THE%20SINDH%20STORY

--- “Employment of appropriate phraseology is necessary when one is projecting
the image of a hero. Expressions such as ‘invader’ and ‘defenders’, and ‘the
Indian army’ fighting bravely but not being quick enough to ‘fall upon the
withdrawing enemy’ loom large in the article. It is further marred by some
imbalanced statements such as follows: ‘Had Raja Dahir defended the Indus
heroically and stopped Kasim from crossing it, the history of this sub-continent
might have been quite different.’ One fails to understand whether the writer is
applauding the victory of the hero or lamenting the defeat of his rival?” No
wonder, the latest Steel Mill in Pakistan and the surrounding environments are
named after Mohammed Bin Kasim. He is the hero of the regime.
I am not sure that Raja Dahir invokes respect or admiration in the minds of the
Sindhis. In all probability, Malkani is wrong. It must be said, however, that a
great Sindhi writer Mr. G. M. Syed in his Book “Sindhua Ji Sanjaah” (Indentity of
Sindh), has eloquently protested against the Pakistan Government attempting to
project Mohammed Bin Kasim as a hero and saviour of Sindh. He deprecates that
ports, roads, libraries and colleges should be named after him. He calls him an
Arab tyrant who colonised Sindh, and condemned thousands to enforced slavery.
Poignantly, he draws attention to the rape of Sindhi women and the massacre of
the innocent, on which other Pakistani historians have maintained a criminal
silence.
Rest of the Indians across the borders of Sindh were doubtless aware of the Arab
conquest. It produced not a ripple on the quiet waters of their placid existence.
Life went on as usual. There was neither a sense of territorial loss, nor an
understanding of the state of the new menace. The conquest of Sindh was
dismissed as one more dacoity. Nearly 500 years elapsed before Mohammed
Ghori and his marauding hordes descended on India in 1192 A.D. The whole Or
northern India was made a tributary to the Ghor Dynasty. Muslim power in
India had come to stay. Five centuries went by, but the country did not wake up
or prepare to do or die. It is a shameful and tragic tale.
Afflicted by a debilitating pacificism, corroded by the idea of non-violence,
Indians seemed to have left it to professional soldiers to fight the invaders. The
rest of the people lifted not one finger to defend their homeland. Invaders who
thirsted for the tremendous wealth of India and its delicate and beautiful women,
never met the resistance that the nation could have generated. The only strong
resistance that was offered came from the proud Rajputs, the descendants of the
invading Huns of the earlier days. But, even this heroic resistance proved
temporary and collapsed by reason of internecine rivalry --- a perennial disease
of Hindu lndia, ancient and modern.
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