Fundamentalism and Violence

Second you totally. To achieve this goal every one of us needs to look deep inside his soul before making any offensive move, saying any hurtful remark or even thinking of any stuff painful to other humanbeing. If we want our opinions to be accepted, we should be tolerant to others opinions; we want our believes and faith to be respected we should respect others faiths first. The first step towards world's peace and to end violence is so very much in our own hands.
"Whatever change you want to see in the world , be that change".
Love this old Pakistani song "Her aadmi alag sahee mager umang aik hai, juda juda hain sooratein lahoo ka rang aik hai"; which means in english that "though each one of us are different we harbour one spirit, we appear in various colurs but the colour of blood is same."
Nikhat Riaz

Very primitive work. Shall appeal to high school students.

Totally devoid of serious substance.

Waste of time for most chowkies.

If you read the interacts first then it is recommended that you skip the article completely (like many other times).

okhla99, khalid sohail is a brilliant man who has mortgaged his entire mind to the chimera of saintism - study of human beings as veritable saints.

Children below the age of 9 should definitely be forced to read his writings. Indian liberals and other adults wanting to be children will obviously need no invitation.

eklavvya yaar, instead of disparaging Sohail with things you cannot prove, try instead rebutting his assetions with things you can prove. I am still waiting for your criteria for religion, your assertions of numbers being the proof of religious validity and other non sensical musings. chop chop brother...

Khalid;

I really think you could pen a better one than this very simplistic column. Don't you think?

Kamath

Re: # 5
dear kamath...Bertrand Russell once said...it took me fifty years of hard work to write simple.
If I am writing to my psychoanalyst colleagues I can write in the language
...the libidinal cathexis of the ego has been repressed to the unconscious and then projected to the superego and then sublimated in socially acceptable activities.'
if you wish i can try that kind of language next time...smiles...when i write i try to share my views as clearly as possible. my goal is not to impress others with my scholarship. to me communication is of paramount importance. i know many scholars and philosophers who need a translater to share their ideas in simple language.
sorry i disappointed you.
the question is whether you agree or disagree with my ideas...?
sincerely, sohail

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Dr Sohail: like any communication that has some significant truth to present, your article is written in a simple, unpretentious manner.

I will only add that in treating these four schools of thought at par the article ignores the fact that the first three (religion, economic theory, political behavior) themselves rest on certain assumptions human psychology. And so, ultimately it is assumptions regarding human psychology on which the first three rest.

Traditional economic theory and analysis of political behavior often rests on incredibly simplistic assumptions regarding human behavior. Factors like inflated egos, tribal instincts, drive for self-preservation find no place in discussions on religion, politics, or economics (most economic theories, e.g., brushes these aside as "irrational" factors). And yet, to discuss religion, economic theory or politics without taking into account human psychology is to discuss play Hamlet without considering the prince Hamlet, or (an example closer home) Pakistani politics without Musharraf inflated ego.

Tahmed writes "I will only add that in treating these four schools of thought at par the article ignores the fact that the first three (religion, economic theory, political behavior) themselves rest on certain assumptions human psychology"

Another miserable shrink who also happens to be a major peon of the West, comments on the article. Let me remind both you shrinks that human psychology accounts for nothing when you're dealing with group phenomena. And even on the aberrant individual level there are no specific psychological traits that seperate the violent from the non-violent. Individual psychology itself gets molded from without given social structure, seeking explanations inside the individual or attributing them to "choice" is BS

masadi: O Piano of the East - Use this opportunity to ask Dr. Sohail for an appointment to try and fix your single tune harping.

{"...we realize that all these factors, whether religious or political, social or psychological, are significant and depending upon the special social and political circumstances, play the dominant role. In some areas religion is more important than politics and in other areas socioeconomic factors dominate the political factors. Human beings are conditioned by their families and communities and violent cultures produce violent people."}

Sohail Sahib,
You have a well-written essay here, but it is hollow, boring, and leaves one confused about your true motives. It comes across like that ordorless, colorless, boneless, tasteless, and clueless generic meat served in buffets and proclaimed as "chicken."

If your point is that British soccer fans or Boston Red Sox fans turn into suicide bombers, then I agree with you totally and am willing to dillute my cruel criticism. If you are pontificating that Osama's antics are justified by Pope Urban II's "not so urbane" Crusade, then you are spinning yarns across the centuries with no rhyme or reason. I condemn both the Crusades and today's crazy, senseless, and self-defeating plague of terrorism.

Let's see what else we can throw in your omelet of justifications - God's favoritism toward Abraham and his seed, destruction of the temple, Roman greed, too many barbarians, human sacrifice, the age of "exploration," colonialism, the failure of communism, neo-conservatism, lack of "Islamic" democracy, and AIDS?

Please come down to Earth instead of wasting your time defining social conditions in the Milky Way.

Re: # 11
Dear Salim Chauhan...If you like spicy food and like to add tabasca sauce that is wonderful. Such sauce leads to confrontation and contaversy and there is heated debate.
When i was reading about the topic i read many books and many articles and found that each writer and author focused on one issue and ignored others.
When i was reading Robert Pape's book...Dying to Win...he highlighted that there are many fundamnetalist Muslims in many Muslim countries but they are not militant or violent. He connected violence with political factors alongside religious factors. But even him being a sociologist ignored the psychological factors as highlighted by tahmed 22...we need to have a comprehensive approach and try to understand fundamentalism and its relationship with violence.
I am quite aware that some of the chowk readers love to have a heated debate and like most contravercial articles. They are disappointed in my articles. On the other hand there are many who like my simple but honest style and send me letters to discuss the psychology of
human sexuality
human creativity
human spirituality
psychology of suicide bombers
i share with chowk readers what i read and analyze and introspect. For your taste i will try to add tabasca sauce.
You are a well read man and I enjoy your insights in human condition. Share with me your insight in the relationship between fundamentalism and violence. I am a student and willing to learn more. sincerely sohail

Drsohail Sahib {"drsohail #12 {"am quite aware that some of the chowk readers love to have a heated debate and like most contravercial articles. They are disappointed in my articles. On the other hand there are many who like my simple but honest style and send me letters to discuss,,,"}

Dr. Sohail Sahib,
I apologize for any misunderstanding I may have created about your style of writing. Please understand that my criticism is not directed at you personally, your expertise, or even your style. I am objecting to the well-written article that leaves us with no real bases, no concrete factors, no real examples, and a sweeping attempt to forcibly connect dots that aren't even in the same plane. I am an avid reader of your articles and have enjoyed several of them. My complaint is that this particular essay is like drinking water from a Styrofoam cup - serves a purpose but not very uplifting aesthetically, spiritually, physically, emotionally, or even intellectually. Perhaps a few examples of behavior or events to enhance the credibility of the four generic schools could have helped. Also, please ditch that stale “…and Pakis have nukes” emphasis – it sounds too CNNish and extremely western, gora, and frankly, self-serving in an occidental sort of way. Coming from Pakistan, you could have at least used a suraahi ki mitti to make the water tastier. :)

Re: # 13
dear salim chauhan...thanks for your creative suggestions. i will keep them in mind in the future. you gave an analogy of clean water for my article...tasteless and bland. let me pursue your analogy further.
for me growing up in peshawar where there was no clean water to drink and i drank from a river where cows and humans swam together, driking clean water was a blessing and it was after reading mystic poetry i realized that the notion that water is odourless, tasteless and colourless was not true. it was a major disocery that water had a taste. when we get used to coke we lose taste of water. this is just a creative response to your creative letter...
kabir das said
every one can see drops of water in an ocean
only a few can see an ocean in a drop of water.
all the best...sohail

Methinks that me read some of the passages in some book. Where? Me wonders. Maybe the learned Dr could identify the source of the book.

Dr Sohail,

To me you are like a prophet of the modern age.

We do need psychologists, sociologists and therapists like you.

How can we wake up "gharibs" , oppressed ones of Pakistan...?? that is the main challenge.

Please write about some techniques / approaches which you may suggest to break this deadly and vicious cycle.

My kindest regards,

Dr sohail
Unfortunately in the west a whole industry has grown of pseudo-intellectuals to capitalise on demonising fundamentalist islam/ muslims, people like that Somali woman hersi ali as if muslims are the only one who are sexist or homophobes.

I salute the dutch for having realised the danger of having such people in their midst and stripped her of nationality and got rid of her.

aslam: the dutch went from one extreme (making her a member of the parliament) to another (throwing her out of the country on accout of her views). such political expediencies are hardly worth saluting.

muslims like hersi ali, even if one disagrees with some things she says, play and essential role to play in the expatriate community - challenge the religious orthodox whose understanding of islam and of the west reflects their own ignorance and their close-mindedness.

drsohail, can you please refrain from using the word 'creative'. Thanks.

