Chapter 2: Once the idea of an independent Muslim nation had been conceived – the what had been sorted out. Now the question was “how”. An idea becomes a project when it gets funding support. The funding was now in place – it came from the Jewish banking cartel.
The Jewish banking cartel was regrouping after the First World War. Clouds of war were beginning to loom again. The world was grouping to brace for war. And as is true for any startup, the project needs a name.
The name “Pakistan” was suggested in January 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Cambridge student, in his pamphlet “Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?”. He coined it as an acronym for the Muslim-majority regions in Northern India: Punjab, Afghan (North-West Frontier), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.
The name was originally coined as “Pakstan” before an ‘i’ was added to become “Pakistan” for easier pronunciation. The pamphlet was published on 28 January 1933 and was addressed to members of the Round Table Conference, calling for a separate Muslim state.
Bashesharnath in the meantime was preparing to widen the footprint of India to include Myanmar, Tibet, Afganistan and go far east all the way to Singapore. He was a master strategist. His only mantra for business was to supply both sides of the war. He had argued that this was the only way to beat local players who came with the war teams.
During World War I, the whole world was buying tents from him. Both sides. All sides. He was fully integrated. He grew his own cotton, made his own yarn, spun his own fabric, made his own rubber, fabricated his own tents, sold them himself ….. and even funded armies in his own small way. His manufacturing empire extended from Kabul to Kanpur. Lahore was his HQ.
He realised Punjabis were hard working. And they could dig roads or trenches way faster than the Europeans could. He exported ship loads of workers. Including professors from Thomson engineering college – now IIT Roorkee. He set up the woollen garments and fabric industry in Amritsar.
He had three sons and five daughters. One son each was dispatched to USA, Russia and Germany. The sons in law were put to supervise mfg units. The group employed close to 500,000 workers and had global operations – about as big as TCS today. Everyone from his doctor to pandit were given entrepreneurial breaks.
Pandit Kanhaiya Lal Punj did the family Havan. He built the Punj empire after his son studied in the US and married the American daughter of the owner of Fedders Lloyd. They started by making glass wool from steel slag – the insulator required for high altitude tents. His tailor Loke Nath & Sons started construction work. It became Kailash Nath Associates. A young medical intern was passionate about freedom. This was Comrade Lakshmi Saigal who partnered Subhash Chandra Bose. Bashesharnath liked the aggressive Bose. Particularly his plans of going global.
This is just the beginning.
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