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Tuesday 15 August 2017

The Indian Partition: 70yrs On

"Our country has been broken; the great, sound pulsating heart of India has been broken.."  Asaf Khwaja Lahore Diaries 1949


When the British Government decided to dismantle its Imperial holdings in South Asia lying in the Indian Subcontinent and dubbed the Crown Jewel of the British Empire in 1947, that decision though noble in honoring the tenets of the Atlantic Charter which propounded the right for self determination of colonized peoples; led sharp religious delineations, inhumane and inhospitable fatal hostilities amongst once agelong convivial neighbours.
The Indian Partition plan propounded by Lord Mountbatten the last Viceroy of Colonial India sought the creation of two homelands based on religious delineations from British India; one distinctly Muslim and the other distinctly Hindu incorporating other religious minorities. 

Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru (l), Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten (c) and the president of the All-India Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah (r) discuss Partition in 1947
Source: bbcnews.com

As such, the provinces of Punjab and Bengal both of which had Muslim majorities were delineated as Pakistan (East and West Pakistan) while the rest were to form the Nation State of India. Simple as the partition plan seemed on paper, it aroused religious animosity amongst once convivial neighbours of different religious leanings. Thus, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious minorities who felt insecure due to reprisal killings had to undergo the painful experience of forced migration in series of population uproots and exchanges between the newly formed nations of India and Pakistan in what was one of the greatest in history, some 10 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan into India and vice versa, while about 2 million persons were killed in reprisals interspersed between the two newly formed Nations. In all, it is estimated that over 12 million lives were affected by this partition plan.
The British Partition of India
Source: bbcnews.com

Once a domain ruled by the Ghaznavids and Mughal Empires who were of Turko-Mongol origins and advanced the propagation of Islam amongst their Subjects, the majority subjugated Hindu, and Buddhist population once had glorious domineering empires of note, some which were the Mauryan and Gupta Empires of which legendary Ashoka was famed for the former in the 3rd Century BC. Upon the subtle and forceful maneuvering subjugation intrigues by Europeans, chiefly the British in the 18th Century of an already waning Mughal Empire via the English East India Company, the whole Indian Subcontinent came under the rule of the expansionist British Empire who now controlled the region having the World’s largest population.
The British partition delineation along religious lines gained roots in the series of inconclusive Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th and 20th Centuries in which the Afghanistan Kingdom which used to exert influence over Punjab Province was granted Independence; thus, partitioning the tribal heartland of the Pashtuns between British and Afghan control. Along with the Sepoy rebellion which was suppressed, there was growing discontent of the British Colonialists which birthed the Indian National Congress in the late 19th Century. Further partitions of the Bengal province along religious lines fueled mistrust amongst the majority Hindu and minority Muslim Nationalists which led to series of events resulting in the birthing of the Muslim league. As such, the British played on the divergent emancipation ideologies of these two Nationalist parties to their advantage as it suited and so the India National Congress and Muslim League became irreconcilable in their emancipation demands. While the India National Congress demanded independence for all of British India to establish a secular state for all religious delineation, the Muslim League sought a separate partition state in which would be Muslim majority; fearing Hindu redomination after the Muslims have recently controlled political affairs in the subcontinent via the defunct Ghaznavid and Mughal empires.

The India Partition frustrated over 12million lives
Source: https://tackk.com/6g98k1

 When the partition finally came in Mid August of 1947, two Nations were born as Muslim dominated Pakistan and Hindu dominated India. Both nations after undergoing forced population exchanges upon religious delineations fell into unending internecine conflicts over the Princely States of Jammu and Kashmir both of which delayed decision of ascribing sovereignty to India or Pakistan.
Growing tensions between these two Nations led India to intervene in East Pakistan crises in 1971, thus guaranteeing the independence of marginalized and disgruntled Bengalis to form the new nation of Bangladesh.
Yet the issues bothering about conflict over the status of Jammu and Kashmir remained unresolved, though frozen along the cease fire Line of Control. With both sides now nuclear armed and relishing a military solution in the face Indian obstinacy over Kashmir, Pakistan has sought to support non-State military actors to harass Indian Occupation of Kashmir. These Non-State Military actors while pushing the Pakistani agenda over Kashmir have in turn fueled destabilization of the polity in Pakistan, Afghanistan and globally via the activities of Islamist guerrillas such as the Taliban, Al-Queda, Pakistani Taliban, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashka-e-Taiba and Kashmiri insurgents whilst India has seemingly advanced its status as a global player first during the constitution of the Non Aligned Movement in 1950’s and in series of Technological advancement in Medicine, Industrialization, and Information Technology which has seen it dethroning the USA’s Silicon Valley and stamping its status among the Second World Order nations via the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) association and forging trading partnerships with Africa, US, EU, China and UK.

