Date: 19/05/2019
WHERE SHOULD THE FRONTIER BE?
(Not for the faint hearted Hindus.)
The map of India seems disgusting and distorted. You see, I was born in that India which stretched from KHYBER PASS to CHITTAGONG and from BALTISTAN down to KANYAKUMARI.
At school I could draw its outline on paper with eyes closed. It was a magnificent triangle with the apex towards Sri lanka. It also seemed like a mother with arms stretched as if welcoming her children from all directions. Truly I called it “Bharat Mata” and thanked Subhash Chandra Bose for giving us the greeting “Jai Hind”!
All that changed suddenly and on one unfortunate day as I got up. I saw the new map! The shock is still overwhelming since I have not reconciled to, or felt comfortable with, the new truncated version. It's like the shock of the children who saw their dad taken to hospital after a car accident and then see him coming home with both legs amputated and supported by crutches.
It is beyond belief that her own children, especially the top leaders, who held Bharat to ransom, holding her destiny in hand, acted so foolishly and treacherously in 1947, the year that ought to have been devoted to grand celebrations, song and dances and fireworks, and thanks giving for sovereignty and Independence after centuries of slavery during which our noble lady Hindusthan remained a slave, or a prostitute, who was forced to let in any rascal, robber or rapist but suffered silently inside, shedding tears of blood every night over her situation and the absence of warriors who could rescue her.
On August 15, 1947 when hundreds of thousands fleeing for safety had reached the refugee camps with millions more on the long trekk to safety, there was no grief or shame in the new prime minister who climbed the rampart of Red Fort, Delhi, and congratulated everyone on attaining Independence.
The crowds in front of him, listened in disbelief. Among them were many wretched souls who had lost their husbands, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts, homes, possessions, lands, shops and jobs during the genocide in West Punjab.
Countless funeral pyres were still burning, cremating the dead with mutilated bodies and no clothes. Thousands of abducted girls and women were crying their hearts out in agony and shame, looking towards Hindusthan, and up towards God, for deliverance.
Disregarding all that grief & calamity Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was congratulating them for Independence! And what kind of a nation was it that did not turn around to ask, “What price did you charge for Lahore, you son of a bi*ch?”
Patriotism means strongly “relating” to TERRITORY and PEOPLE of one’s country of birth. TREACHERY & TREASON mean “dumping” them both. The soldier takes the Oath to DEFEND both LAND and PEOPLE till the last breath in his body. So, what example of patriotism did we see in our TOP leaders then? Nehru was filmed by the world media, and his speech appeared in all the newspapers in the country.
People were so blinkered that they saw Delhi but not Lahore in maps the next day. Yet showed no reaction or revulsion, not even curiosity as to what had happened to our “Mahan Desh”!
They garlanded Nehru and Gandhi, crediting them with heroism, courage and patriotism to liberate Hindusthan from slavery after a thousand years. They thronged to Birla House in New Delhi to listen to speeches of Gandhi who chanted “Ishwar Allah tero naam”, then all shouting, “Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai!” like ignorant fools, the scum of mankind, like some inferior race.
To us, hailing from West Punjab, it seemed surreal. We expected our leaders to explain the terms and conditions of the vast territorial surrenders, including our homes, our magnificent mandirs and historic gurdwaras, schools, colleges and shopping malls, farms, fields and factories.
Many were in unbearable grief, losing our fathers, grandparents, sisters and mothers. The widows were still grieving. The little orphans were still weeping, crying for dads or mums or sisters. And yet Nehru told the jubilant few, ignoring the many who stood in disbelief and pain, shock and shame, “Rejoice, you are free!”
But I could hear some abusing both Gandhi and Nehru in unprintable words. They were so few, and the police were all around, looking for anyone who insulted Nehru or Gandhi.
Months, years and decades have passed. A whole human generation has gone and new one grown up, some already retired and pensioners. Yet no mention of “Partition”! No one mentions those who lived happily in Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi, Lahore and East Bengal. People have forgotten that the frontier was at Khyber Pass and Chitral and Chittagong were in India. There is no nostalgia and no shame or disgust in seeing the border at Wagah.
One billion Hindus in the sub continent do not wish to recall or record the names of all those who paid the price of our PARTIAL Independence in 1947. India must be unique among all the countries on earth in forgetting her territories surrendered unconditionally to fundamentalist Islam in utmost haste and great terror, and the millions of innocent citizens killed during the Transfer (Bifurcation) of POWER in 1947..
I end with the following scenario-
Two boxing matches took place in a city, one after the other . In one of them a boxer who received a knock-out blow fell to ground and despite desperate efforts by the medics to revive him, he died.
In the second match the boxer who got a knock-out blow fell to ground but recovered in 10 seconds and resumed the fight, to win.
Bharat must not be like the boxer who died (to be mourned, pitied and grieved over, for ever!).. Bharat should be like the one who recovered from the blow, got up with the resolve to win, and WON!
Big blunders take a long time, sometimes up to two millennia, but in the end the success makes all the wait and effort worthwhile.
The most inspiring example in this regard was set by the Jews who remained scattered in wilderness, being persecuted, massacred, gassed and banished from homes, and countries, for two thousand years till at last they created the sovereign and independent State of Israel in order to live in safety, freedom and dignity.
BHARAT'S claim over the territories surrendered through fraud and treason, and under duress and unbecoming pressures in 1947, when she was pinned down by her colonial masters, is eternal.
All maps of the country ought to show both KHYBER PASS and CHITTAGONG within Bharat. The current borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan ought to be drawn with dotted lines, to indicate their temporary provisional nature. What else did we mean while chanting, “Akhand Bharat, AMAR RAHE!”
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20 April 2019.
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