Daily Times

I do not know about you but in my mind various questions roam whenever the neighbours celebrate their Republic Day on January 26 and, in our case, on March 23. It more or less looks to me like a day that has the least to do with the citizens or the republic and everything to do with a parade exhibiting how much military might each side can possibly flaunt and display. Not to mention that we also call it Pakistan Day, claiming that a resolution was passed in the walled city of Lahore, way back in 1940, called the Pakistan Resolution. In reality, the much touted resolution was passed on March 24, 1940 but that is just a minor detail. I quote a few excerpts from its text:
“No constitutional plan would be workable or acceptable to the Muslims unless geographical contiguous units are demarcated into regions which should be so constituted with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary. That the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign. That adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the Constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of Muslims where they were in a minority.”
Most of us do not even have the time to read the text. Without harping on about what I have mentioned in the past, if the aforementioned resolution was meant to solve the ‘Muslim problem’, it did not accomplish this goal in reality with the creation of an independent country. On a recent business trip, I was picked up by a Pakistani taxi driver from my hotel to go to the airport. We struck up a great conversation. I found the gentlemen extremely intelligent and well informed about historical facts. He was amazed when I raised an extremely simple question: based on simple logic, where was the Muslim way of life going to be threatened the most — in the areas where the Muslims were in majority or where the Muslims were in minority? In other words, by the territorial division of India, the so-called Muslim problem was left for the Muslims, who happened to be in states where they were considered a minority by no fault of their own. Simply speaking, if the true essence of the Lahore Resolution had been followed and “autonomous and sovereign” Muslim states had emerged, those states within the union would have protected the socioeconomic and religious interests of the Muslim majority by default.
Of course, the argument can be made by the patriotic lot that the Muslims should have not stayed back in India and should have migrated completely to the promised land. To answer those great minds, thank God not every Muslim migrated to Pakistan. I am extremely poor in maths but just by adding the current population of Pakistan and the Muslims of India, you will get the answer. Furthermore, the people who were behind the great social experiment of partition were not in their right minds, especially in the context of what transpired on August 1946 in Calcutta.
Getting back to the term ‘republic’ and its day; both nations parted ways for the right or wrong reasons. Both had a common foe: the imperialist English who were ruthlessly ruling over their territories. The unnatural act of partition has basically traded in the concept of a common enemy. Both of these God forsaken countries have been at odds with each other since their bloody caesarean section. The tanks, missiles, rockets, bombs and whatever else that can kill another human being with unforgiveable barbarity has been stockpiled on both ends. The so-called Republic Day is not meant for the citizens who are struggling with their tumultuous lives. The naked display of firepower is meant for the enemy. The idea is to boost the morale of the citizens by showing them that they are well protected. My curious mind often questions: is this protection solely limited to the borders?
The fact of the matter is that the economic problems that existed for the common Muslims of undivided India still exist. The drawing of boundary lines has merely separated the Muslims in three different countries. We have faithfully acquired the exploitation, unfair practices, prejudice and discrimination that were once attributed to our former masters. In this scribe’s opinion, the faces have changed but the problems never did. The people are afraid that they may not make it back home safely from work, thanks to the remarkable law and order situation in our ‘independent’ country. At least we have something to comfort and console ourselves: we know that the enemy will never mess with us because our nukes will be there. If you are still confused about what this article is trying to tell you, do not be and take comfort in the fact that you are in safe hands.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar