INDEPENDENCE

Saturday, January 26, 1952.

The independence which Bharat is celebrating today is the fruit of the joint struggle and sacrifice of the people of this sub-continent and it is but natural that the thoughts of the people in this country should go out to their erstwhile compatriots on this happy occasion. Though divided, the two countries have so much in common that Indo-Pakistan amity is as much indispensable for each as Independence itself. There is a growing realisation on both sides that the partition events constituted the blackest chapter in the history of this sub-continent and can never be the basis of their future relationship. It is even suspected that they were deliberately engineered to drive a permanent wedge between them – a continuation of the divide-and-rule policy on a different plane. Upon understanding and closer cooperation between the two countries depends not only their own future stability, peace and prosperity but the destiny of the whole of the East which is still struggling against the forces of imperialism. It is in this context that the outstanding problems, including Kashmir, the main bone of contention must be viewed. The American Professor, Dr. Graham rightly appealed to the people of both countries in the name of their ancient cultures to give the world a better lead by what he styled self-demilitarisation. From the military point of view India and Pakistan may not stand any comparison with the Western Powers but if they pool their moral resources they may well hold the key to world peace. Between them they can save Asia and Africa from relapsing into a different form of bondage that is threatening the people of the East. Recently Mr. Churchill bemoaned that were it not for the withdrawal of British from India she would not have had to face the problems she is facing now in the Middle East. In plain words Mossadeq and Nabas Pasha would have been put in the right places by rushing Indian troops to Iran and Egypt. The freedom of this sub-continent has loosened the shackles of the whole of the East just as its slavery constituted a threat to the freedom of other Oriental countries. A similar role awaits the two countries in the new world context. United, they can become the nucleus of a third bloc and even save humanity from a Third War towards which the two Power blocs are irresistibly driving the world. It will be a tragedy if petty communal outlook which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has been rightly condemning as India´s Enemy No.1 and the surest path to ruination should blur the vision of the higher call of history. In Indo-Pakistan amity lies the key to the liberation and elevation of the whole of Oriental humanity, and to India´s Premier has been assigned by the hand of Fate the key-man´s  role in this great drama, by virtue of the fact that he holds the key to the Kashmir dispute but for which the two countries would long ago have been well set on the path to mutual goodwill and co-operation.