#14 drsohail {"for me growing up in peshawar where there was no clean water to drink and i drank from a river where cows and humans swam together, driking clean water was a blessing and it was after reading mystic poetry i realized that the notion that water is odourless, tasteless and colourless was not true."}

Dr. Sohail Sahib,
Thank you for taking my suggestions in the context that I intended. Finally, with the extension of that analogy to a specific place with real animals, you have brought home a point effectively.

Writing about things that have nothing to do with reality and then becoming an expert at something about which one knows next to nothing is a wonderfully western concept. Only the west can keep producing "orientalists" who always seem to point south. :)
Please leave this craft to westerners and you just tell us about the water in Peshawar, the Kabul river, qissa khwani bazaar, and the wisdom of kabir das. Thanks and good writing, my friend.

Re: # 16
dear nature_lover...over the years i have realized that most of us went through social, religious and cultural conditioning by our families and communities. that is why most people die with the same faith and religion as their parents. our emotional and intellectual birth starts when we develop critical thinking (khurram...are you happy i used critical not creative...smiles)and develop a philosophy and lifestyle that is based on our own experiences. it is the process of leaving the highway of tradition and following the trail of our hearts. that is a new birth. a philosopher said...most of us die before we are fully born. all the best...sohail

Re: # 18
Minorities every where are vulnerable from majorities extremists.
It is the minorities who are discriminated against in jobs, housing, education etc.
Whether its muslims in europe or hindus in Malaysia and fiji.

I think the dutch found out that she was a liar and a fraud who was out to make a quick buck no real intellectual depth.

#17 Posted by aslam644 on December 10, 2007 2:12:56 pm


Unfortunately in the west a whole industry has grown of pseudo-intellectuals to capitalise on demonising fundamentalist islam/ muslims


The industry only exists because muslims get their undies in a knot at every perceived slight or insult to mo.

What happened to the danish cartoon editors? nothing..

the swedish guy who drew mo-dog? nothing..

not everyone in the west is willing to put up with this islamofascist BS..

aaa

For the interest of all.
Pakistan rich list. Top ten is interesting.

1 - Mian Muhammad Mansha Yaha Pakistan
Ranking: 1 Worth: £1.25b ($2.5billion)Industry: Businessman

2 - Asif Ali Zardari Pakistan
Ranking: 2 Worth: £900m ($1.8billion) Industry: Politics

3 - Sir Anwar Pervaiz UK
Ranking: 3 Worth: £750m ($1.5billion) Industry: Businessman

4 - Nawaz Sharif & Shahbaz Sharif family Saudi Arabia/Pakistan
Ranking: 4 Worth: £700m ($1.4billion) Industry: Politics/Businessman

5 - Saddaruddin Hashwani Pakistan
Ranking: 5 Worth: £550m ($1.1billion) Industry: Businessman

6 - Nasir Schon & family U.A.E/Pakistan
Ranking: 6 (tied at 6) Worth: £500m ($1billion) Industry: Businessman

7 - Abdul Razzaq Yakoub & family U.A.E
Ranking: 6 (tied at 6) Worth: £500m ($1billion) Industry: Businessman

8 - Rafiq Habib & Rasheed Habib Pakistan
Ranking: 7 Worth: £450m ($900) Industry: Businessman

9 - Tariq Saigol & Nasim Saigol Pakistan
Ranking: 8 Worth: £425m ($850) Industry: Businessman

10 - Dewan Yousaf Farooqui Pakistan
Ranking: 9 (tied at 9) Worth: £400m ($800) Industry: Businessman

#22 aslam: your post isnt very coherent - you seem to be berating hirsi for being a liar (which i assume she was when faking her immigration forms) on the one hand and berating the dutch for throwing her out on the other. in any cases - in both cases you are wrong.

from all indications, the real reason the dutch threw her out was because they did not want any more trouble between hirsi and the muslim orthodoxy. thus, the dutch were guilty of appeasement (of them dutch mullahs), not discrimination.

Re: # 17

"people like that Somali woman hersi ali as if muslims are the only one who are sexist or homophobes..."

Nonsense , apostates make cler distinction between the ideology of Islam and those who are its main victims - viz. the common muslims.
Hirsi Ali mainly writes against the ideology of Islam and its main beneficiaries - the practicing male muslims !!!

krashid1961 #25

[8 - Rafiq Habib & Rasheed Habib Pakistan
Ranking: 7 Worth: £450m ($900) Industry: Businessman]

Sir,
What is your source. As far as I know Rasheed Habib has been dead for ages and Rafiq Habib is one of the biggest defaulters in Pakistan. Moreover, both these gentlemen are from different families of the Habib Group who will not be seen dead together.

139222749-1
(I will give you reference. There are other sources with some variation. Teeth maestro is website)
Lets now see. Rich joining hands to further loot Pakistan.
Source Pakistani perspective
1-The Nishat Group
Mian Muhammad Mansha

2-The Jang Group

3-The Hashoo Group
Led by the vintage Saddaruddin Haswani

4-The Packages Group
The seed of this huge empire was sown by Syed Maratib All,

5-The House of Habib

6-The Saigols

7-Nawa-E-Waqt Group

8-The Saif Group
Is owned and operated by the sons of famous NWFP lady politician Begum Kalsum Saifullah

9-The Crescent Group
The history of this group dates back to 1910 when Shams Din of Chiniot

10-The Monnoo Group
The Monnoo dynasty was founded by two brothers-Dust Muhammad and Nazir Hussain

11-The Dewan Group

12-The Lakson Group
The Lakhanis are currently having a hard time at the hands of NAB. Sultan Lakhani

13-The Sapphire Group
Headed by a veteran industrialist Mian Abdullah

14-The Dawood Group
Was ranked Pakistan’s biggest group in 1970, 3rd in 1990 and 15th in 1997

15-The Best Way Group
Sir Anwar Pervaiz

16-The Haroon Family

17The Yunus Brothers
The Chairman of this group is Abdul Razzak Tabba

18-Gul Ahmad/Al-Karam Group

19-The Bawany Group

20-The Servis Group
Shahid Hussain

21-The Tata Family
Do not confuse the Tatas in Pakistan with their name-sake market leaders in India. Having migrated from Nepal Mehboob Elahi

22-The Alam Group
This establishment comprising three leather and two textile units is led by former President Karachi Chamber Shahzada Alam

23-The Guard Group
The 87-year old Malik Shafi,

24-The Ejaz Group
This establishment owns country’s largest knitwear-cum-dyeing facility at Lahore

25-The Tabani Family

26-The Tapal Group
Is headed by Aftab Tapal.

27-The Atlas Group
This group was founded by Yousaf Sherazi, a former Income Tax official

28-The Abid Group
Is run by Sheikh Abid Hussain alias Seth Abid.

29-The Sheikhani Family

30-The Dadabhoy Group
Abdul Ghani Dadabhoy

31-The Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Malik Riaz Hussain

32-Adamjee Group

33-Jahangir Siddiqui& Co
This firm has floated ABAMCO

34-The Din Group
The group is headed by S.M.Muneer

35-The Adil Group
Mian Adil Mehmood, who is married to Mian Mansha’s niece

36-Chenab Group
Mian Muhammad Latif

37-Sitara Group
Started its activity with textile weaving as early as 1956, under brothers Haji Abdul Ghafoor and Haji Bashir Ahmed.Sitara’s name with the industrial City of Faisalabad is synonymous

38-The Colony Group
Mian Muhammad lsmaeel Sheikh

39-Arif Habib Securities

40-Kassim Dada

Dear Dr. Sohail.

fortunately, I rarely visit FP, and hence, my useless pontifications do not litter the interact boards :).

Dr. Sohail, I must say first of all, that creating is better than critiquing, so you are already better off than I, as I am about to critique ;).

Okay, so, here are my 2 shiny pennies for you:

- Grow a fire in your belly
- Let it come roaring out in your articles.

Attend some black churches, catch some evangelist shows on tv, you gotta learn to drive that message home with suspense, humor, passion and energy.

At the moment, you seem to break everything down into points...Imagine MLK doing

1. A decleration

I have a dream that one day our children will be judged by the content of thier charachter and not the color of thier skin

2. The Reason

There comes a time when people get tired of getting trampled under the iron feet of opression.

