Chapter 3C: For close to ten years, I saw this gate every school day. It was the entrance to the Aga Khan compound in Bombay, adjacent to my alma mater school. It is being sold – one flat at a time. The hospital is gone. It is a real estate project.
This was the residential and administrative seat of Aga Khan I after he settled in Bombay in 1848. It functioned as a secretariat and community hub for the early Ismaili community in India. Later, it was associated with Aga Khan III, the principal architect of the Partition and the Father of Pakistan. Scared of the BN and Others group, Aga Khan III had run away to Switzerland. To be with his financiers.
But let this auction not take away the brilliance of a man who transformed from Khan to His Holiness the Aga Khan. He morphed from an activist to a diplomat of impeccable standing. A philanthropist of global repute. And the man who sponsored and organised the puppet show called Pakistan. He was neither the puppeteer nor the person instructing the puppeteer. He was the origin. The Brahma of Pakistan’s creation.
What no one will tell you is that Aga Khan IV is not the son of Aga Khan III. But the grandson. And the current Aga Khan is his son. What happened to the generation in between ? How did the global centre of the Aga Khans empire in Bonbay come to be sold – one apartment at a time. That is the story of the ascendance of India since 2014.
The destination is India’s century. And it seems to have begun. As large twin towers replace the headquarters of the Aga Khan – the heritage gate almost 150 years old stands, as does the school next to it where the Aga khan studied (my school as well). A stones throw away from BNs house in Delhi is the Aga Khan Hall. It is given out for birthday parties and trunk sales. Hawkers sell trinkets here. Yet this is the man who built not just Habib Bank in Pakistan but also HDFC in India. For a man who restores and saves heritage – his own palace could not be saved.
It is the tale of two countries. Which should have been one. I have a school friend who lives in Pakistan. He hasn’t been able to come to India for 30 years. I have another friend whose wife was born in Pakistan. She is still struggling for Indian citizenship. I know another IITian who migrated to Pakistan. His daughter is married in India. His wife leads THE bank of Pakistan. She has to report to the police station regularly.
The story of the partition is the story of these three groups. One a domestic player. One a global player. And one a confused player. The domestic player lost. And India was partitioned. The global player got his private country. It was never meant to be a democracy. The confused player sold hate. Just like Adolf Hitler did. Here is a good summary:
But after you sell hate, incite a population struggling to survive and win the crown. Then what !!!! Teaching to hate and running to win are two different things.