Jago India

Partition of India or creation of Pakistan was the result of ‘Divide and rule’ policy of the British, or of ego or personal aspirations of a few individuals who were at the helm of affairs at that time, or the natural outcome of intolerance of two communities for each other, is a matter of debate.

But one thing is clear that it caused a huge damage to both the communities and nations, and left deep wounds and a burning fire.

As would have been natural, this fire should have died down and wounds healed, with the passage of time and cooling of passions. It should have happened fast because two people had lived together for thousands of years and had common culture, language, food and values.

But it did not so happen.

One of the reasons was that this situation of hate and enmity for other country did come handy to the governments of both the countries, first for consolidating the newly created nations, and later to keep the attention of its people diverted from real issues, in which their own performances were not dismal but shameful. So both of them kept fueling the fire. Situation remains unchanged even today.

But in this process they did great disservice to both their nations. Scarce resources, that should have gone into improving the health and education of populations and creating vital infrastructure went into military build up and fighting wars with each other. This resulted in both the countries becoming poorest of world’s countries, with half of their populations going to bed with only one diet a day.

The situation, however, provided a gold mine to the weapon hardware producing countries of that time mainly USA and USSR. These and other countries dumped their rotten weaponry systems in these two countries and took away whatever was in their hands. Rulers of these two countries unmindful of the pitiable condition of their populations, kept on doling the meager wealth of their nations in exchange of the weaponry, which was mostly to remain unused.

So intense was the propaganda unleashed in these two countries against each other that even finest of the brains failed to understand the game. This negative propaganda has blindfolded us to such an extent that our minds don’t receive anything positive on the other side.

A common perception planted in the minds of Indians is that there is hardly any Hindu population in Pakistan and none of them holds position of any significance in Pakistan.

Following news item which appeared on the first page of ‘The Times of India’ news paper on 18th March,2010, proves contrary to this perception:

“Pak Hindu MPs stage walkout over terror slur”

Islamabad: Chaffing at a Lahore high court judge’s comment that Hindus were financing terror attacks in the country, nine Hindu members of Pakistan’s National Assembly staged a walkout in protest on Wednesday.
‘‘The sentiments of four million Pakistani Hindus are hurt by Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif ’s uncalled-for remarks,’’ said Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Ramesh Lal. No sooner did he say this on the floor of the House, he was joined by other Hindu lawmakers who then walked out. Members of the Awami National Party, too, joined in, and their protest was described as the first in Pakistan’s House against the judiciary…”

There are a large number of other misconceptions planted in the minds of populations of both the countries, which are far away from the truth or reality .

There is thus a need to change these wrong perceptions against each other, in the minds of both the people, as these are doing a great deal of harm to both the countries.

Friendship between India and Pakistan shall benefit both the countries in following ways:

1. Reduction in defense expenditure of both the countries.
2. Increase in trade between them.
3. Availability of health and educational facilities of India to the population of Pakistan and vice versa.
4. Greater say for the region at international forums due to their putting up of joint front.
5. More tourists coming to the region due to peace.