Looking Away by Mander Harsh

Author:Mander, Harsh [Mander, Harsh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789385288012
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books LLP
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Alleged Fifth Column

Blaming the Muslim victim is also tied up with the middle-class conviction that Muslims are anti-national, a fifth column who live out their lives on the largesse of Indian resources but whose hearts beat for Pakistan. Scholar administrator N. C. Saxena, who served for many years in the Uttar Pradesh administration, tells me of a textbook he saw in Uttar Pradesh schools years ago which lauded the patriotism of Abdul Hameed, a heroic soldier killed in the 1965 India-Pakistan war and was awarded India’s highest bravery award, the Param Veer Chakra. The text ended with the line, ‘He was Muslim; even so he was a patriot.’ (My italics. This text has subsequently been amended.)

Since my father-in-law served in many senior positions in the armed forces, several of his friends who visit our home are senior defence officers. Without over-generalizing—and there are, indeed, thankfully, some wonderful exceptions—I find among them a high degree of anti-Muslim prejudice, converging seamlessly in their minds and hearts with a nationalist-militarist hostility towards Pakistan. I recall one particular discussion with a senior naval officer. ‘All Muslims are anti-national, you have to accept this,’ he declared with conviction. I had to ask, ‘Sir, what is the empirical basis of your belief?’ ‘They created Pakistan,’ he thundered, ‘what more proof do you require?’ For a while, I was stunned into silence.

There are, incidentally, only 29,000 Muslims in India’s 1.3 million-strong military, or just 3 per cent—as against their share in the population of around 14 per cent. 73 Among the 449 soldiers who lost their lives in the most recent war against Pakistan in Kargil, twenty-three, or 5.12 per cent, were Muslims. Says journalist Ajaz Ashraf, ‘This shows, first, that the fatalities among Muslim soldiers were marginally higher than their presence in the army. Second, it proves false the Hindutva brigade’s propaganda that Muslims can’t be loyal to their country. This is because…in the Kargil war against the Pakistanis, Muslim soldiers battled as ferociously as any, regardless of the religious identity of their foes.’ 74

The belief of the admiral that ‘Muslims’ created Pakistan derives from the same tendency to regard all Muslims as a homogenous community with a unified consciousness and uniform social and political choices. The role of the Muslim League in the creation of Pakistan does not in any way make every Muslim culpable. It was largely elite Muslims from stretches of north India who chose to migrate to Pakistan. India today has more Muslim residents than both Pakistan and Bangladesh, and their ancestors voluntarily chose to live in secular India over Muslim Pakistan. The patriotism of a Hindu who chooses to migrate to the US is not questioned. On the other hand, the large majority of Muslims I encounter are grateful that their parents or grandparents chose to continue to live in India. Senior journalist Saeed Naqvi remarked after a visit to Pakistan to meet relatives that he was relieved to return to India. He joked that the problem with Pakistan was

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