Sub-Nationalism is poison for India!

Terrorism is a grave threat to India’s integrity and national security but it can be fought if Indians stand together. The bigger threat has always been the sub-nationalism of India’s parts. The Mutiny of 1857 is a case in point. Some people would like us to believe that it was the first war of independence. Nothing could be further from truth. It was the sub-nationalism of Awadh, the Marathas, the Sikhs and the remnants of the dying Mughal Empire. Had it been truly a war of independence for India, the British had no chance of surviving it. The English were always aware of the Sikh sub-nationalism and took advantage of that sentiment in weaning them away from the Indian interests. They could always count on the Sikhs and Gurkhas to betray their country. That is precisely what they did to suppress the infant uprising in India!

The Partition of India was another frightening case of sub-nationalism on the sub-continent. The Muslim League framed it as a religious divide and managed to sell the proposition to the willing Western World. If it was a religious divide, the conservative Sunni Muslims of United Provinces would have supported the Partition of India. The fact of the matter is that they opposed it all the way and finally cast their lot with India and not Pakistan. How many people are aware of the fact that the bogus demand for Pakistan was raised by a small group of secular Muslim elite attached to the Aligarh Muslim University who had nothing to do with areas that finally became East and West Pakistan? This gang of rich Muslims like Muhammad Ali Jinnah, The Aga Khan III, Maulana Mohammad Ali, Sir Muhammad Iqbal and many others were not willing to share the political power in an independent India with the likes of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. They would rather be the sole rulers of a much smaller Pakistan than play second fiddle to Hindu Kafirs. Loss of life for achieving that goal was of no concern to them!

Partition was just the beginning of the growing menace of sub-nationalism in India. Even before the independence of India, another sub-national movement was brewing in undivided Punjab. The militant Sikhs of Punjab had formed a political entity called the Akali Dal to demand a separate Punjabi-speaking state of ‘Punjabi-Suba’. Master Tara Singh led the struggle supported by Sant Fateh Singh that finally ended in a tragic rise of a militant secessionist Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his violent movement. The Punjabi-speaking state became a reality on November 1, 1966 and on March 8, 1967, Gurnam Singh, the Akali nominee, took over as Chief Minister of the state. Obviously that did not resolve the problem of sub-nationalism of Akali Sikhs. Bhindranwale demanded a separate ‘Khalistan’ for the Sikhs and a violent campaign was launched in 1980 in Punjab and the neighbouring states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. A full-blown war was declared on the Indian State from the security of the ‘Golden Temple’ and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the Indian Army to storm the Sikh Shrine and flush-out the separatists. She paid the price with her life. The insurgency was snuffed-out by late 1980s by KPS Gill.