Jaswant and Jinnah

I usually stay clear of politics but this topic is too interesting. I am not a historian which is why I have given several citations. Pakistanis credit Jinnah as the creator of their nation and Indians also credit (may be blame) him for the same. A few days back Jaswant Singh, a respected figure in Indian politics, proclaimed that Jinnah was not to be solely blamed and that leaders of Indian National Congress were equally or even more responsible for splitting the nation. I spent a little bit of time googling this topic myself and this is what I found.

The British fanned the flames of communalism with their divide and rule policy but they didn't start the mess. The origins of the Hindu-Muslim schism seem to have been socio-economic. According to [1] [2] there was resentment among the Muslim elite who stood to loose influence with the advent of English as the official language and of modern education. It seems Hindus were faster to adapt to those conditions and Muslims began to loose prominence. The Muslim elite would have lost even more with the introduction of democratic processes and in 1906 they formed the All India Muslim League. They demanded and secured separate legislative councils for Muslims.

Jinnah [5] was member of INC who later drifted away and became the leader of AIML. Jinnah branded INC as a Hindu party despite the fact that several Hindu parties such as Hindu Mahasaba (they performed poorly in the elections) and organizations such as RSS already existed. Even in 1927 when he was the leader of AIML Jinnah opposed the idea of separate electorates for Muslims and put forth the 14 points [3] as a regulation of INCs idea of unified electorates. INC rejected the idea. I guess this is Jaswant Singh's cardinal point, but read the 14 points and compare that to the democratic ideals of INC. After a long hiatus from politics he returned to India from England to campaign for the 1937 elections. AIML fared poorly losing in most of the Muslim majority states but gaining votes in Muslim minority areas. INC won in Hindu majority areas [4] and parties such as Unionist Party won in Muslim majority areas. Jinnah then offered to ally with Congress if they accepted them as the sole representatives of Indian Muslims and shared power with them. INC of course did not accept the ridiculous offer.

Jinnah went on a virulent campaign to make all Muslims accept AIML as their sole representative and in 1940 began to demand a separate country for Muslims. He successfully campaigned in NFWP, Baluchistan and Punjab, where he impressed upon them that the Muslims in the other states (where they were a minority) would be mistreated by their congress governments and that AIML was the only party that could help them by representing all Muslims in British India. In the elections of 1946 AIML had made drastic improvements and won most of the Muslim majority electorates, but INC had won majority of the votes in the country. The British tried to avoid partition with a call for separate constitutions for separate regions which INC and AIML would jointly govern, but this idea was also rejected by AIML [6]. An interim government was formed by the majority party INC which infuriated Jinnah and led him to declare "We do not want war, if you want war we accept your offer unhesitatingly. We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed." The infamous direct action campaign [7] was launched and thousands of Hindus and Muslims were killed, raped or maimed in the concomitant violence. After that no one could hinder AIML. With the looming threat of civil war the creation of Pakistan was inevitable.

So there it is, born out of a socio-economic power struggle Pakistan is a caricature of what it was meant to be. Created to prevent mistreatment of Muslims, it got split due to bias against East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and has long been accused of bigotry against the people of Baluchistan by the power centre in Punjab province. To make matters worse NWFP is teeming with tribal warlords, Taliban etc. and is said to be one of most dangerous places in the world.

Coming back to Jaswant Singh, this is how I see it. INC wanted to represent whole of India. AIML wanted to be regarded as the sole representative of Indian Muslims. But in a democracy the majority party would rule and hence AIML could never govern the country. Even though some Muslim leaders such as those in Unionist Muslim League [8] wanted to collaborate with INC (in fact they had collaborated), Jinnah was opposed to this. I think its clear who is responsible for the creation of Pakistan. Blaming the INC is pointless. I don't think the way to handle dissent is to capitulate to the dissenting party. The INC's mistake seems to be that they ignored Jinnah and that they did not foresee the partition. As for calling Jinnah secular, how can anyone responsible for the reprehensible direct action day be called secular?

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Movement

[2] - http://mrmulliner.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/journey-of-communalism-in-modern-india.htm

[3] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points_of_Jinnah

[4] - http://mrmulliner.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/08/growth-of-communalism-in-india-ii-1937-1947.htm, also read this

[5] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah

[6] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Cabinet_Mission_to_India

[7] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day

[8] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unionist_Muslim_League

Interesting side note [1]: The word 'Pakistan' referred to the five Northern units of India, Viz: Punjab, (Afghanistan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.

[2]: Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan tried to emulate Gandhiji in NFWP. A sad story.

[3]: Great Bong has an interesting post about this topic

Incident at Heganahalli - Part 3

Author's Note: Read part 1 and part 2 first.

