Failure of the Indian Government to address the root causes could lead to a Domino effect in South Asia
The Arunachal Dragon Force, also known as the East India Liberation Front, is a violent secessionist movement in the eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The ADF seeks to create an independent state resembling the pre-British Teola Country that would include area currently in Arunachal Pradesh as well as neighboring Assam.
Mizoram’s tensions have arisen largely due to the Assamese domination and the neglect of the Mizo people by India. In 1986, the main secessionist movement led by the Mizo National Front ended after a peace accord, bringing peace to the region. However, secessionist demands by some groups continue to insist on an independent Hmar State.
Nagaland was created in 1963 as the 16th state of Indian Union after carving it out of Assam. It happens to be the oldest of insurgencies of India (since 1947) and is believed to have inspired almost all others ethnic groups in the region, demanding full independence. The state is marked by multiplicity of tribes, ethnicities, cultures and religion. It is home to around 400 tribes or sub tribes and has witnessed conflicts, including infighting amongst various villages, tribes and other warring factions, most of them seeking a separate homeland comprising Christian dominated areas of Nagaland and certain areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The area is rich in oil reserves worth billions and government efforts to strike deals with the rebel groups have yielded no results. Thousands have died since the insurgency began.
The struggle for the independence of Manipur has been actively pursued by several insurgent groups since 1964, some of them with socialist leanings, arising out of neglect by the state and central governments of the issues and concerns of the people. For lack of education and economic opportunities, many people have been forced to join these separatists groups. The disturbed conditions have only added to the sufferings of the general population. The controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (or AFSPA) has been extensively criticized, as it gives wide and unrestricted powers to the army, which invariably leads to serious violations of human rights.
It was the ethnic tensions between the Bengali immigrants after the 1971 war and the native tribal population in Tripura and the building of a fence by the government along the Bangladesh border that led to a rebellion in the 1970s. Very active insurgency now goes on amid very harsh living conditions for thousands of homeless refugees. The National Liberation Front of Tripura and the All Tripura Tiger Force demand expulsion of Bengali speaking immigrants.
Tamil Nadu: In the wake of their defeat by the Sri Lankan military in the Jaffna peninsula, the LTTE rebels took refuge in the adjoining Tamil Nadu state of India, where on account of common ethnicity, religion, language and culture they mixed easily and enjoyed mass support for their cause. Overtime LTTE regrouped and recruited volunteers from amongst the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and the local population and began to amass weapons and explosives. They began to work with a local independence movement called TNLA that was inspired by the Maoist/Naxalite movement and demanded secession from India. To the concern of the state and central government, highly explosive devices and other weaponry was recovered from LTTE’s possession but it has been difficult to take on LTTE owing to sympathy for Tamil cause among local Tamil population. TNLA has been banned and declared a terrorist organization.
Khalistan Movement of the Sikhs: The Sikh community has long nurtured a grudge against the Hindu dominated governments in New Delhi for having gone back on their word given at the time of partition in 1947, promising autonomy to their state of Punjab, renaming it Khalistan, which the Sikhs considered to be very important from their religious and political standpoint. Real as well as perceived discrimination and a feeling of betrayal by the central government of Indira Gandhi brought matters to the head and fearing a rebellion from the Sikh militant groups, she ordered a military attack on their most revered shrine – the Golden Temple, in 1981, where armed Sikhs put up stiff resistance. An estimated 3000 people, including a large number of pilgrims, died. This ended in a military victory but a political disaster for Indira Gandhi. Soon afterwards in 1984, she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards and this in turn led to a general massacre of the Sikhs across India. Although the situation has returned to normal, the Sikh community has not forgiven the Hindus for this sacrilege and tensions continue. The demand for Khalistan is still alive and about 17 movements for a separate Sikh state remain active.
Another factor that has added to the existing tensions between the central government and the Sikhs is the diversion to the neighboring states of their most important natural resource – river water, which belonged only to Punjab under the prevalent national and international law. This deprived Punjab of billions of rupees annually. With 80% of the state population – the poor farming community, adversely affected, there has been a great deal of unrest. Armed forces were used to suppress this unrest but there are fears that the issue could become the moot point of another Maoist uprising, this time in Punjab.
Kashmir: The Kashmir issue is as old as the history of India and Pakistan’s independence. It arose out of India’s forcible occupation of this predominantly Muslim state against the wishes of its people and in violation of the principle of partition of British India. A fierce struggle for independence continues unabated in the valley in which hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives at the hands of the central and state government’s security forces and have been displaced. There has been international condemnation of human rights violations. India has defied the resolutions of the UN Security Council that have called for demilitarization of the valley and holding of plebiscite to determine the will of the people.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars and efforts at reaching a solution through negotiations have not been fruitful.
Consequences for South Asia
The Indian internal scene presents a very disturbing scenario, one that has prompted Suhas Chakma, Director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights in New Delhi, to say that ‘India is at war with itself’. Alan Hart, the British journalist, while speaking about insurgencies in India at LISA seminar in July this year, agreed with this characterization. There is a consensus that this situation seriously threatens India’s stability and consequently its democracy.
In a changing world, as the poor of India become more and more aware of the affluence of the relative few who reap the benefits from the country’s development boom, the rich-poor division assumes greater significance and cannot not be ignored. “The insurgency in all of its manifestations and the counter-insurgency operations of the security forces in all of their manifestations are only the casing of the ticking time-bomb under India’s democracy. The explosive substance inside the casing is, in a word, POVERTY” said Alan Hart, and said it rightly.
It is also important to understand that unification of India has not yet taken firm roots and it would be a bad idea to try and trigger fragmentation among its neighbors. There is imminent danger of the Domino effect taking the whole of South Asia down.
I suggest that Shahid R Siddique concentrate on his country-Pakistan which is a failed basketcase of terrorism than India. India despite all its problems has started to provide decent jobs and living standards to people from all states including Assam (there is an IIT in assam and several assamese work in India’s booming IT and call center industry). In contrast Pakistan is a mafia state led by its army with no economic growth and demands for independence from everyone from Baluchistan to Sindh.It has thw worst human rights record in the world with blasphemy laws and all sorts of nonsensical medieval theocratic shenenigans. The only source of employment for pakistanis is the army and pak has zero economic growth. Criticising India by a pakistani is like a prostitute criticising a housewife for infidelity.
786:
I APPRECIATE THE HONESTY OF TARUN WHEN HE SAYS ” PAKISTAN IS A BASKET CASE OF TERROSIM”.
PAKISTAN STARTED VERY CONFIDENTIALLY AFTER INDEPENDENCE, AND STARTED PROSPEROUSLY IN INDUSTRY, AGRICULTURE, DEFENCE, EDUCATION AND PROSPERITY IN STANDARD OF LIVING OF PAKISTANIS, AND WITH GOOD REPUTATION IN THE COMMUNITY OF NATIONS OF THE WORLD.
BUT THANKS TO INDIA WHO CREATED THE KASHMIR PROBLEM, AND INVITED TERROISM. THIS RESULTED IN THREE WARS, BREAKIG UP OF PAKISTAN, AND ALL ECONOMY WAS DRAGGED IN BUILDING UP DEFENCE FORCES, DIRTY POLITICS TURNED PAKISTAN INTO A STRUGGLING FOR ITS EXISTENCE AND SERVIVAL.
DEAR, CAN YOU GIVE ONE REASON WHY YOU DIDN’T SOLVED THE KASHMIR PROBLEM ON THE SAME FORMULA, YOU TOOK OVER HYDERABAD DECCAN, JUNAGADH, MANAWADER, ETC. I.E, MAJORITY TAKES THE STATE, MUSLIMS/ HINDUS.
This is priceless. According to Haroon Siddiqui all of Pakistan’s problems are because of India. Never mind its Kashmir/India obsessed military that has brought nothing but misery to that country, it is still all India’s fault.
The definition of a “problem” for Pakistan is its endless demand for Kashmir. According to India there is no problem. Kashmir is theirs and they have no plans of making any changes. If Pakistan has a problem with that then it is their problem,
And yes I forgot that pakistan’s biggest export apart from agri and textiles is terrorism.
786:
AGAIN YOU ARE HONEST, DEAR.
JUST CORRECT ONE WORD PLEASE. IT IS IMPORT NOT EXPORT.
WE MUSLIMS HAVE A VERY LONG HISTORY WITH YOUR PART OF EX-INDIA, AND WE KNOW EACH OTHER VERY, VERY, WELL.
WE KNOW WELL WHAT YOUR NUMEROUS EMBASSIES IN AFGHANISTAN ARE DOINGS, AND HOW MUCH ACTIVE YOU ARE IN CREATING PROBLEMS IN BALOCHISTAN.
WE KNOW WHAT YOU GAIN FROM INCIDENTS OF STOCK EXCHANGE, SAMJHOTA EXPRESS, TRAIN INCIDENTS, ETC.
WE KNOW THAT 70 PERSCENT OF YOUR ARMY AND AIRFORCE IS SPREAD ON OUR WESTERN BORDERS AND YOU TIME AND AGAIN CREATED PROBLEMS IN BOMBAY.
ANY WAY, WHY DON’T YOU LIVE AT EASE AND LET US LIVE IN PEACE.
HAVE A NICE NEW YEAR.
Sorry friend , we indians never allowed the insurgency in our country or any where in the world.
For Baluchistan conflicts you are more responsible.And by the way we have helped you to save baluchistan as ur part. If u have some knowlege of foriegn policy and relationship history you should know that in 1973-74 Baluchistan conflict we kept ourselves away to support Baluch army against Pakistan and that time pak govt. stated thanks to us publicly for that.
A very, very good article. Mr. Siddiqui has brilliantly elucidated the point. No sustainable progress in India is possible, unless the fundamentals are right. Building an economy on poor foundation will only givd an illusion, and will be transitory. Instead of just building a ‘showcase India’, India needs to direct and divert all it has to correct the root defect.
Mr Shahid Siddiqui as usual is brilliant, precise and accurate. There are over 300 million people in India, almost twice the population of Pakistan who live well below the poverty line, where racial and communal tension is at its peak, there is discrimination and killing of women, there is caste wars where human beings are treated like animals. So what progress has India made? Yes, for the West India is country that measures to their sexual and boozing appetite that is cheap and available everywhere, and so they throng to that country as ‘tourists’. Indians should be ashamed of themselves; they do not live in harmony with even one of their neighbours, so what human rights and so called democracy are they talking about? Yes, they champion sexuality, promiscuity, eroticism (Bombay film industry) etc. So if this is progress and democracy good luck to India and Indians. Of course there are good, decent and fair people there too who abhor such modernism and ‘progress’ and would like a more honourable existence, but I hope this population is not shrinking or then there is no hope for India. My advise to India is live and love your neighbours, stop being so militant and aggressive and learn to live and let live not try and export terrorism like they are doing in Afghanistan.
786
MR. SHAHID ‘S ABOVE ARTICLE, AS USUAL, IS A WORK OF DEEP RESEARCH, HONEST FACTS, CORRECT ASSESSMENT, AND CLEAN
CONCLUSIONS.
MR. REHMAN’S CONCLUDING LINES IN THE ABOVE REPLY IS THE CRRECT REMEDY OF THE PROBLEM.
Insurgency in the NorthEast of India excepting Assam, is engineered by the Christians of Europe and North America.Assam’s one is the natural corrolary of the Assam Accord by Rajiv Gandhi.
Why should kashmir problem be solved on the basis of majority view. By that yardstick pakistan would never have been created because majority people in Indian subcontinent wanted a united India. in fact it was Jinnah who said that the principal of pakistan was based on the premise that “majorityism cannot be basis for decision making’ . Now pakistan which was formed on the principal that minority muslims cannot live with majority hindus in a democratic India is demanding that India accept the view of majority sunni muslims in kashmir. How ironic.
Mr. Shahid R. Siddiqi represents those kind of people from Pakistan who were recently caught spreading fake stories through fake wikileaks. Khalistan is a dead issue and what is this Tamil thing, Tamils are fighting in SRI LANKA, which is not in India, Seven sister states are more integrated today then ever before….In kashmir the only problem is in Kashmir VALLEY(which is the smallest part of J&K).
