NOTES AND COMMENTS

U.N.O. Mandate for India

Obviously the Government of Indian Union has not been able to protect its Muslim Minorities, hundreds of thousands of whom have been killed and many more turned bag and baggage out of their homes. Its military and police encouraged and organized this wholesale extermination of Muslims. In many cases they actually participated in this mass slaughter of unarmed population. Under these circumstances this Government has forfeited its right to its newly got independence. A Government which cannot do or does not want to do its elementary duty to protect the life, property and honour of its subjects has no right to exist. It is a fit case for UNO to consider whether under these circumstances it will not be its duty to put its foot down and, in the name of humanity, cry a halt to this deliberate organized butchery. Unless the insensate vandalism stops, the UNO must be moved to intervene and set up some sort of mandate to protect the life and property of the Muslim minorities in India.

Kashmir

The Dogra who made himself notorious recently in the Punjab for indiscriminate shooting of Muslims has now been let loose in his fullest fury over the unarmed Muslims of Kashmir and Poonch. The only fault of these poor people is that a hundred years ago, they were sold by somebody for a sum of money to the ancestors of the present ruling dynasty and ever since they have been subjected to the most inhuman degradation as a nation. In that smiling valley of fountains and flowers and fruits, if there is one thing that is the picture of misery and gloom, it is the people of Kashmir. Poverty, disease, dirt, squalor – these are the boons which a hundred years of Dogra rule has conferred on them. Now when the sweet breeze of freedom is blowing over the whole of India, the people of Kashmir too are naturally anxious to regain, not only their lost freedom but their very manhood. And the Dogra is out to crush them at the point of the machine gun and the sten gun.It is an unequal struggle in which the unarmed masses of the state of Kashmir are just now engaged in defence of their rights and liberties against the Dogra soldiery. But their cause is just and righteous and this is something certainly mightier than the brute force of the Dogra. The days of brute force are over and Kashmir state will soon realize it.

Kashmir is a predominantly Muslim State. It is at the same time contiguous to Pakistan. Its natural grouping therefore lies with Pakistan. This is what the people of the state demand. The Maharaja however, in order to perpetuate his own iron rule over his subjects is conspiring to join the Indian Dominion. And it is a pity that in this unholy conspiracy, the apostle of truth and ahimsa, Mahatma Gandhi, is also playing a part. His recent visit to that state was not a mere pleasure trip as he then told the world it was. It was a political mission and what is now transpiring in the form of repression of Muslims is the result of that “holiday” trip of a Mahatma.

The people of Kashmir have the moral support of the Government of Pakistan. As a Dominion, Pakistan can do perhaps nothing more. But the people of Pakistan are certainly free to lend every material help to their brethren in distress. The people of N.W. F. P. in particular owe a duty in this connection. Kashmir is their next-door neighbour. If the Sikh States in the Punjab could actively participate with their armed forces in changing the map of the Panjab, no moral compunction should be involved in the Pathans` active interest in the affairs of Kashmir. If some battalions of Patiala, Nabha or Faridkot got out of hand and played havoc with Muslim life in the East Punjab, why can’t a few thousand Mohmands, Afridis or Waziris cross into the valley of Kashmir and come to the succour of the poor downtrodden Kashmiris. We are confident just 10,000 of these daring sons of Islam will put the whole rubble of Dogras to rout. Kashmir is worth saving at any cost. Man’s tyranny over man there has reached its climax. It should be the sacred duty of the Pathans to rescue these millions of Muslims. And this is just the time to do it. The zero hour has struck. The soul of Kashmir is crying for succour. Is there no Pathan leadership alive to this SOS from Kashmir?

League Resolutions

The Council of the Punjab Muslim League, which met in Lahore on Sunday last, passed resolutions:

1.Calling upon the West Punjab Government to make every effort to affect the immediate evacuation of Muslims in the Jullundur and Ambala divisions.

The resolution demanded that the Muslim refugees should be brought to the West Punjab in trains manned by Muslim drivers and guards and under strong Muslim military escorts. The refugee trains should be provided with proper catering arrangements and separate ladies compartments. The resolution also demanded that foot-convoys should he escorted by a strong detachment of the military.

2.Demanding the immediate fortification of the Pakistan-India border and compulsory military training for every Muslim youth in Pakistan. The resolution suggested that the military training centres should first be set up in the Indo-Pakistan border region.

Malik Firoz Khan Noon supporting the resolution stated that if Muslims did not wake up to the realities of the situation forthwith Pakistan might not live long. He stressed the urgent need for making Pakistan a powerful State by expanding the army and by setting up ammunition factories.

Begum Shah Nawaz demanded compulsory military training for Muslim women as well as for men in Pakistan.

3.Demanding for expansion of the West Punjab Cabinet in order to appoint a separate Minister for refugee work.

Militarization

This is a national need which a man who runs may see. We have put this down in our leading article of to-day as our top priority. The Pakistan Government must, we hope, be equally alive to this need. It seems too overwhelmed with the sudden and crushing weight of work that has been thrust upon it by the well-planned conspiracy of the foes of Pakistan, to spare much attention to this equally urgent national need. Now however that a separate ministry has been created both at the Centre and in the Punjab to look to the Refugee work it should be possible for the Government to take in hand the scheme of national defence and military training. While giving the Government credit for doing everything humanly possible to do to grapple with the titanic problem of the Refugees, we must say that in every direction it is as yet lagging behind public enthusiasm. The people of Pakistan are ready for any and every sacrifice to defend Pakistan and make it a state worthy of the history of Islam. The Government of Pakistan should catch up with this wave of public enthusiasm.

Hold up of Trains

Stories of hold-ups of refugee train from India are still pouring in. New Chheharta railway station (Amritsar), a Muslim Refugee train was derailed and subjected to firing by Sikhs, resulting in 19 killed. And this took place just at the time when Pandit Nehru, Governor Trivedi and other high officials of India were meeting the Pakistan officials in conference in Lahore to discuss ways and means to ensure the safe evacuation of refugees. And only at a distance of some 25 miles from Lahore! All these conferences and the flowery statements that are issued thereafter by responsible officials of the Indian Dominion have now lost all meaning. Every time such a conference was held, and a statement issued, more virulent attacks on refugee trains and convoys were reported. Where is the use of these conferences and statements?

Where is Mahatma?

Mahatma Gandhi once asked: What is the meaning of the Qaid-i-Azam’s signature to joint peace appeal if there are still cases of violence in Pakistan? Will he put this question to himself? If he is at all serious in his peace mission, why these bloody scenes under his very nose in Delhi? We are not prepared to believe that he can’t stop this mass massacre of Muslims in Delhi if he wants to. He is the virtual dictator of India. He can stop the whole thing overnight by urging the removal of these members of the Indian Government who are at the back of this liquidation of Muslims and whom he knows too well. And what about his fast? Is this weapon employed only when there is danger to Hindu life? Delhi is just now having a regular blood bath. The victims include such eminent Muslims as Imam Sahib of Jamia Masjid and the President of the Delhi Muslim League. But Gandhiji has not raised a little finger to stop this. On the other hand, as if to add a touch of honour to this horrid tragedy he has treated the Muslim refugees to a sermon on sanitation asking them to keep their camp clean. Has nothing more serious than mere insanitary condition of the Muslim Refugee camp come to his notice? Do the streams of red Muslim blood flowing in streets of Delhi and venerable Muslims weltering in their blood on Delhi pavements mean nothing to him? Just wait for Nemesis, Mahatmaji! The day of reckoning cannot be very far.

Mohammad Yaqub Khan

      (THE LIGHT-September 16, 1947)