Hands Across The Border

Sharmila:

Welcome to Chowk. The future rests with the youth. We can all chip in various ways to alleviate sufferings. Hopefully efforts like these will someday come to fruition bringing in its wake tolerance and withering away the might of intolerance and extremism.

Allow me to repost this from Midday and Chowk.
____________________________________________

UMMEED KI KIRAN:

DIWALI 2000


__________________________________________________



DIYA JALAO

Diya jalao: chiraghaaN karo
ranjishaiN
shikway, shikayataiN
do’or karo.

Let the light
pierce the darkness
the new light
of hope, happiness
deliverance.

Naya saal, naya din
paigham um’meed ka laya hay
diya jalao dosto
din karo raat ko
bad’l dou tareeki ko
pu’r ummeed ujalay say.

Laxmi ki daulat
chain aur a’mun hay
khushi aur khush-hali hay.
Aao du’aiN karaiN
geet gaaiN
is mausam maiN
sada rahay baaqi
chain aur a’mun
darmiaN humaray.

Let Lakshmi bring
what is hard to buy.
Light of hope
Wealth of peace
Happiness of prosperity
and Justice in its wake
for today
and days, years to come...


CHIRAGH JALAO

Sarhad kay paar
shaa’er ki baat suno
woh bhee ik diya jala’aye ga
---kabhi na bujhnay wala
ummeed ka diya jala’aye ga
mohabbatouN ka, dosti ka
hamesh roshan rehnay wala...

Across frontiers
real or imaginary
this poet will
light a lamp too.

...fervently praying
our gods and bhagwaans
instill passion
in the darkness
of our hearts
for love, perhaps
or he’d strive
for lessening hatred
in the travail
for just happiness.

Perhaps,
in the prevailing darkness
the flickering flames
will bring forth
estranged desis together.

Shayad abhi woh waq’t aaya nahi
kay khuda aur bhagwan
sunaiN dilouN ki dhaRRkan humari
a’mun, chain, khushiyaan
phail jaaiN hur soo
shayad woh waq’t
khood hee lana paRRay ga humaiN...

...woh tou srif itni hee du’a karta hay
kay nafrataiN darmian humaray
kuch kum hoN aaj say
srif kuch kum hoN aaj...

M’raiN naa maaraiN
pyaar na sahi
nafrat kum karaiN...


ROSHNI PHEH’LAO

BaRRA hay pareewaar humara
kaRRoRouN haiN hum
jawaan, booRRhay, bachchay
laakhouN mohabbaitaiN haiN
hazarouN ranjeeshaiN
nafrataiN bhee
hur tarah ki boliaN
har tarah kay log.

Who’s afraid
of a little more happiness
a little less hatred?
In diversity is hope
in hope, light.
Let us light that lamp
and nurse its flickers
till a sun of peace
overwhelms
the darkness of suspicion.

Time to revisit fears
close old chapters
turn a new page
of hope and .....

...hope this lamp
never dies...

Chalo bund kardain
puranay khatay, kitabaiN
dosti ka purana sabaq
phir yaad karaiN aaj.

Naya din
naya ujala
pehla qad’m
chalo dilouN ko
roshan karain aaj.

Such a trip or expedetion (if you will) will be utter non-sense. In my opinion such a tour should start from KashmiR (if you insisit anyway). If you are capable of doing anything more than burning fuel bring the truth about Kashmir in the open. Tell the people about the genocide and the injustices done by Indian Government towards the Kashmiri people first. Try to convince your people first.

Please refrain from quoting the tree and the French Marshal examples. How do you expect a plant to grow in the first place when you water it with sulphuric acid day and night and expect it to turn into a tree?. Resolve the territorial issues first that has their bases in the formula of Partition. Work to provide justice to Kashmir first-starting with your own people. Until then please keep away from our land.

Thank you.

Sharmila: Thanks for publishing your article at Chowk. Yes, there is hope in South Asia and it will only come through grass root contacts. The governments of South Asia are dianosauruses and only interested in their own set of policies. More often than usual they are much different than what people demand and desire. I commend your, Akhil Bakshi, Sunil Dutt and other members of the organization for undertaking a noble cause.

You gave some very valuable information also.

[500 million South Asians live in absolute poverty.

230 million South Asians lack protection from disease.

620 million have no access to safe drinking water.

800 million lack decent sanitation

50% of the world`s illiterates are in South Asia.

