The historical events and documents may lead to various forms of interpretations. The British India’s Partition is one such eventful chapter in the history which has been seen by various historians with different prisms. Virendra Pandit, a science graduate and the Consulting Editor of the Hindu Business Line Daily of Chennai, has interpreted the events leading to the British India’s Partition calling “Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Father of Modern India” in his latest book “Return of the Infidel”. The global launch of the book in the third week of September 2017 is sure to attract attention of all those curious to study the world history with a different eye. He tells this writer: “I found the available books on decolonization either as one sided or too narrow in scope. I wanted to see the Indian (and Chinese and Japanese) history through the prism of evolving, contemporary world history. As you'll notice, I have run the story as part of global history.” Not that Pandit makes Jinnah the hero in explicit terms but he has analyzed the chronology of the events where M.K. Gandhi is definitely greater and remains the Father of the Nation; but in a Global context, Jinnah stands out as one who is responsible largely to de-Islamize India! Both Gandhi and Jinnah actually complemented each other, according to the author. He says: “Had this not happened, imagine a united Hindustan with 750 million Muslims by 2050, the biggest Islamic country in the world. In that sense Jinnah was the greatest Indian after Gautam Buddha, Chankya and Adi Shankara.”
Both Gujarati Barristers became the Father of Nations after Partition; Gandhi of India and Jinnah of Pakistan. The book reveals that Gandhi “pretended” to oppose Partition, deep within he was content that India would be a country living according to its Hindu heritage and ethos. Gandhi “plotted” the exit of Islam and Christianity following the end of colonialism so that most part of India remained a home majorly for the Hindus. He “egged” on Jinnah to demand Pakistan and with its creation India medieval era came to an end. Even the Khilafat movement was a strategic move by Gandhi. The author is rather harsh on Gandhi and seems trying to rewrite the history thrashing it out from the Gandhian and leftist historians.
The children of Abraham, who follow Judaism, Christianity and Islam and believe in only One God, look at other religions as Infidel. And that has played a catalytic role in revivification of ancient civilizations. The future of the world lies with the “Infidel” China, Japan and India with US influence diminishing, Pandit derives the conclusion presenting the global historical events. “I can visualize Japan (and India) regaining its military power with American help, vis-a- vis China, and the US power correspondingly shrinking in the next three to four decades. Mustafa Kemal launched a virtual de-islamization of Turkey, whose Ottoman rule ended in Europe after the First World War.
And decolonization of various countries throughout the 19th century was what spurred me. If the Mughal and Ottoman Empires ended in the 19th and the 20th century's first half, the British Empire ended in the second half, though replaced by America. Rise and fall of civilizations is always cyclical.” “The Game Changer” Gandhi and “The Pied Piper” Jinnah are presented with known chronology of events but with a different interpretations and the reader would be inclined to apply mind differently. On 10 December 1938, Jinnah was officially declared as Qaid-e- Azam, or the Great Leader, by Maulana Mazharuddin Ahmed, editor of Delhi’s Muslim daily, al-Aman, in recognition of his contributions to the community; there was already another ‘Great Leader’, the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, in contemporary Nazi Germany. As a Congressman since 1904, Jinnah opposed the formation of the Muslim League in 1906, calling it a evil design to divide India, but after nearly three decades he had drifted to declare Muslims as a separate Nation. He became the lifetime President of the same Muslim League. Pandit gives credit to Gandhi for the transformation of Jinnah! “The Hindu-past of Jinnah had virtually evaporated, the Muslim present was lurking now on his mind: if Ismailis could once destroy even the Caliphate, kill 40,000 Muslims in Mecca and loot even the Black Stone, why could not this Ismaili, Jinnah, do something similar in India, which was anyway full of infidels, whose only right was to get killed?”, states Pandit giving reasoning for a Constitutionalist Jinnah to give a call for Direct Action in August 1946 responsible for killing 5,000 people from both Hindu and Muslim communities in Kolkata city alone within three days.
The call for Direct Action by Jinnah was to get his dream of Pakistan fulfilled as a last resort, but the author says: “ Of course, Gandhi had laid the foundation but it was Nehru who unwittingly ‘ensured’ that Jinnah formed Pakistan, the way Hitler pushed the Jews to create ‘Israel’.” Jinnah who even refused to meet Chaudhary Rahmat Ali, the propagator of the idea to create ‘Pakistan’ in 1933 and discuss the ‘nation’, ultimately became the Father of Pakistan! But Pandit presents logical argument with a strong conviction : “ India would always be grateful to Jinnah, the Pied Piper. Jinnah’s greatest
contribution, therefore, was not the creation of a Muslim Pakistan but making of a Hindu Bharat, shielding India from any further enforced Islamisation. Imagine the Arabs’ petro-dollars pouring into an unPartitioned India, since the 1970s, well after the British had left, and activities of Islamist Wahhabi front organizations like Tablighi Jammat, Ahl-e- Hadis and Dawat ul-Islam in an undivided India having 1000 million Hindus vis-à- vis 500 million Muslim population, and one can guess what impact it would have on the world…Jinnah halted that process; that was why he was more of the saviour of India than the creator of Pakistan; perhaps even he did not realize this. Sadly, he was also the most misunderstood leader, both by the Muslims and the Hindus.” The Mahatma knew both the Fuehrer and the Qaid-e- Azam and his reshaping the world-map from where Mustafa Kemal Pasha had left would bring result of containment of Islam. “The Mahatma proposed an offer which Jinnah knew would if accepted, have finished off the Great Leader in one brilliant stroke: the British should make Jinnah the Prime Minister of India and the Great Leader should then try to get the Congress support- in which case, of course, Jinnah would have to come with a begging bowl to Gandhi!” The Qaid did not realize how the Mahatma was pushing Pakistan out of India and making him, the Great Leader.
Next Column: Dangers of ignoring N-E Indian states
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
