URL: http://www.cifjkindia.org/main/legal_docs_008.html
[Note: Emphasis added below]
Source: http://kashmir-information.com/LegalDocs/misc.html
It is a remarkable fact that, while
the Security Council and its various agencies have devoted so much time
to the study of the Kashmir dispute and made various suggestions for its
resolution, none of them has tried to ascertain the views of the Indian
Muslims nor the possible effect of any hasty step in Kashmir, however well-intentioned,
on the interests and well- being of the Indian Muslims. We are convinced
that no lasting solution for the problem can be found unless the position
of Muslims in Indian society is clearly understood.
Supporters of the idea of Pakistan,
before this subcontinent was partitioned, discouraged any attempt to define
Pakistan clearly and did little to anticipate the conflicting problems
which were bound to arise as a result of the advocacy of the two-nation
theory. The concept of Pakistan, therefore, became an emotional slogan
with little rationale content. It never occurred to the Muslim League or
its leaders that if a minority was not prepared to live with a majority
on the sub- continent, how could the majority be expected to tolerate the
minority.
It is, therefore, small wonder that
the result of partition has been disastrous to Muslims. In undivided India,
their strength lay about 100 million. Partition split up the Muslim people,
confining them to the three isolated regions. Thus, Muslims number 25 million
in Western Pakistan, 35 million to 40 million in India, and the rest in
Eastern Pakistan. A single undivided community has been broken into three
fragments, each faced with its own problems.
Pakistan was not created on a religious
basis. If it had been, our fate as well as the fate of other minorities
would have been settled at that time. Nor would the division of the sub-
continent for reasons of religion have left large minorities in India or
Pakistan.
This merely illustrates what we
have said above, that the concept of Pakistan was vague, obscure, and never
clearly defined, nor its likely consequences foreseen by the Muslim League,
even when some of these should have been obvious.
When the partition took place, Muslims
in India were left in the lurch by the Muslim League and its leaders. Most
of them departed to Pakistan and a few who stayed behind stayed long enough
to wind up their affairs and dispose of their property. Those who went
over to Pakistan left a large number of relations and friends behind.
Having brought about a division
of the country, Pakistan leaders proclaimed that they would convert Pakistan
into a land where people would live a life according to the tenets of Islam.
This created nervousness and alarm among the minorities living in Pakistan.
Not satisfied with this, Pakistan went further and announced again and
again their determination to protect and safeguard the interests of Muslims
in India. This naturally aroused suspicion amongst the Hindus against us
and our loyalty to India was questioned.
Pakistan had made our position weaker
by driving out Hindus from Western Pakistan in utter disregard of the consequences
of such a policy to us and our welfare. A similar process is in question
in Eastern Pakistan from which Hindus are coming over to India in a large
and large number.
If the Hindus are not welcome in
Pakistan, how can we, in all fairness, expect Muslims to be welcomed in
India ? Such a policy must inevitably, as the past has already shown, result
in the uprooting of Muslims in this country and their migration to Pakistan
where, as it became clear last year, they are no longer welcome, lest their
influx should destroy Pakistan's economy.
Neither some of the Muslims who
did migrate to Pakistan after partition, and following the widespread bloodshed
and conflict on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border in the north- west,
have been able to find a happy asylum in what they had been told would
be their homeland. Consequently some of them have had to return to India,
e.g Meos who are now being rehabilitated in their former areas.
If we are living honorably in India
today, it is certainly not due to Pakistan which, if anything, has by her
policy and action weakened our position.
The credit goes to the broadminded
leadership of India, to Mahatma Gandhi and Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, to
the traditions of tolerance in this country and to the Constitution which
ensures equal rights to all citizens of India, irrespective of their religion
caste, creed, colour or sex.
We, therefore, feel that, tragically
as Muslims were misled by the Muslim League and subsquently by Pakistan
and the unnecessary suffering which we and our Hindu brethren have to go
through in Pakistan and in India since partition, we must be given an opportunity
to settle down to a life of tolerance and understanding to the mutual benefit
of Hindus and Muslims in our country - if only Pakistan would let us do
it. To us it is a matter of no smaller onsequence.
Despite continuous provocations,
first from the Muslim League and since then from Pakistan, the Hindu majority
in India has not thrown us or members of other minorities out of Civil
Services, Armed Forces, the judiciary, trade, commerce, business and industry.
There are Muslim Ministers in the Union and State cabinets, Muslim Governors,
Muslim Ambassadors, representing India in foreign countries, fully enjoying
the confidence of the Indian nation, Muslim members in Parliament and state
legislatures, Muslim judges serving on the Supreme Court and High Courts,
high-ranking officers in the Armed Foroes and the Civil services, including
the police. Muslims have large landed estates, run big business and commercial
houses in various parts of the country, notably in Bombay and Calcutta,
have their shares in industrial production and enterprise in export and
import trade. Our famous sacred shrines and places of cultural interest
are mostly in India.
Not that our lot is certainly happy.
We wish some of the state Governments showed a little greater sympathy
to us in the field of education and employment. Nevertheless, we feel we
have an honourable place in India. Under the law of the land, our religious
and cultural life is protected and we shall share in the opportunities
open to all citizens to ensure progress for the people of this country.
