Does it belong to India or National Conference
or the PDP or the stone pelters or the militants or to the Army or to the
Pundits?.
If one goes into history before, say, 600 years,
prior to Moghul invasion from the North-west Khyber pass, the land which mostly
consisted of inhabitants called Hindus as exemplified by the mountain
Indu-kush and river Indus and Him-alayas (Mountain of temples). The borders
were well-defined by nature with inaccessible mountains and giant rivers. More
proof exist as the ethnic features of the people living there even now, the
age-old temples built, the near-permanant names of the places and locations and
the reference in the ancient Hindu scriptures. Though the underlying
faith of the people were of Hindu Dharma,
the lands were a motley of small kingdoms. Among these kingdoms there
were conflicts as well treaties. There were even marriages between people from
different kingdoms. So the Hindu land consisted of hundreds of small kingdoms.
Most of these rulers were Just and ruled wisely according to the Hindu Dharma
as the basis.
The Muslims invations into India started right
from 700 A.D. There were Muslim rulers in the Mediteranian who were eying India
for long. Most of these powerful Muslim rulers were defeated by the Indian Kings,
but they came back trying different routes, defeated weak kings and entered
Indian land and their prime deed was to loot and plunder. Around 1500 AD came Babur. I think history records that first
time Babur was driven away. After some time,
the Moghul army came with reinforcements, took advantage of a weak
period and crushed the small and prosperous kingdoms. This led to 250 odd years
of Moghul rule wherein temples were destroyed, wealth was plundered, atrocities
were committed on men as well as hindu women. Many hindus got forcibly
converted to Islam. Therefore, the Indian people were under the influence of
Muslims for about 1200 years.
After the end of Moghul period, the British
came. Probably their initial intention was for trade. They noticed enormous
wealth in the lands both in the form of materials as well as richness in
culture and concepts. Greed got the better of them. Their business acumen made
them notice the fragile nature of a race which was culturally united, but
politically divided. They applied themselves to the task of widening this
gap. Their supressions and oppressions did not yield results because the
culture identified itself with such sagacity which baffled them. Muslims among
the race was their trump card. It is fate that, they could not fragment and
cause division among the Hindu culture (so strong was the underlying
philosophy) and therefore decided to use Muslim-Hindu divide to advantage. They
were aided by the arrival ( or plant) of Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Using this man,
they systematically infused poison into the same race which was united in
origin, but different in Idealogy and played on the sentiment and pride of
gullible people.
By that time, the conversions had taken effect
and a sizable population of Muslims was ensured. The British succeeded in
dividing the country possibly as a revenge on the Indians for standing up
against their Empire. So East and West Pakistan got formed. In spite of the
formation of these Muslim States, sizable population of muslims inhabit
predominantly some parts of India such as Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Hyderabad,
Surat and many pockets.
