| Chapter 15 |
India Outside: True Federalism |
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Pakistan today appears (*) to be the first dilemma which is always confronting India outside. The major challenge she is facing at her borders stems mainly from Pakistan, constantly repeat Indian leaders. Pakistan's hand appears to be everywhere: in Kashmir, of course, although they denied it for years; but also Punjab; in the separatist movements in the East, as in Assam; in Bangladesh today; or in Bombay, where the bombings were Pakistan's answer to what they perceived as an outrage on Islam. And even if Pakistan's hand is not there, Indian political leaders always find the shadow of their enemy. Pakistan seems also sometimes to be winning the propaganda battle which projects India as an oppressor, a nation which tramples on Human Rights, whether in Kashmir or Punjab. But the greatest shadow over South Asia is the threat of a nuclear holocaust, which would probably be started by Pakistan, as they know they cannot beat India in a conventional war. And this, it is hoped will remind us of Sri Aurobindo's warning in 1947, which we quote again, because of its total relevance today: "India is free, but she has not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom...The whole communal division into Hindu and Muslim seems to have hardened into a figure of a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that the Congress and the Nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled, or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled; civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. The partition of the country must go...For without it the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and frustrated. That must not be." (Message of Sri Aurobindo on the 15th of August 1947). And if you look closely at India's woes since 1947, many of them seem to have sprung from that partition, from the shame of that division, from the cowardly assent to the terrible maiming of Mother India, which most Indian political leaders have accepted as a permanent 'fait accompli'. But, are not Pakistan and India part of the same soul? Are not Pakistanis and Indians of the same colour, culture, ethnic stock? Have they not the same food habits, the same customs in many ways? In truth, you cannot really differentiate one Punjabi from the other Punjabi, or one Sindhi from the other Sindhi, except for his religion. So what if they worship two different Gods, which are but two names for the same Infinite Reality... This is what marks out 120 million Muslims from their 500 million Hindu brothers; yet they have to learn to live together and they WILL cohabit together in the future. Why should Indian and Pakistan, two developing countries, go on spending billions and billions of dollars on getting ready to fight each other, killing each other, they the brothers that lived together through seven millenniums of one of the greatest civilisations of this earth? For are not Pakistanis as much as Indians part of the same 'Indu' soil, which was the land of Bharat, before the Muslims came and forcibly converted so many- who today call themselves Pakistanis, or Indian Muslims? All right, you cannot change history. Pakistan has evolved its own identity and it stands on his own as a nation, with its particular ethos. YET IT SHOULD BECOME CLEAR TO ALL, THAT NOT ONLY THE ONLY LASTING SOLUTION TO PEACE IN THE SUBCONTINENT, THE ONLY WAY TO AVOID A NUCLEAR CONFLICT IN SOUTH ASIA, WHICH COULD EVEN DRAG THE WORLD IN ITS HORROR, IS THE REUNION OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN. BUT ALSO, EVEN MORE, THAT THE ONLY WAY INDIA IS GOING TO REGAIN HER GREATNESS THAT WAS, THE ONLY MANNER SHE CAN ENTER THE 21ST CENTURY AS THE LAND OF DHARMA, AS THE SPIRITUAL LEADER OF THE WORLD, IS FOR HER AND PAKISTAN TO REUNITE. The question is: how? It certainly cannot be done in a day and it cannot be accomplished in a hurried and artificial manner. First there has to be an understanding among both the people, an acceptance of that possibility, which up to now has not even been thought off seriously. Once the idea has started to work among people, the process may begin - at the heart of the matter, where things are most difficult between India and Pakistan: in Kashmir, for instance. For Kashmir represents the perfect impossibility, the absolute dead-end, and symbolises the irrevocable enmity between Pakistan and India. India will not surrender Kashmir, because she considers rightly that it has been part of her territory for 5000 years. Pakistan will not surrender its claim on the Valley, because it estimates rightly that the Kashmir vale is 95% Muslim and that under the (mad) logic of partition, it should have reverted to Islamabad. And both countries are trying by force, the one openly, the other covertly, to stake their claims on Kashmir. Thus, there is no issue, except war, a nuclear conflict maybe - and everyone will be the loser: who will have Kashmir then if there is nothing left of India and Pakistan? If the absurdity of the whole Kashmir business is seen in that light, then India and Pakistan might agree to sit down and hammer out, not an idiotic splitting in two of Kashmir, as they have already done of India, which will solve nothing and only postpone a later confrontation, but a just reunion. LET BOTH INDIA AND PAKISTAN ADMINISTER KASHMIR, (*) . which would retain its identity and culture as a member of a greater India confederation. It can start in a gradual way by military observers of both the