Defence: Our Top Priority
For full four months, Master Tara Singh had been running from place to place, organizing the hell that was let loose upon the unwary, unsuspecting Muslims of the East Punjab about the middle of August. Our leadership was all this time in blissful ignorance of all these diabolical preparations. It had not the sense even to scent the danger behind the Master’s ominous silence about all overtures of peace made to him. Are we going to be caught napping again?
The unprecedented disaster which has overtaken the Punjab Muslims is the penalty which we have paid for this lapse on the part of our leadership. As man-to-man Muslim is any day superior to the Sikh as a fighter. The streets of Lahore and Amritsar would bear ample testimony to this. Mere striplings, rushing at stalwart sturdy Sikhs, armed with three kirpans, snatching the kirpans from their trembling hands and despatching them with the same, was no uncommon sight in these towns. The very cry of Allah-o-Akbar made the Sikh shiver in his shoes. If after the wide-spread terror which Muslims struck in the hearts of the Sikhs, the latter have now turned the tables on us, it is certainly not due to any lack of courage or dash on the part of Muslims. It is the result of unequal fight sprung upon them unawares. No unarmed mob however enormous, could possibly be expected to withstand the armed gangs, well-trained and well equipped under the supervision of and backed by the forces of the Sikh States and enjoying the blessings of Hindu police and Dogra soldiery of Pandit Nehru’s Government. We are not prepared to believe that if the Indian Government were at all serious about it, the mass carnage could not be stopped. It could be stopped overnight if the Government of Indian Union really wanted it to be suppressed.
This is the correct appraisement of the situation. The Muslims have been butchered like sheep and goats and if they have taken to their heels helter-skelter by lacs, no one in the know of things would accuse them of any pusillanimity. Even in this unequal fight forced on them, the Muslims, wherever they had some sort of organisation, routed the Sikh invaders inflicting heavy casualties on them. Qadian, where a handful of Muslims are still standing as a challenge to the Sikh might, where Sikhs had to eat the humble pie whenever they made an inroad, on that small country place, is a shining example in point. Where lies the difference? In vigilant, competent earnest leadership. Whereas this tiny oasis of Qadian, under capable, far-sighted and inspiring leadership had been preparing months ago for these developments, the Provincial leadership of the League was just fiddling.
Are we going to repeat that mistake? It will be the height of folly to take the peace talk of gangsters like Tara Singh and Kartar Singh at its face value. The Sikh designs are too well known as well as the length of savagery he is capable of going in the execution of those designs. Acts speak louder than words. The epidemic is already spreading to Ambala Division, even to far-off Delhi. And what are we doing in the face of the disaster that is upon us and the greater disaster that is yet threatening us?
We may be permitted to say our leadership has, as usual, buried its head in the sands of self-illusion. For aught we know, nothing worth the name is being done to organize the people for the defence of their homeland of Pakistan.
The Provincial Government deserves all credit to grapple with the stupendous work of evacuation, accommodation and rehabilitation of the swarms of refugees that are daily pouring into the capital of the province. Its campaign to stamp out lawlessness in West Punjab and protect the life and property of the minorities is certainly laudable. But there is a third item which should come at the top of their programme, side by side with, if not higher than these pressing needs. And that is Defence.
Defence, however, is the one item which is conspicuous by its absence on the Pakistan programme. This is dangerous, positively dangerous and we will be failing in our duty if we do not give our leadership this timely warning. The people we have to deal with are unscrupulous.
Pacts are but scraps of paper and no paper undertakings can be depended upon for the safeguard of the territorial integrity of Pakistan. The history of the past fateful three weeks or so is a history of betrayals of Muslims by almost everybody. The Boundary Commission in whose integrity we reposed unwarranted confidence betrayed us; some say it actually sold us. The Boundary Force under General Rees mocked us with false assurances of security. And when the whole story is told we should not be surprised to find that in this studied drama of Muslim betrayal, even some very highly placed Englishmen in whom the Quaid-i-Azam placed implicit confidence were not quite above board.
