Jaswant Singh’s Book- Peeping into the Hindu Mindset

Jaswant Singh’s book Jinnah India Partition Independence has created quite a furor in India. The Hindu nationalists as well as the Congress secularists are outraged over its contents forcing expulsion of the author from BJP; the Hindu nationalist party known for demonizing the Quaid and viciously condemning the imperatives behind the creation of Pakistan.

In Pakistan the book has raised many expectations, motivated perhaps by the fact that any thing related to the Indo Pak history that causes backlash in India must reflect positively for Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam.

Alas that is not the case. The book breaks no fresh grounds in so far as politics of the period leading up to independence are concerned nor does the author show any understanding for the moving spirit behind the Muslim nationhood that was harnessed by the Quaid to lead the movement for the creation of Pakistan under his sterling leadership.  In terms of biography of the Quaid, the book offers nothing fresh. Stanley Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan and Hector Bolitho’s account of Quaid’s personalized biography stand out in comparison with the literary effort of Jaswant Singh. On the theme of the Quaid’s political achievements in the final decade of his life, Ayesha Jalal’s ‘The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan’ remains outstanding; then why this ruckus over the book’s contents in India and exaggerated expectations and appreciation in Pakistan?

In India the Hindu nationalists and the secularists belonging to the entire spectrum of political shades are outraged because the book demolishes certain deeply grooved hypotheses which have remained the bedrock of Indian ideological hostility against Jinnah and the dynamics of the Pakistan Movement. Jaswant argues that instead of being focused upon partition of India, the Quaid persistently endeavored for a solution that would protect the political and religious interests of the Indian Muslims without seeking partition of the sub continent. In contrast it was the blatant and brazen pursuit of Hindu nationalism by Gandhi, Nehru and Patel that saw Jinnah’s ascendance from being the best ambassador of the Hindu – Muslim unity to prominence as Quaid-e-Azam of the Muslims in the pre-partitioned India. The book chronicles political events that explain that until pushed to the wall by the intransigence of his political opponents, focus of Jinnah’s struggle for Pakistan was securing a workable dispensation for the Muslim minority in India by constitutionally ensuring an adequate “space in a reassuring system”. Jaswant, in a gesture which can be termed as bold for a Hindu nationalist, vindicates Jinnah while holding Nehru and Patel responsible for taking the events into a cul-de-sac where the partition of subcontinent became inevitable. The exposure of demagoguery practiced by Mr. Gandhi and his strong resistance to the idea of Pakistan as well as Nehru’s unvarnished hostility against Jinnah that became a factor by itself in obstructing a polite political discourse is no music to the Indian public which has become accustomed to an officially sponsored  jaundiced version of the freedom struggle in India.

While Jaswant Singh doesn’t mitigate the achievements of the Quaid, the readers in Pakistan may not find much to rejoice at the venom comprising the core of his thesis.  The author’s tacit acknowledgement of the Muslims compulsions to demand a separate homeland stands in stark contrast with his hostility towards the moving spirit behind this epoch struggle; the Two Nation Theory”. Last chapter of his book, ‘In Retrospect’, in which he emotionally attempts to degrade the basis of Pakistan’s creation, stands markedly juxtaposed to rest of his book. Ever the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, he has remained loyal to his constituency; the Hindu hardliners chasing the dreams of an Akhand Bharat. This also leaves the door ajar for his return to the party and his justification to seek redemption from the Hindu ideologues who are presently baying for his blood.

The book also provides an interesting perspective upon the rationale behind the poor treatment of the Indian Muslims; who chose to stay back in India or were forced to do so, as a consequence of the Partition. “What about these Muslims? Would a separate nation be needed for them also? He poignantly asks. At another place he holds them responsible for sharpening communal fault lines in India; “The cruel truth is … that partition, instead of settling contentions between communities has left us a legacy of markedly enhanced Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or other such denominational identities.” In doing so he effectively sidesteps the issues related to the communalization of Indian politics whereby a Hindu majority is swamping the minorities, particularly Muslims to the detriment of their collective welfare and political empowerment. He also fails to adequately explain the reasons as to why the Muslims in India are sliding perilously on all indicators of social development as brought out by the Sachar Commission and as to why an increasing number of the Indian Muslim youth is turning to terrorism to get even with an unjust system that is pushing Muslims to the bottom of the social heap in India.

Apart from the fact it is a book on Jinnah and Pakistan Movement by a leading member of the Indian Right the value of the Jaswant Singh’s book lies in the fact that it provides a window into the Hindu mindset that fails to accept the reality of Pakistan even after passage of six decades. Instead of coming to terms with the existence of Pakistan and seeking ways and means to promote cordial relations and a modus vivendi to tide over the acrimonies of the past, intellectuals in India continue to remain obsessed with subverting the raison deter of Pakistan. Jaswant doesn’t seem to reconcile to the fact that congress was as much Hindu in nature and character and non representative of Muslim interests in the 40’s as it is today. The rudderless state of Indian Muslims is evident from the fact that the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadev, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh claim to be their saviors. Where do the political heirs of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, who threw in their lot with the Congress as the Quaid struggled for Pakistan , stand today, is something that Jaswant’s book is eerily silent about. Momin Iftikhar

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on Oct 22 2009. Filed under Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry