Saturday, August 20, 2011

Pakistan Independence Day 2011 at PACC San Jose, CA

Independence Day 2011 seminar was organized by Pakistani-American Cultural Center in San Jose on August 14, 2011. It featured several speakers representing multiple generations of Pakistani-Americans living in Silicon Valley.



The first speaker was Dr. Waheed Siddiqui, considered to be among Silicon Valley's most respected Pakistani-Americans, who had the good fortune of meeting the founding father of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the princely state of Hyderabad prior to partition in 1947. Dr. Siddiqui recalled the large turn-out of people to see the Quaid-e-Azam up close during his visit to meet with the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Quaid advised his anxious hosts that Pakistan was going to be a reality soon, and he expected that matters relating to the independent princely states of British India would be resolved as part of the process involving the British colonial officials, Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.



Moth-eaten Pakistan:

Unfortunately, the Quaid-e-Azam survived only for a year after independence on August 14, 1947, leaving many of the issues with the British and the Indians unresolved. Two days after the Quaid's death on September 11, 1948, the Indian military invaded and occupied Hyderabad with total disregard for the wishes of its people and their ruler, the Nizam.

Dr. Siddiqui said the Quaid felt betrayed by the Radcliffe Commission and its unjust partition of the Punjab and Bengal, both of which had absolute Muslim majority, describing the resulting state of Pakistan as "moth-eaten".



In spite of all of the disappointments during its birth, Dr. Siddiqui believes that the majority of Muslims of pre-1947 India remained passionate and committed to the creation of Pakistan and made great sacrifices during and after partition to ensure its survival as a viable state.

Iqbal's View of Pakistan:

Dr. Nazir Ahmad, a local Iqbal scholar, spoke about Allama Iqbal's vision of Pakistan based on his 1930 Presidential Address at the 25th session of All India Muslim League in Allahabad. It appears from this address that Iqbal saw an Islamic state or states within the Indian federation rather than a separate and independent state of Pakistan.



Here's a quote from Allama Iqbal's Allahabad address which buttresses this point: "We have a duty towards India where we are destined to live and die. We have a duty towards Asia, especially Muslim Asia. And since 70 millions of Muslims in a single country constitute a far more valuable asset to Islam than all the countries of Muslim Asia put together, we must look at the Indian problem not only from the Muslim point of view, but also from the standpoint of the Indian Muslim as such. Our duty towards Asia and India cannot be loyally performed without an organised will fixed on a definite purpose. In your own interest, as a political entity among other political entities of India, such an equipment is an absolute necessity."

It was after Iqbal's death that that the Muslim League decided to pursue an independent state of Pakistan when it passed the Pakistan resolution in Lahore on March 23, 1940. Prior to this resolution in 1940, both the Quaid=e-Azam and Allama Iqbal sought autonomy for Muslims within an Indian federation.

Dr. Nazir said that the idea of Pakistan was first articulated not by Iqbal, but by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, an Indian Muslim student studying at Cambridge University in England.

Dr. Nazir Ahmad argued with citations to references from Dr. Iqbal's poetry that the poet-philosopher emphasized the Islamic identity of Indian Muslims over all other identities of nationality, ethnicity, tribe, race and color etc.

Iqbal's Transformation:

What Dr. Nazir did not explicitly describe was the transformation in Iqbal's thinking from being being an Indian nationalist to pan-Islamist as he went from singing his tarana-e-hind to tarana-e-milli. Here are a couple of lines from each:

Iqbal, the Indian nationalist, wrote in 1904:

sāre jahāñ se acchā hindostāñ hamārā ham bulbuleñ haiñ is kī ye gulsitāñ hamārā
سارے جہاں سے اچھا ہندوستاں ہمارا
ہم بلبليں ہيں اس کی، يہ گلستاں ہمارا
Better than the entire world, is our Hindustan, We are its nightingales, and it (is) our garden abode

Then, as an pan-Islamist, Iqbal wrote decades later:

Chin vo Arab hamaraa hindostaaN hamaara Muslim hain hum; watan hai saara jahaaN hamaara
China is ours, Arabia is ours, India is ours We are Muslims and the whole world is our homeland

Pakistan's Story of 64 Years:

Riaz Haq began his presentation with a recent Forbes magazine quote that "you tend to hear the worst 5 percent of the Pakistan story 95 percent of the time" attributed to a Pakistani-American entrepreneur Monis Rehman. Haq's story focused on the 95 percent of the Pakistan story heard only 5 percent of the time.



