Barack Obama has shown himself to be unequal to the responsibility of rising to genuine global statesmanship
When Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, he repeatedly declared “Muslims First”, “15 per cent of the country’s resources should be earmarked for the Muslims”, etc. For some leaders around the world, this has become the starting point for understanding India. Former US President Barack Obama has been one of those individuals who has picked up this delusional understanding of India. Nonetheless, it seems to have crystallized into his opinion of what India is.
Barouk or Barack was the horse that carried the Holy Prophet to heaven from Jerusalem and also brought him back. Husein was the brother of al Hasan, the Prophet’s grandson who was in line to become the fifth Caliph. These holy names were given to Obama though his mother had him baptized in a church. A special corner of his heart naturally beats for the denizens of the ummah.
After Pakistan’s breakup in 1971, Obama seems concerned that India too should not “fall apart”, in his terminology. He might not be aware that India was partitioned in 1947; he was not born then. If fact, most people today would be unfamiliar with the history of how Pakistan and Bangladesh have treated the Hindus, where, from previously being one-third of the population in 1947 they have been reduced to minuscule percentages through persecution, ethnic cleansing and expulsion.
Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his senior colleagues wanted an exchange of populations on the lines of what had taken place between the Christians and Muslims of Greece and Turkey respectively, under the auspices of the League of Nations, the predecessor of today’s United Nations Organization (UNO). But India’s then-political leaders rejected this proposal, as a result of which India today has some 18 per cent Muslims in its total population.
Islamic countries, like, for example, Turkey, could hardly believe that these Indian leaders could be so gullible. The great sociologist Joseph Ernest Renan believed that a nation’s total soul had to be one for it to be happy and remain united. The phenomenon to be compared with is the Hindu belief, that the Divine or the Paramatma is the total soul of all living beings. Those whose individual souls are not in tune with the rest of the nation are detached from this nationhood, no matter where they reside. Religion is not crucial to the sense of the nation; what matters is one’s attitude.
Had Obama’s soul been wholly in tune with the universal, his utterance would not have occurred just when his entire country was celebrating a hugely successful visit by India’s Prime Minister. He would have also worried about the minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh et al. The former American President’s utterance has only irritated the majority in India and possibly harmed the minority interests. The world at large could not care less.
Pakistan’s founder Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had said: “The problem in India is not that of an inter-communal character but manifestly of an international one, and must be treated as such. So long as this basic truth is not realized, any constitution that may be built will result in disaster and will prove destructive and harmful not only to the Muslims but also to the British and Hindus. It is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve into a common nationality. This notion of one Indian nation has gone far beyond the limits and is the cause of most of our troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise this misconception in time.
The Hindus and Muslims have different religious philosophies, social customs and literature. They neither intermarry nor interdine and, indeed, they belong to two different civilizations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their views on life and of life are different. It is also quite clear that Hindus and Muslims derive their inspiration from different sources of history. They have different epics and different heroes in different episodes. Very often the hero of one is a foe of the other and likewise, their victories and defeats overlap. To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one a numerical minority and the other a majority must lead to growing discontent and the final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state”.
The Partition of India made Hindus believe that Pakistan was for Muslims and Hindustan was for Hindus and others. When they woke up after Partition they were surprised to see the Muslims largely where they were, whereas new Hindus had arrived in hundreds of thousands. Hindus felt that their leaders, Hindu or Muslim, had deceived them. Over the decades, people forgot this historical experience. Why on earth is Obama trying to open these wounds all over again?
From the USA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Egypt. There, the grand mufti of Cairo as well as the Indian Bohra Muslim community resident in Egypt tried to do the opposite, though there was very little time to do so. Sadly, Barack Obama, despite his elevation to the world’s highest political office of the world’s leading nation, has shown himself to be unequal to the responsibility of rising to genuine global statesmanship.
(The writer is a well-known columnist, an author and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. The views expressed are personal