"Much suffering has been caused and much bitterness engendered…but what is done cannot be undone. All we can do now is to make amends for our past mistakes and work wholeheartedly for the restoration of peace and goodwill among the divided sections of the people."-- Asaf Khwaja
It is saddening to note that a once harmonious commune under the ancient Hindu Mauryan and Muslim Ghaznavid and Mughal Empires has been thronged in to that of mistrust based on religious delineation and a hot bed of fanatic Islamic militantism with perennial cataclysmic effects on Afghanistan.
As a region hosting a distinct cradle of civilization and the World’s largest population side by side with China, like China, the Indian Subcontinent has lots of positives to offer the world if peace can be advanced across the religious delineations entrenched by the British Partition of 1947.

Thursday 4 May 2017

The Arab Conundrum

"An Arab is whoever speaks Arabic, wishes to be an Arab and calls himself an Arab." 
 – Sati al-Husri

The term ‘Arab’ and peoples ascribed to it, is a modern-day conundrum that sometimes shirks detestations in international circles especially with recent advent of terrorism fears around the globe. Mainly domiciled in the Middle East where their ancestors originally hailed from in the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs have expanded to dominate the cultural, religious and political cosmos of nearly all Middle Eastern States and adjourning lands. The reason for this not being farfetched from the origins of Islam among the Arabs in the 7th Century AD; these originators of the religion set about unifying the diverse disunited Arab clans of the Arabian Peninsula and thenceforth set about empire conquests of adjourning territories and peoples which was inclusive of territories held by the then mighty Byzantine and Sassanid empires of the Levant and Middle Orient.

Source: http://www.mideastweb.org/islamhistory.htm

The earliest peoples designated as Arabs were the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. The term ‘Arab’ in itself is interpreted to meaning ‘nomad’ synonymous to ‘Bedouin’. Other adjourning non-Arab peoples such as the Arameans, Phoenicians, Assyrians et al were over the centuries systematically assimilated into the Arab culture, thereby in most cases losing their language and distinct cultural identity in most cases.
While the Arabization quest passed on for Arab political dominance of conquered territories during the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate periods, the advent of the Mamluk and Baibars Sultanate began to pose an existential threat to the indigenous non-Arab populace most of whom were non-muslims. Whilst most non-Arab conversions to Islam entailed a full passage into the Arabization system, it must be acknowledged that some peoples such as the Persians and Kurds retained their distinct cultural affiliations despite being subjugated by the Arabs and then converted to Islam. Nevertheless, whilst Arabization nearly passed on for Islamization for Arabs and non-Arab peoples of the Middle East, there remains ever shrinking pockets of indigenous non-Muslim populations   among Arabs and non-Arabs in the Middle East especially amongst the Ghassanid and Lakhmid Arabs and several non-Arab groups most of which are Christian.
Ancient Delineation of Arab domains
Source: http://www.canadianarabcommunity.com/sevenarabkingdoms.php