Pakistan's Progress Since 1947:

Using charts, graphs and data, Haq explained how Pakistan has made huge strides in terms various indicators of progress since 1947. An illustration of it was done with Swedish Professor Hans Rosling's animation of health and wealth indicators showing life expectancy in Pakistan has more than doubled from 32 years in 1947 to 67 years now, while per capita income in today's dollars has jumped from about $770 in 1947 to about $3000 now. Overall literacy, while still quite low at about 60%, is increasing by double digits with every new generation of Pakistanis, ranging from 30% for people over 55, to over 70% for youth.

Weak State, Strong Society:

Haq argued that Pakistan is a weak state with strong society where civil society fills the huge gaps left by the weak and often ineffective state. This started with the creation of Pakistan when Pakistani state was broke, and it was bailed out by the Habibs who provided Rs. 80 million loan, more than half of the nation's first budget of Rs. 150 million. And today, it is the Edhi Foundation and other similar charities which are present in all parts of the country where state is absent, including the remotest corners of dusty little towns where an Edhi center can be found with a telephone in a concrete shack and an ambulance waiting to respond in emergencies.

In major emergencies such as the Swat takeover by the Taliban in 2009, and the floods of 2010, when the politicians and the civil administrations abandon the people, it is the Pakistani military which bails out the state by provide rescue and relief, followed by the civil society to help the victims.

Existential Threat:

In spite of all of the state's weaknesses, Pakistan has come a long way in the last 64 years.

Haq sees neither India nor the Taliban as posing an existential threat to Pakistan.

The Taliban insurgency emanating out of Waziristan is often cited as an existential threat to Pakistan. Haq disagrees with it, and cites Shuja Nawaz who has talked about the deployment of three generations of his military family in Waziristan to quell tribal rebellions. What we are seeing today is just another outbreak of it, he says, but it is exacerbated by the American attacks and Pakistan's military intervention in FATA which are resulting in huge revenge attacks by the tribal pashtuns and their sympathizers in Pakistani cities and towns. This will eventually calm down after the withdrawal of the American military from the region.

What Haq does see as an existential threat to Pakistan is the continuing significant decline in per capita water availability from about 3000 cubic meters per person in 2000 down to less than 1000 cubic meters now. Unless large investments are made now by the Pakistani state in water projects to bring about a second green revolution, Pakistanis could face severe food shortage and unprecedented social strife in the future.

Poetry Recitation & Conclusion:

The meeting concluded with Javaid Syed and Shahzad Baseer reciting poetry celebrating Pakistan and its creation, and expressing horror about the unfolding tragedy in Karachi. Though brief but animated, the ensuing discussion brought out controversies on subjects ranging from Iqbal's emphasis on Islamic identity over all other identities, Faiz's involvement in left-wing politics with Sajjad Zaheer and Gen Akbar, and the controversial but enduring legacy of the PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This last discussion clearly illustrated the great diversity of views among Pakistani-Americans in Silicon Valley as a microcosm of Pakistan itself.

Acknowledgement: Event photos courtesy of Syed Ali Mehwish Bilgrami

Here's a video of Riaz Haq's interview on Aug 14, 2011:


Wide Angle Zoom: Formation and Future of Pakistan by wbt-tv

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan After 64 Years of Independence

Introspection on Pakistan's Creation

Celebrating Quaid-e-Azam M.A. Jinnah's Birthday

Riaz Haq's Presentation at PACC

A Brief History of Pakistan's Economy

Jinnah's Vision For Pakistan

10 comments:

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Dawn report on water storage capacity expansion efforts to add 20 million acre feet::

ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan increasingly becoming water deficient, Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has drawn up plans for creating capacity to store an additional 20 million acre feet (MAF) of water on ‘war footing’ to keep the economy floating.