90% of the world`s blind are in South Asia.

And each day the problems grow more urgent]

Yet many of us are sweating over what happened to a 1000-2000 people in 7th century, the Banu this and Banu that-what a pathetic prioritizing. The concerns of hundreds of million of people are what should matter most desis.

Hope to see you participating in discussion.

.....yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn.......

While you guys plant trees, hold hands and sing `Kumba Ya` together, here`s what your country does in its colony in the Himalayas:

--

http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/16/india.kashmir/index.html

Kashmir killings spark town protests

February 17, 2001

Web posted at: 10:15 AM HKT (0215 GMT)

By Mukhtar Ahmad

Special to CNN

SRINAGAR, Kashmir -- The killing of four unarmed

civilians at Hygam village in the northern Baramulla

district has triggered massive protests in the Kashmir

capital Srinagar and other towns.

Authorities in the Indian-administered Kashmir

imposed curfew in the civil line areas in the city after

troops opened fire to disperse stone-throwing

demonstrators shouting pro-freedom slogans.

A senior police officer said a 16-year-old boy identified

as Javed Ahmad Nath died in the firing by the troops in

the Maisuma locality in uptown Srinagar.

The other five injured persons are undergoing treatment in the hospital here.

Hundreds of people including women and children came out on the streets in Maisuma defying curfew

restrictions as the body of Nath was brought back to his home.

Paramilitary and police troops in strength were later deployed in the area to restore order.

Residents in other uptown and downtown city localities also held demonstration against the Hygam killings

Thursday.

Four killed

Nearly 15,000 villagers assembled Friday afternoon at Hygam where the Indian army soldiers killed four

civilians including two women in the firing Thursday afternoon.

They shouted pro-freedom slogans. The villagers reached Hygam in buses, trucks while others traveled on foot.

Senior Kashmiri separatist leaders addressed the gathering and condemned the killing of four villagers and the

local pharmacist.

The Hygam villagers were protesting against the alleged custodial killing of a local pharmacist, Jaleel Ahmed

Shah.

The villagers say, Shah, was picked up by the special operation group(SOG) of the state police Wednesday and

later allegedly killed in custody.

A senior police officer however said that Jaleel, who was a militant, had attacked the SOG in a nearby jungle and

in the ensuing gun battle he was killed.

Violent incidents

The major north Kashmir towns were again rocked by incidents of violence. Scores of people including police

received injuries in the stone pelting and teargassing and baton charge in Baramulla town.

The district authorities had a difficult time in controlling mobs protesting against Thursday?s shooting on the

Srinagar Barramullah highway.

Following Friday?s massive protests and anger in the Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir government upgraded the

level of the judicial probe into the Hygam firing.

The Indian Prime Minister who announced a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir which comes for a review next week

spoke to Dr Farooq on phone and expressed his anguish over the incident.

The APHC chairman Professor Abdul Gani Bhat told cnn.com: ?This is a serious incident and has served a severe

blow to the peace process initiated by Indian government in the Kashmir.

?Under the cover of ceasefire they are liquidating the youth. This has undermined the sanctity, if any, behind the

Prime Minister?s ceasefire and his repeated assurances to resolve the dispute and restore peace in the whole

region.?

Sharmila, welcome to CHOWK!
It was a pleasure to read this article and to
share what you are trying to do. Allah, Bhagwan
and the Buddha bless you.
I`m glad to read that you are from JNU. Please
give my warm regards to a teacher at JNU named
Aijaz Ahmad.

Ras

Urstruly # 2

First,i agree with your opinion that the article was nonsense. It was simplistic. The only part I agreed with was expanding employment opportunities by removing all barriers to free trade. A free market combined with a drastic reduction in the size and scope of government is the only way to raise India from poverty, and despite all the talk of the IT boom, it is still not happening fast enough.

Secondly, thank you for bringing up Kashmir so quickly. :) Your claim that oppression of kashmiri [read muslim] people by the rest of India being at the heart of the Kashmir problem is either a result of your own brainwashing by Pakistani propaganda or your own PR attempt to further Pakistani propaganda.

The problem of Kashmir is not oppression but of competing ideologies, as is all of partition. On the surface, partition appears to be about hindu-muslim conflict. But the real conflict is about competing ideas of religious tolerance. Despite all her problems, India believes in religious tolerance, and Pakistan, by definition, does not. This is the fundamental difference between the countries.