3. The ramifications

So let us join hands and walk together, and make that little change, each one of us, that change that will change the world.


you know? So try not to break it into easy 99c wafer pack plain vanilla boring snippets for us. Trust your audience. We like to act stupid , and the truth is not far from how we act ;)

[oh oh, I am being smart alecky again :( ]
with much respect,
thinking storm

The British newspaper, Observer, on Sept. 27, 1998, published a report revealing that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has amassed a personal fortune siphoning off millions of dollars from his country's coffers. The Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency report, revealed to the paper by the FIA's suspended second in command Rahman Malik, was also sent to President Rafiq Tarar. The Observer said that the 200-page report was begun while Sharif was out of power but effectively stifled after he and his Islamic Democratic Alliance party returned to lead the country in February 1997. It said the investigation reveled how Sharif's assets included four flats in London's exclusive Mayfair, worth more than $5 million. More than $70 million was also said to have been traced to accounts and companies controlled by the family. The inquiry was focused on Sharif's Ittefaq group of companies, which grew rapidly during his first term in power in 1990-93. It was alleged that the group received billions of rupees in loans, which were not repaid. Around $8 million is said to be held offshore, and another $50 million in Switzerland. Explaining the modus operandi for money laundering by Sharif family, the report of Rehman Malik stated that Rs. 140 million were siphoned in collusion with Hawala group of Peshawar using the Bank of Oman. The money was repatriated in the form of FEBCs in the name of 43 family members, which include the mother, brother, sister and other close relatives of Mr. Nawaz Sharif.
During Sharif's second term, Pakistan was rated as one of the the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.
The available evidence indicates that there was corruption in Sharif's administration.

#29 krashid Sahib,
...and what about the Chauhan Group led by my grandfather?

According to Hypo Chacha Al Butteesi, my grandfather came to Pakistan and looted departing Hindus and thus accumulated great wealth so that I could sit on Chowk day in and day out with nothing to do but make a complete ass out of Chacha Char Sau Bees.

#30 thinking bhai {"Okay, so, here are my 2 shiny pennies for you:
- Grow a fire in your belly
- Let it come roaring out in your articles.
Attend some black churches, catch some evangelist shows on tv, you gotta learn to drive that message home with suspense, humor, passion and energy.
:{

Thinking Bhai,
LOL LOL LOL - That advice and critique was so funny that I laughed lout until I read the revised MLK speech which put me back to sleep. LOL

Salim bhai,

Thank you kindly.

I often feel people like us, who look out for the health of others by making them laugh, well, we just don't get the appreciation that is justly due.

A bit more of this dis-appreciation and I will wish a plaque on both houses of fair verona
with much respect,
thinking storm

Ts bhai/Salim bhai,

(I often feel people like us, who look out for the health of others by making them laugh, well, we just don't get the appreciation that is justly due.)

Please don't be disheartened. I for one hugely enjoy your writings, both of you!!!

Regards

majumdar bhai,

bus appki duaaon per hi duniya qaim hai nacheez ki :)

Dhanyavaad, shukriya, tasshakkur, danke, merci, shukran, nawazish hai aapki :)
with much respect,
thinking storm

I think that violence and aggression are ingrained in human pshyche.Man only justifies it in name of reliogion,race,ideology.500,000 Spaniards killed in name of ideology.A million killed in Bengal in name of ethnicity.

Below is my article on a similar theme:--

Stray Reflections on Geopolitics and History Writing
August 2000

A.H Amin

This is not exactly an article but an attempt to analyse certain current geopolitical and current affairs issues. Many of these are discussed in various articles published in this journal. It is felt with a certain amount of conviction that there are certain psychological hang ups, which in my humble opinion have contributed, a great deal in adding fuel to fire in the Indo-Pak Sub Continent. We mortals are frail creatures vis-a-vis the current of history which we attempt to approach and understand and analyse in our own particular ways. In the process we mostly become subjective and passionate. Long ago the great psychologist Freud had concluded that majority of men are irrational and make most of their decisions on irrational basis! The role of those who write is thus to rise above their impulses and to write something to infuse some rationality in at least a certain segment of mankind!





One typical but vulgar approach in writing articles is to condemn any one particular state, without bothering to analyse the various factors that led a state to a certain point where its actions conflicted with another state or resulted in violation of human rights. I feel with considerable conviction that history is largely a record of crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind as the great historian Gibbon said and above all is merely the story of manipulation of the many, the populace, by the few, the leaders or the dominant smaller classes, in the name of high sounding slogans like ideology, nationalism etc!





The Nature of Human Aggression

Human nature is essentially same, man can fight or kill for anything and any idea whether based on ideology, nationalism or class, it can divide people of the same race, even the same religion and even of the same family. The ulterior motivation is always personal or class interest disguised in the garb of high sounding slogans! I want to give certain concrete historical examples to prove this harmless assertion.

Take Spain of 1930s. One race, one country, one religion, and one sect. The struggle is between the feudal-clergy-military junta and the republicans asking for more equitable distribution of resources! No Two-Nation Theory but the Spaniards fight savagely for three years! Mind you there were no fighting in the Indian Freedom Struggle, as we like to call it, although the transfer of power was more the result of war exhaustion brought upon the British Empire as a result of two world wars! The result of the fighting between the Republicans and Monarchists under Franco1, 600,000 Spaniards were killed! In the Russians Civil War fought from 1917 to 1922 the casualties; killed only, were 1 crore or ten million!2 Russian killed Russians simply because one was from Denikin Kolchak or Yudenich’s White Army and another from Trotsky or Lenin’s Red Army! Even a Menshevik Communist killed another Russian simply because the other man was a Bolshevik Communist! The Chinese Civil War lasting from 1911 with uneven intervals till 1949 was equally brutal with Chinese killing Chinese in the name of an ideology conceived by a German of Jewish ancestry to liberate the workers of the world! The Britishers were horrified with the brutal pillage and destruction of Muslim Rohailkhand3 following conquest of Hindustani Pathan Muslim Rohailkhand by Shia Muslim of Oudh through hiring a British-Indian Brigade of the Honourable English East India Company!

What is the lesson! That man can fight for anything, not because two nations are different or war is inevitable between them or because Pakistan or India was inevitable; but simply because “Aggression” is ingrained in the human character! It is justified in the name of class war, war between two nations, a football riot or wars of successions between real brothers! The issue is never ideology but a piece of land that was lost by folly of one king or a flawed constitutional arrangement or a broken treaty concluded 100 years before. In the background is either class interest or ego of a leader or intrigue by a third party for its own interest! It’s a subtle combination of “Ideology” “Ethnicity” “Opportunism” and “Substance” that this scribe in his humble capacity has discussed in some detail in a small book written a year ago. Journalists make their living or channel their urges for aggression by writing militaristic and jingoistic sabre rattling articles about such issues, as is the case in Indo-Pak or any conflict dominated region! Leaders talk about these issues frequently as Indian and Pakistani leaders do to galvanise their electorate, so that their mind remains distracted from the core issues of class exploitation economic disparity and exploitation!





Take the Indo Pak Subcontinent. The two states of Pakistan and India were created because a third party i.e. the Britishers who were neither Muslim nor Hindu conquered India. Communalism based on religion emerged as a factor, emerged only after 1857 when the Hindu middle classes and business classes saw in introduction of Western Democracy and Competitive examinations, an opportunity to grab power without fighting a battle. It all started from the three coastal cities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras with the highest number of educated Indians dominated above all by the Bengali Hindus who were the first to enjoy the fruits of Western Education by virtue of being colonised by the British before all other parts of India! I will quote some statistics to reveal the Bengali Hindu dominance in education over all other parts of India. From 1864 to 1885, the reader may note that this was Bengali Hindu dominance vis-a-vis other provinces which had similar Hindu majorities; thus the dominance was more provincial and ethnic than religious! From 1864 to 1885, 2,153 Indians from Bengal Province (Bengal Bihar and Orissa) passed the B.A examination as compared to 272 from NWP and Oudh (Modern UP), while only 107 candidates from Punjab (which at that time had two large non-Punjabi enclaves in the Trans Indus territories and the Hariana Districts) passed B.A.4 The Bengalis took the lead and were viewed as a threat by the UP elite both Hindu and Muslim in the 1880s! In 1886 Pandit Ajudia Nath a leading UP Hindu made a statement before the Public Service Commission against recruitment to government posts by competitive examination since the learned Pandit felt that UP men were backward in English education compared with maritime province (i.e. Bombay, Madras and Bengal). Candidates could stand little chance in open competition against the maritime province candidates.5 As education advanced in UP the Hindus of other provinces came closer. Being the larger community and more dominant in terms of education, business assets and representation in the professional and civil servant classes. The Indian Hindus were in a position of strategic advantage to dominate post British politics of India after the British withdrew from India! Even this was a class affair since the Hindus who dominated the Congress were from Brahmin and Kayasth classes while the older Hindu dominant classes i.e. the Rajputs, Jats and Marathas were now relegated to the background by virtue of being less educated and financially insolvent or bankrupt!6 The Muslim League founded in 1906 was on the other hand a Muslim feudal dominated party with its base in UP till at least 1937! In 1937 Nehru foolishly antagonised the UP Muslims who dominated the Muslim League by not offering them any seat unless they left the Muslim League! It was just a question of two seats in the UP Cabinet over which the Hindustani Muslims decided to stand behind Jinnah. Pure Punjabi intellectuals like S.M. Ikram have admitted that Muslim separatism had its origin in the Muslim minority provinces, and that too primarily U.P. Francis Robinson has made a remarkable study of the UP Muslims and has proved, with conctrete facts and figures that it was while defending a position of strength, during the periood 1860-1923 which was threatened by introduction of local; government and the competitive examinations that the UP Muslims decided to opt for separatism, which became the basis of Pakistan Movement! The point is that all these political developments were more related to individual leaders and class interests than ideology as is propagated in India and Pakistan. Mr Jinnah broke away from Congress not over Hindu Muslim issue but over use of violence as a policy to evict the British from India! As late as 1937 Mr Jinnah described Punjab, which became the cornerstone of Pakistan in 1946 as a hopeless place, which he shall never again visit!7





