Pakistan media is paying tributes to two of its leaders this month — Benazir Bhutto who was killed this day last year, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah – described as ‘Father of Pakistan’ – who was born on December 25, 1876. Both these secular leaders gradually turned champions of peaceful co-existence with India.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s most internationally recognised politician, shocked the country and the world, and devastated her supporters, reports the BBC.
In these uncertain times the sense of loss represented by Benazir Bhutto’s death has been compounded by “an Islamist insurgency threatening to spiral out of control, an economy in meltdown and dangerous tensions with India.”
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder and leader of Pakistan, is part of the undivided India’s pantheon of heroes. Jinnah and Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi were among the leading hundreds of Muslim and Hindu leaders who worked shoulder to shoulder to free the undivided India from the humiliating and exploitative colonial rule.
While the Pakistani establishment swears by Jinnah’s name, he has been effectively consigned to the dustbin of history. The high and mighty in India, too, have consigned Gandhi to a similar bin.
Both were giants among the pygmies that have flourished in India and Pakistan. The Pakistani and Indian leaders display these two leaders’ photographs in their offices and build memorials/institutions in their names, but do exactly the opposite of what these two great visionaries wanted their countries to be.
What was Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan? “Jinnah envisioned a secular state for Pakistan, a theme he repeatedly touched upon in his speeches. Nevertheless, this aspect of his ideology never materialised, possibly due to his death during the months immediately following Pakistan’s achievement of independence.
“Speaking to Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (Karachi August 11, 1947), he (Jinnah) said: ‘If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor…
“You are free – you are free – to go to your temples or mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state… in due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims – not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual – but in a political sense as citizens of one state’.”
Among a majority of thinking people, whether in urban or far-flung rural areas in Pakistan and India, Jinnah and Gandhi remain iconic figures of the 20th century who contributed a great deal to give the people of India and Pakistan freedom and honour.
For The Pakistani Spectator’s tribute to Jinnah please click here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.