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Kathmandu Thursday July 06, 2000 Ahsad 22, 2057.
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Better read
history
The two letters, one by
deputy chief of mission of Embassy of Pakistan, Jamshed Iftikhar and other by Madan Regmi,
on my article titled "ISI Gameplan and Nepal India ties" accuse me of distorting
the facts and history. I agree with him on Jinnah’s statement on 11 August 1947 about
Hindus and Muslims. This shows his fairness. But I still stand by my statement about his
advice to Muslims to migrate to Assam which is well documented in many books during
partition.
The Pakistan Resolution
adopted in 1940 in Lahore envisaged creation of independent, sovereign state in
northwestern and northern parts of Indian subcontinent where the Muslims were in majority.
Both Punjab and Bengal at that time were Muslim majority provinces and he thought that
both would form part of Pakistan. However, the eastern part of Punjab and western part of
Bengal had non-Muslim majority and were later not included in Pakistan. If Bengal as a
whole had been made part of Pakistan, Assam, having a non-Muslim majority would have been
cut off from the rest of the country. It was in this context that Jinnah advised the
Muslims to migrate especially to the underpopulated Assam province. This happened in the
1940s when different proposals were being presented for partition. But it was Sir Cyril
Radcliff who divided Punjab and Bengal on the basis of religion.
As for Madan Regmi, I had
stated unrestricted immigration from India which would make Nepalese minority in their own
homeland and the fact that introduction of passports and ID cards in the Indo-Nepal border
could not be implemented in the past due to opposition from India. The former Nepali
territory between Mahakali and Sutlej has a pocket of Nepali speaking community in places
such as Dehradun, Bhasku, Mussorie, etc. It was mainly during Bahadur Shah's time that
this area (Mahakali to Sutlej) was annexed and remained part of Nepal for less than fifty
years. So, Regmi should better read history instead of making useless statements.
-Prakash A Raj
Kathmandu |
