An Unholy War

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 14, 2000

If The Washington Times has got its facts right, some 1.75 million young men are currently being trained in thousands of madrasaas in Pakistan for waging a jehad in Kashmir and other parts of the world.  To say that this is disturbing is to state the obvious.  This dedicated private army will undoubtedly cause death and destruction on a scale many hundred times more than what we saw this past week in Kashmir.  Worse, the goal seems to be to spread terror across the globe, the ultimate target of the jehadis -- and no prizes for guessing this -- being the United States.  In a way, none of this is surprising.  India is, of course, more than familiar with Pakistan's proxy war, but increasingly, even the rest of the world is identifying Pakistan at the centre of a complex web of terror, religious extremism and the narcotics trade.  Ironically, Pakistan itself seems completely unconcerned about the fallout of its deadly preoccupations.  What does it say of a country that millions of its youth would rather die for the cause of jehad than engage themselves in productive activities?  The Washington Times report is instructive in one more respect.  It attributes the proliferation of the Pakistani madrasaas -- about 7,000 in number -- to the failure of the state-run education system.  The estimated illiteracy rate among Pakistani adults is 70 per cent.  Contrast this with India.  We are certainly an underdeveloped, impoverished country.  We have no assured supply of essentials like water and electricity, much less a well-developed infrastructure.

But we are also a country of enormous talent.  Amidst the gloom of poverty and illiteracy we are also fortunate to find sparks of creative enterprise.  Consider the number of young Indians who have shown extraordinary initiative, especially in the field of Information Technology.  Our home-grown Narayana Murthys and Azim Premjis count among the world's billionaires.  The Indian education system has countless defects.  The state-run schools are so ill-equipped, it would be a wonder if they taught anything to the unfortunate many who attend them.  And yet, look at the entrepreneurship that co-exists with this dismal picture.  Today, computer schools are commonplace even in the smallest of metros.  This has opened up avenues of the kind the under-privileged could not even dream of earlier.  Surely this flicker of hope must explain why even extreme frustration doesn't cause our youth to turn to terrorism.  Except, of course, in Kashmir, where none of these opportunities exist.  Indeed, if Pakistan is able to exploit Kashmiri sentiment to its own advantage, it is in part because Jammu and Kashmir is a barren wilderness in terms of employment prospects.  In the ultimate analysis, it is only a vibrant civil society that can counter tendencies towards terrorism.  Pakistan may gain in the short term by holding the world to ransom, but eventually it will destroy itself.  Islamabad must understand this as must the rest of the world.  The US and other western countries can push Pakistan towards peace, but conditions for sustaining that peace must exist within Pakistan.  Islamabad has to realise that the jehad it sponsors is an unholy war against its own people.
 

Back                          Top