Why the two prominent communities of India, the Hindus and Muslims in 1857 joined hands in the carnival of rebellion (Gadhar) and formed a united front to dislodge a colonial authority? Why this spirit of freedom was missing just 90 years after that event? What dramatically happened in the interim period that Hindus and Muslims became thirsty for each others blood? Why some Muslims refused to live in a united India? Why those Muslims who preferred India as their motherland been subjected to all kind of hardships. Why even after sixty two years after independence, the social relationship between the two communities has not improved to the level of 1857.
The struggle for creating Pakistan poisoned Hindu-Muslim relations in the subcontinent, Indian scholar Tapan Raychaudhuri said yesterday.
“The partition riots led to the death and mutilation of millions and forced many more millions to leave their ancestral home,” said the emeritus fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford.
Struggle for Pakistan poisoned Hindu-Muslim relations
He was delivering the Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Lecture 2009 on ‘Muslims and Hindus in British India’ organised by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh under the auspices of Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Foundation at the National Museum in the city.
Raychaudhuri, a scholar on Indian history and civilization, said, “In the pre-British days, there were no riots in the sub-continent for political reasons, but for socio-economic misunderstandings.”
“In pre-British times, there was no subcontinent-wide consciousness of a cohesive community, either among Hindus or among Muslims and that the two communities were political rivals was a consciousness very clearly traceable to the later half of the 19th century,” he said.
Jobs, education and distribution of seats in the legislatures – in all such matters, the separate provisions for the two communities created an unhealthy basis for competition and conflict, he added.
“The bitterness that the conflict produced still continues to vitiate our lives. In the 80s of the last century, the doctrine of Hindutwa emerged as a powerful force in Indian politics, partly drawing upon that inheritance of bitterness,” he said.
At the programme, senior advocate of the Supreme Court Mahmudul Islam was awarded Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Gold Medal for his contribution to legal literature.
Justice Refaat Ahmed read out a citation for the award. Asiatic Society President Prof Sirajul Islam and Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Foundation Convener Prof Zeenat Imtiaz Ali also spoke.