A Motherland in Confusion
By Syed Osman Sher
Mississauga, Canada
The dictionary defines the word “Motherland” as a country of one’s origin, the land of his ancestors, where he lives or lived, and where he belongs. As one loves his self, his family, and his home, so does he love his country.
A country is a thing of endearment that is associated with the most loved entity in one’s life, mother or father, in many languages. A country has a geographical area and a political boundary, and the love for it is called patriotism. This devotion, in its extremity, turns into chauvinism or a belief in its glory and superiority over others. Becoming more intense, it reaches the level of fanaticism. At that point, it creates an attitude of belligerent nationalism, which means that because of one’s own prejudices or others’ hostilities, a citizen is prepared to sacrifice his life to promote and protect his motherland.
In this background, let us have a look at a big piece of land that lies in the south of the continent of Asia. It is surrounded on three sides by the sea and sheltered by the great Himalayas in the north. From the most ancient times downwards, all nations have coveted its treasures of “pearls, diamonds, perfumes, rose-essences, elephants, lions, etc. — as also treasures of wisdom”. It had, therefore, to experience a continuous inflow of settlers in the land, like the Aryans, the Greeks, the Kushans, the Huns, the Arabs, and the Turks. This amalgam of varied people has made its society heavily pluralistic and its culture extensively tolerant. This region was the ‘Motherland’ of two major communities in terms of religion, the Hindus and the Muslims. Both loved it intensely: if it was Maatre Bhumi for the one, it was Maadar-e Watan for the other. This country was called India.
For the Hindus, India is the birthplace of Hindu principles or ‘Hinduness’, derived from the eternal truths of the Vedas, given to the Hindus by unknown ascetics of antiquity. Thus, behind her physical formation, there is also a spiritual purpose. It is the embodiment of motherhood likened to the Goddess Shakti, who is the Mother Goddess, full-breasted, the source of ceaseless creation. The legend of Shakti in the Hindu religion says that her body was cut up by Vishnu, falling all the way in 51 places throughout the landmass of India. In all these places Shakti Peetham temples have been built. A passion of longing prevails for the country within the religious mind of every Hindu; a longing like that of a child for its mother. Thus, they call it ‘Mata’, or mother. "Back to the mother", is the expression for the spiritual aim of the Indian culture. The land is, therefore, divine. “To the Hindus the mother and motherland are greater than the heaven itself.”
The Muslims stepped into their new home in 712. The majority of them are now largely converts from Hinduism. If in their spiritual and philosophical make-up, they feel more closeness to their Arab and Persian co-religionists, they do not feel any bondage with them in physical terms. The soil where they are born and the people with whom they have been living create more magnetism in their social life. The local society is the one they claim as their own and always feel themselves strangers to that society with which they never had come into contact. Highlighting this attachment, a Muslim poet sang, “Saarejahan se achch haa Hindusitan hamaraa”, which gained so much popularity that even today it is often quoted as a trophy of love for the motherland. On the other hand, the Muslim kings had regarded India as one and indivisible. Theirs’ was the 'concept of an India potentially greater than the sum of its parts', and, therefore, they continued to fight and annex the territories of Rajput, Maratha and Muslim rajas that raised the banners of independence from time to time.
Ironical it appears that reaching the middle of the twentieth century, the reverence and love for the motherland with its boundary from Kashmir in the north to Kannya Kumari in the south, and Peshawar in the west to Chittagong in the east loses all its sanctity. Keeping up with the tradition of god Vishnu, this Shakti is once again subjected to butchery in 1947. The breaking-up of one's motherland is deemed as an extreme measure. Coming out of the legendary to the real world, we find in the annals that whenever a people who wanted this to happen, and those who did not, both had to plunge into bloodbaths before achieving their respective objectives. In this case, the children of India very peacefully, without undergoing the necessary trauma, divided the portion.
After passing of seven decades, the thirst for the blood of this mother has not yet reached a satiation point. Mayhem continues. Strangely, assaults are not coming from outside but the children themselves are creating killing fields now and then. Their bullets and bombs are busy in digging new graves. Intermittent wars have given rise to gory scenes everywhere, making the mother’s body black with burns and scars. As the final step towards self-annihilation, the children of the dark are almost at the throat of each other and are now threatening to bring upon a nuclear doomsday.
Anticipating a desperate night, the confused motherland is asking her children: “Whose motherland I have been that you are going to destroy?”
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