The Irsa finalised recommendations in this regard with input from all its members after a former chairman of the authority, Fatehullah Khan Gandapur, set off alarm bells by declaring that Indus Water Treaty (IWT) of 1960 was almost dead because of excessive losses in storage capacity.

Mr Gandapur wrote letters to the president and prime minister in which he said: “The IWT ceases to function as Tarbela and
Mangla reservoirs have lost 6.6MAF of replacement storage due to silting.”

He criticised the team of bureaucrats currently engaged in negotiating the country’s water rights with India and said the officials were simply incapable of handling “an issue of national survival”.

“Blatant violations of the treaty by India by building dozens of low and high dams on all the six rivers and tributaries has exceeded the allowable storage limit of 4.19MAF fixed in the treaty,” he said. So far, the dams have created 10MAF of dead storage and 25-30MAF of live storage, depriving Pakistan of its water rights for Rabi and Kharif crops.

More high dams are under construction.

Sources told Dawn that on the directives of the president and prime minister, the government’s adviser on water and the Irsa members had a marathon briefing session with the former Irsa chairman early this week and finalised recommendations for creation of additional storage capacity. The recommendations would be submitted to the prime minister for approval.

The report on the recommendations says the situation will become worse in the next couple of years. That’s why it is imperative that an additional capacity of 20MAF be created on war footing to protect the agricultural economy.

The Irsa also warned the government about the proposed construction of around a dozen dams by Afghanistan on Kabul river and suggested that talks be initiated immediately with the Afghans for finalising an agreement to protect Pakistan’s water
rights.

The Irsa seconded Mr Gandapur’s proposal for construction of the 37MAF Katzarah Dam near Skardu because it was non-controversial and could enhance the expected life of the downstream dams and barrages, including Tarbela and Diamer-Bhasha.

The authority was also in agreement with Mr Gandapur’s suggestion that the multipurpose 8.5MAF Guroh Dop dam on river Panjkora near Chitral should be built for storing every year about 7-8MAF of water that ultimately falls into Kabul river.

This would stop water from Panjkora from going into Afghan territory. It said a water treaty with Afghanistan was important because Panjkora or Chitral river contributed more than 50 per cent of the Kabul flows.

Mr Gandapur also reminded the government of a report prepared recently by US Senator John Kerry cautioning about a water war in South Asia, saying India had 33 projects at various stages of completion on the rivers that affected the region. He warned that as a consequence of the continued violations of the IWT by India Chenab and Jhelum rivers would turn ‘seasonal’ and Pakistan would not be able to grow Rabi crop and early Kharif crop.

He alleged that the Pakistani authorities had ignored the construction of Uri-II project by India in occupied Kashmir which was an essential part of Kishenganga project. “Pakistani negligence will help India win the controversial Kishenganga case,” he said


http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/19/water-storage-capacity-to-be-raised-by-20maf.html

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an MSN report on Sen Kerry's Report questioning "whether the IWT can address India''s growing use of the shared waters and Pakistan''s increasing demand for these waters for agricultural purposes":

Washington, Feb 23 (PTI) With an increase in demand for water and energy resources in both India and Pakistan, a Congressional report has questioned the long-term effectiveness of the Indus Water Treaty, which has been successfully implemented for more than six decades between the two South Asian neighbours.
"While the IWT has maintained stability in the region over water, experts question the treaty''s long-term effectiveness in light of chronic tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, where a significant portion of the Indus River''s headwaters originate," it said adding that as the existing agriculture system becomes more water-intensive and, in some areas, more inefficient, water may prove to be a source of instability in South Asia.
The report, "Avoiding Water Wars: Water Scarcity and Central Asia�s Growing Importance for Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan," sheds light on the drivers of water scarcity in Central and South Asia and provides recommendations for how the US should strategically approach water-related issues, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Written by the majority staff of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the report draws attention to the growing problem of water scarcity in Central and South Asia and how it has the potential to exacerbate existing regional conflicts and lead to new ones.
"While much of our focus currently rests on Afghanistan and Pakistan, we must also consider the interests in the shared waters by India and the neighbouring five Central Asian countries �Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan," John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a statement.
"In addition, others question whether the IWT can address India''s growing use of the shared waters and Pakistan''s increasing demand for these waters for agricultural purposes," said the 28-page report.
"Signed in 1960, the IWT is considered as the world''s most successful water treaty, having remained relatively intact for 50 years and having withstood four Indo-Pak wars," it added. .


http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4951409

Anonymous said...

