The Indian socio-political stratosphere has lately been witnessing quite a few sparks of religion linked political thinking, due to what is often termed as a belligerent Islam vs a politically awakening Hinduism confronting one another. Flashes of these are reflected in pro-Pakistan slogans being raised by young Muslim boys and girls in certain pockets across India to the celebrations by Muslim youth each time an Indian team loses to Pakistan in a cricket match. We see inflammatory and communally insensitive comments made by irresponsible politicians across the political spectrum being aired in media; our TV news channels daily air ‘debates’ on sensitive social matters that offer opportunities to petty minded religious leaders to give vent to their narrow parochial views. Even elected political animals like the Owaisi brothers forget that in free India, constituencies are not demarcated on communal lines, something that happened in the 1909-1946 period; a person elected to a municipality represents ALL members of his/her constituency, not just the people who voted for him.

The belligerence has become more pronounced since 2014 when the BJP won an outright victory in the Lok Sabha elections. The feeling got strengthened by a bigger political victory in 2019 general elections. While Muslim politicians and ‘thinkers’ call it a revival of the right-wing political thought, those on the other end of the spectrum, the Hindus, call it a political awakening after almost 10 centuries of political suppression and religious persecution. The Hindu thought is fearing a repeat of events and compromises that led to the partition of India on religious lines in 1947. The feel that the current belligerence amongst Indian Muslims (IM) is due to the political support IM have been receiving from Pakistan and, to a certain extent, from various Islamic countries, in the garb of Muslim Ummah!

Dr Muqtedar Khan, a well-known US based teacher, socio-political thinker and commentator of Indian origin, in recent talk programs with Shakil Choudhary, well known Pakistani journalist, commented that Pakistan’s foreign policy has been the biggest enemy of Indian Muslims (IM) since 1947. In a bold statement about the impact of Pakistan’s India policy on Indian Muslims, Dr Khan acknowledged that the anger found in Indian Hindus about Pakistan, Islam and Muslims in India is a direct result of several factors, including the Partition of India that led to division of Punjab and Bengal, besides loss of Sind, Baluchistan and NWFP. Other factors include the expansionist, aggressive, interfering policies adopted by Pakistan since its inception. As a consequence, some negativity does rub into Hindus while there is an unstated sense of guilt amongst IM. He has quoted specific instances to back up his theory:
 

• Partition of India: As per conservative estimates, over two million people died in the aftermath of partition. Over twenty million people had to leave their homes. Communal riots had started in West Punjab since Feb 1947, driving out Hindus and Sikhs from their homes. Retaliatory killings happened in East Punjab. Same happened in Bengal. However, Mahatma Gandhi went to douse the communal fires in Bengal; to save the Muslims, some say. No such conciliatory efforts were made in Punjab or Sind in the West. The bitter sense of loss of habitat persists, even 75 years down the line among Hindus and Sikhs. Muslims left for Pakistan out of choice, out of their yearning for a ‘Land of the Pure’ where they would be free from ‘forced living with ‘kafirs’. Hindus and Sikhs had no such socio-political dreams – in fact partition brought only displacement, disruption and suffering for them.
   

• Expansionist Policies: Pakistan has exhibited a ‘land-grabber’ mentality since its inception:
  1. Irrational Stand on Junagarh: On September 16, 1947, Pakistan accepted the Nawab of Junagarh’s Instrument for Accession, knowing fully well that it went against Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory. Junagarh had overwhelmingly Hindu population and had no borders contiguous with Pakistan – it would be an Island of Pakistan, surrounded by Indian territory all around. There was no rational thinking about this move other than Jinnah’s lust for territory.
  
  2. Attack and occupation of Kashmir: On October 24, 1947, Pakistan attacked Kashmir, in spite of having a ‘legal, standstill agreement with the Maharaja. This attack and its aftermath resulted in annexation of about 30% of J&K territory, including Gilgit, Baltistan, Hunza, parts of Ladakh – Kargil, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh, parts of Poonch and Rajouri besides massacre of Hindus and Sikhs of these areas. Kashmir has become a festering wound for India; four wars have been fought (1947-48, 1965, 1971 and 1999 Kargil war). Since 1986, India has been battling an undeclared Pakistan sponsored low intensity armed insurgency in Kashmir where over 7000 security men have died and over 5L Hindus and Sikhs are living as refugees.
  
  3. Attempts to usurp Hyderabad (Deccan): The vast state of Hyderabad was prime property and Jinnah wanted all of it, even if ran counter to his pet Two Nation Theory. Hyderabad, like Junagarh, had a Muslim Nizam but an overwhelming Hindu population. It was bang in the middle of South-Central India with no contiguous border with Pakistan. The standoff persisted for over a year till Sardar Patel took decisive action in September 1948 by sending in the Indian Army to oust the Nizam and his Razakars.
   

