A g noorani Naushad
Is this subjective history writing caused by Indians' natural tendency for hero worshipping? That's right. There is a lot of Bhakti and cult of Bhakti in India. But in Pakistan it is much worse, though I must tell you that terms are changing in Pakistan. They published some criticism of mine in Pakistan on Jinnah and a book I have written on Jinnah will be published before long. Muhammed Ali Jinnah has been debated in Indian media even now. The founding father of Pakistan is haunting BJP for quite some time. Why do you think Hindutva leaders like LK Advani and Jaswant Singh are attracted to Jinnah? Both Advani and Jaswant are motivated. Lal Krishna Advani was advised that if you praise Jinnah, you'll get a moderate image. Advani is a rank opportunist; he praised Jinnah, not because he believed it; even not to please Pakistanis but to have an image in India. Jaswant Singh's book seemed to me absolutely lacking objectivity. Of course, he has departed from the national consensus that Jinnah doesn't mean much. His book doesn't deserve any comment. One important thing is that the people who either praise Jinnah or attack Jinnah should submit themselves to a careful scrutiny of records on Jinnah. For example, the twonation theory: he said the Muslim homelands are in Punjab, frontier and all that. What about Kerala? Islam first came to Kerala, and it's believed that the first mosque here was built in the time of the prophet himself. Is it not a homeland? I am
a Bombay man. Is not Bombay my homeland? Two-nation theory was built on falsehood, that these are homelands because you are in majority. Remember, there is homeland for Hindus also. There is greater respect for minorities in India that there has ever been in Pakistan. As far as Muhammed Ali Jinnah is concerned, I am afraid, both Indian and Pakistani historians have agreed on one thing: Jinnah was politically born in 1940s when he demanded partition. There was a great Jinnah before that from 1906 to 1936. In 38-39, he was treated shabbily by Gandhi as well as Nehru. And he became bitter. That shabby treatment doesn't justify bitterness. The fact remains that he did much harm to India, he harmed the Muslim community in India. However, people don't realize that he harmed Pakistan also. Because, the Kashmir settlement was possible on the 1st of November 1947 when Mountbatton offered a plebiscite in Kashmir and Hyderabad. Jinnah was very fond of Hyderabad and he refused. Had he done that there would have been no cold war between India and Pakistan; everything would have been settled there. Sardar Patel was prepared and Nehru would have been prepared, had he but agreed to plebiscite in Hyderabad. This is Jinnah's shortsightedness. There is a couplet by Ghalib: “Lazim nahi ke Khizer ki ham payravi karen, jana ke ek buzurg hame humsafar mile�. It is not necessary that we should worship the wise man Khizer, but realize that he was the companion on the journey. So we must treat all the elders with respect, but we must take them to critical scrutiny. While dissecting the role of Indian nationalist leaders in partition, do you think Indian historians have been honest? A typical and very common style is blaming Jinnah and the British.
Very many of our historians are either absolutely dishonest or simply opportunistic. You see the point is, in India, the State controls the universities. The State has a grip over the institutions of learning, the so-called think tanks - some of them may be autonomous by name - and other centres of research. You can't invite foreign scholars for conferences without clearance from the Home Ministry, as well as the External Affairs Ministry. This is particularly strong on certain sensitive things, like Kashmir. We must honestly acknowledge the historic role played by our leaders in partition. I'll give you an instance: when there was a proposal for United Bengal, there was an agreement drawn out between Sarat Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Subhash Chandra Bose and HS Suhurawardi, the League Chief Minister of United Bengal. They say we'll neither join Pakistan nor India. It was sabotaged by Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. Gandhi demanded terms for Hindus in Bengal which he would not have considered for Muslims in United India. That's history. I respect Gandhi as he knew that he was playing with his life. He chose the path of martyrdom and I salute him as a martyr for the protections of Muslims. But his historical mistakes should be realized. They all realized their mistakes. Jinnah praised secularism in his famous speech in 1947 August; Nehru fought for Muslims after partition. Nehru was secular as the word go. But his secularism had a funny Marxist twist. He said there are no religious differences in India, there are economic differences. So, if you solve the economic problems, religious problems will also be solved. He was wrong. People in our country, irrespective of their economic status, are conscious of religious identities. We have to attempt to address that emotion as well as economic problems. Nehru was consistently secular, Patel was not. Patel was rabidly communal, I use the word rabidly. He even attacked the integrity of Maulana Azad in December 1947.