IWT is a stupid treaty which was imposed on India at gunpoint by the West at the height of the cold war.

Basically India will behave itself and give Pakistan water EVEN IF Pakistan supports terrorism and declares war which it has and continues to support!

Do ANY TWO countries anywhere in the world have such an absurd treaty 'I will bomb/create problems for you but you will continue to give me water' ???

Due to nukes an open war isn't possible so I think its about time India uses this as the ultimate presurre weapons particularly now that we are financially solvent and thus immune to aid/loan denial pressure unlike Pakistan.


One more Mumbai and we'll screw your agriculture and 80% of paki industry is still directly or indirectly agro based so....this is a threat the Pakistanis will definitely respond too!

We need to build dams and have this option by 2015 as the US withdraws from Afghanistan and Pakistanis again get bright ideas of supporting 'freedom struggle' in the valley.

Looks like this is on course...

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "...this is a threat the Pakistanis will definitely respond too!"

Yes, they will.

As I said in my post, dwindling water availability will pose an potential existential threat to Pakistan, and if India chooses to become a part of that existential threat by cutting off water, then Pakistan will be fully justified in using all options, including the nuclear option, to deal with that threat.

Anonymous said...

'Pakistan will be fully justified in using all options, including the nuclear option, to deal with that threat.'

yeah right we will cut it off drip by drip 2-3% per year.The fools running Pakistan won't even notice.For all u and I know this might be happening right now.

what r you gonna do?

'cut off 2% of water and we nuke you and commit suicide in the process.'

Sorry not a very convincing threat...

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an Op Ed in the News criticizing of Nawaz Sharif's Aug 13 speech at SAFMA:

Nawaz Sharif’s speech on Aug 13 at the Safma seminar “Building Bridges in the Subcontinent” continues to make waves two weeks later. Media attention has focused mainly on some of his observations which seem to question the basis of Pakistani nationhood. These remarks have caused surprise and consternation even among some long-standing supporters of the PML-N, which claims to be the successor of the party which led the Pakistan movement in pre-partition India. Hardly anyone from the top ranks of the PML-N, apart from the newly appointed spokesman, has sought to defend the party leader’s verbal escapade.

Pakistan and India, Nawaz said, had the same culture and heritage, ate the same food, spoke the same language and shared the same way of life. Despite the many things the people of the two countries had in common, he said, they were now separated by “a border”.

Even when allowance is made for the fact that Nawaz was addressing a mixed audience of Pakistanis and Indians on building bridges between them – in itself a totally desirable enterprise – his statement is offensive. And it is untrue because, though the Muslims and Hindus lived on the same soil for centuries, they inhabited two different spiritual worlds. Nawaz was in fact repeating many of the points made by the Congress Party of India – and refuted by the Quaid-e-Azam – during the Pakistan movement.

Almost as outrageous as Nawaz’s assertion about the Indians and Pakistanis having a common culture is his assertion that they worship (pujte hain) the same God. The Quran says something very different in Surah al-Kafirun: The believers worship not that which the non-believers worship, nor do the non-believers worship that which the believers worship. Nawaz should also know that the Muslims do not perform puja, as the Hindus do, but ibadat.
----------
Nawaz’s political judgment – never very sound, as seen in his selection of Musharraf as the army chief and then in the ham-fisted manner in which he tried to fire him – has been warped further by the trauma of his overthrow in 1999 and subsequent forced exile. That may be understandable at a human level. But such a flaw can be fatal in a national leader. If Nawaz cannot overcome this shock, he should return fulltime to his family business and leave politics to others.

The Indian government and media are delighted, and understandably so, at Nawaz’s Safma speech. But so also is a small section of the Pakistani media and “civil society” which labels itself pretentiously as the “liberals”. The newly coined English word lumpen-intelligentsia would be a more appropriate description for them. One of them, a star TV commentator, claimed last week that 99 percent of the people of Pakistan agreed with what Nawaz said. The remaining one percent, whom this analyst dismissed as the thekedar (self-appointed guardians) of the two-nation theory, were itching to nuke India, as he claimed. So much for objectivity and informed analysis.

Pakistan and India should indeed give up confrontation, learn to live as peaceful neighbours and try to build bridges of understanding. But denying the foundations of Pakistani nationhood, ignoring the threat posed by India and abandoning the Kashmir cause is certainly no way of going about it, as Nawaz seems to think. If he does not retract the unfortunate remarks he made on these issues, it is to be hoped at least that others in his party would disown them.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=65244&Cat=9

Riaz Haq said...

Here are some of the lyrics of political song by Wasu, a Baloch from a remote village in Balochistan, and Pakistani singer-song writer Shehzad Roy:

Apne Ulloo Lyrics
[Wassu]
Quaid-e-Azam aya angrezo ko bhagaya
Pakistan banaya teera maah chalaya
Ziarat ke dourey par aya maut ne isko bulaya
Dunya aakhir fani chor dya usko
Jani sacha tha Pakistani
Karachi mein dafnaya poora dunya aya
phoolon ka chadar chadaya
phir noton par photo aya
goro ko tune bhagya
Quaid-e-Azam ke baad baba jo bhi aata hai
apna ulloo seedha karta hai

[Shehzad Roy]
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey

[Wassu]
Liaquat Ali Khan aya usko aamro ne marwaya
Iskandar Mirza aya usne nahin chalaya
General Ayub Khan aya marital law lagaya
Mirza ko bahadur banaya
1965 ka jang laraya Shastri ko maar bhagaya
Aisa sabak seekha moo tod jawab dilaya
[Nehr] bhi banwaya isne bhi nahin chalaya
Sir baad mein aya Yahya Khan adha Pakistan ganwaya
Fauj ko qaid karwaya Bangladesh chinaya
Isne bhi nahin chalaya

[Shehzad Roy]
Taale, waadey, signal, dil sabkuch toda kuch nahin choda
kuch nahin choda
Do number kaamon mein bhi hum number two
hum number two
Kar Allah hoo
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey

[Wassu]
Bhutoo sahab jab aya aisa nizam chalaya
Pehle qaidy chudaya zameen takseem karwaya
Haari aur mazdooro ko dilwaya
Miloo ko taala lagwaya one unit toodwaya
Sarkari khatam karaya roti kapre ka nara lagaya
Sarmayadaro ne socha isse kabhi na hoga
mansooba banaya Zia-ul-Haq mangwaya bhutto ko qaid karwaya
Kasuri ka case chalaya suli par latqaya
Sir Marshal Law lagaya Junejo ko mangwaya Wazeer-e-Azam banaya
Usko mazool karwaya referendum karaya Khud ko bhi chunwaya
Bhutto ko bhi bhagaya court mein tune lagaya jailon mein bandh karwaya
11 saal chalaya

[Shehzad Roy]
koi rule nahin hai rule yehi yeh baat sahi taariq ne ki
taariq ne ki
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey

[Wassu]
Rangeene ne Rang dikhaya Jaahaz uska giraya Islamabad dafnaya
Ghulam Ishaq Khan aya mehangayi ko bharhaya 500rs bori aate ka bharhaya
Ghareebo ko bhookh maraya aik saal PPP ko diya usko mazool kya
Nawaz Sharif ko mangaya wazeer-e-azam banwaya uksko mazool karwaya
Moin Qureshi aya emandari nibhaya vote jald karwaya
Fauj ko bulwaya dhandhali se bachaya jeet gya hai PPP
Benazir jab aya bijli aur gas dilwaya thoda tankha barhaya
Farooq ko sadar banaya siyasi chakar aya farooq ko gussa aya
Assemblies khatam karwaya nigrah wazeer bhitaya
Nishan tha jiska cheetah Nawaz Sharif ne jeeta
Aaane mein aaya 300 tankha barhaya
Bhai logo ko danda chadhaya aathwi tarmeem khatam karaya
Aate ki kilat karwaya Aik peice PAKISTAN ka America se atta karwaya
Soobha Baluchistan ke zilah Chagi mein aitamy dhamaka karwaya
Pervez Musharaff aya Nawwz sharif ko hataya aghwah ka kais chalwaya
100 takhwa barhaya karzey wapis karwaya Nawaz Sharif ko qaid sunwaya
mulk badar bhi karwaya aisa kaam karwaya ke tarar ko tune bhagaya
khud ko tune sadar banaya referendum karwaya khud ko jeetaya
intekhabad karwaya Jamali sahab ko wazeer-e-azam banwaya
Jamali ne jurat aur bahaduri yehi dikhaya ke apna mohallah azad karwaya