Why does Kashmir need to be a part of Pakistan or independent just because they have a muslim majority? While I cannot deny allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir (from all sides), no one outside the muslim world believes that hindus are trying to oppress kashmiris; hence the international reaction to kargil placing blame on Pakistan.

I find it amusing how patriotic Pakistanis can sit in western countries and defend pakistan’s ideology of religious intolerance. If these same western countries had pursued ideologies similar to Pakistan (replace islam with Christianity), those Pakistanis would never have been able to come to the west. I find it even more amusing how some Pakistani mulsims attack Israel for doing the same thing that Pakistan did – create a religious homeland at the expense of a minority of a different faith.

Indians need to do a better job of showing the ridiculousness of Pakistani propaganda portraying Kashmir as a struggle for independence, when the problem is nothing more then religious bigotry.

You said, “Resolve the territorial issues first that has their bases in the formula of Partition. Work to provide justice to Kashmir first-starting with your own people. Until then please keep away from our land.”

Just because your grandfather managed to rape and murder all his hindu and sikh neighbors, steal their property, and force anyone left to flee doesn’t mean its your land.

In response to harish3 (Reply # 6)
Dear Harish:

Your question: “Why does Kashmir need to be a part of Pakistan or independent just because they have a muslim majority?”

My response: An extension of this question would be to ask for the very basis of the partition of India. Unfortunately, the partition of India is a reality that we cannot deny even if we intellectually disagree with it.

In my Democracy in Pakistan article, I have said something about the (mis)use of the majority rule vis a vis the division of India. The majority rule must be applied only when all other methods of conflict resolution fail. A careful scrutiny of the Independence and Partition of India is needed to figure out if our political elite really tried their best.

The problem of Jammu and Kashmir needs to be historically and resolved politically. According to the Partition Plan, it was decided/agreed that the Muslim majority provinces/areas will go to Pakistan and Hindu majority areas will remain in India. However, the case of the princely states (such as Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, etc.) was left to decided on the basis of their accession to either Pakistan or India.

Since Jammu and Kashmir is a contested territory, a peaceful and amicable resolution of this problem is imperative. I am sure, if both India and Pakistan sincerely want to solve this problem, they have the capacity to find an honorable resolution.

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

Sharmila, nice article. Let`s hope that these efforts will enhance odds of peaceful settlement.

My apologies for digressing from the main topic.

Excellent article in latest Economist on interest free banking in Pakistan beginning July 1. Sorry the link would not allow you to read it. Writer’s advice to Pakistani authorities is to follow Malaysian flexible model (within interest free system) and not that of Saudi Arabia.

The article also discusses recent failure of an Islamic bank in Turkey. All depositors lost their money including prominent Islamist politicians. The Turkish authorities had allowed the bank to run without the usual FDIC type protections.

I am tired of this NGO business. It is farce of well to do people to `do some thing`. I do not understand all this farce must have caused hundreds of thousand rupees for nothing. The central problems will not be solved by this just fun gathering. I have visited Jawaharlal Univ. about 20 years ago. I was astonished by these people talking about subjects in which `millions of real` indians or pakistanies would never be interested. They are just image copies of American left students. They were wearing all teeshirts proclaiming of berkely,green peace ,wearing tight pants,cosmetics,boys with earrings. It was kind of funny gathering,gigling taking pictures,saying we like pakistanies,they were quoting of child labor from american journals. I felt totally alien atmosphere to me and even indian elders i met were of same opinion. There is lot of hypocracy. If I am correct this Univ. is totally subsized by poor indian taxpayers how have really nothing. This children (most or many students are admitted by connection to ministers,govt.servants,local politicians)are not very bright or dedicated and extremely greedy. They practically do not pay boarding fees. This univ. has no real practical professional courses. The `so called`research from this particular univ. is really nothing. It is idealogical univ. connected with spreading of Nehru`s idea of socialism and blaming and making fun of local traditions and culture. If you want to go to place in India which has nothing of India this is Place to visit.

So called students are very revolutionary and care for poor exploited people so they feel they should be paid by poor indians. When govt of India decided to increase fees and boarding fees they started making troubles.

Why I know, because my relative use to be teacher in this place.

I call all readers to not to take this article too seriously. All leaders will be on lecture circuit in subcontinent soon. I feel these leaders will hard work usual jobs that will be great help to their countries. These fussy liberal idealists are mostly people who think stupid,uneducated people of their countries owe them good life.

