http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20070408.htm
Husain thinks that Pak has gained economically by partition - it's true enough. Not due to the 'Hindu Rate of Growth' but due to the all knowing, ever-loving Chacha Nehru. Even here I am not so sure - the richest areas in Pak are in Punjab and Sindh - which would have continued to be rich in undivided India.
The bigger loss is that out of it's Islamic yearning the Pakistanis have disinherited themselves from modern learning that the British presence allowed us to achieve (yeah they impoverished us - but they were not as bad as the Mughals). This is a long term loss of competitive advantage. In the long term a free market of ideas and goods - makes for an economically richer, culturally productive and technologically advanced society.
However, it is an interesting game. I think overall the partition was good as it allowed Hindus to at last have a geographical area where they were a big majority. Otherwise the religious question would have hobbled us forever. It was bad because the Muslims that most fervently wanted Pakistan - those in UP, Bihar & the Nizam's kingdom - have remained. And so we continue to be hobbled ...
6 comments:
I think Naipaul has said somewhere that partition was good for India as otherwise the country would have been engulfed in bitter Hindu Muslim controversy. I completely agree with him. We can see this in respect to the current conflict in India's only Muslim majority state (Kashmir). One can only imagine the level of internal turmoil with a much larger Muslim population.
Creation of Pakistan may have brought about economic growth. But the larger goal behind the creation of Pakistan was a homeland for Muslims in the subcontinent. Has this broader objective been achieved? Somehow Hussain does not address this issue in his article.
'What if' scenario should not have juvenile fantasies combining the best of both worlds. I am sure of the following if Indian and Pakistan were together-
With the kind of populist politics being played in India, by now we would be at the mercy of Muslims. They would be lording over us, along with their arjun singh type of dignityless hindu loafers. The hindus, as always, would be fine with the arrangement, as long as it is their neighbour and not they who are being butchered.
In spite of all the power, the muslims, afflicted by the permanent minority syndrome, or deliberately using it, would have kept butchering hindus in the name of 'justifiable grievance' against the excesses committed against them. These excesses would be as follows:
1. Poor muslim youth feeling neglected that because of their illiterate, uncouth and fundamentalist ways they are not being appointed to top jobs in India by ‘privileged’ hindus.
2. People trying to avoid them when they see the crude fungus on their fungus and their beggar-like scull caps screaming about their religious identities. This insult muslim boys would start feeling early on in their lives, leading to a strong resentment inside them and turning them into victimized religious beasts, instead of normal human beings.
3. Five times break for prayers not being allowed in certain companies.
4. The courts insulting their religious sentiments by not allowing them to circumcise their females, keeping them like herds of cattle, and stoning to death women who showed their face in public. To emphasize their difference from Hindus living in the same society, and to challenge the law of the land, such barbaric practices would be taken to their extremes. (The hindu society, in competition would have come up with its own set of obnoxious practices such as banning certain dresses among hindus, more rigid caste practices etc.)
5. Police trying to round muslims up when they go around killing Hindus in riots started by themselves.
6. Muslim terrorists being arrested or even stopped while they plant bombs.
There is no country where this perennially aggrieved mad community is not creating a hell, and people are thinking India would have been stronger with them? Can you imagine the extent of terrorism Indian Muslims would have spread inside and outside? Indian would be a shameful tag like Pakistani is today.
Also India has a much fractured society as it is and these terrorist divisive schizophrenic groups would have mired India in civil war.
So it is good riddance that this troublesome loathsome section of population has chosen to stay away. Anyway the point of separation would have come at time or the other. It came in 1947, and now we are free of it.
An interesting quote:
"I prefer the partition on India into Muslim India and non Muslim India as the safest method of providing for the defence of both"
-B. R Ambedkar, in "Pakistan or Partition of India " p364
Off the topic - can we petition rediff.com and tell them how not to run their business? Those fucking popups, 5 of them and more than even ToI-let paper, make it impossible to visit that site from office. Plus I had some nasty Adware removing company install itself on my PC and does ramdom Registry check like a Virus....Many thanks.
-Sage
Off topic..
A nice take on the sub prime mess here in the US and its impact on global economy..
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/S_A_Aiyar_Will_the_housing_bubble_burst_hit_India/articleshow/2274708.cms
Please take it with a pinch of salt..The recent NDTV opinion poll amongst Indians in our 60th year of Independence..and its findings..
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070022301
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