The Meaning of Pakistan

After the dreadful decade of the 90s, some good news:

````Pakistan`s achievements to date under the programme supported by the stand-by arrangement have been encouraging,`` Deputy Managing Director Eduardo Aninat said in a statement.

.......``Inflation, the balance of payments, and the budget balance have been better than expected, and the build-up of official reserves has been brought in line with program assumptions.``

.......Aninat noted economic growth had been lower than expected due to poor weather conditions. Nevertheless, he said the pace of structural reforms, including those on fiscal transparency and the rationalisation of energy prices, were on track.

.......The review is good news for Pakistan, which critically needs to stay on track with the IMF. Pakistan needs the endorsement from the Washington-based lender not just for the IMF funds, but also to help it receive loans from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for development projects.

.......``To consolidate these achievements and build a solid foundation for sustained high growth over the medium-term, the authorities will need to pursue further macroeconomic adjustment and implement the structural reform program,`` Aninat said.`` (www.brecorder.com)

Why did Nehru reject the Cabinet Mission Plan ?

The short answer is that the Cabinet Mission Plan did nothing to ensure the unity of India, and would truly mean the tyranny of the majority. E.g., Assam would be carried by the wishes of Bengal, because they were in the same group in the plan. All Nehru said is that states should be free to opt out of groups -- and this was enough to make the plan poison to the Muslim League and Jinnah.

--

Some reality check :

1. Jinnah had decided on Partition as the only solution quite early on. The only issue was how to not let the logic of Partition run its course and to avoid the inevitable ``moth-eaten`` Pakistan that that logic would result in.

2. Muslims in India after Partition were viewed with suspicion by Hindus and blamed as being the cause of Partition. That being a dangerous and bad situation, the Congress allowed a mythology to grow that faulted even their justifiable decisions as causing the Partition. This is now used by Pakistanis on the one side, and Hindu right-wingers on the other side to their own advantage. But any careful reading of history (even Stanley Wolpert) will reveal the truth.

-Arun Gupta

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20010326&fname=bapabangla&sid=1

Thirty Years Of Twilight

When the sun sinks in the west

Die a million people of the Bangladesh

(Joan Baez, Song of Bangladesh, 1972)

The … totalitarian [Pakistani military] government was incensed and gave vent to its fury on the black night of 25th March [1971]. …Jagannath Hall [a predominantly Hindu students’ hostel in Dhaka University] too faced the fury of the Pakistani Army. Incessant [shelling] and blood-letting continued [there] throughout the night of the 25th and the day of the 26th. After the shelling, the soldiers went from room to room and brought out all the students and bearers to the field in front of the hall. There they were forced to dig their own graves.

Subsequently they were all shot and buried in the graves they had dug themselves. Professor Rafiqul Islam, Dhaka University.

re zahra

Isn`t it said that laughter is the best medicine? Good to see you back.

urstruly. re: Reply #: 769

Jeo... or like the Indian FOB`s would say, ``live long`` :)

Aisha

Ahmadb,

I take it that you have cursed at me.. kindly tell me what I have said that construed as barking.

-YLH

(un)Truth,

``Indian nationalism, which is a combination of geography and ideology, is far superior to the two nation theory, which is divisive nationalism within the same geography``

Typical arrogance and ignorance on the part of Indians...

Dearest ``Intellectual`` (un)truth

Answer these questions...

1) Muslims of India wanted parity... why werent they given Parity? Who denied them Parity?

2) Who rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan?

3) Who spoke of religion, of Ram Raj, of cow slaughter alienating Muslims for ever?

4) Have you forgotten the famous address by Gandhi in which he called the ``Indian nationalist`` Jinnah a member of the ``Minority Community`` in 1917?

5) Do you think Pakistani Nationalism starts and ends on the two nation theory?

Two Nation theory, as Anil Kapuria put so well in his post no 64, was a master countermove on the part of Jinnah.

What is Pakistan`s ideal? or let me rephrase what should be Pakistan`s ideal? What should be a state`s ideal which was created to deliver a minority of possible political, cultural and Economic Oblivion?

Our ideals are the ideals of Freedom, Equality, Justice etc.. these are Universal Ideals, and though Pakistan has pathetically fallen short of it, I am sorry these ideals are still much greater than any Nationalism based on the ancient Wisdom of the land of India, any Nationalism based on mythological characters..

Your hint toward geographical and ideological nationalism of India, undoubtedly reflective of your fake and bogus secularism.

1) Your ideology is perhaps best reflected by the the words of your great and secular Prime Minister Vajpayee who spoke of ``National Will`` to build the ``Ayodhya`` temple...

2) or the ``National Will`` to rename ``Allahabad`` to make it pure for Hindu community by purging it of a name named after

3) Or the ``National Ideology`` of Hinduvta which is now to be enacted http://www.bjp.org/philo.htm

4) Or the ``National`` and ``Secular`` Judiciary which upholds ``Hinduvta`` as the great and secular ideology of India..http://www.bjp.org/history/htv-jag.html

5) Or maybe its ``National Will`` which calls for

the burning of the Quran?

6)Or a Secularism based on Religion

http://www.bjp.org/history/htvkamath-1.html

You say that you find it intellectually demeaning to communicate with a nitwit like myself... which means that you are making an unnecessary assumption that you are an intellectual.

