The picture says a thousand words. A lone Pakistani soldier stands with his assault rifle; guarding the flaming ruins. He looks alert and holds his rifle straight. His lifeless nation stretched out behind him, the lone soldier looks like the loyal dog guarding his dead master.
In the last sixty years, a fertile land that was once an organ of the Hind, has been prised out of the body of the mother country and its veins poisoned by a hate filled religion. As Pakistan is slain by its own children, the question is: should we care?
The temptation to let Pakistan stew in its own juices is quite strong. The nation that boasted of strategy to bleed India "with a thousand cuts" has slit its own throat. Revenge rarely gets sweeter than this. It was "they" who wanted to cooperate with the British. Then, it was "they" who wanted a separate electorate. Then, it was "they" who wanted a separate state. Then, "they" went for "Direct Action". It was "they" who named it "Pakistan", i.e. "land of the pure". It was "they" who were not content with their portion and wanted to have more of ours. It was "they" who decided to change their secular constitution in 1973 to adopt hatred as the state religion. As we say:
Karma: It's only a bitch if you are a jerk.
However, even as Pakistan hangs lifeless at the end of a noose, we have to care. Should one care about an enemy? Perhaps not. But then, one must make an exemption for the dead.
Before we get into the details of how India should engage in the South Asian diplomatic tangle, we need to address this moral dilemma over the situation in Pakistan. Is it fitting on our part to celebrate? Lives are being lost in Pakistan; innocent men and women and children are being mowed down by the dozen. Should India act merely out of apprehensions over the fallout of the situation, or out of a human interest in the tragedies that are being wrought on Pakistan by its own?
So, let us put it out there in the open. Pakistan's demise is a moral victory for India. It validates our nation, our constitution and our government. There is no shame in acknowledging the fact that our democratic institutions have brought us to the verge of becoming a world power and Pakistan's spectacular failure underscores the enormity of what our nation has achieved. Indians have no reason to be coy about India's achievements. In fact, it is precisely this reticence to acknowledge our own greatness that India gets a bad rap from so many quarters. It is all so often that India is accused of having scant respect for human rights, upwardly mobile enterprising Indians are cast as unsympathetic to the "plight of their brethren", those who express any measure of optimism in the rising economic, military and diplomatic clout of India are sneered at as ignorant and ill-informed. India's image is held back by stereotypes; stereotypes once created by the British and embraced by the West. And Indians have done little towards dispensing with these stereotypes; instead naysayers are held in high esteem as elites and intellectuals. In this respect, a big thank you must go out to the Tibetian community in exile in India, who recently decided to dedicate a whole year towards celebrating what India has done for them; finally there is someone who wants to gratefully acknowledge what is one of the freest nations in the world.
It is striking that while Muslims who left India behind at the time of partition to seek the glory of their faith in the "land of the pure" are still derided as beggars in Pakistan, the Sindhis, Sikhs and Hindus from Lahore, Bengalis from East Pakistan have all been embraced as one blood in India. Therefore, in this hour of Pakistan's failure, no Indian who wishes to dance in the streets should be made to feel ashamed.
The Oracle's point is not to say that Indians should drown themselves in jingoism and euphoria over the death of our mortal enemy. It is only to suggest that no Indian who wishes to celebrate should be made to give in to the bullying of liberal intellectuals who may well be in denial over the achievements of India and/or unable to fit in India's success into their world-view and who are not above using scare tactics to keep Indians from celebrating this victory. Let's say it: India's powerful democratic institutions, huge military and thriving economy are strong guarantees against the advance of Islamic fascism.
(to be contd. in Part-II)
No comments:
Post a Comment