Pakistan was created in 1947. It is thought provoking to note that only 10 % of the population of India was eligible to vote in the 1935 Elections and out of these less than half did not vote8 The situation was not much different in 1947! Muslim separatism which finally led to the division of India in 1947 was not something inevitable since 711 A.D but was a tactical response of the Indian Muslim middle and higher classes to fear of Hindu Brahmin and Kayasth class domination. A valid response but one, which required great vision which was sadly lacking! Once religion was misused to exploit the East wing, Bangladesh was created. Bangladesh has survived, a fact that disproves the pre 1947 Congress assertion that India cannot be divided into smaller states and the post 1947 Pakistani assertion that mere religion is a panacea for all problems!





Kashmir Issue

Now coming to Kashmir, the subject of some 60% articles of many Indo-Pak military, historical and geopolitical journals. The issue in Kashmir is simple. An insurgency in order to succeed must either be backed by armed intervention by the neighbouring state or by massive financial or military aid from outside. The former was the case in Bangladesh in 1971 when the Bengalis got their country because of Indian military intervention! Or it was Kuwait in 1991, which owed its re-birth to US military intervention! The latter happened in Afghanistan or Vietnam with massive US or Soviet/Chinese aid to guerilla forces, or in Spain in 1936-37 with massive German aid to Franco. Now lets look at the failures. The Poles revolt heroically against Russia in 1830 and 1863 but are crushed since no foreign power intervenes or exerts real diplomatic pressure on their behalf! They are overrun in 1939 and are again liberated in 1945 by the Red Army. Now what do we have in Kashmir? We do not have the military potential to intervene and no massive aid like Afghanistan from 1979 to 1988. The Kashmiris are dying, they are fighting heroically, but how do we suppose that Indians will leave without an all out war which our leaders do not have the resolution as proved by Nawaz’s irresolution in the Blair House ‘Bachao Bachao’ rush of June 1999! We don’t have any massive finances to back the Kashmiri guerillas! What’s the solution! Wait like the Germans from 1945 to 1988 or to let the Kashmiris die like the Poles! Or fight a war, a suicidal war, but that is not in our culture! So Hara Kiri or Kami Kazi attacks are out! What is left is rhetoric! Kashmir Committees!





The employment of the Jehadis voluntarily or deliberate is an interesting phenomenon of the Kashmir situation. Many of these are men who would be as happy to kill a Shia as a Hindu! A saying of a Britisher said about a Bannu Tribal Pathan lashkar brought to loot and kill Muslims of Lucknow and Oudh in 1857-58 fits well with these extremists i.e. “whether these blood thirsty brigands kill a rebel Hindustani Indian or are killed is equally beneficial for the British Empire, for in the Trans Indus Frontier one tribal Pathan less will make our task easier and one Indian rebel Sepoy killed in Lucknow will make our task in the Ghadar easier”!

The problem is that mere “Eeman” as some would call or fanaticism as some others may call it is not a tailor made formula to solve all military or political issues! There were Ghazis in 1857 who would charge British positions with the firm conviction to kill or get killed! They were brave men but the British managed to win and Ghazis despite all their devotion failed to carry the day! Some people in our top decision making echelons mistakenly thought in the 1980s that guerrilla war or low intensity operations as presently being waged in Kashmir could solve all our military and political problems!





Guerrilla warfare as perfected by Sivaji, the father of modern guerrilla warfare was a savage and protracted affair and it took about eighty years to succeed even at that time! A rudimentary glance at guerrilla warfare’s history proves that guerrilla warfare is a story of successes as well as failures. A Guerrilla war in order to succeed must be fought in an environment in which both internal, local and international conditions favour it. Imam Shamyl who led the Daghestanis war of resistance against the Russian Czars was one of the most charismatic and brilliant leaders in the history of guerrilla war. Yet Shamyl failed and finally died as a prisoner under house arrest in European Russia. The international conditions did not favour Shamyl’s war and the great man despite all the valour and advantages of adverse terrain failed! Almost during the same time the Greeks were successful in attaining independence since West European powers specially Britain actively helped them. Around the same time, the Armenians, another Christian people failed to attain independence since no external power favoured their cause! Sandino of Nicaragua was a great guerrilla leader of Central American history! He eluded the US Marines who hopelessly tried for a long time to militarily defeat him but was finally treacherously killed by the Somozas. Nicaragua had to wait for many more decades to evict the Somoza dynasty till the late 1970s. Local conditions favoured guerrilla warfare but international conditions were against it and USA was bent at all cost to defeat any radical movement in Central America. Cuba with the particular Cold war tension of the late fifties and early sixties was the only guerrilla success story in South and Central America. The Basmachis also failed for similar reasons to defeat the USSR in Central Asia in the 1920s and 1930s. Biafara was yet another failure of a secessionist movement. The worst story of failure of guerrilla warfare can be found in Kurdistan where the brave Kurds despite being morally right, ethnically homogeneous and terrain wise well placed have failed to create an independent Kurdistan. Local conditions favour them but international conditions by virtue of being divided into three different countries as well as lack of open superpower support has so far doomed their struggle. I do not think there is any braver race in the Middle East than this warrior race that produced a Saladin! But all the valour and sacrifice of many decades has so far not brought them any success! Balochistan is yet another failure story of guerrilla warfare. Local conditions favoured the guerrillas in Balochistan in the 1970s but international conditions were against them and those indomitable men who were superior in minor tactics than any Afghan Mujahideen group failed in the final reckoning! They failed not because they lacked valour or because of tactical incompetence but simply because they did not get a billion dollar aid package from a super power and all important neighbouring countries did not actively help them! Malaya is yet another example of failure. Distance from Mainland China, ethnic composition of the local population and international involvement doomed the cause of the extremely brave, motivated and tactically sound, Chinese Communist guerrilla warriors of Malaysia. Che Guevera an extremely charismatic and brilliant guerrilla leader is yet another example of failure in guerrilla wars. Che drew wrong conclusions from the successes of the Cuban revolution and paid it with his life while trying to bring a similar revolution in Bolivia through guerrilla war! The ethnic logistic as well as internal conditions of Bolivia were different from Cuba and did not favour guerrilla warfare. The population was largely Mestizo (Red Indian/European mixed) and was far more conservative than Cuba. Distance from main external base country was so great that logistically it was difficult to support Che’s brilliant war from outside.

Now compare figures like Che Guevera, Shamyl, Barzani with pedantic officers in charge of guerrilla operations in Third World countries! These are the officers working in the agencies dealing with guerrilla forces fighting a war of secession in neighbouring countries! What is their intellectual calibre or what is their motivation! Does an army’s best lot serve in the Intelligence agencies which at least in the Third World perform most despicable task of petty spying rather than any grand strategic intelligence work! Can these pedants succeed where Che, Shamyl and many extremely brilliant motivated and brave leaders failed. The organisation dealing with the so-called Kashmiri Jihad is more illustrious for so scientifically rigging elections that the first Nobel Prize for rigging elections without being caught can be awarded to it. This organisation has a history of doing everything including personal fortune enhancement, selling Stingers, and sleeping all the time when the Indians infiltrated 35 miles inside Siachen glacier! In short doing everything except its actual intelligence job!