If the moral of all these broken promises and false assurances is not to be lost upon us we must now open our eyes to the fact that for the integrity of Pakistan and the security of life and property of its citizens, we must, first and last, depend upon the strength of our own arm and arms. This, unfortunately, is the one awakening, the one realization that is still lacking in our leadership, even after this colossal loss of life and this unprecedented misery that has overtaken us as a nation.
All honour to Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, going from place to place and urging Muslims to protect the life and property of the minorities. In doing so he is acting up to the highest spirit of the teachings of Islam which abhors shedding the blood of defenceless men. We wish he would have done half as much to save the lives of Muslims within Pakistan which are equally in danger, unless we are fully prepared to meet all possible emergencies.
May we remind the Health Member of Pakistan that peace is not the whole of Islam, that war, at times, is a far higher virtue than peace. The Sikhs have and dishonoured Islam as perhaps never before in the whole history of Islam, Spain including. Shall we forgive and forget this? A Muslim may forgive a personal affront but never a national affront, much less an affront such as that offered by the Sikhs.
We must hearken back to the Quranic dictum:
وَلَكُمْ فِى ٱلْقِصَاصِ حَيَوٰةٌ يَـٰٓأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:179
“In just retaliation, O people of wisdom, lies the secret of existence for you”
The crying need of the hour, to our mind, is the vindication of the honour of Islam which has been wantonly sullied by the Sikhs. Our womanhood has been outraged, our aged men have been cut to pieces, our babies have been maimed and mutilated, even roasted alive. Are we so fallen and base as to stand on this heap of corpses and call out to Master Tara Singh Masterji! How do you do? Very sorry for all this. Let us forgive and forget and be friends.”
Frankly, we fail to appreciate the reaction of League leadership to the horrors of the last few weeks. We would have expected a call to the nation of Islam, from Karachi to Calcutta and Peshawar to Lahore to rise for the defence of Islam whose honour the insolent and beastly foe has dragged in muck and mire. One word from the Quaid-i-Azam would have sent swarms of valiant Pathans rushing down the plains of the Punjab as well as the gallant Punjabi Muslim rushing to the standard of Islam. The hands of the masses are simply itching for striking a blow in vindicating the honour of Islam. Instead of a call to arms, however, our leadership is administering them the fatal dose of peace.
Peace within Pakistan by all means. It must be a point of honour with a Muslim not to raise his hand against a lonely defenceless non-Muslim within Pakistan or against his property. It is not only cowardly; it is a wilful violation of the teachings of Islam. In imitation of the Sikhs, we must not allow our own Islamic standards of chivalry and sportsmanship to be lowered. But that is something quite different. There is the Sikh outside Pakistan to deal with. And this Sikh has made no secret of the fact that he has the audacity to aspire to the rule of the Punjab – perhaps more. His perversity knows no bounds. To talk of peace to such a foe is to betray a perversion of correct perspective. The Sikh understands just one language – the language of brute force.
We are disappointed to note that one hears not a word anywhere from any quarter, as to this crying need of the hour – viz. the mobilization and mustering of all the force we are capable of on the eastern border of Western Pakistan. Any talk of peace, though quite laudable, is out of tune with the main urge of the hour. Here is a desperate and treacherous foe knocking at the very door of Pakistan. Our foremost concern must be to rush to the door and protect it, rather than sermonize on the virtues of law and order within the house.
We are afraid, the entire sense of values with our leadership has gone topsy-turvy. Defence of Pakistan, to our mind, is the word of the moment. Every sinew of our national energy must be harnessed to that supreme end. There must be a separate Boundary Force. Military out-posts should be set up all along the border. The whole border should be armed up to a depth of ten miles and the villagers given proper training on militia lines. Home Guards centres should be opened in their thousands, not on paper as now, but in actual reality. The youth of the nation should be called upon to rally to these centres and undergo necessary training. Every town must have a Home Guard Troop of its own. Armaments must be procured or manufactured. We must be prepared for all eventualities. Any day the call may come to defend Pakistan and when it does come, it must not find us the disorganized rabble of East Punjab.
This is the need of the hour. This the path of honour and national existence. This is the path of Islam. And treading along this path, if we come to grief and perish, we shall at least have the satisfaction that we are dying as men of honour and faith and not as sheep and lambs.
M.Y. K.
(The Light – Sept 16, 1947)