Now lets look at The small country known as Pakistan…BALOCHISTAN has never considered itself Pakistan, Balochistan makes up for 45% of Land area and almost all the resources…Pashtun areas are more united with Afghanistan than Punjabi Pakistan and don’t even consider the Durand Line as their border…as per a recent survey the demand for an Independent PASHTUNISTAN is all time high…The Gilgit Baltistanis too are asking for a seperate BALWARISTAN…and how can u forget Sindhis who hate Punjabis and want a seperate SINDHUDESH
Mr Siddiqi please focus on your own Country, Pakistan is both a fake and a failed state, in its whole history, the piece of land that today is known as Pakistan….has never ruled itself….Pakistan was ruled by Indians(Nandas, Mauryas, Guptas, Palas), Greeks(Alexander), Arabs(Rashiuddin and Umaayad), Persians(Achaemenids, Sassanids), Turkics(Ghaznavi, Delhi Sultanate and Mughals) , Afghans(Ghauri and Abdali) and Britishers…Pakistan was never ever a country and is not meant to be one, it has no history and no culture of its own, The language Urdu, which is Pakistan’s NATIONAL LANGUAGE is a borrowed from India…The native Pakistani languages are Punjabi, Sindhi etc. The heroes of Pakistan are also borrowed from outside like Abdali, Qasim, Ghauri and Ghaznavi…Is there any Pakistani hero that you people can claim?
786
MY HATS OFF TO THE GREAT HISTORIAN HONOURABLE JAMES. BUT WHY DO YOU STARTED FROM NANDAS OR MAURYAS OR GUPTAS, WHY NOT RIGHT FROM MR. AADAMM & MRS. HAWWA. [ AS PER MUSLIM FAITH ] AND ACCORDING TO MR. DARWIN’S THEORY, MR. MRS. MONKEY, OR MR & MRS DINOSAURE, WERE THE RIGHT OWNERS OF INDIA. AND IN RECENT HISTORY RED INDIANS ARE THE OWNERS OF USA NOT MR OBAMA.
MR. JAMES, THIS IS 21ST CENTURY, AND I HUMBLY REQUEST YOU TO THINK ANDTALK ABOUT THE SITUATION OF 21ST CENTURY.
MUSLIMS RULED INDIA FOR ABOUT A THOUSAND YEARS. THE INVADERS BRITISH TOOK OVER FROM THEM, AS RULE OF HISTORY THEY SHOULD HAVE GIVEN INDIA TO MUSLIMS, BUT THAT WAS REDICULOUS IN THIS MODERN WORD, SO THE MOST PRACTICAL SOLUTION WAS PARTITION OF INDIA, AND NOW THAT HAS TAKEN EFFECT WE SHOULD SIT TOGATHER AND SOLVE THE PROBLEMS.
YOU HAVE TAKEN, HYDERABAD, JUNAGARH, MANAWADER, RAMPUR, BHOPAL, ETC ETC. LET US HAVE OUR KASHMIR PLEASE.
what a logic – as if Muslims were not Invaders.
Is kashmir an apple that we will give to pakistan. And what is the basis of your saying that britishers should have given back india to muslims. Is india a jagir of muslims that we would be ruled by muslims. And for your kind information, the muslim rule over india is considered the dark age of India when all money was spent in building mosques and harems. Who wants to go back to dark ages. Try taking kashmir from us, our military will break your back.
786:
DEAR, DON’T GET ANGRY, IT IS BAD FOR HEALTH, AND I LOVE INDIANS, I WAS BORN IN ” UP “, AND SPENT MY YOUNG DAYS [ BEFORE PARTITION ] IN BOMBAY, POONA, MADRAS, ETC ETC, MY BEST FRIENDS IN SCHOOL DAYS WERE NON MUSLIMS ALSO.
SO, DON’T THINK ABOUT BREAKING ” BACK “.
AND THEN AGAIN IT IS NOT ” 1971 ” NOW. BOTH OF OUR COUNTRIES ARE ATOMIC POWERS, AND GOD FORBIDS IN AN ATOMIC WAR BOTH FIGHTRS LOOSE .
DEAR, LET US COOLY THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OUR GRAND CHILDREN, DO THE SAME WITH KASHMIR, THAT YOU DID WITH HYDEABAD, JUNAGADH, BHOPAL, RAMPUR, MANWADER AND SCOES OTHER STATE.
May be you dont understand what a nuclear war means. Both India and Pakistan have 100+ nuclear weapons. India in addition has plutonium to build upto a thousand warheads and pakistan is building more. In addition Indian frontline troops are now being equipped with NBC protection gear. A nuclear war will be a total war which will lead to more than 200mn dead on both sides. India with a population of 1.2bn will be less by 200mn people but pakistan with a population of 180mn would be extinct. And dont forget Indian navy and airpower will largely remian intact in a nuclear war which will pound pakistani cities and towns (remember destruction of Karachi in 1971). Unless China actively steps in , a nuclear war will be the extinction of Pakistan.Do you want to exhaust yourself to claim Kashmir. Moreover dont forget the following points:
UN plebiscite calls upon Pakistan to withdraw from all parts of Kashmir it has occupied and for Indian troops to take over those parts before a plebiscite can be held by India. If pakistan is willing to fulfill these conditions, then I would not mind.
Mr James I do not want to intrude into the advice you offer to Mr Siddiqi about Pakistan!
But your comment reveals much confusion in describing and interpreting history of a country like Pakistan. It seems what say about Pakistan is more in a rhetorical way rather than presenting your views in an historical perspective. However, I do not intend to deal with all the issues you have raised in your comment but will take only one point of yours. After mentioning those who have ruled over the territories now called Pakistan over the last twenty-five centuries, you assert that Pakistan ‘has no history and no culture of its own’. That is a strange claim.
Pakistan came into existence in 1947 after the partition of the subcontinent into two states. But the people who lived in the areas and territories had various ethnic identities and cultures for the last five thousand years. They had their cultures, languages and sometimes their local rulers also. But cultures change with the passage of time and so do the languages. The nations, nationalities, castes, tribal fraternities who inhabited these vast stretches of land since the ancient times have their histories and cultures. The establishment of Pakistan in 1947 did not mean that the histories of the areas and the peoples and their cultures in a new political entity, Pakistan, had vanished. They are all part of the history and culture of Pakistan. Even if Pakistan ceases to exist, the history or histories and cultures of the peoples of the teritories that formed Pakistan will continue to exist.
786:
IN FACT ALL THE MUSLIM POPULATION IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN ARE NOT BY ARAB DYNASTY, WHO BROUGHT ISLAM IN SOUTH ASHIA. MAJORITY ARE PERSONS WHO JOINED MUSLIM RELIGION FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES.
Mr James I do not want to intrude into the advice you offer to Mr Siddiqi about Pakistan. But your comment reveals much confusion in describing and interpreting history of a country like Pakistan. It seems what say about Pakistan is more in a rhetorical way rather than presenting your views in an historical perspective. However, I do not intend to deal with all the issues you have raised in your comment but will take only one point of yours. After mentioning those who have ruled over the territories now called Pakistan over the last twenty-five centuries, you assert that Pakistan ‘has no history and no culture of its own’. That is a strange claim.
Pakistan came into existence in 1947 after the partition of the subcontinent into two states. But the people who lived in the areas and territories had various ethnic identities and cultures for the last five thousand years. They had their cultures, languages and sometimes their local rulers also. But cultures change with the passage of time and so do the languages. The nations, nationalities, castes, tribal fraternities who inhabited these vast stretches of land since the ancient times have their histories. The establishment of Pakistan in 1947 did not mean that the histories of the areas and the peoples and their cultures in a new political entity, Pakistan, had vanished. They became part of of the history and culture of Pakistan, and as long as Pakistan exists, they will continue to be part of Pakistan’s history.
Pakistani history books have been rewritten and true history of Pakistan before 1947 has been wiped out and distorted. Scholars know it.
Even quaid e azam Jinnah’s speech has been rewritten.
