Partition of India in 1947 was a grave mistake, which was inspired less by the will of the people and more by the motivation of political self interest of a handful of individuals who were in a hurry to reach the top of hierarchy, even if that was at the cost of the division of the sub-continent followed by the history’s biggest ever exchange of population and the genocide in the aftermath.
This forthright and hitherto rarely expressed view was stated by Union MoS Dr Jitendra Singh in his address as chief guest after releasing two books based on Jammu & Kashmir related thoughts of ideologue and thinker Indresh Kumar, published by Prabhat Prakashan.
Quoting instances from history, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the coming generations of historians will definitely record the partition of Indian sub-continent as one of the gravest mistakes in the recent centuries. He said, the irony is that the argument to have a separate Islamic State for Muslims in the name of Pakistan failed to find favour even with prominent Muslim intellectuals, scholars and littérateurs of that time. He referred to Progressive Writers’ Forum comprising prominent Muslim brains like Kaifi Azmi, Mohsin Bhopali, Akbar Allahabadi, Ismat Chugtai and Sahir Ludhianvi who had vociferously and outrightly opposed the partition, but were overruled by the political ambition of politicians like Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Jawahar lal Nehru.
As far as J&K is concerned, Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated his view that J&K is as much a State of Indian Union as any other State like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He said there is no issue like Kashmir issue and the need of the hour is to change the discourse and to set an agenda of debate for others to respond.