However, as a Human being, I fing it demeaning to interact with a person who blasphemes by using a sacred word like truth, and who lies about Secularism....

AS a true secularist committed to taking Pakistan to ``You may belong to any religion caste or creed-that has nothing to do with a business of the state`` level, I find it demeaning to interact with a liar who tries to pass off as

a secularist when in reality he is nothing more than a Hinduvtist!

As a Pakistani I find it demeaning to talk to a self-delusional Indian,

As a Muslim by personal faith, I find it demeaning to interact with a person who has the audacity to uphold more than three milleniums of oppression through caste system in the name a ``superior`` ideology called ``Indian Nationalism.

As a student of History, Religion, and Political Science (Not to mention Economics), I find it demeaning to talk to an individual who jumps to condemn the mention of Muslim God in a secular Peoples Republic, while endorsing calls for Ram Raj ...

These -isms that have taken your fantasy, secularism vs Islamism etc, are zero sum games to borrow from Anil Kapuria`s Vocab.

The real live truth is that all three states of South Asia should be, Non Communal, Impartial, Fair Democracies, ... and not just in name!

Names are abstract... The prefix Islamic doesnot make anything Religious, and the adjective secular doesnot mean the state is truly impartial and secular!

I wish you the best of luck, but I hope you will abandon this mirage of secularism and work towards real Secularism, otherwise your truth and your India can amount to little more than Hypocrisy!

-YLH

Dear Bilal!

Shouldn`t you have written it about some 400 odd posts ago. Now that when Grim Reaper i.e. yours truly is on its way it is hypocritical and too late.

Sigalph:

``And I have a lot of admiration for you(I better if I am to be given Sind House, eh?). ``


You have a great sense of humor :-)!

Take Care.

SHOULD ONE BARK AT THE BARKING DOGS?

I am unable to understand why (even) educated Pakistanis and Indians cannot communicate as civilized human beings. Why we have to downgrade ``others`` to feel good and/or to reproduce a sense of superiority (or whatever reason)?

I am getting fed up, and about to work on an exit strategy and say good-bye to the Chowk. I know, my exit from the Chowk will make some people very happy.

Chowk staff, please do the needful. Please tell us how do you want to deal with this problem (if you view this as a problem).

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

Oyay Hinduo!

Where is chacha Sadhna. I am almost begining to miss him. She is the only one man enough among you. Gupta has turned into a foxy lady who likes to talk to herself and other laloo panjoos hindutva dogs are just a waste of breath. Listen and listen good. Hindu ass whupping week is scheduled a week from now when these goddamned poets will return our chowk back to us warriors. So `hay when the cat is away`. But I am watching you. Miss Mohajir make a note of it.

re dg

No offense is taken and no apology is due. Frankly, I wish the name was just the Republic of Bangladesh. That redundant ``People`s`` attachment was forced by Mujib to show his servile attitude towards his Communist friends.

re harimau 752

Shri JN Mondol was elected from a Scheduled Caste seat in East Bengal on the Muslim League ticket. He was part of the last Imperial Cabinet as a Muslim Leaguer. He migrated to India long before Bangladesh came into being.

re Truth

``Why cannot Bangladesh provide transit rights for Indian trucks ...``

Simple. Because India has repeatedly refused to provide the same rights to Bangladeshi, Nepalese, and Bhutanese truckers through the Northeast corridor. This has nothing to do with religion, even though some people would love nothing more to think that way.

The day India lives up to its neighbourly obligations, so will we.

re ylh

My dear friend, you`ll pardon me for making one omnibus response to your posts, every one of them I have read. First, please know that I realize your post 724 was not meant for me. We are cool, man. And I have a lot of admiration for you(I better if I am to be given Sind House, eh?). Your defence of Bangladesh is touching and genuine.

Don`t misunderstand me. I have ne desire to see a free Bengali homeland become absorped in India or elsewhere (here is where Truth is daydreaming). My take is that in 1971 half the Bengalis gained freedom; the other half remain attached to a foreign power. (Gentlemen Indians, please save the stuff about Jyoti Basu becoming PM; Pakistan had at least three Bengali PMs-that didn`t change some ground relaities). A true Bangladesh is the landmass and people that constitute the present day boundaries of Bangladesh and those of West Bengal at least.

Calcutta-it`s hard to explain. But it has been the center of Bengali culture and identity since Murshidabad (where my ancestry is from) was left to ruin in the aftermath of Plassey. It is more than a geographical place-kind of like Jerusalem and Berlin. It is a spiritual anchor of the soul of Bengal at its creative best. It is the dirtiest and filthiest city in the world, I know. But it is a city that is the ``cultural kabaa of Bengalis everywhere`` (Siddiq Salik, ``Witness to Surrender``). Insofar as Berlin and Jerusalem, after all what has happened, were the capital cities not only of states but of nations, Calcutta is just that. Not in my life time, but some day that city will reclaim its heritage of becoming the political capital as well of a united, independent, and sovereign Bangladesh.

re rsaxena #731

``What a relief for India. Imagine having 2 Jehadi nutcases as neighbors.``

Janaab! Ek ne naak me dam kar diya hai, do to jeena haraam kar dete!