Our Indian brothers should not write off the Khalistan issue so fast. Today in Punjab the Khalistanis are viewed as heroes, there pictures lace the streets of Punjab (on cars and posters).
But unlike other movements, Sikhs have also migrated out of India and become very successful in western countries. India can no longer use terrorist methods to subdue the movement one it starts.
After the fall of the Sikh Empire, every 20 to 30 years there has been a movement for freedom by the Sikh community, and it continues today. With the Khalistan movement ending in 1995, and if history repeats itself, the next movement will start in about 2015 to 2025.
Type in the world Khalistan on google and u get over a million hits. The population of Sikhs is about 25 million, thats one website for every 25 people. Wonder if the movements restarting, hmmmm.
Just one point that noone here has paid any attention to. How come nobody realized that the Dalits don’t by any means make up over half of the Indian population. The upper castes even try to hide the Dalits as much as it’s possible, to keep them sequestered in their own villages so that their shadows may not fall on a Brahmin etc. etc. The Dalits in point of fact make up about 16% of the population and the upper castes through this horrible caste system and its rules do manage to make them more or less invisible. They are a definite minority, the same as the Muslims. It’s interesting to notice though how most people, i.e. NOT the governments (since there’s a government in each state) are perfectly comfortable with the people of the different religion. It’s NOT the people who are at the root of the horrible events, such as the Gujarat killings of Muslims in 2002, which set the machine of religious hatred flaring – after the politicians had led the incendiary machine. Heaven knows in what way they can profit from this hatred, but rdivide a
Just one point that noone here has paid any attention to. How come nobody realized that the Dalits don’t by any means make up over half of the Indian population. The upper castes even try to hide the Dalits as much as it’s possible, to keep them sequestered in their own villages so that their shadows may not fall on a Brahmin etc. etc. The Dalits in point of fact make up about 16% of the population and the upper castes through this horrible caste system and its rules do manage to make them more or less invisible. They are a definite minority, the same as the Muslims. It’s interesting to notice though how most people, i.e. NOT the governments (since there’s a government in each state) are perfectly comfortable with the people of the different religion. It’s NOT the people who are at the root of the horrible events, such as the Gujarat killings of Muslims in 2002, which set the machine of religious hatred flaring – after the politicians had led the incendiary machine. Heaven knows in what way they can profit from this hatred, but divide and conquer has for ever been the motto of the power people, as we know all too well.
786:
I AM HAPPY THAT YOU ARE TALKING MORE REALISTICALLY NOW.
DEAR, WE ARE AWARE THAT INDIA IS ABOUT SEVEN TIMES MORE IN POPULATION, SIMILARLY IN NUMER OF TROOPS, AIRFORCE, AND SHIPS, ETC. ETC. AND GOD FORBIDS, GOD FORBIDS, IN A NUCLEAR WAR MILLIONS OF HUMANBEINGS WILL LOOSE THEIR LIVES, MOST OF THE LAND WILL BECOME USE LESS FOR CULTIVATION AND LIVING, FOR YEARS TO COME, BUT MIND YOU IT WILL BE ON BOTH SIDES, AND WIND DIRECTIONS WILL PLAY A MAJOR PART IN INFLECTING DAMAGE WHICH WILL BE UNTHINKABLE.
BUT DEAR WE PAKISTANIS AND INDIANS ARE SUFFICIANTLY EDUCATED TO UNDERSTAND THAT NOW WE ARE NOT HALAKOOS WHO WERE HAPPY I COUNTING HEADS.WE ARE EDUCATED, INTELLIGENT PERSONS AND WILL NEVER MAKE THE SITUATIONS COME TO NUCLEAR STAG.
MY WHOLE ARGUMENT IS WHY SHOULD THERE BE A DIFFERENCE IN SOLVING KASHMIR PROBLEM LIKE YOU DID WITH HYDERABD DECCAN, JUNAGADH, MANAWADER, BHOPAL, RAMPUR ETC. ETC.
LET US GO BACK TO UNO AND TRY OUR BEST TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM ONCE AND FOR ALL, HONESTLY.
