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Legacy of British Colonialism and Loss of Strategic Direction

While the politicians and extremists manufactured hatred and wickedness to further their own agendas for ages to keep the masses oppressed, common people on both sides continued to share feelings of open mindedness and friendship to restore the neglected geography and blocked history. For several centuries, India under Muslim governance progressed and moved as a progressive country with its own economy, diverse cultures of homogeneity, educational institutions, unparalleled architectures including the Taj Mahal and New Delhi’s Grand Mosque so visible from an aerial eye. The endless flow of myriad history keeps reminding of a glorious past refreshingly linked to the existing future. Abu Rehan Al-Burenni, a 10^th century Muslim scholar wrote the first book on India: Kitab ul Hind. The British Raj perpetuated divides and religious hatred among the major ethno-religious groups to conquer India from the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857, taken to Burma and imprisoned in a garage. Historically, about two millions mostly Muslims were massacred by the British forces and called it a “Mutiny.” You will find  the forbidden truth explained in: “British Colonialism and How India and Pakistan Lost Freedom.” Uncommon Thought Journal, USA and Global Research: 1/01/2022.

When people live in darkness, they lose sense of direction. Since 1947 partition of the Indian sub-continent, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and other minorities lived in mutual fear and animosities – a prevalent culture discarding the meaning of national freedom and political independence.

While the masses still reflect the historic feelings of friendship and cultural sense of emotions, but political agents and so called leaders propel unexcitable shadows of fear and hatred, there are  emerging passions of new generational thinking and behaviors to reach-out to a better sense of humanity for change, progress and peace.

Why do some of the leaders across India and Pakistan talk of historic divides and religious hatred while the 21^st century information-age global cultures are embracing understanding of unity and collaborative strength to best serve the masses? Is it a psychological sickness to win elections and rule the people against their wishes? Leaders lack imagination of their own strengths and weaknesses when dealing with the aspirations of masses. Progressive nations produce leaders of new proactive visions and knowledge-based abilities to articulate new and sustainable future. 

History could not have confined the tyranny and oppression of “divide and rule” of British imperialism against the will of the Indian masses. Canons of rationality clarify that national freedom granted to both new entities on August 14-15, 1947, was a fake chronology of time and history. The so called national freedom perpetuated a hybrid socioeconomic and political culture – part human- part vulture, British made no security arrangements to ensure communal peace and harmony which resulted in millions of people been killed in ethnic violence while migrating from one place to another. India and Pakistan continued to interact with one another as the most hated enemy of time and history, wars, threat of nuclear arsenals, Kashmir dispute and worst of all lack of direct people to people communication or business relationships – all seem to be part of a highly ruptured and purging pursuit of national freedom. Please see “Pakistan and India’s Leaders Mark Freedom from British Colonialism but Masses Look for Navigational Change.” Uncommon Thought Journal, USA: 8/18/2020.

People’s Revulsion against the Foggy Horizon for Change and Human Relationships

When moral, intellectual and spiritual values become stagnated, people think, act and adapt to a culture of suspicion, hatred and decadent norms. Hi-tech, speculative economies and advanced machines do not generate human feelings and affection but peoples do. To undo this unpleasant shadow of indo-Pakistan formative history, Abrar Hasan, a Pakistani and German citizen motorcycle tourist makes new waves of human aspirations and encompasses hearts and passions of young and old- men and women across India during his March 2023 tour of India.

The YouTube tells pleasantly harmonious interactive communication at various locations and citizens inviting him to their homes and hearts for a joyful time together. Rejecting impulse of necessity and cynicism, people of all consciousness – starting in South India onward to Delhi, Agra, Chandi Ghur, Amritsar,  the Sikh Holy site of Golden Temple showed immense strength of goodwill, love an d friendship to welcome Abrar Hasan.

For long, Indian and Pakistani political governance was the hub of indecent rifts devoid of logic and truth just to appease the voters and evil mongers. Agreeably, animosities produce no positive relationships except unknown fears and clash of cultures and nations. This unhealthy situation prolonged between the two nations since 1947. The new and educated young generations in India and Pakistan do not necessarily live within the primitive limits of time and history and they are more proactive and rational beings well equipped with new imaginations for a better  and a more promising future of friendship and mutual respects.  Reflecting on large sentiments of national identities, it is thinkable to hope that the people of new generations will perform positively to deliver and enrich a new culture of thinking and behaviors resting upon habitual practices  of sincerity, fraternity and candor for a sustainable future between the people of India and Pakistan.

Speaking rationally, British imperialism forcibly colonized the thoughts, perceptions and attributes of sociol-economic and political behaviors of the Indian masses. The legacy of the British Empire, its culture, systems of governance and divide and rule the people continues to this day. Should the people of Pakistan and India demand an apology from King Charles for the atrocities committed during the British Raj? Those who inherited the British legacy went on to protect their image by violence and aggression against the very people they were supposed to safeguard for change and progress. The Kashmir tragedy between India and Pakistan is the lingering instance of that legacy. In one shot, when false propaganda goes unchallenged, it breeds fear and hatred of the unknown and produces more shallow and insincere brand of leaders to occupy false platforms of political manifestations. 

To challenge the ferocious climate of thinking and political maneuverability across India and Pakistan, the new and young educated  and proactive generations of people should take initiatives to challenge the myth of historical ambiguities and distortion and bring into focus how to articulate a new beginning for a more promising and friendly relationship between the two nations. Individual conscience is the most powerful weapon of moral and intellectual integrity. We cannot predict the future but surely, We, the People of Conscience can take steps to make it happen out of our planned ideas and ideals for a much better and more delightful neighborly relationship. This could open up a new threshold of opportunities for free exchange of visits, exchange of students and scholars, poets, knowledge-based experts in reconciliation of sociol-economic and political landscapes and to ensure and protect religious harmony between all segments of the societies. 

Imagine! One song can spark a moment of reflection, one flower can wake a dream, one hope will raise our spirits, one touch can show we care. In an age of global communications and citizenship, the friendship bonds of common  people are indivisible and irreversible as the culture of India-Pakistan exist. We are not looking for magical pills to mend relationships overnight but for a free and sincere movement of thoughts and plans to enhance a movement for change and best of human  progress and happiness.  Truth is always living and inseparable from our inner mind and soul. Imagine, some 50 years earlier while a university student at Lahore Punjab University, we go to visit an adjacent border village. The Sikh family house lady welcomes us “ Bismillah” – welcome in the Name of God, my son and embraced me in her fold, it was an extreme moment of rejoice of my life and meeting of minds and souls. She offered freshly churned buttermilk (“lissi”) and dark wheat bread (“Bajra ki Rooti”) to welcome us to her house.

My late mother used to narrate stories of friendship with Sikhs and Hindu village women and whenever they used to meet, they would greet each other with “ Bismillah” – welcome to our house.

Mamma! If you are alive, I will cross over the seven seas from North America to meet you again and to thank you for your heartfelt emotions of sincerity and love. Truth always lives and elevates sincerity and love. We recall Larry S. Chengges shared the same manifestations:

Success is doing the best you can

in as many ways as you can

It is being just and honest and true…

not in a few things, but in everything you do.

It is in dreaming the greatest dreams…

And seeking the highest goals…

That we build the brightest tomorrow.

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Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. Lambert Academic Publications, Germany, 12/2019.