[Reader-list] Jaswant’s Jinnah -view across the border

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Dear Ram Prasad Sharma
 
May I first express my amazement at the quality of your writing and communication considering that you are Class XI student. 
 
In my earlier post I did not say that the 'past' DOES NOT have an impact on the 'present'. It would have been idiotic of me to say such a thing. If I did then I am an idiot.
 
I was advocating (in the context of improving Indo-Pak relations) that the obsession with the events and personalities of the 'past' (especially pre 1947 partition) is not going to help in improving Indo-Pak relations in the 'present'.
 
Kshmendra

--- On Sat, 8/22/09, Ram Prasad Sharma <ramprasadsharma.india at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Ram Prasad Sharma <ramprasadsharma.india at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Jaswant’s Jinnah -view across the border
To: "asad abbasi" <asad_abbasi at hotmail.com>
Cc: kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com, reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 8:10 AM



Dear Asad & Kshamendra,
 
I am writing my first post in discussion, so be kind enough to excuse if I make mistakes and point them out in a gentle manner. It's a request. 
 
The two people whose legacy in India is present in almost every stretch of life are Nehru & Indira. Gandhi did try to help, but only now is he coming back (through his talisman) in the idea of 'inclusive' growth and 'pro-poor' politics. As for Jinnah, one can't forget the Direct Action Day he announced on 16th August 1946, which led to riots and which also laid the foundations of what can be termed the hostility in India and Pakistan, at least among the elites. 
 
Gandhi, lost a lot of sympathy and following when he pressurized the Indian govt. to give Rs. 100 million (hope that's correct), to Pakistan. Which is why when Godse killed him and the trial of Godse was going on, people were actually having sympathies (and not just the RSS members) with him. The reason is simple. Gandhi was anarchic, pro-village and believed in decentralized authority. Godse wanted order, centralization and a base of self-interest upon which the nation would be based. Godse's only mission was death of Gandhi, and the day he achieved it, he had nothing more in his life to fulfill. Giving a life-term to him would have left him mentally vulnerable in his own mind, so he wanted death sentence, which he got. 
 
What however we forget, is that Patel & Nehru based their foreign policy upon the values which made Godse kill Gandhi. Gandhi never agreed with Nehru, but had faith in him and so decided not to protest against all moves by the then Indian govt. which indulged in this.  Nehru, on the other hand, by the last few months, had been ignoring Gandhi's comments. Gandhi had already lost most of respect from those who suffered during riots, and those who migrated from the West & the East. 
 
So, in my words, Jinnah & Nehru ensured that in a way, the states and the elites would never be able to trust each other very much, and would instead be actively plotting against each other. And the state also becomes an important mechanism to ensure that the people of both states are asked to be suspicious of each other, in very implicit ways or sometimes even explicit. 
 
And today, the legacy we do follow in a sense, is the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty (not Mahatma Gandhi). Nehru broadly gave us the legacy of democracy, poor education levels, trickle-down effect (the most useless term in Indian scenario which still exists today), dams (a disaster) and in some measure (not completely though) dynastic politics. Indira Gandhi (the Gandhi factor) brought the legacies of mass corruption (at all levels), dictatorial politics (with only one family or a set of people having the power. Modi, Raman Singh, Shivraj & Advani in one way or the other are dictatorial, if not dictators completely. The only reason BJP seems to be democratic is that they have too many factions. Where they don't, as in Gujarat, it's a dictatorial kind of rule), Emergency, a highly atrocious family-planning programme (the gift of Emergency), licence-raj (another disaster) and so on. 
 
Hence, the past does have an impact on the present. If the country had never been partitioned, perhaps Gandhi (& Jinnah's federal notions, supposing they were there) would have come to light & Nehru would never have been in complete control. And who knows, the entire country population would have been members of the Congress (as Gandhi wanted), rather than India being a multi-party democracy. (multiple factions notwithstanding) And probably, the Al-Qaeda may never have come into existence. 
 
Regards
 
Ram