A reaction to my article ‘Secularism has gone with the wind in India’
By Justice Markandey Katju
In response to my abovementioned article, some people ( probably Pakistanis ) tweeted that the oppression of Muslims in India proves that the two-nation theory was right
I totally disagree. In my opinion, it was precisely because of this theory and the Partition of India on its basis that minorities in both India and Pakistan are suffering. These are my reasons :
1. The so-called hatred between Hindus and Muslims was artificially created by the British in pursuance of their diabolical divide-and-rule policy.
Before the Mutiny of 1857, there was no enmity between Hindus and Muslims. They lived amicably together, helping each other and participating in each other’s religious festivals, Hindus participating in Eid and Muharram, and Muslims in Holi and Diwali.
It was the Mutiny which so shocked the British that they decided that the only way they could rule and control India was divide and rule, by artificially creating hatred between the two communities. Details of how this policy was implemented has been given in my article, so I am not repeating it.
This culminated in partitioning India in 1947 on the basis of the bogus two-nation theory, and creating a fake, artificial country called Pakistan. In fact, India and Pakistan are really one country, sharing the same culture, which were one for over 500 years since Mughal times, and are bound to reunite one day like West and East Germany.
Pakistan was artificially created as a religious state, like Israel. But no state can naturally be created on the basis of religion. All countries have people of different religions ( though the majority may belong to one ).
USA has Protestant Christians of many denominations, Roman Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. So does UK, France, Germany, etc. Should these countries be partitioned, giving each religious group its own independent state? Can any country survive if this is done?
In fact, when Indians and Pakistanis meet abroad they socialize and help each other as if there had never been any Partition. I have seen this myself in my visits abroad. It is only in our region that Partition exists.
2. The creation of Pakistan as an Islamic state on the basis of the bogus two-nation theory logically and inevitably had to result someday in India becoming a defacto Hindu state, which it has now become, for every action has an equal and opposite reaction
3. Today Muslims in India are only about 15% of its 1400 million population, and so they can easily be oppressed by the bigoted section of the Hindus, since Hindus are an overwhelming 80% of India’s population, i.e., over 15 times the number of Muslims.
Today there are 1100 million Hindus in India, 13 millions in Bangladesh, and 4.5 millions in Pakistan. Thus there are altogether about 1275 million Hindus in our subcontinent.
There are about 230 million Muslims in Pakistan, 165 million in Bangladesh, and about 210 million in India. Thus, there are about 615 million Muslims in our subcontinent, i.e. almost half the number of Hindus.
Hence if we reunite as one country ( which I believe is bound to happen, though that will take time ), it will not be possible for the Muslims ( who are oppressed in India), or the Hindus ( who are oppressed in Pakistan), to remain oppressed. It is the two-nation theory and the Partition of India in 1947 which is the cause of this oppression.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
