The Indian Reunification Association (IRA) was founded by Markandey Katju on 2 April 2017 in order to reunify what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh with India. The idea of this organization was conceived by Katju, a Justice of the Supreme Court of India, in 2016 and it has received a significant amount of media coverage since that time in newspapers such as The Huffington Post, Kashmir Life, The Nation, The Times of India, The Hindu, Indica News, Business Line, The Indian Express, among others. Irfan Pullani, the IRA General Secretary, has played an important role in expanding the organization in the entire Indian subcontinent by appointing leaders in various states and provinces. Since then, we have received a significant amount of support from those living in what is now Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as in India, for Indian Reunification. We hope that you will join us to make this dream a reality.
To enlighten the general public about the brutal realities behind an unfair British swindle, the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent, and set up various chapters to evolve creative methodologies for achieving the noble cause of the IRA.
To have a philosophical or political reunion of the subcontinent leading to unity among communities, a higher standard of living, and thus eternal civilizational prosperity.
The Overseas Council of IRA has international representatives from many parts of the world including the Middle East, UK, Germany & the United States.
Indian Reunification Association (IRA) has set up provincial chapters in all the states and union-territories of India.
Since 2017, the IRA had received interests to associate from thousands of people based in South Asia & other parts of the world.
To the people of India (which includes Pakistanis and Bangladeshis): The great French writer, 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 (i.e. reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) under a secular government, is an idea whose time has come, not that this reunification will take place immediately, or even in the near future. We are sowing a seed which will take 10-15 years of patient work by patriots to grow into a fruit bearing tree. However, if we do not plant the seed now, we will not get fruit even after 10-15 years. Many of us may not live to see the day when the tree bears fruit, but our reward will be that we have worked for it.
Many of us will be ridiculed for being dreamers. But the great Italian thinker Mazzini was also ridiculed for being a dreamer when he spoke of Italian unification, with his dream coming true when Italy was united by Cavour and Garibaldi. Germany was united by Bismarck, West and East Germany were united in 1990, and North and South Vietnam in 1975. We believe that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are bound to reunite one day, and though that will take time we must start working for it now.
Why do we say this? Let me explain. The truth is that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are really one nation. We have been one since Mughal times, we share the same culture, many of us speak the same language Hindustani (called Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan), we look like each other, and we have the same massive problems of poverty, unemployment, malnourishment, farmers' distress, lack of proper healthcare and good education for our masses.
The partition of India in 1947 was a historical British swindle on the basis of the bogus two nation theory that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations (see my articles 'The Truth about Pakistan' and 'The Truth about Partition'), which was a culmination of the wicked divide and rule policy begun by the British after suppressing the Great Mutiny of 1857 and systematically and persistently followed thereafter (see 'History in the Service of Imperialism' by B.N. Pande online ). The time has now come when this historical swindle must be exposed and undone. Before 1857 there was no communal problem, and Hindus and Muslims used to live peacefully together like brothers and sisters. Hindus used to join Muslims in celebrating Eid and Muharram, and Muslims used to join Hindus celebrating Holi and Diwali. Muslim Nawabs (e.g. Nawab of Awadh) used to organise Ramlilas, Tipu Sultan would give annual grants to 156 Hindu temples (see my article on Tipu Sultan on my blog Satyam Bruyat and BN Pande's 'History in the Service of Imperialism' online) etc. It was after suppressing the Mutiny of 1857 (in which Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the British) that the British rulers decided that the only way to control India was divide and rule, and thereafter the communal venom was injected by them into our society systematically and repeatedly, year after year, decade after decade, ultimately leading to the Partition (for details see my article 'The Truth about Pakistan' online).
Pakistan was created as an Islamic state, but if religion is the basis of a nation hardly any nation can survive, for almost every nation has several religions. For instance, the United Kingdom has Protestants (of several kinds e.g. Anglicans in England and Presbyterians in Scotland etc.), Roman Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists, etc. The UK would have to be partitioned into a dozen countries, and so would the USA, France, Germany, etc. The idea is absurd, but it was applied by the Britishers to our sub continent.
Why was India partitioned by the British? It was partitioned for two reasons, India should not emerge as an industrial giant, like China, for if it did, with our cheap labour we would undersell the products of British industry and become its powerful rival. We should remain a big market for foreign arms industries (today India is the biggest purchaser of foreign arms, spending billions of dollars on it, money which should be spent on the welfare of our poor people).
Our national aim must be to secure to our people a high standard of living and decent lives. But for that we have to make India a highly industrialised country, because that alone can generate the wealth required for the welfare of our people. And for that we must reunite under a secular government which while upholding religious freedom does not tolerate religious extremism or bigotry, and crushes it with an iron hand. Unless we reunite we will keep fighting each other, thus wasting our precious resources. When I meet a Pakistani I feel no different from him, and Indians and Pakistanis abroad mix socially as if the Partition had never taken place. Some people say that the Partition took place in 1947 and since then much water has flown, and so it is not possible to reunite now. But West and East Germany were united in 1990 after a partition in 1945, and Vietnam (which too has many religions) was reunited in 1975 after a long division. So time is immaterial. Others say that we cannot unite as there is too much hatred between us. But this hatred is artificially created by some 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.
Some people ask what concrete action should be done for reunification. The answer is: at present we need only spread the idea. Once this idea becomes widespread, people will use their creativity and find out the ways and means.
I make it clear that our idea of reuniting India is totally different from the idea of Akhand Bharat of the RSS. The latter contemplates a Hindu dominated united India, while the India of our vision is a secular India in which there is religious freedom and no community dominates over others.
So Indian patriots (and I regard all Pakistanis and Bangladeshis as Indians), do your duty and help us in this sacred mission!
Yours in Solidarity,
Justice Markandey Katju
Founder & Patron,
Indian Reunification Association (IRA)
CHARTER OF THE INDIAN REUNIFICATION ASSOCIATION
To understand the IRA’s organisational structure and their functioning in detail, recent subscribers can download the IRA Handbook. The IRA Handbook shall explain the set of duties we expect from an IRA subscriber in propagating the truthful idea of Rectifying History & Reuniting Hearts
The IRA Senate issues the Annual Performance Report of the organisation from 2020. The report will mention major activities of the provincial chapters and national campaigns initiated. You may understand the activities of the organization in effective outreach of the noble idea of Indian Reunification by downloading the latest report.
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“The partition of the country must go, —it is to be hoped by a slackening of tension, by a progressive understanding of the need of peace and concord, by the constant necessity of common and concerted action, even of an instrument of union for that purpose.”
slave of prejudice … slave of religious fanaticism … slave of barbarity and inhumanity.”
