Malala Yusufzai wants to work in India-A lesson for Kashmiri separatists

 

Malala Yusufzai, Pakistan’s Nobel Laureate and United Nation’s Ambassadt1 for Peace wants to come to India and work in this country. She wants to spread the message that girls should be provide i educational facilities in the same manner as these are pro', d to boys. She wants to spread this message in Pakistan too. But, she cannot go there because, for her this view, which is based on a sense of justice, she will be shot dead in that country. For this view of hers, she was shot, earlier, and she and her family had to leave Pakistan.

Malala is appreciative of the freedom of expression that is prevalent in Indian society. She is also happy that in the Indian polity, girls are encouraged to pursue education in the manner boys are.

She wants to energise this system and, thereby, empower women more.

Like Malala, many other Muslims and non-Hindus have had a feeling that secular India is safer and more respectful than retrograde Pakistan founded on the belief that religion should control those branches of social activity, also, as are, normally, in the domain of secular affairs and of judiciary. One such gentleman was the father of the entrepreneur Premjee. Founder of Pakistan M. A. Jinnah offered him the post of the Finance Minister if he accepted the proposal of living in Pakistan. The reply Jinnah got was: No. Director of Education of the Jammu and Kashmir State, Mr. Ghulam-ul-Sayidan, was offered a higher post in Pakistan. He refused to leave India.

Mr. Jinnah had a close friend in the person of Mr. Pothan Joseph, whom the Quad-e-Aazam had appointed as the Editor of Dawn, then published in India. The two friends used to have dinners and drinks together. Jinnah expressed a desire that Joseph should come to Pakistan and, there, continue to edit Dawn. Joseph declined the offer in un-ambiguous terms.

During his tenure Gen. Ayub Khan got perturbed over the fact that the works of most Pak writers and poets were of a retrograde nature. He told progressive Indian poet Josh Maliabadi that if the latter left India and became a Pak citizen Ayub Khan would allot him a big jagir. Josh went to consult his guide and philosopher Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru told him that despite his owning a big jagir, he may not feel happy in Pakistan. Josh repeated his desire. Nehru told him that he can go to Pakistan but, if, later, he wanted to come back to India, Nehru will not allow that. After hearing these words,

Josh left for Pakistan. After some years, he travelled from Pakistan to India and went to meet Nehru. Josh told Nehru that he was feeling stifled in Pakistan because the majority, there, was opposed to his progressive, creative poetry and, so, he wanted to return to India. Nehru did not permit that. In his sun-set years, Josh became an unhappy man.

Some residents of U.P. and Bihar told us that at the time of partition, they left their homes and hearths to settle in Pakistan thinking that since they were Muslims, they would have a better future in that country. They added that Pakistanis treated them as second-class citizens. Out of contempt they used to shout at us saying these -mahajareen (people who have left their original places) are worthless people. These mahajareen told us that Pakistanis abducted our teen-aged girls. They added that they wanted to come back and settle in India, but their properties had been taken over by relatives and neighbours and the latter do not want that they should return.

Mr. Jinnah, himself, was not shown the respect he deserved. He told the doctor treating him: The division of the sub-continent was a big mistake. If I were 20 years younger, I would go to India, shake hands with Nehru hand and tell him that the two separated parts should join again. Jinnah’s Prime Minister Liaquat Khan, who was listening this talk, told others in a low voice: Just see what this old man is saying. Jinnah became an unhappy person because the Pakistan he wanted was to be a moderate and progressive one, while it turned to be extremist and retrograde.

In this ambience, the desire of Malala Yusufzai, a good Muslim, to work in India is a justified one.

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 The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.                                                

Courtesy: Sh. Jagannath Dhar Editor  and  Koshur Samachar February, 2018