people. They were unhappy and made their last attempt to restore Muslim rule in 1857. Having failed, they decided to cooperate with the British. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan even told Muslims not to join the Congress. He was also one of the original exponents of the two-nation theory.



Akbar assigns a prominent role to Jinnah in the struggle for the creation of Pakistan. He quotes what Jinnah said on June 5, 1946, to the Muslim League Council: “Let me tell you that Muslim India will not rest content until we have established full, complete and sovereign Pakistan. Acceptance of the Cabinet Mission’s proposal was not the end of their struggle for Pakistan. They should continue their struggle till Pakistan is achieved.”



The fact is that Jinnah did not lead, but was led by the Muslim consensus. His role was that of a sincere and clear-headed lawyer who could formulate and articulate in precise terms what his client really wanted (Studies in Islamic Culture by Aziz Ahmad). This is further reinforced by the election results of 1945-46. Prof M Mujeeb writes: “The party which demanded the creation of Pakistan, a separate homeland for Indian Muslims, was the Muslim League. In the elections held early in 1946, which proved decisive, it secured 425 out of 492 seats reserved for Muslims in the central and different provincial legislatures. It could be said, therefore, that Muslims were overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan. It insisted that the right to a separate homeland should be conceded first (Islamic Influence on Indian Society).



Partition, therefore, took place because Indian Muslims felt themselves to be Muslims first and Indians later. Given this background leading to the creation of Pakistan, it is surprising that the Congress leadership — Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel — did not ask Muslims to leave for their dar-ul-Islam. Jinnah, on the contrary, was clear. He along with other seven League leaders had asked for an exchange of population. The Congress did not agree. It seems the Indian leadership deluded itself that Partition was territorial and not a religious division!



http://www.dailypioneer.com/315674/Not-just-a-Jinnah-show.html