Source: Wire
As the BJP champions sectarianism in India, Pakistan’s trajectory is a striking example of the consequences of enabling and capitulating to religious zealots.
By now, you are sure to have seen a tweet from @bjp4india which promises to roll out the National Register of Citizens all over India and expel anyone who isn’t “Buddha, Hindus and Sikhs”. Can we look at the history of our neighbourhood to understand what any policy of sectarian exclusion leads to?
In March 1953, when Pakistan was a mere six years old nation-state, the Ahmadiyya community – which many in the conservative Sunni establishment believed to be apostate – had grown in wealth, power and prestige. Zafarullah Khan, a prominent Ahmadi, had risen to the position of a foreign minister; many others from the community occupied high government offices and were ascendant in the world of business.
The majority Sunni community saw this as an affront to their majority and the Ulema, the religious leaders, all too ready to fish in troubled waters, incited mobs to action because the government seemed unwilling. Riots erupted in Lahore and the Jamaat-i-Islami, the largest of Pakistan’s religious parties at the time, led a carnage that left thousands dead.
In June 1953, the government of Pakistan appointed the then Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court, Justice Muhammad Munir to head a commission of inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances. The commission was tasked with an inquiry into:
- The circumstances leading to the declaration of Martial Law in Lahore in March 1953
- The responsibility for the disturbances and
- The adequacy of measures taken to quell them
The commission held over a hundred sittings running into early 1954 and finally submitted its report on April 10, 1954. Almost exactly 55 years ago, as it happens.
You cautioned amicably. However the problem is no one will take it. Why ? you said it while referring Munir report
“If there is one thing which has been conclusively demonstrated in this enquiry, it is that provided you can persuade the masses to believe that something they are asked to do is religiously right or enjoined by religion, you can set them to any course of action, regardless of all considerations of discipline, loyalty, decency, morality or civic sense.”
As long people continue only fearing God and not start loving God, the religious clerics, be the Muslims, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist will keep on exploiting the masses. This what is happening since centuries and likely to continue. However as claimed by founder of Ahmadiyya Community if creation can turn to Creator, start loving Him on individual basis and start showing true love to fellow beings the problem will be resolved.