Jaswant, Jinnah, and the Ghosts of Partition

I hardly understand why such hullabaloo over India-Pak partition and what the leaders of that time did or undid to make their contributions in the ugly cause. Since Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah was released, the whole newspaper is flooded with the issue. And the most surprising thing is that Jaswant Singh wrote the book, BJP expelled him, Gujarat banned the book, and who is celebrating among all this - the Pakistanis. What irony!

Saare ke saare politicians sathiyaan gayein hain. One of the symptoms of old age, I guess. Every day we have somebody or the other coming out of the closet and jumping into give their unsolicited opinion. Kuch kaam dhanda to hai nahi batiyaane ke alawa.

Can’t we leave the past and do something to make our future better? Why are we still grappling with the ghosts of partition? It’s high time we bury our hatchets. Both Pakistanis and Indians should respect their shared past and learn to look at the British era as a fight for freedom in which both Muslims and Hindus participated with equal determination and a shared idea of independence. It’s tragic that politicians still try to rub our wounds of separation, indulge in blame game, and create unnecessary tension between the two communities when we are trying to heal them and move forward. Partition was a necessity that arose because of lack of trust between the two communities. There is no point in discussing who was on the right side and who was on the wrong side. Partition was a shared responsibility; unfortunately it was mishandled by all the stakeholders. And that led to much heart-burns. But it’s time to build bridges, be more sensitive to each other’s feelings, and increase our trustworthiness. That would be the solution to all the problems.

The younger generation doesn’t want to delve into what was the two nation theory or who is credited with dividing the borders. I am sure there would have been strong reasons for partition. Besides, we would rather be more interested in knowing good things about each other – culture, music, education, lifestyle. We have so much in common. Saare Jahaan se Achcha was penned by Allamah Iqbal - the national poet of Pakistan. We speak a common language – Hindustani. We have similar tastes. We share our history. And today's generation - both from Pakistan and India - wants a peaceful coexistence. It’s time our politicians dropped the old baggage and moved forward in sync with the new generation.