This article was very well written. I agree with a lot of things that Ms Bakshi said. India has to ultimately find ways of matching its defense expenditure with economic needs of the people. If majority of people in the subcontinent feel that we need to unite and do something about poverty, nobody can stop them. How do we mobilize the masses. Gandhiji,during freedom struggle,mobilised the masses to fight against the British. Today, we need to fight another war, war against poverty.This war can never be won if it does not involve the masses. The question is how do we build a critical mass of popular support that will convince the government to cut down on wasteful defense expenditure,open up trade with neighbouring countries,etc. NGOs and movements that has been initiated by Akhil Bakshi are very useful in this regard. Is this enough though. I sense a general feeling of apathy to everything among the common man. Corruption is accepted as inevitable. People do not fight back. When sons and daughters of ministers and powerful bureaucrats get seats in medicine and engineering and people accept it as inevitable, we can be sure that things have gone too far.

Just take the relief work following earthquake in Gujarat. The GOI comes up with an increased taxation on the people. There is no talk about how to reduce government expenditure. One can imagine what the public reaction to such measures would have been in a country like USA.

So, though such efforts as mentioned by Ms Bakshi are laudable, i am afraid the effect would be miniscule.

Re: Kashmir

Though this thread is about increasing understanding and friendship among people of South Asia, some people seem to be preoccupied with Kashmir. The question i often had in mind was, if Kashmiris so badly want to be free as some of my Pakistani friends in this column would have me believe, what was their frame of mind from 1947 up until 1980s when this problem started. I visited Kashmir in 1978 with my parents. Kashmir was peaceful then. The impression i had was of a very hospitable,peaceloving people who,while very proud of their Kashmiriyat,were not in anyway hostile to the non-Kashmiris.

Genesis of the problem lies in denial of democratic aspirations of the people by successive Congress governments. I had said in another thread that a similar situation had existed in Tamil Nadu in the 60s but successful fulfillment of wishes of the people of the state resulted in defeat of seperatist movement in that state. Of course, the difference is Tamil Nadu does not share a border with Pakistan nor were there any Jihadis waging a religious war.

There can only be a diplomatic solution to this problem in the spirit of give and take. If Pakistanis thinks that Kashmir will fall on their lap like a ripe apple,they are mistaken. No country in the world would give in to terrorists. In this regard some people like Ayaz Amir (in Dawn)seem to be waking up to the menace of waging a Jihad. For,have we not all learned in our school the popular saying: those living in glass houses should not throw stones at others.

rsridhar

Remembering a Forgotten Heritage

By Syed Amir, Ph.D., Bethesda, MD

Until a few weeks ago, I had not visited India for many, many years and my son who grew up in the United States had never been there before. On our many previous visits to Pakistan, we never had the time, inclination or the opportunity to go back to India where our cultural roots lay and where our family had originated.

During the past half a century, the two countries have accumulated a reservoir of illwill, antagonism and apparently irredeemable hostility. It is ironic that the generation which had launched and nourished the Pakistan movement in the United India, now long departed, had known personally and intimately many of the leaders who were on the opposite side of the struggle. After all, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah himself had been for many years a prominent leader of the Indian National Congress and had been closely associated with many leaders who subsequently assumed the reins of government in India.

The nature of relationships between the people of the two countries at all levels is, however, radically different now. Relatively few have ever crossed the divide and visited the other country. They have nurtured only unflattering images of each other, while misperceptions abound. Even contacts in areas of art, literature, poetry and science have recently been nonexistent, although these were the few domains where relations at some level survived long after political discourse became acrimonious.

These days Karachi and New Delhi are connected solely by the three weekly flights of PIA. Arriving from Karachi, as we landed at New Delhi airport on a wintry afternoon in mid January this year, we felt some degree of apprehension as to the kind of treatment we were likely to receive from the immigration and custom officers. The relations between the two countries have soured further since the military takeover in Pakistan, and we expected no warm welcome. However, we were treated politely and the airport formalities were completed in less than an hour. Many of the passengers disembarking from the plane, however, were Sikh travelers who worked in the Gulf States and found PIA service via Karachi both convenient and economical.

Coming from Pakistan and going around in cities of North India, one gets a surreal feeling of de.ja vu. Outwardly, the two countries appear so similar and share so many features. The common folks speak similar languages, whether Hindi, Urdu or Punjabi, and are nearly indistinguishable in their behavior and appearance. While ladies wear the same shalwar qameez on both sides, sherwani, once a hallmark of Muslim culture and nobility and almost abandoned in Pakistan, has been adopted by official circles in India for use at ceremonial occasions.