It is, therefore, clear that our
interest and welfare do not coincide with Pakistan's conception of the
welfare and interests of Muslims in Pakistan.
This is clear from Pakistan's attitude
towards Kashmir. Pakistan claims Kashmir, first, on the ground of the majority
of the State's people being Muslims and, secondly, on the ground, of the
state being essential to its economy and defence. To achieve its objective
it has been threatening to launch "Jehad" against Kashmir in India.
It is a strange commentary on political
beliefs that the same Muslims of Pakistan who like the Muslims of Kashmir
to join them invaded the state, in October 1947, killing and plundering
Muslims in the state and dishonouring Muslim women, all in the interest
of what they described as the liberation of Muslims of the State. In its
oft- proclaimed anxiety to rescue the 3 million Muslims from what it describes
as the tyranny of a handful of Hindus in the State, Pakistan evidently
is prepared to sacrifice the interests of 40 million Muslims in India -
a strange exhibition of concern for the welfare of fellow- Muslims. Our
misguided brothers in Pakistan do not realise that if Muslims in Pakistan
can wage a war against Hindus in Kashmir why should not Hindus, sooner
or later, retaliate against Muslims in India.
Does Pakistan seriously think that
it could give us any help if such an emergency arose or that we would deserve
any help thanks to its own follies? It is incapable of providing room and
livelihood to the 40 million Muslims of India, should they migrate to Pakistan.
Yet its policy and action, if not changed soon, may well produce the result
which it dreads.
We are convinced that India will
never attack our interests.
First of all, it would be contrary
to the spirit animating the political movement in this country.
Secondly, it would be opposed to
the Constitution and to the sincere leadership of the Prime Minister.
Thirdly, India by committing such
a folly would be playing straight into the hands of Pakistan.
We wish we were equally convinced
of the soundness of Pakistan's policy. So completely oblivious is it of
our present problems and of our future that it is willing to sell us into
slavery - if only it can secure Kashmir.
It ignores the fact that Muslims
in Kashmir may also have a point of view of their own, that there is a
democratic movement with a democratic leadership in the State, both inspired
by the progress of a broad minded, secular, democratic movement in India
and both naturally being in sympathy with India. Otherwise, the Muslim
raiders should have been welcomed with open arms by the Muslims of the
State when the invasion took place in 1947.
Persistent propaganda about "Jehad"
is intended, among other things, to inflame religious passions in this
country. For it would, of course, be in Pakistan's interests to promote
communal rioting in India to show to Kashmiri Muslims how they can find
security only in Pakistan. Such a policy, however, can only bring untold
misery and suffering to India and Pakistan generally and to Indian Muslims
particularly.
Pakistan never tires of asserting
that it is determined to protect the interests of Muslims in Kashmir and
India. Why does not Pakistan express the same concern for Pathans who are
fighting for Pakhtoonistan, an independent homeland of their own ? The
freedom-loving Pathans under the leadership of Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and
Dr. Khan Sahib, both nurtured in the traditions of democratic tolerance
of the Indian National Congress, are being subjected to political repression
of the worst possible kind by their Muslim brethren in power in Pakistan
and in the NWFP. Contradictory as Pakistan's policy generally is, it is
no surprise to us that while it insists on a fair and impartial plebiscite
in Kashmir, it denies a fair and impartial plebiscite to Pathans.
Pakistan's policy in general and
her attitude towards Kashmir is particular thus tend to create conditions
in this cauntry which in the long run can only bring to us Muslims widespread
suffering and destruction. Its policy prevents us from settling down, from
being honourable citizens of a State, free from suspicion of our fellow-countrymen
and adapting ourselves to changing conditions to promote the interests
and welfare of India. Its sabre-rattling interferes with its own economy
and ours. It expects us to be layal to it despite its importance to give
us any protection, believing at the same time that we can still claim all
the rights of citizenship in a secular democracy.
In the event of a war, it is extremely
doubtful whether it will be able to protect the Muslims of East Bengal
who are completely cut off from Western Pakistan. Are the Muslims of India
and Eastern Pakistan who sacrifice themselves completely to enable the
25 million Muslims in Western Pakistan to embark upon mad, self-destructive
and adventures?
We should, therefore, like to impress
upon you with all the emphasis at our command that Pakistan's policy towards
Kashmir is fraught with the gravest peril to the 40 million Muslims of
India. If the Security Council is really interested in peace human brotherhood,
and international understanding, it should heed this warning while there
is still time.
Dr. Zakir Hussain - (Vice Chancellor
Aligarh University)
Sir Sultan Ahmed - (Former Member
of Governor General's Executive Council)
Sir Mohd. Ahmed Syed Khan - (Nawab
of Chhatari, former acting Governor of United Provinces and Prime Minister
of Hyderabad)
Sir Mohd. Usman - (Former member
of Governor - General's Executive council and acting Governor of Madras)
Sir Iqbal Ahmed - (Former Chief
Justice of Allahabad High Court)
Sir Fazal Rahimtoola - (Former
Sheriff of Bombay)
Maulana Hafz-ur-Rehman M.P.
Col. B.H. Zaidi M.P.
Nawab Zain Yar Jung - (Minister
Gcvernment of Hyderabad)
A.K. Kawaja - (Former President
of Muslim Majlis)
T.M. Zarif - (General Secretary
West Bengal Bohra Community)
