Hindustan and Pakistan Differences.

Hindustan and Pakistan Differences.

At the time of partition, as regards Kashmir, the attitude of Pakistan betrayed a series of contradictions. The ruler’s right to accede to India or Pakistan subject to the geographical compulsions and wishes of the people was upheld by Jinnah in a number of statements. But in the Kashmir case he dismissed the right of the plea that the ruler was a Hindu. The majority of the people being Muslim, they were assumed to have an objective other than that of losing their identity in Pakistan.

For several years the ruler of Kashmir Sheik Abdullah was described as a “quisling”. It is equally fashionable in Pakistan to enforce the martial law at home, to suppress liberty, to deny basic rights to its inhabitants and to control over Press.

The leaders of Pakistan make professions of peace and train professional “liberators” the wars upon Kashmir and other parts of India. When Pakistan claims to Kashmir on the grounds of religion prove of little avail they shift the basis of their territorial demands to the requirements of Pakistan’s communication, economy and defence

Another problem which has bedeviled relations between the two countries is evacuee property. During partition millions of people migrated from West Pakistan to India and from North India to West Pakistan, not to mention many more who were forced to India from East Pakistan. The migrants from West Pakistan were mostly land owners, entrepreneurs in business and industry, and members of various professions like Law, Medicine and Teaching. Those who left India for Pakistan belonged mainly to the poorer classes, being tillers of the soil, artisans, labourers and petty shop keepers..

The value of evacuee urban property left by Hindus and Sikhs in West Pakistan amounts to over several billion dollars against less than Rs.100 Crores worth of property left behind by Muslim migrants to Pakistan.


[Hindu Desam will continue]