OCTOBER CURSE/RECALLING PRE-PARTITION INCIDENT THAT DIVIDED SINDH

 Dr. Agha Inamullah

October 13, 2020

What BJP is doing today was seeded back in 1936 inflaming communal rage that resulted in loss of precious lives, property and mass migration. 73 years have gone by and we are yet to understand conspiracies of the tyranny, and fall easy prey to their agents within sub-continent. The incident of Manzilgah Masjid (Babari Masjid of Sindh)  lead to an irreversible division and destruction of the two religious communities in sub-continent. And if you sum up all that has happened so far since that tragic incident, and choose to look at it from growing nationalist whim, no one has been inflicted as much as Sindh. Today the only nation in the region which suffers the most despite being rich in its culture and mineral resources is Sindhi. Agha Ghulam Nabi had leading role in initiating this agitation which turned violent leaving hundreds dead, including Sufi folk singer Shiri Bhagat Kanwar Raam. To look at it today in October 2020,  more things which have changed, the more they appear to stay the same actually, and those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat the same blunders. Only 8x8 feet mosque became flaring point to leave more than 2000 killed in Sindh. A large scale crackdown was ordered by then Chief Minister Allah Bux Soomro being in that seat with majority of Hindu voters,  hence under pressure sealed off the mosque, and Muslim League leaders were arrested and that further fueled the fire as per aspirations of Muslim League think tank  

October 13, 1938

A large Muslim procession led by Agha Ghulam Nabi Pathan of Sultankot started out from Shikarpur on foot and reached the mosque after a 40-mile trek only to be dispersed by the police. Mohammad Ayub Khuhro was detained at his village Aqil in Larkana. G.M. Syed, Qazi Faziullah, Agha Ghulam Nabi Pathan, Namatullah Qureshi, Dr. Mohammad Yamin, Agha Nazar Ali Khan, Pir Ghulam Mujadid Sarhandi, Shaikh Wajid Ali and Syed Sadiq Ali Shah, some of the top cadre of the Muslim League, were all arrested and sent to Hyderabad jail. Haji Abdoola Haroon, Ali Mohammad Rashdi and several other politicians fearing arrest fled to Delhi. A predominantly Hindu Sindh assembly expressed lack of confidence in Soomro's authority, consequently losing his chair.

Two weeks later, Shiri Bhagat Kanwar Ram, the well-known singer-saint of Sindh, was gunned down at Ruk railway station on November 1, and nobody was arrested. Sukkur district observed complete strike for fifteen days. When Pamnani, MLA, said that the Pir of Bharchundi had got Kanwar Ram killed (earlier the Pir’s son had been beaten for kidnapping Hindu girls) he, too, was gunned down. The Sindh Hindus were stunned and shocked. And it got even worst when it was announced that killing one Hindu was equal to doing seven Hajj (Pilgrimage of Kaaba). Furthermore, to add more fury the most horrible call was made by G.M. Syed from the floor of the Assembly that the Hindus shall be driven out of Sindh like the Jews from Germany --- a statement which he had always regretted ever since. But the bullet had already hit the bone. Damage was done.

What we see in practice even today, both in India and Pakistan; post crime inquiry commissions are set up to buy time out to cool down the rage, and same was set up then to look in to the incident of Manzilgah mosque rioting. Justice Weston was appointed to inquire into the Manzilgah riots. When the parties and the judge went to take details from the site, Ali Muhammad Shah Rashdi, the League’ ’counsel’’, picked up Weston’s shoes and kept them in the shade. Weston was not just smiling but was thrilled. When they came out, Rashdi again took the shoes and placed them before Weston. Overjoyed; the judge even forgot elementary discretion of his position and neutrality. Left his car and sat in Rashdi’s car, and drove to Rohri. The Manzilgah issue died down --- but not before it had delivered a body-blow to Hindu-Muslim amity in Sindh.

Partition of sub-continent left Punjab and Bengal into two separate geographic entities, but here in Sindh, tragically a whole nation was divided, and thousands were forced to say goodbye leaving their motherland, the ashes of their ancestors, their wealth and property, facing rapes and blood shed for being sons and daughters of the soil, only to be replaced by those who still hate Sindhi as nation and even a civilization and consider them to be backward, illiterate uncivilized monsters, and forcing Urdu agenda. Obliged to leave in tears who had contributed to the material welfare of Sindh and to its linguistic and intellectual advancement were the devotees of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Sachal Sarmast, Sufi Shah Inayat and Sami. They had retrieved and collected the works of Sachal and Sami. They included people like Dr. Gurbakhsani, Kalyan Advani, Lal Chand Amardinomal, Jethmal Parsram, Bherumal M. Advani, T.L. Waswani and others.

 

If you keep your Jihad instincts aside, Sindhi Muslims committed  crime for which they will never forgive themselves. To be honest I consider Agha Ghulam Nabi (my elder) to be equally accused, and they were all cleverly used by British Raj. But irreparable damage was done already. Agha Ghulam Nabi was strong willed leftist and fought many battles for Sindhi cause alongside G.M Syed (icon of Sindhi Nationalism), and had warned Benazir to fix things before he could launch agitation against Punjab for its intolerable atrocities against Sindh. But it was too late, I suppose.

J Jhoolay Laal, bera Paar