Pakistanis:Cultural Orphans of India

[Guest guest]

Cultural Orphans of India? or Pakistan-Identity crisis?

 

In my opinion the division of the Indian sub-continent was the

biggest blunder in the history of mankind.-- Exiled leader of

Muttahida Quami Movement, Altaf Hussain.

 

Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947 by order of the

Governor-General of undivided India. A state was created

overnight by government with the concurrence of political

leaders. Well, nations are not invented like a machine, or a

pharmaceutical cure for a disease. Nations evolve over a large

span of historical period in distinct geographical areas. They

grow on a common soil and climate. They have a common

heritage, culture and art, language and beliefs, racial affinity and

shared social norms and traditions. They have a common

identity.

 

The Muslims came to India as conquerors from Afghanistan and

central Asia and installed their kingdom as conquerors.

Mohammad Ghori invaded India for its fabulous wealth. Babur

came as a fortune seeker after losing his kingdom of Farghana

in central Asia. These conquerors were joined by other Muslim

adventurers and fortune seekers from Arab lands, central Asian

countries, Turkey, Iran and remote corners of the Muslim world.

The process of immigration from foreign Muslim lands

continued for several centuries. The Muslim converts of India

added to their numbers. As a class, the multinational,

multiracial, multilingual group of Muslims in India always

considered themselves conquerors, seldom as Indians. Even

the royal blood of Muslim emperors and kings was diluted by

marriages of convenience with Hindu princesses. The Muslim of

India was a mixture of dozens of nationalities who, as

immigrants, distinguished themselves as Muslims, seldom if

ever, as Indians. The Muslims of India had no national identity

like the later British rulers. When the British lost their empire they

retreated to their homeland. The Muslims had nowhere to go

when they lost their empire. No Muslim country offered them

asylum. They had no homeland and no identifiable nationality

except the natural one which they repudiated.

 

To escape from the perpetual rule of the Hindu majority in a

democratic India they claimed the status of a separate "Muslim

nation".... The problem of identity and nationhood was never

solved. The consequences were soon visible on the ground in

the ugly shape of tribalism, ethnicism, regionalism and

provincialism, sectarian feuds, conflicts, murders, fratricide and

language riots.

 

(source: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/books/books2.htm )