Comments on: Crazy Diamonds – IV

By: Tariq K Sami

Tariq K Sami — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:20:28 +0000

Impressive postings by Abbas and many others.
I would like to make a point.
History is shaped by Demography. Every thing else can change in a 20-25 years. Many of the parameters of progress are cyclical and short lived.
The most impressive achievement of Mohammad Ali Jinnah is the Demographic Shifit.
Demograpic change requires huge expenditure of time and energy.
The great Mohammad bin Tugluk or the Abdali King Ahmad Shah or the great Moguls none were able to achieve the change in Demography. Else where even Alexander and Timerlane and Ghengis Khan and Attila the Hun, Stalin and Adolf Hitler all failed.
Only George Washington and Mohammad Ali Jinnah succeded in this making it happen,but Washington may have to share this honor with others Jinnah is the sole author of this narrative.
Both in the East and the West of the Subcontinent( East and West Pakistan ),the Muslims are 96-99%. Bangladesh is technically a creation of 1947 Divide.
This alone is mind boggling historical event.
Let me explain: Karachi was 52% Hindu and Delhi was 15% muslim in 1947.

By: Sumit Mazumdar

Sumit Mazumdar — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:05:21 +0000

Dear Mr Abbas:

“For every Indian professor who studies and goes back there are more proportioanlly who go back to Pakistan”. Perhaps. But – again not out of malice but a plain observation – you take the top 100 Universities of the US, look up the faculties of Engineering and Sciences, and you will find that there is not one department without an Indian. In my 30 years as a professional scientist in the US I have not met one Pakistani senior scientist. Muslim professors who are seen come from Egypt (including one Nobel prize winner), Bangladesh and Israel-Palestine-Jordan. So may be the Pakistanis are going back because they do not have the option to stay?
Also – what are the Pakistanis who have gone back achieved? One just has to read Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy to figure out that one.

By: abbastoronto

abbastoronto — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 05:46:30 +0000

Sumit: Namaste

I am not speaking of professors et al. I was speaking of political greats who went back. I mentioned a few names. AFTER Gandhiji, not before or at the same time as him.
For every Indian professor who studies and goes back there are more proportionally who go back to Pakistan. So what?
When I ask my Indian friends here if they have any intention of going back they laugh at me. My Pakistani friends do it all the time. I personally know a few who routinely spend 5-6 years here, and then 5-6 years in Pakistan, and so on.
Best wishes

By: Vin

Vin — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:53:02 +0000

Hi….i also think that NFP is bit running out of options….though i admire NFP’s writings but the ‘crazy diamonds’ should be crazy and as well as diamonds…..but in this fourth version most of them seem just crazies….
By the way i m an Indian living in US now and a keen follower of DAWN since last few years… it really gave me a new, different and most certainly a better prospective of our neighbors…..

By: abbastoronto

abbastoronto — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 01:18:08 +0000

JA: AOA

According to Stalin “A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture ..”

The key word is “stable”. UK, Germany, Russia, all uni-lingual, are nations. They are static.

Pakistan is continually in flux, as is USA. We are not static, but dynamic, We are multilingual, multi-cultural. USA is bi-lingual (English, Spanish). We are not a nation but an Ummah, a Community that is continually evolving and growing. We are alive.

Nationalism is passe. Islam does not believe in nationalism. To quote Iqbal again:
Cheen o Arab hamara, Hindostan hamara
Muslim hain hum watan hey sara jahan hamara.

By: abbastoronto

abbastoronto — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 01:05:50 +0000

AOA
And we do not want even that one, No, 3 Democracy.
While Republic is the rule of ALL (i.e. public) through learned men, Democracy is the rule of the few, the Demos. Originally in Athens it was 5% moneyed males ruling over 95% rest (women, plebs, helots, plebs).
Take India for example. Its “Middle Class” is some 150-200 million. Taking conservatively 4 to a family on average (man, wife, 2 children) that is 200/4 = 50 million males, and that is some 4% of total 50/1200 million total, not far from the 5% in Athens times.
Elections have nothing to do with Democracy or Republic, as either can exist without the other.
We in Pakistan favour a Republic, just as in USA and France. India prefers Democracy, as in UK and Canada. Democracy is good for stratified societies (caste systems like India, classes like England and Canada). Republics are for egalitarian societies like USA, France, Pakistan.
India has Democracy, the rule of the 4% Demos. They can keep it, and we want nothing of it.

By: abbastoronto

abbastoronto — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 00:59:29 +0000

Please delete my this 12:19 pm post. This is a needless repeat.

By: Sumit

Sumit — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 21:25:22 +0000

Dear Mr Abbas:
Please check out the science and engineering faculty in the IIT’s, Indian Instt of Science and Tata Instt of Fundamental Research. You will see countless highly qualified Indians who have gone back from the west to teach and do research in India. There exist now many jointly funded research grants in the US which allow Indian Americans to spend time in India with their colleagues there. No, we do not have a Hindu ummah, but we contribute.
About Indian greats who went back to India after Gandhiji and after spending time abroad here’s a short list: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Netaji Subhaschandra Bose.
I hope the moderator publishes this, which is not being written with malice. Just to poin out
that love for one’s people need not come from religion.

By: Cyrus Howell

Cyrus Howell — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:52:25 +0000

There is a lot of prejudice against women like General Rani because of the Sin of Erection, which finds is zenith in the public Eve teasing of hapless women.

By: Cyrus Howell

Cyrus Howell — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:47:15 +0000

To think, all this was plotted at Cambridge University.