I regard all Pakistanis (and Bangladeshis) as Indians. But because Pakistan was created as a separate Islamic state by that historical British swindle called Partition, which was the greatest tragedy befalling our nation in its 5000 year old known history, it has been temporarily separated from India (and which we are duty bound to undo). So I call you Pakistani Indians.
What is Pakistan ? It is Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province. These were all part of India since Mughal times. There is no such thing as Pakistan. We share the same culture, look like each other, and many of us speak the same language, Hindustani. When I meet Pakistanis I do not feel any different from them, and when Indians and Pakistanis meet abroad they socially mix with each other as if Partition had never taken place.
I have already mentioned in an earlier address that India is broadly a country of immigrants, whose ancestors came into this sub continent mainly from the north west (and to a lesser extent from the North East). Did a common culture emerge by the intermingling of these immigrants, or did they remain separate? The answer is that by the intermingling of these immigrants over thousands of years a common culture emerged in India, which can broadly be called the ‘Sanskrit-Urdu culture’ which we all share in common.
One may ask: what have Nagas, Tamilians or Pathans got to do with Sanskrit and Urdu ?Hardly anyone knows Sanskrit today, and people in South India or the North East do not know Urdu. The answer is that when I use the words ‘Sanskrit’ and ‘Urdu’ in the expression ‘Sanskrit-Urdu culture’ I mean the spirit of Sanskrit and the spirit of Urdu, not Sanskrit and Urdu literally. This needs to be explained.
I have written two articles which you must read to understand Indian culture. They can be seen on my blog Satyam Bruyat (1) Sanskrit as a language of Science, and (2) What is Urdu? In these articles I have explained that while in Sanskrit the emphasis was on reason, in Urdu it was on emotion.
Reason and emotion are the two basic features of man. Without reason, a man is blind. Without emotion, he is impotent. Hence both these qualities complement each other, and both are required to build a nation. In Europe, Voltaire stood for reason, and Rousseau stood for emotion, and these two are regarded the prime intellectual makers of modern Europe.
As mentioned in my article ‘Sanskrit as a language of Science’ (see online), Sanskrit was a language of free thinkers, who questioned everything. Even our atheists wrote in Sanskrit.
As regards Urdu, no poetry in the world (and I have read several) expresses the voice of the human heart in the manner, and with such power, as Urdu does.
To build a modern, prosperous India, in which all our citizens enjoy decent lives, requires both reason and emotion.
It requires reason, because science stands for reason, and the way to prosperity for India is by adopting the scientific outlook on a large scale.
It requires emotion, because building a prosperous India, which must be our goal, requires people with the selfless passion of serving the country.
This spirit of Sanskrit and Urdu is the true Indian culture, and it encompasses people from the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan in the West to the North East and Bangladesh in the East, from Kashmir in the North to Kanyakumari in the South.
Many Pakistanis may express the apprehension that if Pakistan reunites with India, Muslims in Pakistan will be dominated by Hindus, as Hindus are in the majority, and parliamentary democracy runs on majority vote. My reply is that in reunited India we will not have parliamentary democracy. Experience in India has shown that parliamentary democracy largely runs on casteism and communalism, which are feudal forces. We have to destroy feudalism if we are to progress, but parliamentary democracy further entrenches them (see my article ‘ Parliamentary democracy has failed ‘ in the portal DailyO.in). Hence we must have an alternative system in which no community dominates over others. For that, a spell of dictatorship under patriotic modern minded leaders may be necessary (like that of Mustafa Kemal in Turkey). Too much democracy is also bad, for the vast majority of our people are intellectually backward, full of casteism and communalism.
Some people say that IRA has only a few thousand members, so it is irrelevant when millions (or tens of millions) of Indians belong to Hindu extremist organisations in India, and Muslim extremist organisations in Pakistan.
My answer is this: truth has great power. Even if I am alone in the world (and I am not), but what I say is true, it will gradually spread and be accepted by all. When Copernicus said that the earth goes around the sun (the heliocentric theory), and the sun does not go around the earth (the geocentric theory), he was all alone in Europe who said this. In fact the idea was met with great hostility at that time (as it contradicted the interpretation of the Bible popular in that time), and the great scientist Galileo who agreed with it was almost burnt at the stake in 1633 during the Inquisition, and survived only by recanting. But because the idea represented the truth, it was ultimately accepted by all. So even if we in IRA are presently only a small minority, if we represent the truth (and we are confident that we do), our idea of reunification will certainly be accepted by tens (or even hundreds) of millions in our subcontinent.
Some people say how can we reunite when there is so much hatred between Hindus and Muslims? My answer is: this hatred is artificially created by certain vested interests. In fact when Indians go to Pakistan they are overwhelmed by the love, affection and hospitality they receive, and the same happens when Pakistanis come to India.
Pakistanis may face one difficulty in joining IRA, which Indians may not. Even if they are convinced of the truth of what we say, they may find it dangerous to say so openly, since our view (that India and Pakistan are really one nation, and only artificially separated) challenges the very existence of Pakistan as a separate Islamic state. So the authorities in Pakistan may take some action against them, as it happened to a school in Karachi (Mama Babycare Cambridge School) recently whose registration was suspended because the children there waved the Indian national flag and danced to Indian songs.
However, as Victor Hugo said “There is one thing more powerful than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come”. The idea of Indian reunification is an idea whose time has come. So no amount of opposition to it or repression will prevail over this massive tide which IRA represents, and which is rising higher and higher every day, attracting more and more converts in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.