PAKISTANI intellectuals -- in media and public affairs -- have sensed a new point of trauma of late. The latest evidence of that came in Marseille, port city in France where Prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi was joined in by French President Mr. Emmanuel Macron to inaugurate Indian Consulate. Mr. Narendra Modi laid a wreath at the Memorial for over one lakh Indian Soldiers who laid their lives in World Wars. And true to his calling, the Prime Minister also paid rich tributes to Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar whose attempt to escape from a British ship in the Strait of Marseille captured the world’s imagination in early last century. Mr. Modi called that escape attempt as “courageous” and thanked the people of Marseille for that time trying hard to persuade French soldiers not to let the British soldiers to take Swatantryaveer Savarkar away from the French soil.

 

This gesture of Mr. Modi, however, has generated a lot of negativism in some sections of Pakistan’s intellectual community, including the media. They are accusing Mr. Modi -- and India -- for grabbing the credit for the good work done by people of pre-Partition India -- which they call United India -- of which Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar were integral parts. By any definition, such a sentiment is senseless, to say the least. For, when the Pakistani intellectuals feel that India alone cannot corner the credit of the good work done by ‘United’ India, then they should also agree that Pakistan has never related itself to the history of India. In Pakistani books of academics or history or culture or tradition, there is no mention whatsoever of the glorious past of unpartitioned India. The great struggle for freedom -- from 1857 onward to 1947 -- also referred to in Pakistani books only superficially.

 

With this kind of mindset operating, Pakistan never talked of common history of the Indian subcontinent, but made a point to position itself against everything India did or said or claimed. If Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi can go to Marseille to pay homage to one lakh-plus Indian martyrs of World Wars, and also pay rich tributes to Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a Pakistani leader, too, was free to do something similar -- laying claims on common heritage of the Indian subcontinental story. No Pakistani leader, no intellectual, nobody in the media ever thought of doing something as fine as what Mr. Narendra Modi has done. Against such a background of harsh truth, the lament of the Pakistani intellectuals that India is grabbing credit for the good work done by ‘United’ India has no meaning. At best -- or at worst -- their lament can be described as a senseless blabber of a senile person. Very frankly, over the past 78 years since Independence, India as a whole -- the leadership and people -- never gave even a scant thought of grabbing credit for events in from a political standpoint.

 

Routinely, as a matter of intense patriotic emotion, all Indian people kept telling themselves the story of how the country fought for freedom, how it has preserved its history and heritage ...! They also also cursed themselves for having ignored some glorious chapters of the national history, culture and tradition. Almost routinely, the Indian people have committed themselves to standing taller than ever to assume the role of global leadership which they feel is theirs for the asking and working. Prime Minister Mr. Modi’s recall of the glorious part of Indian history connected with Marseille was only one such expression -- of gratitude and pride -- of national sentiment. Pakistan has never done anything like this until now -- though nobody ever stopped it from doing all that. Seen against this background, the current Pakistani lament is nothing but a lament with political lamination.