India and Pakistan: Searching for Humanity in the Age of Madness - 3
By Dr Akbar Ahmed
American University
Washington, DC
The interactions I have described are in in keeping with the old spirit of nobility of the Indian and Pakistani soul inspired by the inclusive sages of the land like Lord Buddha, Asoka, Mahavira and Guru Nanak; and on the Muslim side Data Ganj Baksh, Shah Abdul Latif, Bulleh Shah, Moinuddin Chishti, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and Allama Iqbal. They embraced all, promoted justice, and abhorred violence.
This is the spirit that inspired the modern Indian leaders Gandhi and Nehru and is in keeping with the vision that they had for India, and Jinnah had for Pakistan. If anyone doubts Jinnah’s vision for Pakistan, they must listen to his first speeches to the Constituent Assembly in Karachi in 1947.
Conclusion
Both nations must understand that being cruel to their minorities is an act of cowardice and a sign of moral bankruptcy. It is indicative of a weak and failed polity. That is why the early founding fathers, Gandhi and Nehru in India, Jinnah and Liaquat in Pakistan, honored their minorities and reached out to show them support and promised protection. The test of civilization will always be how a majority treats its minority community.
When Siddhartha was a young boy, his father, an ambitious chief of the warrior caste, attempted to train him in the martial arts. Siddhartha categorically rejected war and violence of any kind and grew up to become Gautama Buddha. He promoted shanti or peace and practiced ahimsa or non-violence and created a world movement that is with us today. The genocide the Rohingya face is by those who have changed the very teaching of the Lord Buddha.
Mahatma Gandhi's genius was to take these concepts from ancient Indian history and promote them so that they became part of social and political discourse in South Asia and later across the world.
When India achieved independence in 1947, it had high status especially among the non-aligned movement; it reflected a mystique precisely because of the concepts of shanti and ahimsa. It is this legacy that is being set aside in such a cavalier manner over the last years.
Ironically, I see a glimmer of hope with the coronavirus. It was the common enemy and it was terrible enough to put the fear of God into all South Asians.
My suggestion is to appeal to the leaders and thinkers of both nations to understand the depth and urgency of the crisis. When Indians and Pakistanis look at each other they do so through a military-strategic prism; in order to avoid the madness they must change the paradigm and look at each other through a moral-humanist-philosophic prism. The two nations must share medical research with the pandemic in mind, exchange doctors and nurses as good will gestures and immediately tone down political and media attacks on each other. Indians must stop killing defenseless members of the minority. We are separate for less than a century, together for a millennium. Love begets love. Hatred kills. It is time for both to seriously consider turning a new leaf. In the absence of vaccines, a palliative exercise calculated to improve mental health during the pandemic is to reach out to family members and friends. Why not neighbors?
It would set the right tone if India, which is vastly bigger, took the lead.
My premise is simple. If India is to maintain, in this case regain, its status, it needs to very rapidly change course. Its leaders should eschew those with hatred in their hearts and genocide on their minds; they should be inspired by Lord Ram’s righteous path, and noble Buddha’s ahimsa or non-violence, the great Guru Nanak Devji’s message of love, and the gentle Mahatma and his pursuit of shanti or peace. The leaders should rediscover the great Indian concepts of ahimsa and shanti as part of their policy. By realigning its position closer to the Gandhian ideal and to its own traditions of humanity going as far back as Lord Ram and the Buddha, India will have a double advantage; it will strengthen and reinforce its own identity and also reassure those South Asian neighbors who remain highly suspicious of its motivations.
The rediscovery is the first and most critical step. The next step is perhaps the most difficult one for Hindus and Muslims—to put aside our individual egos and confront the reality that we have caused deep pain to one another. We must acknowledge that pain. That can only happen with honest self-reflection.
If the putrid atmosphere of hatred can be cleared, then the next steps become easier: scholars, artists, sports figures, and writers must be invited from across the borders to promote mutual understanding (and can we please listen to each other without throwing bottles of ink). Seminars and conferences need to be held and political figures invited to take part and learn. Traders and businessmen must work together for mutual prosperity. None of these ideas are new or radical, yet none of them have been fully given a chance. To cite Mahatma Gandhi, to bring about change, become the change.
I am encouraged that beneath the bluster and hatred and violence there is still humanity. Hindus must never forget that the Quaid, while protecting a group of Hindus being attacked by Muslims in Karachi, declared himself “the Protector General of the Hindu community in Pakistan” and in his first speeches to the Constituent Assembly guaranteed the security and religious freedom of the minorities in Pakistan; just as Muslims must never forget that Mahatma Gandhi gave his life protecting the rights of the Muslims. For the admirers of the Quaid, as indeed I am, we should appreciate that the Mahatma addressed Mr Jinnah with respect as Quaid-i-Azam.
In a few days both India and Pakistan will celebrate their independence day. What a great occasion to reflect on the journey made thus far and dream of creating a new and better world that strives to create true shanti and its Islamic equivalent salaam or peace in South Asia.
(Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington DC, and former High Commissioner from Pakistan to the UK and Ireland delivered this lecture at the ISSI, Islamabad, 6 August 2020. Dr Rajmohan Gandhi was the discussant and Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry moderated.)
