Book Review – Political Islam In India : Origins, Strategy And Mobilization

The great scholar, academician and author, Prof S.V Seshagiri Rao brings out this seminal volume on Islamic politics in India `Political Islam In India: Origins, Strategy And Mobilization’, which depicts dispassionately and clinically all the facts pertaining to the tumultuous decades of late 19th and 20th centuries’ British India.

In this comprehensive work, Prof Seshagiri Rao explains the very origins, strategies and methods employed by political Islam in India not only for the capture of political power, but also in establishing the street- power in terms of unleashing violence on the streets. The work’s detailed focus starts from mid-19th century, especially the Aligarh phenomenon, the interplay of Muslim politics from Curzon’s partition of Bengal, the communal electorate, the Khilafat, and the power-play with the Congress party. This 450-page book details the biggest holocaust of the 20th century – the Hindu genocide, and Muslim League’s hegemonic power, the tumultuous events leading to the tragic partition, and the impunity with which Pakistan created the Jammu & Kashmir conflict. Throughout, this book speaks about how British India officers were closed to Muslim league the perfidy of Mountbatten and the inept Congress party are exposed.

The chapters like ‘Pakistan Resolution’, ‘Islamists Finest Hour’, ‘The Volcono Erupts’, ‘Political Islam Triumphs’ of this book reveal the horrors of partition in detailed account. The massacres of millions of Hindus and Sikhs, rapes and abduction of women, and girls and converting them into sex slaves; In numerous cases, women either opted for voluntary suicide or were killed by their family members to save them from rapes and abductions from Muslim gangs. The passenger trains destined to Amritsar were filled with dead bodies of Hindus. The stories of rampant looting and killing of Hindus awaiting for trains at any big or small railway stations on the Pakistani side were horrific. The author meticulously mentions the records of those massive killings. The temporary shelter camps on the roads, on the river bridges, and the trains filled with dead bodies and blood-stained coaches reveal the barbarism unleashed by Islamic forces. The migration of people on foot and bullock carts, where only a minor fraction reached Eastern Punjab or the Indian borders, makes for harrowing and heart-wrenching reading. One of the world’s largest migrations of people was witnessed, in this the Hindus were abandoned and thrown to vultures by British officers who were supposed to provide protection. The safe journey of British officers and their families, in stark contrast to the trains filled with dead bodies, reveals how the colonial forces surrendered to political Islamic forces who were designers of partition.

The Baluch military regiment of the Pakistan army and the Pathan raiders mauled, raped, abducted, maimed, buried, and burned alive Hindus and Sikhs in lakhs. The following points are illustrative to get an idea of the scale of violence perpetrated. About one-third of the army was made up of Muslim soldiers who deserted Kashmir units and joined the Muslim marauders from Pakistan. Col. Hari Singh was killed by Muslim soldiers of his regiment while he was sleeping. Col. Rajinder Singh, Col. Ranjit Rai, and Major Somnath Sharma were martyred on the battlefield to save Srinagar. Hundreds of Swayamsevaks belonging to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sacrificed their lives while helping fellows move to safer zones or board Amritsar-bound trains. In towns like Rajaouri, Hindus were killed by fellow Muslims, not by the Pakistani military. The jihadi state of Pakistan, supported by the jihadi police and British military officers, perpetrated inhuman massacres and violence at this gigantic scale, and which has no parallel in history, has been described in detail in the chapter Holocaust’.

The utter incapability of the Congress party which was heading the interim Govt in 1946-1947 in preventing the holocaust was very clear, the partisan pro-Pakistan role played by Mountbatten, the role of the military and the bureaucracy, many of whom were Indians, is heart-wrenching to note. The partisan portrayal or complete neglect in the news coverage and in the suppression of these facts by the well-established Lutyens media was also evident. Except for a few reports, there was no account of the happenings and massacres comprehensively.

The same incapability and helplessness, perpetually jostling with the self-interests of Congress leaders in the role they played in the run-up to the partition, many of them teaming up with Viceroy Mountbatten also becomes clear. In fact from the beginning of the decade of 1940s, the ambivalence of Congress party, the confusing stands they took on Jinnah’s proclamation of a Muslim Pakistan, in continuation of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s and Iqbal’s Two-nation theory and Islamic supremacist imperialism, the blatant supportive role played by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as a president of Congress between 1939-1946 and soft corner towards the Muslim League also become abundantly clear from the detailed narration. The way Gandhi was sidelined, his confusing statements, and his ambivalence in terms of so-called `Right to self-determination’ of Muslim-majority provinces vis a vis his statements that ‘Pakistan would be achieved on his dead body’ which were contradictory to one another were clearly explained. Infact Gandhi, writing as early as 1941, in principle endorsed the idea of a Muslim Pakistan. Despite knowing Muslim League’s activities, their perfidy and deception, street violence, murderous and genocidal politics fully well for decades, then witnessing the continuation of the same Muslim politics even after the partition of India, it is bewildering to note that Congress leaders continued to peddle lies that Pakistan would not survive on its own, that soon it would merge back into India, all of which show the utter foolishness and naiveté of Congress; if it were not so pathetic, it would have been utterly ridiculous. The book also describes in detail how Muslim League leader Suhrawardy, then civil suppliers incharge, perpetuated the famines in Bengal in 1943, and later pushed the state into jehadi violence by following a call of `Direct Action’ in 1946 that too in the month of Ramzan. The authors correctly notes the events where the British police deliberately turned to be mute spectators and ran away from the scene, whether during Calcutta or Noakhali massacres where Hindus were victims.