The solution came to me as clear and loud as a KSRTC bus. It was in fact a KSRTC bus parked close by. The driver must have seen the mob, abandoned all hope and run away. The mob would reach the bus in about 30 minutes I calculated. But before that they would probably damage all the shops in the area. I knew what to do to attract them all away from the destruction and pillaging and to satiate the primordial drives that seemed to have hijacked their senses. I hurried into the bus and slowly drove it close to the junction. Then I honked twice.

"Pom Pom."

One by one the rioters stopped their frenzied rampage and walked to the bus. They were like the moths that fly towards the light in my sit out. I had run out the back door to my bike and was ready to flee at the first sign of danger. A plump middle aged lady jerked off a road divider** and smashed a window of the bus. I caught the look on her face during the act. There was pure bliss there. Others quickly followed and then some smarty put a towel in the petrol tank and lit it. The metal giant burst into flames.

Everyone gathered around the burning locomotive as if to pay last respects. Several minutes passed and yet no one moved. They dropped the weapons they held; their yearnings had been quelled, energies spent and it was time to return to their families. The mob was dispersing. I took one last look at the juggernaut that stopped for the common man, the cheap transport of the masses that always inexplicably bore the brunt of their anger, before heading back to the station. On my way I passed a fire engine and an ambulance trying to make its way to the carnage almost one and half hours after the violence had erupted.

By the time I headed back home that day I was despondent. The brush with real danger, the madness of the mob and above all the mistreatment by that wretched inspector had made me feel depressed. The worst part was that I couldn't treat myself with my usual medicine. Top Star was no more. It seems many of Gowda's other bars had also been destroyed that day. I thought I should get used to it and went to a wine shop that was on the way and bought a quarter of RC.

As I entered my house I saw Malathi sitting near the door step. She looked distraught; her eyes were moist with tears. She hugged me and whispered in between sobs, "I was so worried."

"I am OK," I said beginning to feel better already.

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**- based on an actual event

Incident at Heganahalli - Part 2

Author's Note: Read part 1 first.

My heart sank. "I am right here," I said as I sheepishly moved forward from behind the HC.

"Right. Go ahead and find out where they are now and how bad the situation is." He then proceeded to yell more orders with so much gusto that I wished for an umbrella to shield me from all the spit that came my way. Anbu Valsan was hurt. He didn't care about the wound. He only cared about the rule of terror. What was the point in being a police man if the low-lifes didn't buckle at their knees on seeing us? How else could ten of us reign over a thousand of them? We all knew that the halo of terror was our best weapon, the scepter with which we subjugated the masses.

I was to go ahead as a scout and do reconnaissance. Meanwhile the rest of them would collect themselves, wake up those who were still sleeping, get the lathis, helmets, cane shields etc., to ready to take on a mob. I guess saar felt that I didn't need any of that extra protection. What a [synonym for cat]. So I left the station not knowing how much danger was on my way, only knowing that I needed to transfer to another station soon.

As I neared the Jaaravanahudi junction I caught the acrid smell of burning tyres. Several of them were stacked in the middle of the road and people holding [ruling party] flags were forcing nearby shops to down shutters. They held aloft banners that read "He ordered wine, he got swine", "Paid for pegs, served like pigs", "Gobi chilli good, piggy chills bad" and so on. But the centerpiece was a huge banner that read, "Justice to Mangappa. Gowda's liquor killed his ticker." In between the mayhem I saw that something else was burning. Top Star Bar.

"Nooooooo." But I couldn't get close. One of the miscreants spotted me and uttered a guttural cry that gave me the shivers. I turned my bike around and raced away with the sound of my rattling heart drowning all else. After traversing a safe distance I called the station.

"Yah we know there is a riot there. We got a complaint a few minutes back."

"Why didn't you call me?" my voice broke like that of a pubescent boy. Apparently none of those [hen drinker (drink like with a straw)] thought about me. I felt like tearing my uniform apart and joining the rioters. Just then two jeeps zoomed past me with sirens blaring. The cavalry had arrived. Normally when the ruling party instigates a riot we keep a distance. But this time it was personal; at least for the psychopath who ran the show.

My colleagues jumped off their jeeps with lathi's held high and the dozen and a half of them beat into pulp the lone rioter who had strayed too far away from the rest. Soon the other rioters saw this and attacked the police men with their sticks, tube lights, cycle chains etc. A bloody battle ensued and within minutes the men in khakhi were lying prostrate on the ground groveling and groaning. Some of them were trying to escape by crawling on all fours.

To my surprise one of the jeeps turned around and came towards me. It was him, my enemy. While his men were getting pulverised, the inspector had stayed back in his jeep. "He is probably worried about spoiling his complexion," I guessed.

"Stay here and make sure it doesn't get out of hand." And then he sped away leaving me gaping in disbelief.

