India's official existence dates from 1947. The following speeches eloquently express the hopes and fears of that time. Tryst With Destiny Jawaharlal Nehru The Light Has Gone Out Jawaharlal Nehru Presidential Address Indian History Congress Mohammad Habib Prof. Habib talks of "this great achievement . . . accompanied by a great failure and tarnished by a greater disgrace" - that of partition and the accompanying violence. The divisions that brought this about still persist, and now their creators and nurturers masquerade as patriots, and are hailed as such. Their visions of our land are astonishingly dark. They see our wealth of culture as a source of shame and not a resource. The dream of a prosperous country geared to the needs of all its citizens is not for them: they prefer the desolation of the battlefield. In Pakistan they say that the time before Islam arrived here was one of barbarism, that it took muslim rule to civilize us, and that rule is the right of the muslim. In India, that the muslim invaders brought only destruction, that our civilization has been taken from us, and to get it back the muslim must be destroyed. It is worthwhile therefore to see how the notion of India has actually developed over the ages, particularly during the freedom struggle. The Envisioning of a Nation a defence of the idea of India Irfan Habib Then They Kill Each Other Kabir More

Badruddin Tyabji Abbas Tyabji M. A. Jinnah Mohd. Habib Mohd. Mujeeb Outside Links: Indian History Congress Aligarh Historians Society

An interesting aspect of the so-called Hindu-Muslim divide is that its proponents deny all other divides. The most obvious of these are the ones arising from class, caste, gender and region.

Outside Links: www.ambedkar.org Manushi

Last modified: June 11 2001

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