The period of Turkish rule inaugurated by the Ottoman conquest and dismantling of the Byzantine empire and by extension rulership over the former Arab Caliphate ignited a new political era in the Middle Orient with the Ottoman Sultanate ascribing spiritual guardianship of the Muslim peoples to the Ottoman Sultan. Hence, for the first time since the advent of Islam, political and spiritual ruler ship of an Arab conquered territories and the established religion (Islam) passed on from Arabs to entirely non-Arabs.
And so, Arab subjugation continued without complaint so long as their domineers were Muslim and held the Arabic language as first choice in communication until a Turkish political revolution in the early 20th century.  A coup by young Turkish officers seeking to reform and restore the glorious past of the waning Ottoman empire which was dubbed as ‘the sick man of Europe’. Their reforms called for a radical ‘Turkification’ of the Ottoman governance system, a resultant which saw repressions of non-Turkish peoples especially in the Anatolian peninsula. Non-Muslim peoples were worse hit by the policy as it latter saw the expulsion of Greeks from Anatolia and the widely acclaimed ‘Armenian genocide’
Turkish rulership of Arabs was yet loathed despite they being spiritual brethren of most Arabs and in the wake of World War one in which the Ottomans fought alongside the Axis powers, the Allies led by Great Britain took advantage of Arab dissent against the Ottomans to stir the ‘Great Arab Revolt’ of 1916. The Arabs in themselves looking forward to reestablishing the glorious Arab Caliphate from ‘Aleppo to Aden’ rallied under the banner of Sharif Hussein Bin Ali and in serious of revolts and skirmishes against the Turks renounced Ottoman rule. Yet they came under Allied rule with France and Great Britain partioning the conquered territories as spheres of influence under the famous Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.
The 1916 Arab Revolt was British Inspired by 'Lawrence of Arabia'
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/phyllis0660/te-lawrence/?lp=true

The Balfour declaration of 1917 which granted Jewish rights to a homeland in parts of the conquered Ottoman dominion referred to as historical Palestine added another twist to the Arab conundrum. With the Religious importance of the allotted land to the Jews also claimed by the Arabs, the 1947 UN partition plan of Palestine between Jews and Arabs was rejected by the Arabs. And with the eventual creation of Israel in 1948, the Arab polity united in one voice to crush the nascent State; but after subsequent defeat and territorial loss, the fury of the Arabs turned upon the Mizrahi Jews (also referred to as Arab Jews) who had historically lived in North Africa and the East Levant. As such, Arab Jewry were sacked from their home and properties. Cities such as Casablanca, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Aden, Aleppo etc which once had hundreds of thousands of Jewry were emptied of their Jewish populace.
Whilst the British floated the idea of a Pan-Arab organization in 1942, the Arab League which was a resultant of that idea only became birthed in 1945, and its first task was to liquidate Jewish efforts of establishing a State within Arab realm. Alongside the Arab league, the rise of the Baath party in several Arab countries also endeavoured to unite the Arab cause. Despite its downside for repressing minority identities especially as pursued in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against the Kurds and Assyrians, the Baath party in its hay days was a real bond for Arab unity and it even enamoured the short lived union of some Arab Countries in loose confederations.
The Iranian revolution of 1979 reawakened the agelong sharp/bitter religious schism of Islam especially betwixt the Shia-Sunni divide. Whilst there are several Islamic sects aside the Shittes and Sunnis, albeit these two commanding the largest followership now define the deep divisions that exists within the Arab and Islamic world. After the collapse of pro-secular Arab Governments and the Baath party in most Arab Countries, and revival of Political Islam seeking to establish the glorious Caliphate past have reignited the divisive dichotomy that sunk the early Arab Caliphate.
Rallying Arab unity and administering Arab affairs seems a wearying effort. Aside the unanimous denouncement of Israel, the Arab polity never seem to agree on mediative efforts to conflict situations in respective Arab countries and strengthening economic cooperation. This Arab Conundrum is expressed in the Syrian and Yemen conflict. For all the economic prosperity of the gulf states aside Oman and Yemen, Arab Countries of the Levant such as Syria and Iraq are dismantled in conflict situations meleed along Sectarian religious lines. And whilst Western/foreign intervention accounts a great deal as the causative factor, Arab disunity cannot be excused as the Arab league in all these have in the words of Mohamad Bazzi become a ‘glorified debating society’.

It is most disheartening that the Arab polity despite being protegees of the harnessers of mathematical science and the mastery of cultural assimilation are stooping in regressive terms to divisive delineating status of over a thousand years back. While the global polity is bemused with new conflict and humanitarian situations around the globe, the Arab polity will do humanity a favour by seeking steps to resolve theirs from within themselves.