Back in the 1980s we in Pakistan drew the wrong conclusions from the Afghan Guerrilla war! It was mistaken as the success of Islam over Godless communism! In reality it was the success of a multi- billion dollar CIA sponsored war over the army of a country which was hardly communist but was run by third generation bureaucrats who had survived all the Soviet purges of 1920s and 1930s in which all real communists were killed by Stalin! The first blunder that resulted from false conclusions was our backing of Sikhs! The Sikhs fought well and local conditions favoured their cause but Pakistan did not have the military potential to deliver the final coup de grace and transform the Sikh guerrillas into creators of a new Sikh Desh as was India able to do with a physical invasion of East Pakistan in 1971!. In the process the flower of Sikh youth died although they were relatively far braver than the Afghans were without CIA Stingers, or without the relative security of the high mountains of Afghanistan! A whole generation was destroyed for no purpose and simply because someone in an intelligence agency thought that lessons of Afghanistan could be applied in Indian Punjab. Resultantly and most mysteriously around the same time as the Indians came close to crushing the Sikhs another kind of political semi-secessionist and ethnic movement emerged in urban Sindh in the shape of MQM





To come back to the main discussion i.e Kashmir. Kashmir is not Afghanistan by any definition. The growth of militancy in Kashmir is the result of a complicated series of historical processes. It is not simply a case of Islam versus Hinduism but a case of a history of disillusionment of a particular ethnic-religious group with a central government which increasingly infringed over provincial autonomy to a point where a conflict situation was created where the Kashmiris perceived that their ethnic as well as religious survival was at stake unless they struck back! This was largely a result of the Indira Gandhi era when India was transformed from a relatively secular progressive state into a pseudo secular but essentially Hindu Chauvinistic state with a most negative tendency to destroy provincial autonomy. The Kashmir struggle in this sense has a very close similarity with the East Pakistani struggle against West Pakistani domination, the only difference being that the Bengalis were Muslims by pure chance and the Kashmiris are Muslims by pure chance! We must remember that the same Kashmiri Muslims betrayed thousands of infiltrators from Pakistan to the Indian Army in 1965! A subtle difference has to be recognised at this point of discussion! The same Kashmiri Muslim in 1965 viewed India or to be more specific India’s Federal Government differently! The difference between 1965 and 1999 or 2000 is not about Kashmiris being good or bad Muslims but a radical transformation in Kashmiri Muslim perceptions about India’s Hindu identity! The conflict is essentially between centrifugal tendencies in an ethnically and religiously divergent province made further intense by religious differences! But then we must remember that a similarly savage war between ethnically different but religiously same West and East Pakistanis in 1971! We must not forget that the Kashmiris war with India did not start over independence but over the Indian Federal Governments infringements on Kashmir’s special status relatively slowly from the 1950s and markedly speedily since the 1984 elections! The situation became more radical following the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan since many extremist religious groups of Pakistani Pathan or Afghan origin diverted their energy towards Kashmir! Many people in the highest echelons of Pakistani decision-makers thought that Kashmir could be another Afghan Jihad!





The Kashmir situation unfortunately is very different from that of Afghanistan. The war being fought there may be outwardly or symbolically a war of Islam with Hinduism! In reality the issue is far graver for both the successor states of the post-1947 partition of British India i.e India and Pakistan! Kashmir is an ironic Catch 22 situation for both the states, which some political scientists have termed as ‘failed states’. The core issue till 1947 was the controversy whether religion is the basis of a nation or is geographic compactness, economic viability requirements of external Defence and abstract ideas like democracy and secularism more important! The result was a compromise, India being divided as Muslim and Hindu India, while in reality Muslims were divided into Muslim majority Pakistan and India with a huge Muslim minority.

The populace of Indo-Pak had voted for the Congress and the League motivated by vague hopes, unrealistic expectations and impractical ideals! Secular or supposedly secular Bharat did not bring prosperity for millions of Indians whether Hindu or Muslim! The class that did the best was the middle class, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh that had most shamelessly collaborated with the British and had little to do with any tangible or concrete anti-British actions! The new rulers of Indo-Pak were little different from the oppressive Aurangzeb or the Colonial British. A non-Muslim Government at Delhi did not save the Indian Sikhs from or the brave Nagas or Mizos from persecution. This was despite the fact that all of these groups were not Muslim by any definition! Similarly a pure Muslim government in Pakistan did not save the Pakistani Muslim, Baloch or Bengalis from genocide, discrimination and persecution! The Baloch or Bengalis soon discovered that their new masters were far worse than Outram Sandeman, Jacob or even Clive and Warren Hastings! Ironically the partition of India was justified with the constitutional rationale that “if India was not divided the Hindus would use a Hindu controlled and dominated army to discipline Muslim provinces! But the Baloch and Bengalis discovered that the Butcher of Balochistan or Bengal Tikka Khan was not a Hindu but a Muslim! Similarly the Sikh Kabba i.e the Golden Temple was not desecrated by a Muslim Army but by a Hindu army of a supposedly Secular Socialistic country!





In this respect thus both the countries were partial failures. The partition was logically a neat solution but future developments proved that things were not as simple as both Mr Nehru and Jinnah could have imagined in the wildest of their dreams! The course which future history as we have briefly discussed took proved that both great leader premises were fallacious! The separation of East Pakistan in 1971 and the resultant creation of Bangladesh proved that mere religion was no panacea for all political problems! That religion was an important aspect of man’s life but was not an absolute basis for nationhood! Bangladesh further proved wrong the pre-1947 Congress assertion that India’s provinces could not survive as smaller states!





In Kashmir the issue is once again at stake! Ironically Kashmir is a vindication of the “Smaller State Theory” just like Bangladesh rather than a proof of Islamic identity as we in Pakistan are inclined to believe! Kashmir is no Afghanistan, which was an unproductive country far away from the Great Russian heartland! It has been a province of the Indian Union for half a century just like Sindh or Balochistan are provinces of Pakistan! It’s not an uninhabited desert like Sinai or something like Algeria with many hundred miles of sea in between France and Algeria! How on earth do we expect that the Indians would withdraw from Kashmir without a major war or a multi-billion dollar logistically backed hi-tech guerrilla war like Afghanistan!





The pedants who make our strategic decisions fallaciously imagined that Kashmir could be yet another Afghanistan! The men in charge of overseeing the guerrilla war are not having a fraction of Mao’s or Lawrence’s or Che’s acumen, nor any of Ho Chi Min’s ideological conviction! They are the ones who act once their personal interests whether that of a politician or that of a serving officer are threatened; but never in cases when national pride is at stake or the country is forced into a humiliating political retreat. The most convincing proof of this assertion is the Kargil Crisis when the army should have removed Nawaz Sharif! The action of 12th October albeit necessary and decisive was taken once personal careers were under danger of termination and the situation was that of a clash of personalities rather than a clash of ideas! So much for the strength of conviction of our leaders, civil or military! I am tempted to agree to the adage that the danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern but that every class is unfit to govern! At least in the Indo-Pak subcontinent where one thousand years of subjugation has destroyed the leadership qualities of all the classes that dominate the society! The elite in reality is fooling the common man in the name of Hinduvta or Islam!





Pakistan lacks the military potential to physically invade Kashmir and lacks the economic potential to finance the proxy war. The foreseeable result is that the fate of the Kashmiris will be something similar to that like the Polish people of East Europe. The reader may note that the Poles were crushed by Germany, Austria and Russia for two hundred years despite the fact that they fought more than three heroic wars of independence against Russia, the country which was occupying the vast bulk of Polish territory till 1918. The Poles were as brave as the Kashmiris but no country was willing or geographically able to assist them! They were liberated only as a result of the First World War, which destroyed Russia, Austria and Germany. Germany and Russia only liberated in 1945 yet again occupied them in 1939 when they traded German oppression for Soviet Russian oppression till 1988! All that we are doing is pushing the Indians as well as ourselves into a “Catch 22” situation which has the danger of a nuclear exchange which both the countries cannot afford! The issue is more sentimental than substantial and will trigger a process of Balkanisation of the Indian subcontinent, which will affect both the countries. Even if India withdraws from Kashmir, a remote possibility, it will resort to measures to redress the balance by encouraging separatism in any of Pakistan’s ethnically diverse provinces! Gain of territory did not help the Germans in 1870, or the Israelis in 1967 or the Russians in 1979! The main danger lies in the post-conflict bitterness and the feelings of revenge ignited in the party, which comes worst off out of the conflict!