countries being posted to watch over the peace process. Eventually it can lead to a joint government of Kashmir. Then there could be a tentative reunification of both the Kashmirs, which would be a prelude to an eventual reunification of India and Pakistan in a loose confederation of which the Kashmir joint experiment would be the model and the guinea pig, because we have no illusion that this will be an easy process. There can be no peace in the subcontinent until India and Pakistan are reunited. For they are part of the same soul, the same body, even if it has different names and boasts of two religions diametrically opposed to each other, Hinduism and Islam, the latter thrown into India by the twist of fate and invasions. But as long as the two countries do not understand the urgency of reunification, there will be wars, a nuclear war maybe, and Ayodhyas and bomb blasts, and separatist movements in both India and Pakistan, fuelled by each other, and bloated military budgets heavily taxing the economy. But the beautiful thing is that Kashmir, although it looks like the perfect dead-end, is there to show the way to the Light. But the reunification of India and Pakistan will be only the first step, because ultimately the goal is the reunification of ALL that was once the Greater India and which is today only small fragmented countries with no real soul, no direction, no sense. Bangladesh is the exemplary instance of that meaninglessness. Here is a country full of marvellous people, with immense possibilities at all levels, but which on its own, has very little resources, except jute. A country which is constantly invaded by floods, which is at the mercy of dictators, or semi-dictators, like Ershad, who embarked upon an islamization programs which has harmed the spontaneous tendencies of the Bengalis. A nation which is near totally dependant on Foreign Aid agencies, with their luxurious houses, their Japanese 4 wheel drive cars, and their money, which ultimately does not solve much, as each natural catastrophe repeats the same story of helplessness. The same can be said for Sri Lanka, a nation, as we have seen earlier, which has shown little foresight since independence, whose Tamil-Sinhalese feud cannot be resolved by reason, for it is the consequence of an old hatred and centuries of Sinhalese discrimination against the Tamil minority. A nation which produces hardly anything, is dependant on tea and tourism and yet is full of infinite possibilities, with its vast mosaique of people, races, religions, its natural beauty and ideal climate. And what of Nepal, one of the poorest countries of the world, with its rapidly depleting forest cover. Nepal is the only Hindu kingdom of the world and should have then naturally a harmonious fruitful relation with India -which is not the case at all, as the king and the communists, have always played the Chinese card against India. Nepal should have nothing to fear from India, as the two countries have so much in common. If Europe has done it, why not the South Asian countries ? For the ultimate solution to all the problems in South Asia, whether an Indo-Pakistan nuclear conflict, or the Chakma problem, or the Tamil separatist dilemma, is FEDERALISM, a united common Government, under whichever form, which will allow each South Asian country to retain its own individuality, to practice in peace its own religion, to manage even its own affairs, but under the political umbrella of a benevolent, spiritualized, non-violent, but nevertheless powerful India, which will protect them, solve their problems and help them. Not the Soviet type of United Republics, whose totalitarianism showed its ultimate failure, but a spiritualized federalism which would be on the lines of ancient India, when all the republics were allowed free play, while recognising the same unifying principle of Dharma. This Federal union of states would comprise India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, the Maldives. What we see today in the reunification of the two Germanys, of the two Vietnams, of the two Koreas eventually, is a sign of an evolutionary trend which is trying to manifest itself at present. "...The unification of the human world is under way; there is an imperfect initiation organised but struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and it must inevitably increase and conquer. HERE TOO INDIA HAS BEGUN TO PLAY A PROMINENT PART AND IF SHE CAN DEVELOP THAT LARGER STATESMANSHIP WHICH IS NOT LIMITED BY THE PRESENT FACTS AND IMMEDIATE POSSIBILITIES, BUT LOOKS INTO THE FUTURE AND BRINGS IT NEARER, HER PRESENCE MAY MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SLOW AND TIMID AND A BOLD AND SWIFT DEVELOPMENT. A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done, but even then the final result is sure. For unification is a necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Its necessity for the nations is also clear, for without it the freedom of the nations may be at any moment in peril and the life even of the large and powerful nations insecure. The unification is therefore to the interest of all and only human imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent it; but these cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will... Sri Aurobindo's message on Independence 15.8.47 The partition of India must go and the Greater India, the land of the 'Indus', Bharat, be born again. |
To continue with Chapter 16.... |
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Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 |