I have been chastised by a reader that in my recent column on the Iraqi situation, I overstated my case: Muslim terrorists would multiply globally as a consequence of the impending military action, invasion, war.There are two moments when a columnist panics — first, when, chasing a deadline, he stares at a clean page, and, second, towards the end after facts and arguments have been marshalled but there is no space left to conclude the piece. It is at the latter hurdle that columnists trip up. I did, as the reader pointed out. He charged me with intemperate writing.My argument was simple. If the Americans unleash this war and it lingers (it is over in Afghanistan only to the extent that global networks are focussed elsewhere), there is likely to be a reaction. Over seven million Turks in Germany and larger numbers of Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Pakistanis, Albanians in France and UK would be affected by TV images of Iraqi destruction. France and Germany have dug their heels in against American unilateralism because of well-founded fears of social instability in their society. Their other concern is that aggressive unilateralism could be fatal for the European project.I had then concluded that “Americans are letting it be a problem that Europe must manage, just as the radicalisation of 500 million Muslims on the Indian sub continent could well plague our region.” Now, this is where the charge of “intemperate writing” is valid and I am kicking myself for the lazy, unexplained conclusion. After all, the massive peace marches in various parts of the globe, most notably in the US, is the most obvious global reaction against military action. How did I walk into the trap of thinking in Muslim-non Muslim categories?My argument about 500 million Muslims on the sub-continent has evolved on another track. Let us say, there are 150 million Muslims each in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Maldives, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan would account for the remaining 50 million, making a total of 500 million, much more than the 300 million Muslims in the Arab world. If we have the statesmanship and the international community the attention span, these 500 million, reared in the crucible of a Hindu civilisation (totally at variance with the Hindutva in vogue), can become the engine for moderation in the Muslim world.But Islam in the hands of radical Islamic groups in Pakistan is altogether different. Since the Pakistani project stands on the two-nation theory, the authors of the Pakistani state (as distinct from the population which is by and large like us) must keep distilling their Islam so as to give it an identity different from sub-continental Islam.In Bangladesh, women wear saris, there are Rabindra Sangeet schools, illich maach is savoured with equal enthusiasm. India’s national anthem and Bangladesh’s have been authored by the same poet. This is the civilisational space subcontinental culture occupies in the country even as Islamic masonry continues all around these spaces. With the Pakistani Islamicists (again, not the people) the desire to break with the sub-continental ethos is overwhelming. An arid, Wahabised Islam, bereft of music, poetry and other hallmarks of south Asian cultural evolution, is the preferred faith. Taliban fitted in with the Nizam-e-Mustafa undertaken by Zia-ul-Haq. It was the promotion of this Nizam-e-Mustafa, coinciding with Gulf remittances, Meenakshipuram conversions, Sikh insurgency, which fed the Hindutva project.I believe that Atal Bihari Vajpayee has a strategic vision for keeping Pakistan within the South Asian unit, even engaging Islamabad on Kashmir. Vajpayee’s instinct for harmony with Pakistan ran headlong into the Pakistani army-Islamists’ strategy of perpetual hostility with India. With the Soviet Union collapsed Pakistan’s strategic value for the US. Began a new phase of relationship between New Delhi and Washington with Pakistan looking on nervously. American action after September 11 broke Pakistan’s strategic depth in Afghanistan. But it also gave Islamabad temporary respite. Islamabad was enlisted as major partner in the war against terrorism. Perpetrators of the worst form of terrorism against us were being listed as front rank partners in the crusade against global terrorism! Contradictions in Pakistan had to take their toll. Witness the exponential growth of Islamist parties in Pakistan.And now the impending Iraq war has created another situation. In the Security Council, if Musharraf raises his hand for the war, his Islamists will get him. If he does not, the Americans will. The onus is on us to behave responsibly, maturely reverting to Vajpayee’s instincts — moderating the national mood. We shall gain in stature if we are seen to be working towards the moderation of 500 million sub-continental Muslims. Otherwise we shall begin to look like Pakistan, something that will knock the stuffing out of our already shaky self esteem.