It is the eternal misfortune of Hindus in India that such a party was `leading’ the freedom struggle in those eventful years; in the contrived `Big Game’ played by British and some self-serving interests in the country, who willingly conceded the Two-nation theory in practice by agreeing to Communal separate electorates, and by how Hindus willingly or unwillingly voted for Congress. On the political front, Colonial British officers marginalized parties like the Hindu Mahasabha, and made Congress party as sole arbitrators of their fate, and subsequent developments make for a heart-rending reading.

While Muslim League leaders were at negotiation tables their foot soldiers were wielding swords and guns at every turn. The wily Jinnah took a proactive stand and challenged the Congress party, but when the Muslim League lost the elections, he opted for violence. To achieve Muslim Pakistan, he called for `Direct action’ of jehad, making it a decisive, conclusive, and permanent turn of political Islam in India.

The author correctly observes that Congress pathetically neither understood the concept of Political Islam, nor their strategy or actions either intellectually or in the realm of real-politic. They continued to be woolly-headed, mouthing platitudes of non-violence and non-cooperation, while the Muslim League cooperated with the British in their bid for Political Islam, and turned the British into their staunchest allies. Congress in the name of secular politics, marginalized genuine Hindu parties like Hindu Mahasabha, which continually warned the Hindus, but alas, Hindus didn’t heed this advice, enticed by the naïve rhetoric of Congress party, which didn’t even understand the Khilafat movement for what it was. At every turn, Jinnah outsmarted Congress party with excellent help from the British. It is a telling comment in the book, that no Muslim League leader ever saw the insides of a jail, while ordinary Hindus sacrificed their lives and livelihoods believing in the naiveté of Congress party.

The book in detail describes with facts and figures, the population demographics of West Punjab, Sind, East Bengal and how Hindus in actuality were the majority community, especially in all cities, including Dhaka, Lahore, Karachi, Hyderabad etc. It also shows clearly how Mountbatten ensured that Lahore went to Muslim League, as per the wishes of Jinnah, despite the overwhelming majority of Hindus and Sikhs. So much for the deep friendship of Nehru with Mountbattens!

The book clearly shows the voting patterns of Congress and the Muslim League in all elections held in the provinces, which ultimately went to Pakistan, both East and West.  The book also clearly establishes how less than a quarter of the Muslim population, got more than 30% of the share of land and other resources, 33% of the military resources with enriched military establishments in Rawalpindi, Peshawar etc, and even more importantly the fertile and mighty Sindhu river and its tributaries. Ironically the terms and identities of `Hindu’ and `Hindustan’ as known in the western world are derived from the word Sindhu or the Indus River.

This thought-provoking book also raises an argument about how the Muslim League always propagated that they were not a minority, but a nation, and their continuous efforts to have a separate nation due to Political Islam. It illustrates how `minority politics’ played out to such an extent in India.   Hindus of India will rue forever on how and why they supported the Congress party which played their divisive agenda against the nation and Hindus.

The readers may find the genocide of Hindus and Sikhs during pre and post-Partition and carefully erasing these historical chapters of horror out of public memory by the Govt in power for decades with the willing acquiescence of the media was unpardonable.

The generation of Indians who were adults in the 1950s-1960s in the North may have known about the massacres by Political Islam. It is a shame that the Hindu-Sikh genocide has been ignored by successive Indian governments and the people. It can be understood that the descendants of the massacred, would have undergone unspeakable shock and trauma and wouldn’t speak about the genocide, but it doesn’t speak much about the people in the rest of the country. In the same period, the holocaust in Nazi Germany against Jews has been kept alive by Jews across the world for future generations, lest it be forgotten; however in contrast India has forgotten to pay tributes to her past generations who were victims of Pakistani genocide.  Indians never even got an apology from the then-Indian Govt of the Congress party, for their utter failure to read into and ready themselves to challenge Political Islam, or for the way Nehru’s interim Govt failed to control the Hindu-Sikh massacres.

Prof Seshagiri Rao does a great service with his book which is a treasure-house of knowledge on the unprecedented political march of Islam in India, leading to mayhem, destruction, division of a prosperous, cultured, and civilized ancient nation, genocide of Hindus and Sikhs, which at a conservative estimate is over 2 million. Samvit Prakashan deserves huge applause for making this book available to the readers, this is a book every Indian must read.

The book is available at Hindu eShop and Amazon.

This well-researched scholarly book is highly recommended for academic researchers, scholars, and journalists who want to connect the dots of the Indian political arena from the history of the British East India Company to the British Crown, then today’s partitioned India, the birth of Pakistan and its origins, due to Political Islam.