India and Pakistan are sort of twin countries. They are two parts of the same country which, in the last centuries, was, mostly under British rule. In 1947 this Great India split into two and a very artificial Pakistan was born. The birth took place amid spilling of blood and generated mutual hate which continues till today. Quite often this hate is exploited and increased by politicians. The people on the whole, would like to bury the hatchet and live in peace. But the politicians on both sides think differently, they would like to perpetuate these ill feelings and exploit them for political gains. In the course of time politicians in Pakistan tried to pull themselves away from India. Though the founding fathers of Pakistan vouched for a secular nation, very soon Islamization started showing its ugly face.
Though this trend had started quite early with the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan the first PM in 1951 by a Muslim fanatic who resented his steady refusal to contemplate war with India it deteriorated quite fast under military ruler Zia ul-Haq who seized power in 1977 and within a couple of years transformed a relatively secular nation into a fundamentalist Islamic dictatorship. He co-opted the religious parties in his government and undertook a process of Islamization that included introduction of new Islamic laws, setting up a federal sharia court, making Islamic education compulsory in schools, and promoting religious schools or madrassas. He took steps to Islamize the army by including Islamic teachings into the military’s training. His policies also undermined the status of women through laws governing sexual offences and by reducing the significance of a woman’s testimony to half that of a man in certain trials.
The consequence of this Islamization was two-fold: on one side many from the minorities, as well as the secular minded Muslims left Pakistan for good and settled in more tolerant western countries and on the other hand the fundamentalists and fanatics were more daring in their attacks on those who did not think or act like them. The rest is recent history.
Coming to India the earliest attempt to ‘hinduize’ India was the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Fortunately we had great secular leaders. Today the story is different. It looks as if we are following the same line Pakistan followed some 40 years ago: there are bans; there are attempts to control the living habits of women; the minorities seem to be threatened or their religious places attacked, attempts to interfere in the education curriculum and even to distort history. Blatant murders of free thinkers by fanatics or mobs lynchings go not only unpunished but even seem to be defended by some ministers. If sane leaders do not stand up and raise their voice now it may be too late. Today’s Pakistan is an example of what happens to a nation when we choose to go down the lane on a fundamentalist road.
