From Yellow Star to The Orange Tag
Jay Mathur
(The diyas* and the lighting of candles on Diwali signify the victory of the light of enlightenment, the Sumati, over the darkness of ignorance, the Kumati. This article is one humble attempt by the author to light a Diya and dedicate it to the thousands of Sitas, who are still imprisoned in Afghanistan)
*Ceremonial oil lamp
Doctrines dictate the behavior of a society. Such is the influence of a doctrine that even the most docile of the societies can be transformed into vicious hordes of humans.
“No one loves poetry as a Russian does”, wrote Boris Pasternak but the Communism was no poetry for the people of Russia or the world. Similarly Hitler will be born in the land of Mozart, was hard to imagine. How could German Nazis legislate Jews to wear a yellow star in preparation for their slaughter, while the world stood by? However, the followers of these doctrines did what they did. They created the evil network of followers across national boundaries with a global cause for the heinous objectives. These doctrines turned perfectly decent people of Germany into Hyenas.
The lure of political, military and the economic gains by the powers of the day often fueled the growth of even subhuman doctrines like the ones sighted above. For example, the British Empire, despite its might, found it easy to form an alliance with Nazis than to stop them from invading its Neighbors with tragic consequences. Same way, United States did not get actively involved against the Nazis, until Pearl Harbor became the ground zero of that era.
In case of Indian subcontinent, Pakistan was not only created but also gained virtual immunity from prosecution even after the extermination of Hindus in Pakistan and the occupied segment of Kashmir. The “West” in return gained precious access for a military base in Peshawar, to encircle the Soviet Union. As a result of this alliance, the doctrine of Islamic fundamentalism flourished in Pakistan unabated, playing havoc with the millions of lives in South East Asia. Even in today’s world, the history is repeating itself. Hindus are made to wear an orange tag and murdered in Afghanistan while the world drops tears for Afghanis. Not a world of protest against Orange tagging of Hindus from any quarter, anywhere in the world. Mass murders and rapes of Hindus are not important from the global point of view. Deplored & sanctioned before September 11 for military dictatorship and setting up of Talibans, Pakistan today has become darling of the “civilized world”.
In all three cases, the short-term national interests have taken precedence over long-term interest and the foresight. There were plenty of arguments given, to justify the existence of both, Communism and the Nazism. Today again, there is no dearth of justifications for the terrorism of the Islamic Holy Warriors.
For a long time, the nations and cultures have been ravaged by the doctrine of Islamic fundamentalism. William Johnson’s article of October 11, 2001 in The Globe & Mail asks; Why are Muslims involved in so many conflicts;
“ Whether as majorities or large minorities, Muslims have disproportionately been involved in violence, in wars between Pakistan and India, rioting against the affluent Chinese minority in Malaysia and Indonesia, against a Buddhist government in Thailand, against Catholics in the Philippines and East Timor, against Russia in Chechnya, against blacks in Sudan, Nigeria, Chad, Kenya and Tanzania”.
This doctrine is not new. Like communism’s Stalin and Nazi’s Hitler, Islamic Fundamentalism has had well known names to its credit. However it has survived and even flourished because of the short-term interest of powers of the past and the present.
Following the September 11 disaster, there are leaders who are awakening to memories of the London Blitz and the burning Pearl Harbor. At the same time the followers and the defenders of Islamic fundamentalism are leaving no stone unturned, to ensure that Osama Bin Laden’s directive for the use of both” Bullets & Letters” are carried out in full. The campaign of spreading misinformation is flying as high and fast as Mohammad Atta’s flight towards the Twin Towers.
How powerful is this lobby of misinformation, can only be judged by unearthing the facts. Just for an example, let us analyze the first conflict sighted in the above Globe and Mail’s article. “The conflict between India and Pakistan”. The articles & interviews of the sympathizers of the Islamic fundamentalist doctrine make one to believe that UN passed a resolution on Kashmir that a plebiscite should be held and that is that. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The chronological facts are;
* Midnight August 14 - 1947 Pakistan was born as a result of the partition of India. The Act that created Pakistan also gave the Princely State of Kashmir in British India, the option to join India or Pakistan. Maharaja Hari Singh requested that some time be given to him so that a decision out of a consensus could be reached.
*Midnight August 15 - 1947 India wins Freedom.
*September 1947 - Maharaja Hari Singh signs the “Stand Still Agreement” with the newly created Pakistan, formalizing that the Prince does not have to decide one way or the other for now.