In addition we in Pakistan must not forget that we are also a multi- ethnic state with as brutal insurgency record as India in Balochistan and East Bengal! Inflation is growing and if a youth can become a Jehadi, he can also become an ethnically motivated secessionist! History is not constant and it does not move in straight lines! If there are high mountains in Kashmir there are even higher mountains in the northern areas and even more barren and desolate ones in Balochistan. Sindh has been a historically turbulent province whether it was the Talpur times or the Hur Rebellion, the MRD Movement or the MQM Urban guerrilla business. And what do we have to offer to the Kashmiris? Four successive and phenomenally corrupt democratic ministries! Four military governments, the first three of which hopelessly failed to solve the country’s economic or constitutional problems and the second one leading to the country’s dismemberment! The fourth one’s performance will vindicate its place in history if it steers Pakistan out of 2000 in face of an intensely complicated geopolitical situation ! An open question but one which only a prophet can answer, although subcontinental history has ample proofs of mediocrity at the highest level in both the countries!





Writing of articles dealing with Small Unit Actions

Writers of such articles tend to exaggerate their unit’s performance in any war. The following quotation from “Memoirs of General Sherman” is quite thought-provoking: —



“ I am not publishing my memoirs, not theirs and we all know that no three honest witnesses of a brawl can agree on all the details. How much more likely will be the differences in a great battle covering a vast space of broken ground, when each division, brigade, regiment and even company naturally and honestly believes that it was the focus of the whole affair! Each of them won the battle. None ever lost. That was the fate of the old man who unhappily commanded”.



The humble advice to writers of small unit actions is to remember that their battalion, regiment, company or troop was the only unit or sub-unit that did everything!





On dealing with countries perceived as “Enemy States”

The press and this includes newspapers, journals etc are one of the major culprits in making the Indo-Pak atmosphere more tense. Vajpayee is a demagogue and may perhaps be dead in a year or two. India is witnessing social unrest, which is amply proved by protracted labour strikes. A positive development since the common man in both countries is a victim of the same class of exploiters! The Press/Media in this situation should not behave like a Nathoo Khan; just calling the enemy bad guys! Instead practical solutions should be offered.



I read two books recently in which the writers showed a remarkable attitude. One was by an Indian Christian titled “The Tigers of Mysore” on Hyder and Tipu. The author praised Tipu despite the fact that Tipu had persecuted the authors southern Indian Christian community for betraying Mysore’s national interests and collaborating with the English East India Company. The authors verdict was that Tipu’s actions were just since the author’s community had played the role of traitors! It’s a remarkably detached treatment of a subjective part of history. Calling the enemy bad is counter productive in most cases. The other party reciprocates and resultantly the atmosphere becomes more highly charged and tense without any actual provocation by either state. What’s the point in unnecessary verbal sabre rattling!



The other book was written by a brilliant German officer who became a Russian prisoner of war in WW Two.The layman reader may note that the Russo-German conflict was one of the most savage military conflict of WW Two in terms of atrocities against combatants as well as non-combatants committed by both sides. Yet Colonel Baron Hans Von Luck in his excellent book “Panzer Commander” makes an admirable attempt to understand the Russian point of view! Some excerpts are worth quoting! This is how Von Luck describes the situation on being captured in action. “From all sides Russians came with Tommy guns at the ready, I saw to my dismay that they were Mongolians, whose slit eyes revealed hatred, curiosity and greed. As they tried to snatch away my watch and Knight’s cross, a young officer suddenly intervened. ‘Stop don’t touch him. He’s a geroi (hero), a man to respect”. Now Baron Hans Von Luck is taken to a colonel and this is how he describes the meeting.” This burly man who made such a brutal first impression laughed. ‘You see’ he cried, that’s poetic justice; you shot up my tanks and forced us to retreat; now in re-compense I have you as my prisoner ...he fetched two glasses and in Russian style filled them to the brim with Vodka, so that together we would swallow them with one swallow! “Baron Hans Von Luck reflected,” my thoughts took shape...the conduct of the young lieutenant and the colonel scarcely fitted into the image of the Russians that we had formed for ourselves. Certainly the atrocities of the mass that had invaded Germany were indisputable and exceeded all that could be imagined, but what had been inflicted on the Russians in huge losses, also among the civilian population, in the treatment of prisoners in Germany and in the devastation of the areas occupied by us, had with reason given rise to immense hatred, which had been further inflamed by Russian propaganda (herein comes the negative role of the media/press) and was now venting itself in personal encounters. However, as in my own case, it appeared that soldiers all over the world have one thing in common; they have chosen their profession or called upon to defend their homeland. They respect their opponents, who are doing no more than their duty. Wars are begun by politicians. They are the true militarists”! Von Luck’s reflections on life as a Russian prisoner are also thought provoking. “In the first two years, especially in the severe winters in the Elburs mountains about 50% prisoners died...to be fair it should be said that even the Russians in the years 1945 and 1946 were not much better off than we as far as food was concerned. We worked (in the coalmines) alongside Russians and Georgians who proved to be good mates and often shared their last bits of bread with us. Hans Von Luck gave the following advice to Russian haters on being released. “On the train journey to France I tried to make clear to them that the black and white portrayal of the Russians as nothing but evil and us in the west as nothing but good was mistaken and led us nowhere “.



Now lets draw some practical lessons in rational writing. All serious and earnest writers should rise above the role of a mere propagandist .The thinking audience expects dispassionate analysis rather than propaganda. The second subjective or regional lesson for Pakistani writers is the fact that Kashmir was lost by our politicians in 1947-48 and 1965. Ayub being more of a politician than a soldier! How do we suppose that now the Indians will behave ethically and give up a piece of valuable real estate without a war, or that the Americans would act as our fathers in getting us back a piece of ancestral property that we lost because of lack of political acumen and decisiveness!





On Atrocities in Civil War/Partition etc:—

Atrocities are committed once law and order breaks down and the fear of coercive power that keeps the beast in most men under control is removed! These atrocities have no connection with ideology or even race. The point that I want to drive home is the simple fact that atrocities in 1947 or 1857 or 1971 were committed because the multitude knew that there was no central coercive authority to protect a particular community, which was momentarily perceived as enemy or exploiters!

The first point that I want to drive home is the fact that atrocities in 1947 were committed by on both sides! But as they say truth is the first casualty in a civil war or in any crisis situation.



Lord Roberts of Kandahrar adopted a novel way of dealing with the Kabul mob in the Second Afghan War! He erected gallows in the city and hanged anyone suspected of being a potential trouble creator! The affect was positive and Kabul thereafter remained more tranquil and calm! Probably Nawab Mohammad Hayat had accompanied Roberts as sort of a political assistant. A family anecdote told by my grandfather’s brother thus goes that Nawab Mohammad Hayat had advised Roberts that “Sahab, if we hang them like Metcalfe Sahab did at Delhi, it will have a good impact on these savages! In any case we are not going to stay in this accursed place permanently”! The reader may note that my great grandfather’s father who was from the Punjab Police Department had also accompanied the British Expeditionary army as a Persian interpreter. In those days Pan Islamism was not yet in vogue. The Indians whether Muslim, Sikh or Hindu had different perceptions about Afghans who were much hated because of their raids on India from 1739 to 1799 as mercenaries of Persia or as Abdali’s army! During these raids these Afghans had indiscriminately looted all Indians whether Muslim Indian or Sikh! On one occasion the loot that Ahmad Shah Abdali’s army was carrying from Delhi to Afghanistan was so heavy that the Akhnur bridge of boats over the Chenab collapsed while the looters baggage train was crossing it and considerable movable wealth was lost and many Afghans were drowned in the fast flowing Chenab river !

The point is that the riots of 1947 which are cited as the vindication of ‘Two Nation Theory’ in Pakistan as a matter of fact were outbreaks which had a far deeper connection with the bursting out of the innate animal aggression in human nature, which in normal times is restrained by the coercive machinery of the state! The atrocities committed by Muslim mobs on non-Muslims and vice versa, mostly in West and East Punjab were acts of a hostile mob against defenceless unarmed people who were perceived as belonging to an enemy country and thus an ideal pray for rape, loot and slaughter! The problem had a deeper connection with the British failure to keep a large purely British force to restrain the Indians from killing each other in a situation where no purely Indian force could have effectively controlled the wild mobs! Both Mr Jinnah and Nehru never foresaw the amount of carnage and slaughter that would accompany the transfer of power and partition. Nehru even vetoed the proposal of keeping British troops to control the mob by stating “ I would rather have every village in India put to the flames rather than have the British Army after August 15”.9 The most ironic part is that atrocities are never wholly ethnic or even religious.They have more to deal with group perceptions regarding another group! Thus the atrocities of the Pakistan Army in 1971 in East Pakistan when the Bengalis despite being Muslims were perceived as enemies or traitors and the official policy was that of endorsing all killings as necessary. In addition the situation was made more emotionally charged by similar atrocities committed by Bengali mobs against non-Bengali civilians in the four weeks before the army action. Similarly Indian Army atrocities in Kashmir cannot be taken simply in terms of bifurcation of religion!