The mob was getting bigger. It was no longer just party gundas. People had been intimidated by incessant news reports about the swine flu for months. They were desperate, but impotent. They would have grabbed any chance to get even with the invisible enemy, no matter how incredulous it was. The time was ripe for a riot. As more people gathered at the junction shouting slogans and blocking vehicles, Top Star Bar burned away in the background.

Then it got ugly. They pelted stones at a Maruthi car that was passing by and then pushed a middle aged man off his scooter and burned it. They were getting angrier and hungry for more violence. I knew I was in terrible danger. They had to be pacified somehow, I had to quell their rage or at least get out of their way.

continued in part 3....

Incident at Heganahalli - Part 1

Author's Note: Three points. Firstly although the actual dialogues were in Kanada and Desi Englees all of them have been translated to English here for the ease of the reader. Please call your local police station for the original version. Secondly all swear words have been edited out and replaced with 'family audience' friendly words. Call your local police station for more details about the actual swear words. Thirdly, the story is set in Bangalore as homage to my friends there. But it might have been any other Indian city as well.

I woke up that day to the sound of my wife's gargles.

"I haf pacd Bisi Bele Bhad fo yor lunh," she said before spitting out through our window.

"Today is already turning out great," I mumbled and staggered to our bathroom.

"Goodbye kano," she said and smiled at me as she stepped out of the house.

With a grunt I dismissed her. I hated that she had to work. "If only her [popular four letter verb/noun/..]-er father had given more when I married her."

My daily morning routine consists of a 4 km jog, several sit ups, push ups and chin ups before elaborate weight lifting exercises followed by a bath and breakfast. But today I was already too late, so I skipped a few steps and went directly to an elaborate breakfast. Don't think this happened everyday, sometimes I did take a bath.

I hurriedly changed into my uniform and rushed to the station. It was OK that I was almost 45 minutes late, but any more and it would have been less than one hour before my tea break and that would have made me feel guilty. After signing the attendance register, I went to the station entrace and stood guard like I did every other day. I don't know why the Heganahalli police station needed a guard at the entrance. Only a militant would dare attack the station and in case of any sign of such an attack I would definitely drop my rifle and run screaming into the station. "Hmm, may be that is what they want me to do. To warn the others so that they can also run."

These same thoughts occur to me everyday, I thought. They usually precede very warm thoughts about saar, Inspector Anbu Valsan, my greatest enemy. That [question parentage] was the reason I was on guard duty . The [the popular four letter word]-er put me here instead of Manjunath, just because he is his wife's cousin. That cheap [very subtle hint at oedipus complex]. I was sweating profusely and was trembling with rage. I just needed to hold on for a few more minutes till the boy brought hot tea and masala vada to cool me down. Then the cycle would repeat till lunch.

It was a public secret that the son of a [question mother's species] kept a tube of Fair and Lovely and a Sandalwood scented 'scent' in his desk drawer. The latter would be used whenever anybody from the fairer sex made the mistake of coming alone to the station. After being intimidated by the lecherous glares of the constables outside they inevitably ended up in the inspector's office hoping for a serving of justice. Instead they got served a full meal of spicy smooth talk from the philandering son of a [question mother's species again].

When the tea boy finally came I went to the head constable's desk for an extra vada. He was chatting with another constable. "You know about the spat between Bageerappa and Madheya Gowda? Bageerappa has vowed to ruin Gowda it seems."

"Yah, I heard saar. Gowda was stupid to help [opposition party name] during the election."

"Yah, right. And there is also a rumor going around that Gowda's bars are selling food and liquor contaminated with swine flu. "

"Is it?", I exclaimed. I had met many of my closest friends at Gowda's Top Star Bar; Kalyani, Kingfisher, McDowells, RC and several others. Infact I had gone there to renew our friendship just the previous night. Did I have the deadly flu? Was it possible? How did it get in the liquor? I was scared.

"Shambu you didn't go to Top Star did you?" Seeing the expression on my face he laughed, a wholehearted unconstrained laugh that shook his giant pot belly and by contact his table. The tremors caused his tea glass to topple and spill on his table.

I barely heard all the profanities spewed by the HC while I walked back to my post.

[23 yawns later]

Constable Manjunath was running to the station screaming, "They attacked Anbu saar. They attacked Anbu saar." On seeing no change in my countenence he proceeded into the station and repeated his chant. He said some party workers had stopped the inspector's jeep when he was returning from Jyothi Nivas college and threw stones at him. I couldnt care less, why did he have to go to that college anyway? It was almost 15 kms away and he went there everyday.

Then the jeep arrived and Anbu ran into his office to look in the mirror he kept at his desk. He was furious when he saw a small bloody swelling on his forehead. The wound he had on his shoulder from which he bled all over his uniform didn't seem to bother him.

"Get me constable Shambu," he growled.

continued in part 2.....