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Simply because India hasn’t accepted that Muslims’ once converted, are different people forever. You can bend a Muslim, but you can’t break one. India is still living in the grandeur of a Hindu dominated country with other minorities as their serfs’.
It all started when Mr. Nehru and his Congress, in undivided India, dismissed Mr. Jinnah’s appeal to incorporate safeties in the new Indian constitution, for Muslim minority. Mr. Nehru called the final appeal of desperation by the secular Mr. Jinnah and his 14-points, ‘nonsense’. This is when all hell broke loose. All Mr. Jinnah was asking for was breathing space for Muslims of India to be themselves. Congress was thinking of assimilation.
Pakistan happened the day Mr. Nehru in 1929 proposed joint electorate for Hindus and Muslims combined, thus diluting the Muslim influence. The underlying thought is that Muslims are just another religion converted from Hindus. The arrogance of the powerful Hindu majority created Pakistan. The rest is history.
There you have it! Seven decades of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, underachievement, stunted growth, incessant global nitpicking, unproductive weapons purchases, sabotage, war and a nuclear overhang. Good Job Mr. Nehru! And your cohorts. The only thing he had to do was stop being a jackass! And understand the Muslim mind.
The funny thing is that Indians are still at it. They just don’t get it. Muslims are not Hindus. This religion has a well-documented way of life. It cannot be set aside or ignored. It’s not an amalgamation of pagan rituals like the Hindu religion, that can be molded according to needs. No form of government; secular, democratic or dictatorial can wipe out the Islamic code. Any attempt to browbeat, coerce, threaten, dominate or amend the Muslim way of life would be met with stonewalling, deaf ears, aggression and even armed reprisal attacks. This is exactly Pakistan’s reaction; one of the most powerful military with a paltry GDP of $ 300 Billion.
It’s this benevolent master mindset of the Indians which has led to the ghettoization of their Muslim population. Hundreds of Millions of Muslims are marginalized to the fringe of society. Even Shahrukh Khan can’t buy a flat in Delhi. 70 years on, Indian people in general and the political leaders in particular still feel they have been cheated by partition. Even now the political rhetoric is for non- conforming Indian Muslims to “go to Pakistan”. The powerless Indian Muslim population is poorly literate and marginalized at best. Very few Muslims reach top universities, therefore, none ever qualify for powerful jobs. Jinnah was right in a sense.
Mr. Nehru’s daughter sent armed troops into a loosely guarded East Pakistan, thereby traumatizing the nascent country. Another grave error of judgment — but the mindset was the same as her father’s.
So now that India is doing well economically, and has USA’s backing, it doesn’t need to introspect. It doesn’t need to really listen to its significant Muslim minority and Muslim neighbor because they are busy wallowing in their success. Just because the white man has given the thumbs up, they don’t need to recalibrate their mindset anymore. Indian leaders are so wrong. The only way to really build bridges with Muslim communities is by Indianizing Muslim research institutes, like Russia has, without triggering their insecurities.
In an India-Pakistan perspective, the only way to start confidence building with Pakistan is to accept that Muslims can’t be coerced into submission. Islam has natural fail-safe’s against oppression.
Let Pakistan build its Pakistan-ized religious thought, under a democratic dispensation—only good will come off it. India’s subterfuge only adds to Pakistani insecurity. Understand Mr. Nehru’s folly and learn from it. A cooperative Pakistan with a successful Muslim population would be a boon for India and her western allies.