• Self-proclaimed leader of the Muslim Ummah: Since it was created as the ‘Citadel of Islam’, Pakistan took upon itself the mantle of the Leader of the worldwide Muslim Ummah. After dividing India and leaving millions of Muslims at the mercy of Kafirs (India), Pakistan has missed no opportunity to sermonize India and criticize it for its ‘poor treatment of Muslims’. Recently, we saw Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spew venom against Indian PM in the UN – he was only continuing the discourse started by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, his grandfather, who, in 1968, alleged that India was carrying out an ‘extermination campaign’ against Muslims – this when India was being ruled by a ‘secular and liberal’ Congress party. Pakistan has been trying to use the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) against India by playing the Muslim victimhood card and Kashmir issue. The recent controversy surrounding Nupur Sharma blasphemy case is an example.
   

• The concept of 1000 Year War against India: After getting defeated in the 1965 War with India, Bhutto openly declared in the UN Security Council (Sept 22, 1965) that his country was ready to fight India for 1000 years! Such ingrained hostility turned further abrasive after he had to plead with Mrs Indira Gandhi to get his 93000 POWs home in 1972(Shimla Accord).
   

• "We shall eat grass but have our bomb", pledge of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's Prime Minister, after India's nuclear explosion in 1974. This again reflected the anti-India vitriol flowing in his veins. There always was a touch of the melodrama to Bhutto’s antics. With enduring stagecraft, he told his people in 1965: “If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no alternative.” Bhutto could have added prescience to his resume because all three prophesies eventually came true — India did build a bomb, Pakistan got its own and, now, Pakistanis are close to “eating grass”. It is as though Pakistan was created to be in perpetual war against India.
   

• Weakening India through 1000 cuts: The doctrine too is attributed to Bhutto though his ultimate nemesis, Gen Zia-ul-Haq put the plan into action, post dismemberment and a humiliating defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 war with India. Pakistani establishment realized that they could not afford a direct confrontation with Indian armed forces and a low intensity indirect war would have lower cost as well as international ramifications.
   

• The multiple cuts included:
  1. Sponsoring the secessionist elements in Punjab by providing arms, training and financial support to Khalistan movement – 1980 till date.
  2. Sponsoring the secessionist elements in Kashmir by playing the religion card. The movement was taken up as a ‘people’s movement’ and funds were openly collected in Pakistan to finance this movement – 1980 till date.
  3. Pushing its Mujahideen to lead the armed rebellion in J&K. Running arms training camps in POJK and establishing launch pads on the border – 1986 till date.
  4. Radicalizing Muslim youth through a campaign by involving the clergy and the Muslim dominated underworld elements. Dawood Ibrahim is a case in the point.
  5. Printing fake Indian currency notes and pumping those into India. The open Nepal border became a major conduit for pushing currency as well as terror operators into India.
  6. Using the underworld to promote drug trade in India. Drug money has been a major source of financing nefarious anti-India activities.
  7. Pumping arms and explosives into India to cause blasts in various cities in India {Mumbai (1993), Ahmedabad, Delhi (2008)}
  8. Attack on Mumbai by sending out 10 trained terrorists through sea, causing mayhem and resulting in death of over 165 innocent people (2008).
   

• Falsification of History: To indoctrinate its youth, Pakistani authorities have falsified their history. Starting with the reasons that led to the partition of India to failure of its policies, to Islamization of its society by creating narratives. Pakistani youth have never been taught about the 1971 dismemberment that led to creation of Bangladesh or the failures of 1947-48, 1965 and 1999 wars. For every failure they have the convenient Theory of Yahood-o-Hunood(Jews and Hindus) conspiring to wipe out Pakistan. So indoctrinated are they that many Pakistanis refuse to accept that the notorious terror master Osama Bin Laden was found living in Pakistan for several years before American forces captured and killed him at Abbottabad in May 2011. Pakistan has never accepted their Indian/Hindu roots and are trying to link their past to either Arabs or Turks.
   

• Unrepentant and inability to learn from past mistakes: In spite of its multiple failures, Pakistan has been unrepentant and in a denial mode. To irritate India, they named their Missiles after people who have caused havoc in India (read Hindus) – Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Afghan brigand who looted India multiple times, Mahmood of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori.