New Delhi in winter is a popular destination for many scientists and academicians who are invited to give talks at myriad scientific meetings and seminars. Our visit coincided with the arrival there of the British physicist Professor Steven Hawkins, who had come to deliver a lecture on the origin of the universe at Delhi University. The professor was receiving much attention in the national news media. Even the President of India, R. K. Narayanan, expressed a desire to attend his talk if he could come and be treated like others, without the pageantry and usual fanfare that accompanies him. Since Professor Hawkins is wheelchair bound, a secondary benefit of his visit was the awareness it generated of problems that disabled people face in daily life. Almost all the historic monuments in Delhi and Agra and probably other places are normally inaccessible to handicaps, consequently special structures had to be erected at sites such as the historic red fort and the Qutub Minar to make them accessible to him. Thanks to these new facilities, many disabled persons are now able to visit and enjoy some of those sites which previously required the ability to climb stairs.

The exquisite monuments in and around Delhi and Agra that attract so many foreign visitors are now part of Indian heritage. Nevertheless, it would be foolish and short-sighted if we as Pakistanis and Muslims renounce our claim on them, since they are just as much a part of our heritage and a testament to the majesty of the thousand-year Muslim rule in India. The present generation in Pakistan, cut off by a wall of mutual suspicion, has little or no acquaintance with these historic treasures left in India. The official policy of the two Governments has been to actively discourage free travel across the border. Occasionally, however, a few sane voices are raised against this mutually detrimental policy.

During our stay, for example, the former Prime Minister of India, Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, who has long advocated a policy of friendship between two countries, in a newspaper article proposed the liberalization of visas to citizens of Pakistan as one of the devices to reduce mutual antipathy and misunderstanding. This suggestion is unlikely to be implemented soon; nevertheless, it was gratifying to observe that on both sides of the border, voices of belligerence, extremism and religious bigotry belong only to a distinct minority. As President John Kennedy once remarked in a different context “If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity”.

sharmila,

Add this also to the statistics,

One jihadist setting off a bomb on an IA plane can kill 120 people and lead to the loss of 120 million dollars worth of aircraft.

20,000 madrassas producing 10 hardened jihadist per year and each in their search for shehdad kills 2 kafirs, that is 400,000 kafirs knocked out every year. If the kafir govt has invested 1000 dollars each in education and health in each of those kafirs, that is 400 million dollars down the drain for kafirs.

Now sharmila think of how many tanks can be economically deployed to stop the jihadists.

Here is an advice, while talking about peace, love, moral principles, never quote statistics. There was a time JNU produced some of the greats, Sudhir Kakar comes to mind, now things have changed, and you dont have to prove it. Violence and crime in the campus of JNU, we can read in the papers, you dont have to prove the outcome.

best wishs

jay

THUGS, DECOITS, AND TERRORISTS

It is interesting to note the ever-evolving buzz-words in the lingo of oppressors througout the world. Take for example our own beloved sub-continent. Those dissidents who used to raise voice against the Brits were once dubbed as ``Thugs``. Take for example how the freedom fighters of the ``Silk-Handkerchief Movement`` of Punjab were reffered to. I wonder if the word ``Thug`` in English has its origin in Punjabi or Urdu. Then Co. Bahadur thought that the word ``Thug`` does not deliver the strength of the intended meaning so it was changed to ``Decoit``. Our most prominent ``decoits`` thus are Roy Ahmad Khan Khurl from Punjab and Ali Sheedi from Sindh and Paalay Khan from Baluchistan. It is also interesting to note that the oppressed people always loved those decoits and thugs and still do no matter how hard oppressors made us to believe otherwise.

The new buzz-word for freedom fighters throughout the world now a days is ``Terrorist``. Whether they are freedom lovers of Ireland fighting against British Thugs or they are Kashmiri Mujahideens sacrificing their lives while fighting against Hindu-stani Decoits they are called ``Terrorists``. But the question still remains-will it change anything. You can fight against a person, you can tear his flesh apart, you can break every bone in his body, you can pull his heart out, you can poke hot iron in his eyes, and you can rape his loved ones, and you can burn his house down BUT how can you kill ones DETERMINATION. The is no weapon, no tanks, no dungeons and no poison and no method has been invented so far that can kill the WILL and DETERMINATION of man. Throughout the centuries oppressors all over the world have been creative to invent labels and attrocities to oppress but they have always failed. YOU WILL FAIL TOO. The thing that makes ones DETERMINATION and WILL invincible is the TRUTH. Unfortunately it is not on your side. It never is with the oppressors. No matter how hard you try your lies cannot turn into truth.