786:
MY ABOVE COMMENTS ARE IN REPLY TO MR.. TARUN ‘S LAST COMMENTS.
I posted a comment here yesterday but it has mysteriously disappeared.
You know a lot about India and its furious struggles and infights. But I was taken aback though by your statement that Dalits “make up for the most part of the Indian population”. They actually just make up for about 16 % of the population – an estimated 180 million. However, Arun Kamar said in August 2010 at http://www.countercurrents.org/akumar030810.htm – that “According to a new Oxford University study, 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty.” And even worse – he says that “In India, 75.6 percent of the population, or 828 million people, live below the poverty line as compared to 72.2 percent, or 551 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.” I will never understand how they can have the nerve to call themselves a democracy. But they are of course far from alone in the misuse of this word.
You say that “dalits make up for the most part of Indian population, they have remained deprived of the benefits of the current economic boom.” Well, of course they have not benefited from the current economic boom. They are a minority and so they are practically hidden away from everyday life in India, living in segregated villages, doing filthy work that nobody else will do. They are not treated much better than the tribal peoples, the Adivasis whose homes and land in the forests are currently being taken away from them in order to make it possible for the Big Corporations to mine their land. Quote: The Maoist/ Naxalite uprising in eastern India is just one case in point – mentioned in the context of the Dalits. But this uprising is mainly concerned with the Adivasis (the tribal peoples, another minority) and it seems to me that you might be mixing up the Dalits and the tribal peoples a bit, even though you do go on to mention the tribal areas later on, in the context of .Naxalites or Maoists. The tribal peoples are believed to be the aborigines of India.
Haroon Siddiqui forget about HYDEABAD, JUNAGADH, BHOPAL, RAMPUR, MANWADER etc . Because if you will ask Muslims in these states they are in better condition than the muslims and hindus in pak.
If India will force these states to become the part of PAK they will surely deny as the destructing condition there
What IS happening to my comments that keep disappearing??? Could the editors please tell me what’s happening here? Or rather the webmaster.
Your comments are right where you left them. Perhaps you’re only looking at the first page of comments. You need to click the link to see newer comments. Of course, if you don’t do that, you won’t see this comment either, which makes it rather pointless for me to tell you.
Why this writer not write about the daily blasts and scores killed in Pakistan…. Mr. Siddiqui first care about your own home. and set your house in order. Balochistan occupied forcibly, Waziristan disturbances, and MQM problem in Karachi. Asking Indias help from London. See the condition in Pak… No gas, no petrol, no bijli, very poor people, no hospital, no education, and talking big of India….. Apni manji thale dang pher… ??????????
20% Hindus in Pakistan in 1947 and now only 2%. In India 7% muslims in 1947 and now around 20%. See the difference, whether Muslims prosperous in India or Pakistan. They have more freedom in India and live peacefully, No Shias and Sunni riots.. Shias being targeted and killed in Pakistan. Scores dies in Bomb Blasts in all parts of the country. Hindus girls are being kidnapped and forcibly converted and married to Muslims and sometimes abused and left for prostitution. Hindus cannot live happily and enjoy their freedom in Pakistan, the Babe-Quam had dreamed of Secular Pakistan
The country (Pakistan) where elementary education starts with Hatred towards Hindus, what more you can expect from the moral values of the persons. All history has been distorted and now is the time to correct the history. History of Pakistan starts from 1947 and if you take pre-1947 period, then its with India only and you were separated or given birth by India. and you have hatred towards your mothers. The whole muslims rulers and mughal history of 800-900 years is filled with fight and killings of their own brothers for the throne. The same is going on in Pakistan there is power struggle between Military, Civil Administration and people at large. The identity crisis has badly affected the country that they dont know from where they have come. Nobody in Arab country give a penny to Pakistan in begging, you live for 100 years, no citizenship, you cannot buy property and moreover cannot marry any arab women. You have been Hindus for long centuries and were forcibly converted to Muslims may be 6-7 generations before in India by various muslim rulers. BIG IDENTITY CRISIS IN PAKISTAN.
Muslims were to maintain their religious identity but in Kashmir their is no such case of maintaining religious identity.