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2005-11-13 Afghanistan-Pak-India

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Posted by Fred 2005-11-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 It is an irony that the groups in British India most supportive of the two nation theory (that muslims could not live in a country where they would be in a minority) - the Bengalis, the Ismailis (followers of the Aga Khan) and the Ahmadiyas (Qadianis) have been on the recieving end of the worst form of persecution in the nation they helped create.

Posted by john 2005-11-13 06:47|| 2005-11-13 06:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Fascinating look into the Pak mind courtesy Pak journalist Ayaz Amir

Islam was not in danger in pre-1947 India. Indeed, considering the sectarian violence and religious bigotry we face today, it was in better health then. Nor was democracy the issue because even if partition had not happened, India was getting democracy once the British left. The Indian Independence Act promised that.

So what was the compelling reason for the Muslims to insist on a separate homeland especially when there was no going around the uncomfortable fact that, no matter how generously the frontiers of the new state were drawn, an uncomfortably large number of Muslims would remain in India?

The purpose of Pakistan, transcending anything to do with safeguarding Islam or promoting democracy, was to create conditions for the Muslims of India, or those who found themselves in the new state, to recreate the days of their lost glory.

For eight centuries Muslim warriors â lured by tales of Indiaâs wealth and, I daresay, the beauty of its women, and crossing the same Hindukush passes through which, centuries before, Aryan hordes had marched â invaded, conquered and ruled India, putting the impress of their culture and thought upon the land they colonized and receiving something from that land in return.

Posted by john 2005-11-13 10:15|| 2005-11-13 10:15|| Front Page Top

#3 Link for the above

Posted by john 2005-11-13 10:16|| 2005-11-13 10:16|| Front Page Top

#4 He continues... unintentionally showing the roots of modern islamism...

With the coming of the British, however, another transformation was also underway. Muslims lost their pre-eminent status, a process beginning with the disintegration of the Mughal Empire but carried much further as the British consolidated their hold on India. Knocked off their pedestal, Muslims were now amongst the subjugated. But another discovery awaited them too. Outnumbered by the Hindu population, even amongst the subjugated they were not of the first rank. Their overall position in India was thus relegated to number three, after the British and the Hindus, this being a measure of the shift in the historical calculus.

From mid-19th Century onwards, beginning with the first stirrings of a modern Muslim consciousness as expressed by the Aligarh school, Muslims may have agitated for jobs and special safeguards, such as separate electorates, but informing and indeed fuelling their quest was a vision of the past when they were great and the whole of India, not just a part, was their happy hunting ground.

Posted by john 2005-11-13 10:24|| 2005-11-13 10:24|| Front Page Top

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