Harish and Rsridhar

More information about Indian state terrrorism in J & K from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1177000/1177232.stm

Check out the first picture. Those Kashmiri boys don`t like they gotta lotta love for Mother India, do they? Maybe you need to plant more trees? Whaddya think?

---

India delays Kashmir decision

Thousands took to the streets to protest at the killings

The Indian Government has postponed a decision on whether to

extend a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir, as police and troops try to

restore order in the region after days of rioting.

A decision had been expected at a meeting on Sunday, but was

delayed - apparently because a discussion of the Gujarat earthquake

ran longer than expected.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is said to be in favour of

extending the ceasefire, while the home and defence ministers are

reported to oppose it.

Mr Vajpayee conceded that the results of the ceasefire had been

disappointing.

`Violence has not ebbed`

``The ceasefire did not achieve the results that we expected``, he said.

``Violence in Kashmir has not

ebbed. We thought Pakistan

would be able to rein back the

terrorists, but it has failed``, he

said.

India announced a unilateral

one-month ceasefire in Kashmir

in November in honour of the

Muslim holy month of Ramadan,

and subsequently extended it

twice.

The current extension is due to

expire on 26 February.

Violence on the ground

The Indian decision comes after several days of violence between

local Muslims and troops and police.

The reported death in custody of

a Kashmiri independence activist

prompted large crowds to take to

the streets of several cities.

On Thursday, troops opened fire

on protesters in Haigam, north of

the summer capital of Srinagar,

killing four.

As many as 25,000 people

gathered in Haigam on Sunday to

demonstrate against the killings

and pray for the victims.

There was a similar response in

Srinagar on Sunday, where police

opened fire, injuring two people.

Army regret

The army has expressed regret over Thursday`s deaths and vowed

to investigate.

``I give you my solemn word that

those of my men who are

blameworthy will be brought to

book and dealt with according to

the law``, the Indian Army`s 15

Corps chief John Ray Mukherjee

said on Sunday.

India and Pakistan have been

struggling over Kashmir for more

than 50 years. Both control part

of the territory and claim all of it.

Many local militants, meanwhile,

are fighting for complete

independence.

An estimated 34,000 people have died in the conflict since the

independence struggle began in 1989.

The Indian ceasefire has not put a halt to separatist violence.

At least 16 people, including 11 policemen, have been killed by

militants since November.

Bilal # 7

Unfortunately for Pakistan, they don’t have a morale argument for Kashmir because the basis of partition itself was immoral. When is it ever moral to force religious minorities to leave in order to make way for a religious state? i think many Pakistanis understand this sentiment when framed in the context of the Palestinians.

I am not convinced that a peaceful solution to the Kashmir problem is imperative b/c I know that the only solution acceptable to India (making the LoC the official boundary) will never be satisfactory for Kashmir-obsessed-Pakistan. So there is no solution to this problem and to paraphrase U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, when a problem has no solution, it is not a problem but a fact. The only thing India can do is to maintain the status quo.

Urstruly # 13

Your post is pretty self-righteous. I don’t think you call people who hijack civilian airplanes (like the air India flight from Nepal to delhi in dec 99) freedom fighters. But over the long term, I do agree with you that truth does prevail. However, this is not always the case in the short term, otherwise, states based on religious hatred, like Pakistan, would never have come into existence.

Ref Urstruly #: 13

[You can fight against a person, you can tear his flesh apart, you can break every bone in his body, you can pull his heart out, you can poke hot iron in his eyes, and you can rape his loved ones, and you can burn his house down BUT how can you kill ones DETERMINATION. The is no weapon, no tanks, no dungeons and no poison and no method has been invented so far that can kill the WILL and DETERMINATION of man. Throughout the centuries oppressors all over the world have been creative to invent labels and attrocities to oppress but they have always failed.]

You are so right. That is exactly why Hinduism has survived in India.

Thanks for describing in graphic detail the tactics used by Islamist thugs during 10 centuries of rule over Northern India.