By Ali Sukhanver
Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah gave the Muslims of the un-partitioned India a separate identity and an undeniable recognition. In July 1942 a journalist from the American press asked him whether the Muslims were a nation or not. Jinnah replied in his typical tone full of resolve and determination,
“We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions, in short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all cannons of international law we are a nation.”
It is simply because of this sense of an individual nationality given by Mr. Jinnah that the whole of Pakistani nation is facing now a days a series of turbulent trials and turmoil with exemplary courage and determination. The situation could have been very much devastating if God Almighty had not bestowed upon us the leadership of such a charismatic leader. Before partition, the condition of the Muslims in the Sub-continent was not very much different from the condition of those who are today living a life of continuous suppression in the Indian held Kashmir. They were maltreated and deprived of their basic human rights in the same way. No religious freedom and no right of expression. The extremist Hindus were planning to enslave the whole of the Muslim people. Not only the Muslims but also the Sikhs and the Christians were facing the same humiliation. Even today things are not very much different. Vidya Subramanian, a well known human rights activist has criticized the situation of human rights violation particularly of minorities in India in very bitter words, “ Secular, democratic India has seen lot of pogroms against all three significant minorities — Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. The accounts of murder, arson, and crimes against women sounded horribly familiar: Each detail, each grisly fact seems taken out of a script enacted before; the sequence of events is always as predictable as the shattering, gut-wrenching climax.”
The Hindu extremists use rape as a tool against the minorities in India .Women are gang-raped, invariably in front of their families, not for sexual gratification but as a demonstration of power, to heap humiliation on male relatives. The Hindu of September 30, 2008 reported the case of a Catholic nun who was stripped naked and brutally gang-raped in front of a police post with 12 policemen from the Orissa State Armed Police present and watching. The Catholic priest who was with her was mercilessly thrashed for refusing to participate in the atrocity. This brutal behaviour of the Hindu extremists has always invited very severe type of reaction from the minorities. Today in India there are countless separatist movements heading towards their logical ending. The only reason behind is continuous violation of the basic human rights. Situation in Indian Held Kashmir is too volatile as indigenous uprising in the valley has started with a new vigor and determination marking the signatures of Kashmiri youth. Indian Security Forces have clamped tough conditions of curfew enforcing the suppressive laws to arrest, torture, disgrace, rape and murder of innocent civilians but all these tactics are nothing but useless efforts leading towards another 1947.
The matter of the fact is that not only the Kashmiris but also the Sikhs and the Christians and above all the low-caste Hindus need a leader like Mr. Jinnah who could steer the ship of their destiny towards a safe harbour. Mr. Jinnah was not only the leader of the Muslims of the Sub-continent; he was a trend setter, a beacon and a symbol for all those who are being deprived of their basic human rights. He was the torch-bearer who not only guided his people but also but accompanied them till they reached their desired destination. Pakistan is passing through the worst phase of its life. All forces around us are doing their utmost to suppress all our efforts to survive; but these forces would never succeed in their hypocritical and heinous desires because we are guided by a leader whose exemplary confidence and determination is simply like an ever-shinning star.
