Date: 8/11/2005
The Aspirations of the Sindhis/// Courtesy: Jhoole Lal'u <unitedchurch@eml.cc Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2005 /// Sindhis are predominantly sufis who believe in harmony and tolerance in the matter of religion. Before the partition of India, the majority of Sindhis consistently voted against candidates supporting Pakistan. Although the British colonialists used their considerable power and influence to support the pro-Pakistan candidates in 1946, such candidates succeeded in obtaining only about 40% of the popular vote. /// By gerrymandering the electorate, the colonialists managed the election of a majority in the Sindh Assembly which favored joining Pakistan. The Sindhi vote for Pakistan was also facilitated by the now famous 'Lahore Resolution' passed by the Muslim League -- this resolution promised "autonomy and sovereignty of constituent units" and "protection of religious minorities". Sindhis have strongly resented Pakistan, whose policies since inception have been the very anti-thesis of both these principles. /// The Current Situation /// Pakistan today is held together by a powerful military which directly consumes 70% of the its budget after debt payments. The military has gained strength by opportunistically aligning itself with the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. It has directly ruled the country for most of its history and has cultivated relations with the fundamentalist Islamist clergy to strengthen its hold on power. In fact, the military is a bastion of Islamists who are influenced by fundamentalist movements such as Wahabism and Deobandism -- the same movements which hold sway among large numbers of Pakistani Punjabis. /// In fact, the Pakistan military is a key source of instability in the region. Internally, it has repeatedly destabilized elected governments. It was the primary supporter of the Taliban in Afghanistan, responsible for bringing them into power. Recently, an American official was quoted as saying that the U.S. did not realize how critical the Pakistanis were in propping up the Taliban -- when that support was finally withdrawn four weeks after the start of the American bombing, the Taliban regime collapsed. ISI, Pakistan military's intelligence service is believed to have been deeply involved in heroin smuggling operations -- with such operations providing the bulk of its operating budget. And the ISI continues to sponsor terrorism against neighboring India. /// (Remarks by G.C.Asnani: I am a Sindhi Hindu, born in Sindh in 1922. /// I know the developments in Sindh before Partition. I am now a refugee from Sindh. The Muslims of Sindh voted for Partition of the Country, Sindh to become a component of Pakistan. It is not correct to blame the Britishers for Partition of the Country. Around 1843, the Hindu Seth Naoomal invited the Britishers to attack Sindh and liberate the Sindhi Hindus from the tyranny of Muslim rule in Sindh. Let the younger generation not get misguided. I know how Mr. G.M. Syed and Mr. Khuhro were threatening Sindhi Hindus about the conditions which will follow after the Independence and Partition of India. It has so happened that Muslims of Sindh did not get after Partition what they had hoped to get from Partition of India. Non- Sindhi Muslims have taken over what Sindhi Muslims had hoped to take over after Sindhi Hindus had left Sindh.) .........................000000000
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