[Shehzad Roy]
Sab hazm kiya sab khatam kya hum phir denge woh kaahe ge
Hum peeche hai hat jaye to backing to gayi voting bhi gayi
voting bhi gayi
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ap tak na hue yeh seedhe
Apne Ulloo korey korey woh yehi pe hai korey korey

[Wassu]
Shehzad Roy ne gaana banaya kisi ko samaj na aya
Angelina Jolie aya baba sab ko samaj aya


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiExJqEQQ7M

Riaz Haq said...

In "A History of Pakistan and its origins", Christophe Jafferlot cites British-Pakistani Prof Samuel Martin Burke rejecting the notion that the Two-Nation Theory died in 1971 with Pakistan's split into Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Burke says that the two-nation theory was even more strongly asserted in that the Awami League rebels had struggled for their own country, Bangladesh, and not to join India. In so doing, they had put into practice the theory behind the original resolution to form Pakistan, which envisaged two Muslim states at the two extremities of the subcontinent.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Q9sI_Y2CKAcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=christophe+jaffrelot&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VXkjUtOvBsSujALp1oA4&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBQ#v=snippet&q=burke&f=false

Riaz Haq said...

Apologists for empire like to claim that the British brought democracy, the rule of law and trains to India. Isn’t it a bit rich to oppress, torture and imprison a people for 200 years, then take credit for benefits that were entirely accidental?

by Shashi Tharoor

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/india-britain-empire-railways-myths-gifts

Many modern apologists for British colonial rule in India no longer contest the basic facts of imperial exploitation and plunder, rapacity and loot, which are too deeply documented to be challengeable. Instead they offer a counter-argument: granted, the British took what they could for 200 years, but didn’t they also leave behind a great deal of lasting benefit? In particular, political unity and democracy, the rule of law, railways, English education, even tea and cricket?

Indeed, the British like to point out that the very idea of “India” as one entity (now three, but one during the British Raj), instead of multiple warring principalities and statelets, is the incontestable contribution of British imperial rule.

Unfortunately for this argument, throughout the history of the subcontinent, there has existed an impulsion for unity. The idea of India is as old as the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, which describe “Bharatvarsha” as the land between the Himalayas and the seas. If this “sacred geography” is essentially a Hindu idea, Maulana Azad has written of how Indian Muslims, whether Pathans from the north-west or Tamils from the south, were all seen by Arabs as “Hindis”, hailing from a recognisable civilisational space. Numerous Indian rulers had sought to unite the territory, with the Mauryas (three centuries before Christ) and the Mughals coming the closest by ruling almost 90% of the subcontinent. Had the British not completed the job, there is little doubt that some Indian ruler, emulating his forerunners, would have done so.

Far from crediting Britain for India’s unity and enduring parliamentary democracy, the facts point clearly to policies that undermined it – the dismantling of existing political institutions, the fomenting of communal division and systematic political discrimination with a view to maintaining British domination.


In the years after 1757, the British astutely fomented cleavages among the Indian princes, and steadily consolidated their dominion through a policy of divide and rule. Later, in 1857, the sight of Hindu and Muslim soldiers rebelling together, willing to pledge joint allegiance to the enfeebled Mughal monarch, alarmed the British, who concluded that pitting the two groups against one another was the most effective way to ensure the unchallenged continuance of empire. As early as 1859, the then British governor of Bombay, Lord Elphinstone, advised London that “Divide et impera was the old Roman maxim, and it should be ours”.