This reminds me of a unique true story of ethnic hatred, which has little to do with religion! This story is based on the experiences of the Ranghar Muslims of a village Chak 130 LGB or Nao Rohtak in district Lyallpur! My great grandfather settled in that village in the 1880s as a colonist of the newly created Chenab Colony. The settlers in that particular village were mostly Ranghar Muslims from East Punjab districts of Rohtak and Hissar. These men hailed from the old Bengal Cavalry villages like Kanar, Kalanaur, Jatu Satna and Jamalpur. Most of them in the 1880s were serving or had retired from Skinners Horse, 1st and 3rd Punjab Cavalry and 19 Lancers. They hated the Punjabi Sikhs and Muslims and Pathan Muslims who in 1857 had committed countless atrocities in Rohtak and Hissar district as part of Hodson’s Horse or as part of General Van Cortlandt’s force!

The Writer’s Job:— So what is the writer’s job! One may say that it is neither to laugh, nor to cry, nor to romanticise nor to hate or spread hatred...but to understand! This should be digested by all Indo-Pak writers! I sincerely hope that this journal will act as a forum where light instead of heat is supplied. One where the broader vision is improved and the reader does not get lost in the trees and bushes of communal or regional hatred but is provided a vantage point from where he can look down and survey the forest as a whole!



POST-SCRIPT



The important task for the policy-makers and executors in both India and Pakistan is to read some practical psychology in order to solve the pathological problem of regional and communal hatred that has gripped the region since mid -1920s. Perhaps they should study someone like Dr Eric Berne! They have two broad options i.e; either makes their mental images correspond to reality or to fashion reality in such a manner that it corresponds with their mental images! The second option is more impracticable now since both the countries are nuclear powers. They also must remember that both parties do not have the potential, both military as well as economic to impose their will on the other party! The Indians must remember what Ravi Rikhye had observed some years ago, i.e, the Nuclear Bomb would prolong Pakistan’s life by another 50 years. Pakistani policy makers must also remember that the so-called Afghan Jihad succeeded (which in itself is debatable keeping in view Afghanistan’s post Soviet withdrawal conditions!) Not simply because of Islamic zeal but because of many other factors, out of which the most important one was US military material and financial aid! Another fact that the Pakistani policy makers must remember is, that men galvanised to do Jihad will not stop at Srinagar! Their next destination that is if they survive Kashmir will surely be the Penthouses in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad! They should also not forget the extremist germs in the Pathan psyche! How the Hindustani Rohilla Pathans dealt with the de jure Mughal Emperor of India once they blinded him. How they made the Mughal Princes wear female clothes and dance! They should also not forget that finally Shah Alam was not rescued by the Punjabi, Pathan or Afghan Muslims but by the Hindu Marathas!



Similarly the Americans must remember that the Muslim Jehadi Count Dracula that they resurrected many centuries after the crusades with CIA Dollars and modern US military hardware in Ningrahar and Paktia is definitely far more dangerous than the older original Transylvanian version of Bram Stoker which was only confined to the London journal in which it was serialised! This new Muslim Dracula may one-day travel in the hidden vaults of a merchant ship across the Atlantic or Pacific to USA! The reader may note that as per one respectable authority only five out of 100 containers arriving at US ports are checked thoroughly!



Ironically the result would be the re-creation of a medieval or pre medieval religious rivalry, for vampires can only be destroyed by recourse to religion! As in Indo-Pak religious extremism in India was intensified once religious extremism intensified in Pakistan from the post-1977 period. The case in Europe and USA may be almost similar. Fears of Islamic resurgence may give rise to another similarly absurd reaction in shape of Christian military resurgence!

The Western policy makers and US also must remember that terrorism will become increasingly global if only one religion or a selected number of countries. After all those who had dug a hole in Vietnam stumbled in an Afghanistan in their old adversary’s hole! Unfortunately it’s a never-ending story! Terrorism never was and never will be Islamic or Communist or capitalist only! Pentagon or the DIA or CIA must not forget this fact! It may be easier to catch a man with Arab or Asian features and a beard but it took the FBI and many other agencies many years to track the UNA Bomber!



REFERENCES



1 Page-988-Hitler and Stalin-Parallel Lives - Alan Bullock-Alfred. A. Knopf-New York-1992.

2 Ibid.

3 Page-142-A History of the British Army-Volume Three-1763-1793- Hon J.W Fortescue-Macmillan and Co Limited-Saint Martin’s Street-London-1911.

4 Page-84-Aligarh’s First Generation-David Lelyveld-Princeton University Press-1978.

5 Page-114- Separatism among Indian Muslims-The Politics of the UP Muslims-1860-1923- Francis Robinson-Oxford University Press-Delhi-1993

6 Page-88-Lelyveld-Op Cit.

7 Page-311-Mian Fazl I Hussain-A Political Biography-Azim Hussain-London-1966

8 Pages-221 & 222-Nehru- A Tryst with Destiny-Stanley Wolpert-Oxford-New York -1996

9 Page-8-The Indian Army after Independence-Major K.C Praval (Retired) -Lancer Paperbacks-New Delhi-Paperback Edition-1993.

Dr Sohail,
I have a few questions.
1. Could you explain if the cycle of violence is also related to primodialism?
2. What draws developed economies to violence in any form?
3. According to Lorenz are not all humans like animals dominating by nature till one over awes the other becoming the Alpha male/female?
This would help me understand your paper.

Agha,
I agree

Amin sahib,

Thanks for #37 and I am gald to notice that you have made paras shorter.

One advice though:

"This new Muslim Dracula" "for vampires"

Kindly dont refer to vampires and Draculas on www.chowk.com for some of MAJ (pbuh)'s misguided and short-sighted Injun Hanud detractors have a sad tendency to refer to him as a Vampire.

Regards

For a seminar presentation this essay was full of broad generalisations and cliches and I don't feel any more enlightened after having read it.

Pavocavalry:

"The employment of the Jehadis voluntarily or deliberate is an interesting phenomenon of the Kashmir situation. Many of these are men who would be as happy to kill a Shia as a Hindu! A saying of a Britisher said about a Bannu Tribal Pathan lashkar brought to loot and kill Muslims of Lucknow and Oudh in 1857-58 fits well with these extremists i.e. “whether these blood thirsty brigands kill a rebel Hindustani Indian or are killed is equally beneficial for the British Empire, for in the Trans Indus Frontier one tribal Pathan less will make our task easier and one Indian rebel Sepoy killed in Lucknow will make our task in the Ghadar easier”! "

A great paragraph.....how true even today -

I find this article rooted in contemopary realities. What Dr. Sohail stated is simple but obvious. Reaffirmation of those points is never unwanted here.

For those who also write (eg. Naqshabandi) that it's impossible to thrill and titillate with every article u write. Ppl living in glasshouses shud not throw stones.

Re: # 43LL- Bhai Jan Iss Aadmi ko main janya hoon,Quetta main meray school main parhta tha.Yaih to iss ka khat hai.Sachai likhee is nay iss liay yeh pakistani logon ko bohat takleef hua jai.

Re: # 44 is Sohail or the naqshabandi you talking about here TIGRAM?

I mean you have been studying Pavocavalry now for a better part of a decade, and now you have added another...the world is way too small for you friend (T)

Re: # 45***** Sorry Dattu bhai , main nay Agha Ji ka baat kia .Quetta main meray classfellow thay. sorry.waisay dil ka kharab aadmi nahin hai woh.bas daroo ziada peeta tha.

What is fundamentalism? Believing that Mike Jakson is the greatest singer on the planet earth or that Bugs Bunny is the real Islamic Allah is my unshaken belief.
I am a fundamentalist!!

But I do not intend to kill others or myself over others not believing in what I believe.

The issue is not whather fundamentalism per se is bad- the issue is whether you consider your fundamental beliefs to be more precious than a human life!!

Islam does not believe in sanctity of a non-muslim life in particular. That is why it is responsible for the cult of blood thirsty Allah that seeks blood sacrifices in the form of Shahadats of human beings and those ghastly id sacrifices of goats and cows!!

Re: # 47

Infact Islam is the most "other wordly" cult where people are all the time fearing that they would miss the birth in heavens if they do not follow the "Islamic principles".

