THE%20SINDH%20STORY

might call itself an Islamic Republic or a Hindu Rashtra. In either event, it can be
genuinely secular if it metes out full economic and political justice to its
minorities and allows them to deny or seek their God in the manner they think
best. Secularism does not require abolition of religion, but, its full support,
recognition and respect. Its domestic policies and the manifestos of its political
parties (assuming they exist) must be based on sound economic and political
needs, but, never, never, on the desire to capture votes of religious minorities.
Foreign policy must be based on international law and morality and the
pragmatic but enlightened long-range interests of the nation. Local Vote Banks
are never a satisfactory foundation of relations with other States. It is a pity that
we are friendly to the Harem-keeping Sheikhs of West Asia, but not the gallant
Israelis fighting for survival; with the mad Gadafi of Libya but not with Hosni
Mobarak of Egypt; with one-party dictatorships but, at loggerheads with secular
democracies. Fake secularism alone explains this monstrous perversity. The last
is, at best, a temporary expedient but, in the long run, it is always self-defeating
and destructive of national integration. Religious obscurantism and friction
divided this country. We blamed the foreigner for exploiting them, but, to our
shame, they persist even today, in more subtle and virulent forms. The nation
remains weak and debilitated. I wish the Sindhi poets. Shah Adul Latif the prince
amongst poets of the entire world, Sachal Sarmast and Sami were to be
introduced to the impressionable young at an appropriate age both in India and
Pakistan, and a new era of religious synthesis ushered in. The subtle charm of
any great verse is lost in translation, but, this priceless treasure of Sindh must at
all cost, become a part of the intellectual heritage of the entire sub-continent. The
first two were Muslims and the last a Hindu, but, none can discover in their
prolific productions, a single word of religious hatred, narrow minded- ness and
divisiveness. Each was deeply influenced by all the religious currents flowing
around them, and each drank deep and integrated what he imbibed into a
glorious cosmic and spiritual unity.
Iqbal wrote some moving Urdu poetry in this century when we were all slaves
and unity of the nation was a categorical imperative. But he wrote, atleast later in
life, in the vein of a narrow-minded and arrogant communalist inspite of his
liberal Western education, which the three Sindhi poets did not have. To
illustrate Iqbal’s Shikwa (Muslims complaint to God):
“A people You had blessed, lighten the burdens they bear,
Raise the poor down-trodden and make it Solomon’s peer.
Make abundant that rare commodity, love, so that all may buy and sell,
Convert to Islam India’s millions who still in temples dwell.
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