Since the British came from a hierarchical society with an entrenched class system, they instinctively looked for a similar one in India. The effort to understand ethnic, religious, sectarian and caste differences among Britain’s subjects inevitably became an exercise in defining, dividing and perpetuating these differences. Thus colonial administrators regularly wrote reports and conducted censuses that classified Indians in ever-more bewilderingly narrow terms, based on their language, religion, sect, caste, sub-caste, ethnicity and skin colour. Not only were ideas of community reified, but also entire new communities were created by people who had not consciously thought of themselves as particularly different from others around them.

Large-scale conflicts between Hindus and Muslims (religiously defined), only began under colonial rule; many other kinds of social strife were labelled as religious due to the colonists’ orientalist assumption that religion was the fundamental division in Indian society.

Riaz Haq said...

A future perfect
Stephen Pinker’s case for optimism
“Enlightenment Now” explains why the doom-mongers are wrong

https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21737241-enlightenment-now-explains-why-doom-mongers-are-wrong-stephen-pinkers-case

TO ANYONE who reads a newspaper, this can seem a miserable world. Syria is still at war. Another lunatic has gone on a gun rampage in an American school. The tone of political debate can rarely have been as crass and poisonous as it is today.

Front pages are grim for the same reason that Shakespeare’s plays feature a lot of murders. Tragedy is dramatic. Hardly anyone would read a story headlined “100,000 AEROPLANES DIDN’T CRASH YESTERDAY”. Bad things often happen suddenly and telegenically. A factory closes; an apartment block burns down. Good things tend to happen incrementally, and across a wide area, making them much harder to film. News outlets could have honestly reported that the “NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN EXTREME POVERTY FELL BY 137,000 SINCE YESTERDAY” every day for 25 years. But readers might get bored.

----

The world is about 100 times wealthier than 200 years ago and, contrary to popular belief, its wealth is more evenly distributed. The share of people killed annually in wars is less than a quarter of that in the 1980s and half a percent of the toll in the second world war. During the 20th century Americans became 96% less likely to die in a car crash, 92% less likely to perish in a fire and 95% less likely to expire on the job.

---

Best of all possible worlds

Progress has often been stunningly rapid. The vast majority of poor Americans enjoy luxuries unavailable to the Vanderbilts and Astors of 150 years ago, such as electricity, air-conditioning and colour televisions. Street hawkers in South Sudan have better mobile phones than the brick that Gordon Gekko, a fictional tycoon, flaunted in “Wall Street” in 1987. It is not just that better medicine and sanitation allow people to live longer, healthier lives, or that labour-saving devices have given people more free time, or that Amazon and Apple offer a dazzling variety of entertainment to fill it. People are also growing more intelligent, and more humane.

In every part of the world IQ scores have been rising, by a whopping 30 points in 100 years, meaning that the average person today scores better than 98% of people a century ago. How can this be, given that intelligence is highly heritable, and clever folk breed no more prolifically than less gifted ones? The answer is better nutrition (“brains are greedy organs”) and more stimulation. Children are far likelier to go to school than they were in 1900, while “outside the schoolhouse, analytic thinking is encouraged by a culture that trades in visual symbols (subway maps, digital displays), analytic tools (spreadsheets, stock reports) and academic concepts that trickle down into common parlance (supply and demand, on average, human rights).”

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Belief in equality for ethnic minorities and gay people has shot up, as demonstrated not only by polls (which could be biased by the knowledge that bigotry is frowned upon) but also by internet activity. Searches for racist jokes have fallen by seven-eighths in America since 2004. Those who enjoy them are dying out: online searches for racial epithets correlate with interest in “Social Security” and “Frank Sinatra”, Mr Pinker notes. Even the most conservative places are loosening up. Polls find that young Muslims in the Middle East are about as liberal as young western Europeans were in the early 1960s.

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Mr Pinker has answers for all these questions. In 45 out of 52 countries in the World Values Survey, happiness increased between 1981 and 2007. It rises roughly in line with absolute income per head, not relative income. Loneliness, at least among American students, appears to be declining. Global warming is a big threat, but not insurmountable. The number of nuclear weapons in the world has fallen by 85% since its peak.

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