*October 2, 1947 – Despite the “Stand Still Agreement” Pakistan suddenly cuts all supplies to the Princely State (Roads to the State of Kashmir from India now went through Pakistani territory), depriving the population of food and other essentials.
*A week later, Pakistani military in Kabailly dress (tribal clothes of Afghanistan) invades the State. The then President of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinah, gambles and loses on assumption that the Kashmiri Muslims will join the invaders and massacre the Hindu population and the Prince. On the contrary, Pakistanis meet with tough resistance from the locals. Pakistan denies that those were her troops. Blaming it on Afghani tribesmen.
*October 24, 1947 - Maharaja Hari Singh formally requests accession to India and asks for Indian troops to stop the Pakistani invasion.
*India turns down the request, advising Maharaja to get the approval of the Council first. Council consisted of The Maharaja and the elected, National Conference Party. This supreme council consisting of both Maharaja Hari Singh and Shaikh Abdulla, the head of the National Conference of Kashmir approve the accession to India
*October 26, 1947 -Accession papers are submitted to Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. Lord Mountbatten signs and seals the final accession of Kashmir to India.
*India airlifts its troops to Srinagar to stop the advancing Pakistani army in Kabayali dresses.
*January 1, 1948. India goes to U.N.O. and lodges a complaint
*June 1948 - U.N. passes the following resolution;
1. Ceasefire.
2. Pakistan to quit Kashmir.
3. India to establish normalcy and then hold plebiscite in the State.
*Pakistan delays its withdrawal time after time. Changes international boundaries between Pakistan and Kashmir. Hands over chunks of Kashmir to China and forms silent military alliance with communist China. Ethnically wipes out Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims from occupied Kashmir. Signs into pacts like SEATO of the Western Powers. Peshawar of the North West province of Pakistan becomes an American base. Spy planes (U2s) fly over the Soviet space from there. UN resolution is crushed and forgotten by the Pakistani refusal to obey, with the backing of the west and its Vito.
*Despite the ever ready armies of Pakistan equipped by the west, Indian Kashmiri flourishes as a secular parliamentary democracy and through a constitutional article, maintains the demography wherein all Non–Kashmiris are prohibited from owning the land even till today. Unlike the Pakistani occupied segment, rest of India for all that enjoys Kashmir forms provincial governments on the same principal of freedom. However, Kashmiris can share neither in the progress nor the prosperity that the rest of India enjoys. The so called “Soldiers of Prophet Mohammad”, “Lashkar-e- Kashmir” and other fundamentalist ISI’s organizations from Pakistan, continue to attract the “faithful from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia to Sudan. Strapped to the teeth with arms, they constantly crash into the Kashmiri Twin Towers of beauty and serenity-The beauty of the people and the Land.
*1957 - The elected government of Pakistan is thrown out, military gains full control and the UN Observes conclude in their written report that the changed demography has made the whole issue redundant.
*1972 - Pakistan signs the “Simla Accord” with India to maintain the line of actual control. To allow the right of transit, free movement & trade.
*By 1986- with renewed fundamentalism in the form of Taliban, Pakistan uses her powerful intelligence agency, ISI, for cross border terrorism. The weapons flowed free with jealous American backing. It proves to be very cheap to wage a “Jihad” and the funds from Islamic nations pour in blessed by the west. Drug trade further increased the revenue.
Today, the Media has been very skillfully used as a tool of the Islamic Fundamentalism to maintain and justify the occupation of Kashmir. The funds from all over the world ensure that bullets and bulletins farther the doctrine of the Holy War. The fear of losing the support of Islamic nations, the war against global terrorism, is providing immunity to Pakistan once again. Since the first air strike on Afghanistan, the Kashmiri legislature building has been smashed by suicide bombers with 17 elected members dead and the death toll, as a result of the cross border terror, has never been higher. “Soldiers of Prophet Muhammad” organization, based in Pakistan, has once again claimed the responsibility. Once again the existence of a secular democracy is taking back seat to the appeasement of the bloody military dictatorship.
Sighting Harvard’s Samuel Huntington in the 1996 Book, The Clash of Civilizations, William Johnson of The Globe and Mail quotes;
“Islam’s borders are bloody, and so are its innards”
Despite this knowledge, Islamic fundamentalists have been able to negotiate its survival and growth. The same forces of history that negotiate time and again with such doctrines, also ensure that the Yellow Stars and Orange Tags flicker back and forth in the dark skies of the fanaticism.
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October 6, 2002
