The final 30 month lap to departure of the British and the imposition of self rule in India was full of surprises, murders, deceipt and self destructive actions. The biggest losers were the people on both sides of the partition line. Many lost all they had.
But the most surprising losers – in fact those who lost the most – were the Indians who got trapped in what is now Pakistan. Their plight is tragic. Those who somehow crossed over to India regained their wealth and standing in most cases. Of course loss of life is irreversible and difficult to make up for.
The next phase of the partition saga is the merger of the neighbouring states back into India. This alone will release those trapped Indians from the rule of charlatans who have exploited them in every way, driven those economies to bankruptcy, and left them illiterate, undernourished and bereft of opportunity.
India owes those people and those lands to come back to where they belonged. The concept of a nation today is very different from what it was in 1947. United Nations stands exposed as an organisation with a suspicious past and a non-existent future. The charlatans who benefitted from owning those nations, have little incentive to continue. There is little left to loot.
Some of the bad actors created outstanding profiles as philanthropists, restorers of heritage and builders of institutions. Those very actors are now facing a failed business model. The Aga Khan for example was a prime proponent of restoring and maintaining heritage structures. His very own Aga Hall in Mumbai – the nerve centre of his global imamat has been raised to the ground to make way for tall ugly concrete towers being sold one apartment at a time. The hospital in the premises, once a symbol of his commitment to healthcare for the poor houses a clubhouse for the residents – complete with a bar.
It is not just keeping up with the times – but a pointer of the times – and of times to come. The Aga Khan 3 gave way to a 3b and a 3C – finally resulting in a grandson becoming Aga Khan 4. And HH the Aga Khan 4 is no more giving way to the next.
Land and hands are no longer the tools of prosperity. India stands out as a model that worked. Pakistan as one that failed. There is little left to argue. It is a matter of time until that a country which had no business case in the first place is now down to being a colony of a country with a even poorer business case.
War is no longer a solution. The elimination of discord is. When I walk through the dhabas of Fremont in California or those on Edgeware Road in Central London – I see a brotherhood between Indians and Pakistanis as if the partition never did happen.
The likes of Nehru and Bhutto fueled hatred, not for war but for the love of their own stature. The voting population were made a mickey of. War unites better than anything else as it brings out survival instincts. It manifests fear.
This series of posts is far from done:
The worst is yet to unfold.
