On the death of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in September 1948 an Indian political leader paid him a rare,fulsome tribute describing him as one who was great as a lawyer,once great as a Congressman,great as a leader of Muslims,great as a world politician and diplomat and,greatest of all,as a man of action. Despite having serious differences with the Quaid-e-Azam,Sarat Chandra Bose recalled that Jinnah,initially along with Mahatma Gandhi,once lent support to a last-ditch attempt to prevent Bengals partition along religious lines.
On March 8,1947,the Congress led by Nehru and Patel passed a formal resolution calling for the partition of Punjab. It went against all the principles the Congress had stood for at least since 1929,when in Lahore Indias premier nationalist party had demanded a united and independent India. Then-Congress president Nehru explained that even though the resolution mentioned only Punjab,Bengal too may have to be partitioned. Partition seemed to be a price worth paying for untrammelled power at a strong centre. Gandhi sought an explanation from his erstwhile lieutenants,but was elbowed aside.
India was fortunate to possess a galaxy of great political leaders in the pre-independence era with extraordinary accomplishments and all-too-human failings. Even those with magnificent contributions committed Himalayan blunders at crucial turning points of history. We do them no justice and fail to learn from their exemplary lives by replacing biography with iconography.
The reaction of the major political parties and a state government to Jaswant Singhs healthy predilection for historical interpretation over political deification is cause for some concern about the quality of our nationalism and democracy. The apparent need of our political class to continue demonising the founding father of Pakistan reveals a sense of insecurity that sits uneasily with the self-confidence to which India could legitimately aspire. One can only hope that the political leaders are out of sync with the majority of the young population of this country.
The controversy over a book has also brought into sharp focus the strengths and weaknesses of Indias democracy. The major strength is revealed in the vigorous public discussion of the issue in the print and electronic media. The key weakness is evident in the lack of genuine inner-party democracy and an anti-intellectual attitude that refuses to tolerate any expression of dissent. A particular political partys wish to self-destruct may to some extent be regarded as its own business. But the resort to an archaic law to ban a book affects the entire citizenry. The stance of both major parties in Gujarat is unworthy of the region which gave birth to Gandhi and Jinnah.
I am not in agreement with those who say that the parties are obsessed with a non-issue,62 years out of date. The issue which revisiting partition brings to the fore is full of contemporary relevance. It is the search for a substantive rather than procedural democracy that protects citizens from majoritarian arrogance and ensures justice in a subcontinent where people have multiple identities.
Majoritarianism,whether in secular or saffron garb,continues to be a potential threat to Indian democracy. Regional rights were once thought to be a counterpoise to the anti-democratic tendencies of an over-centralised state. Regional parties run by petty and insecure dictators are proving to be as ruthless as the all-India partiepression of internal dissent. In such a scenario freedom of speech and expression remains the best guarantee of the future of Indian democracy.
Fortunately,this freedom has deep roots in history. The political parties in pursuit of their narrow interests and short-term electoral advantages have set themselves squarely against Indias long and weighty argumentative tradition. They are,therefore,bound to lose.
The writer is the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University express@expressindia.com