These activities caused a severe social backlash, damaging the image of Indian Muslims; there is resentment against the Muslim communities in India for being sympathetic towards terrorists. Unfortunately, a section of Indian Muslims continues to look wistfully towards our neighbour in the west. Eyes firmly closed and minds blocked against realities, these people are easily fooled by religious propaganda. When a certain segment chooses to celebrate Paki victories against India in cricket or hockey, it causes resentment among other communities against IM. Likewise, the open appeasement of IM by certain political parties in the name of ‘secularism’ has caused resentment in the mainstream public. The reaction to this exclusivist vote-bank politics has been obvious since 2014 elections and was reinforced after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. That a community that constitutes almost 20% of Indian population and yet wants to be treated as a minority is galling for the actual minorities, the Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians etc, that constitute less than 5% of India, individually.

As Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, the noted Pakistani scholar has observed, Muslims in non – Muslim majority areas were deceived and practically disowned by Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan. “Jinnah was obsessed with having India partitioned”. On March 30, 1941, in Kanpur, Jinnah made it clear that he did not care about the impact of Partition on Muslims who would be left behind in India. He saw them as a necessary sacrifice. AG Noorani, noted lawyer, author and political commentator has written,” Jinnah became Quaid-e-Azam, inebriated with power. He could not possibly achieve Pakistan except by an accord with the Congress. He did not adopt a conciliatory approach but mobilised mass support using abrasive rhetoric. He said at Kanpur on March 30, 1941, that "in order to liberate seven crores of Muslims where they were in a majority, he was willing to perform the last ceremony of martyrdom, if necessary, and let two crores of Muslims be smashed". It is unlikely that he was prepared for that, which itself suggests the bargaining tactic he used. But "smashed" they were; thanks not least to the politics of an arrogant man who fancied that the Muslims of India were his to save or get "smashed". Jinnah even came up with the fantastic idea of a Muslim corridor connecting two wings of Pakistan in an interview on 21st May 1947 with Doon Campbell. AG Noorani has mentioned this plan in his article titled “Chasing the Vision”; Jinnah wanted a rail corridor, as wide as the Suez Canal to connect West Pakistan with all Muslim dominated cities like Aligarh, Moradabad, Bareilly Rampur, Lucknow, Purnia, with Kolkata and further up to Dhaka and Assam. It took all of Sardar Patel’s political skills to dismiss this idea as ‘a fantastic nonsense, not to be taken seriously at all’.

Birth of Bangladesh and dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971 ought to have come as an eye opener to IM, by and large. It spelled the death of the ‘Two Nation Theory’ propounded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Iqbal and later propounded by Jinnah. Bengalis, who were the initiators of ‘separate homeland for Muslims’ slogan were forced to seek separation from Pakistan in 1971. Ahmadiyya’s, another sect at the forefront of Pakistan movement (Muslim League’s Lahore Resolution of 1940 was drafted and moved by Sir Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmadiyya) were excommunicated in 1974 from the Muslim fold, Muslims from UP and Bihar who migrated to Pakistan in 1947, continue to be discriminated as ‘muhajirs’. Shias, Hazaras and other ethnic and religious minorities (Hindus, Christian, Sikh, Parsis etc) are treated as virtual second-rate citizens while non-Muslims are barred from holding important constitutional posts in Pakistan. To my mind, the only Muslim politician of some note in India, who decoded the message of 1971 dismemberment of Pakistan, was Sheikh Abdullah who gave up his plank of ‘fight for plebiscite’ and used his ‘family ties’ with Mrs Indira Gandhi to worm his way into power and pelf!

The rhetoric used by Pakistani rulers since 1947 has come to haunt their society today as they find themselves in a politico-economic mess. The ingrained hatred for India, so carefully cultivated since 1947, has produced only hate mongers, obsessed with the mythical ’Gazwa-e-Hind’ and dreams of hoisting the Flag of Pakistan on the Red Fort in Delhi. As per Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, Muslims of Indian subcontinent live under the self-deceptive notion of considering themselves ‘superior’ to Indians (read Hindus) for having conquered and ruled them for over 1000 years! Such Don Quixote dreams have kept the Muslim society rooted in the 7th century, away from social reforms, away from modern education and from becoming a part of the modern Indian society that is progressive, forward looking and ready to take its place as a world power. As 2023 dawns, India is on verge of major politico-economic gains and acceptance as a global economic power. It is for the Muslim society to decide whether they want to be part of that liberating, aspirational society or to remain in the ‘in-growing toenail’ condition, walloping in the past dreams of ‘pidram sultan bood’ (our ancestors were the kings). To be a part of the liberal Indian society, they shall need to introspect, shed their aversion to change, embrace modern education and challenge the gridlock that dogmatic Mulla-Moulvis nexus has on their mindsets. They shall need to look how the dream of Pakistan has turned sour, Two Nation Theory been debunked and how Pakistani society has struggled under the jackboots of Army for over 70 years! That introspection alone can liberate them! Pakistan can no longer be a beacon for Indian Muslims! The sooner they realize that their future is tied to the +100 Crore Indians, that much better shall it be for the development of a progressive IM Society.