THE%20SINDH%20STORY

and destiny. In the process it has suffered badly. Because of Partition, two Indo-
Pak wars had been fought on the soil of Punjab, hurting the Punjabis badly. The
Punjabis also feel amputated by separation from other Punjabis, now in India;
hence their keen desire to woo back the Sikhs. The Punjabi Muslims will have to
recover their heritage of Nanak-Warris- Bulay Shah, to be at peace with
themselves and with others.
As for the state of Pakistan, Sindh rejects it wholly. Sindh has always been there,
Pakistan is a passing show. Sindh is a fact, Pakistan is a fiction. Sindhis are a
nation, but Muslims are not a nation. Sindhi language is 2,000 years old, Urdu is
only 250 years old. Sindhi has 52 letters, Urdu has only 26. The enslavement of
Sindh by the Punjab in the name of “Pakistan” and “Islam” is a fraud. It is the
most serious crisis in the history of Sindh in the past 2,000 years.
The Sindhis have long been fooled in the name of Islam. Many of them tried to
trace their ancestry to Persian, Turkish and Arab families. Some of them could be
heard singing their desire to sweep the streets of Mecca and to die in Medina.
“Under the impact of foreign Muslim rule, even a foreign sparrow came to be
regarded a nightingale in Sindh.” N ow they realize that all this is folly. “Only a
fool dances to other people’s tunes.”
They had thought that the “Islamic state of Pakistan” would .be good for them.
But it had been a disaster. “We are reminded of the animal which went to get
some horns, and returned with its ears chopped off.”
“Sindh rejects the Arabian edition of Islam, it rejects the Punjabi version of
Pakistan, and it rejects made-in-India Urdu. Iqbal and Jinnah have been worse
disasters for Indian Muslims than Chenghiz and Halaku. Sindh rejects them
both.” When Pakistan celebrated Jinnah centenary, lakhs of posters appeared in
Sindh denouncing the Quaid-e-Azam as Qadu Hajam (Silly Barber), Qatil-e-
Azam (Great Murderer), Kafir-e-Azam (the Great Heathen), and Ghadar-i-Sindh
(Traitor to Sindh).
Many Muslims look upon Iqbal as the prophet and poet of Pakistan, who
enunciated the theory of partition in his presiden- tial address at the Allahabad
session of the Muslim League in 1930. But Sindhi nationalists look upon him as a
Punjabi chauvinist and British stooge. They point out that when the Muslims
were agitated over the British attack on Turkey during World War I, Iqbal had
sung: “I offer my head in the war, please accept this humble gift from a loyal
subject.” In 1923, when others were returning their titles over the British excesses,
Iqbal agreed to be knighted. The Muslim League split into two in 1928 over its
attitude to the Simon Commission. The nationalist section led by Jinnah and
Saifuddin Kitchlew met in Calcutta and denounced the commission; the pro-
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