Demolish the metaphysics of heavens and you have better muslims who work for the betterment of the real world!!

#25 Posted by krashid1961 on December 10, 2007 5:40:52 pm


For the interest of all.
Pakistan rich list. Top ten is interesting.


yup..interesting in that it's fake. the billionaires don't show up on the forbes list or anywhere else.

Very informative Dr Sohail Sahib. Not only in matters of mental health, but in all matters, integrated approaches are way to go.

THIS IS FOR MASADI


Lashing the victim

By Irfan Husain

TRY this for a scenario: a young woman is gang-raped in, say, the US. The rapists are given a few months, while the victim is sentenced to three months in jail as well as 90 lashes. And when her lawyer appeals for a stiffer sentence for the men, it is her sentence that is doubled.

We can imagine the worldwide uproar had such a grotesque travesty actually taken place. Except that it has, in Saudi Arabia, not the US. In much of the Muslim world, this horrifying episode has been virtually blanked out of the public consciousness, with the media maintaining a discreet silence.

And to compound this judicial farce, the judges have also barred Abdalrahman al-Lahim, the defence lawyer, from appearing in their court. According to them, by going public with this horror story, both the victim and her attorney have attempted to influence them.

The tragedy began last year when the unnamed 19-year old woman got into a car to discuss a professional matter with a male colleague. Two other men entered the car, and forced them to drive into the desert where they were joined by the rest of their gang. Here they gang-raped the woman, and attacked her male companion as well.

When the traumatised woman and her husband reported the matter to the police, she was accused of being in the company of a na-mehram (an unrelated male), a crime in Saudi Arabia. On this charge, she was sentenced to three months in jail, and 90 lashes. And when she appealed, the sentence was doubled.

The whole sickening episode casts an unflattering light on what passes for justice in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Archaic laws, interpreted by judges with little or no formal legal training, form the backbone of jurisprudence. Although termed ‘Islamic’, in reality they are a vague collection of tribal customs and rules imposed by men who seldom bother to refer to precedents. Far too often, they are arbitrary and harsh. And invariably, they are anti-women.

When incidents like the Mukhtaran Mai gang-rape are reported in Pakistan, international outrage puts pressure on the government to act against those responsible. True, many such cases never make it to the international media, and victims suffer in silence in a male-dominated, archaic society. But at least, there is a theoretical recourse to justice.

In Saudi Arabia, public opinion counts for very little. As the planet’s biggest exporter of petroleum, and with coffers bulging from soaring oil prices, the Saudi ruling family does not have to care what the rest of the world thinks of them.

Even White House spokesmen, normally so ready to criticise human rights violations around the world, are reduced to mumbling about ‘cultural differences’. Surely no system anywhere allows the victims of crimes to be punished.

And within the Islamic world, there is a tendency to ignore excesses committed by Muslims against their fellow-Muslims. Thus, when believers blow up, behead, torture, maim and slaughter their brethren, a conspiracy of silence comes into operation. Rulers can jail and torment opponents, steal elections (when and if they are ever held), and invade their neighbours with scarcely a word of criticism from fellow-Muslims.

So nobody in the Muslim world protests when Hamas gunmen kill Fatah foot-soldiers or vice versa. But when the Israelis join in, there is a wave of outrage. Similarly, when Iraqi militias slaughter other Iraqis, none of us protest. But when Americans kill Iraqis, we are rightly incensed. In Afghanistan, far more innocent Afghans are killed by other Afghans than by Nato forces.

As moral human beings, it is right that we should raise our voices against illegal occupation and invasion. But who has invaded Pakistan where daily, terrorists kill innocent people in the name of Islam?

The truth is that we are very selective in our condemnation of violence, reserving our criticism for the West. But this hypocrisy is apparent to the rest of the world. When we defended the Taliban, we invoked their peculiar tribal customs to justify their vicious practices. In fact, had 9/11 not occurred, they would still merrily be flogging women for inadvertently showing an inch of skin.

And when the Lal Masjid insurgency erupted in the heart of our capital, there was more sympathy for the armed militants and the crazed students who were killed than there was for the soldiers and policemen who died to restore the writ of the state.

In part, these double standards are caused by an unspoken ‘them versus us’ syndrome that rests on the notion of a Muslim ummah encircled and victimised by the West. So we tend to overlook the horrors that are committed daily across much of the Muslim world. But this quest for a united front proves elusive when placed in the crucible of self-interest.

The reality is that this whole notion of a vast Islamic brotherhood stretching from Morocco to Indonesia does not bear close examination. Over the years, despite much bombast and tall claims about Islamic unity, Muslim countries have done exactly what suited them, without any consideration of what was good for the ummah.

The reason this polite fiction is kept alive, in public at least, is that Muslim rulers can exploit such popular sentiments when it suits them. So although there were no public protests in the Islamic world when Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, or Kuwait in 1990, many Muslims did stage protests against the American-led invasions of Iraq in 1990, and then in 2003. But it should be noted that the massive demonstrations in western capitals against the second Gulf War were far larger than those organised by Muslims.

So we can see that we are very selective in deciding how we react to actions carried out in the West and in the Islamic world. These double standards rob us of the moral high ground. By applying one code to judge fellow Muslims, and an entirely different one to pronounce on the West, we have lost the right to be taken seriously in the counsels of the world.

Thus when human rights violations take place in Pakistan, we look to the West to apply pressure on our rulers, not to our fellow-Muslims. In any case, for the latter, official thuggery is the norm, not the exception.

Re: # 38
dear ijaz gul...the issue of violence in humans is quite complex
those like lorenz who focus on instincts focus on the animal part of humans and show that in certain conditions the animal part in humans dominate and they become aggressive and violent
those like eric fromm who focus on psychological, social and economic aspects highlight that human beings develop a certain personality based on their family and cultural conditioning
eric fromm has written a wonderful book....the anatomy of human destructiveness...in which he shares that in animals aggression is BENIGN...animal is hungry...kills to satisfy his hunger ....and then leaves
in humans the aggression is MALIGNANT (humans are the most dangerous and violent animals on earth) because humans associate vilence and aggression with a meaning....whether revenge...ideology....or justice...
and then RATIONALIZE their aggression. i wanted to share how human beings JUSTIFY their violence and certain material and social conditions
religion
or
economics
or
politics
can be used to dominate and control other human beings and nations. Whether it is religious domination or economic control of the world....different religious and political leaders use those reasons to rationalize their aggression and violence. Since most theories are either sociological presented by sociologists or psychological presented by psychologists or economic presented by economists we are still struggling to have a unified theory....eric fromm is one of those who tried to build a bridge between sociological and psychological theories as he was well read in theories of Freud and Marx. His book The Sane Society is wonderful as he compares the capitalist and socialist societies. In the contemporary world we need a new integrated theory that is still missing as we are lacking an integrated approach to life.
thank you for your interest...sohail

drsohail,
do you believe in 'just war' ?

Re: # 53
dear khurram...i smiled when i read your simple but profound question. while i try to ponder over your question can you share what you mean by 'just war' and do you believe in it. i can see this question starting a passionate dialogue among readers......sohail
ps...i sometimes confuse between khurram (with an a)...and khurrum (with a u) are you the one who exchanged some private emails with me about the psychology of fundamentalist and humanist personalities and suggested i read paul tillich's book about Dynamics of Faith?

dear khurram,

Saint Augustine was a great beleiver and supporter of "Just Wars". Please read up on his work to gain inspiration on the topic.

Dr. Sohail, I know you are busy and all, but I did craft a nice suggestion for you in my first interact on this board :)
with much respect,
thinking storm

Re: # 55
dear thinking storm....the chowky che guevara...i like your energy...your passion...your crazyness....your cynical wisdom...i feel that way sometimes and write passionate articles and provoke a lot of criticism...and sometimes i feel serene and sober and peaceful.... like other writers i also have changing moods that reflect in their actions and writings.
i have written a spicy article that i will send to chowk editors next month and see if they like it....have some suspense for a while...your friendly and humourous comments are always welcome...all the best...sohail

dr sohail: recent research shows that over the past 5000 years, humans have started evolving several times faster (measured in terms of dna changes) than early on. much of this seems to have to do with the success of the human species as a result of "civilization" that allowed it to spread across the globe from africa starting 30,000 years or so ago. thus, about 10,000 years ago, there was virtually no racial difference among humans. since then, africans have developed resistance to malaria (flip side - sickle cell anemia) and europeans have lost melanin (to better absorb vitamin D from sunlight).

if evolution has speeded up past 5,000 years, it seems that in this century and the next it would be virtually exploding - given the vast increases in intermingling of populations due to globalization, advancements