Adil Najam
This picture is carried today by both Dawn and Daily Times. Dawn’s title is “Still Heroes” and the caption reads: “Bronze statues of Quaid-i-Azam, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal put on display at the Science and Technology Expo-2007 being held at National Memorial Museum in Shakarparian in Islamabad.”
A visit to the Museum is on the top of my ‘To Do’ list when I return to Islamabad end of the month. I hope they are still there.
My first thought on looking at the picture was to note how both Jinnah and Iqbal are wearing suits here (this penchant of ours – me included – to dress up these guys in the garbs of our desires has been has been quite a remarkable historical see-saw!). My second thought was to wonder what the folks at Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa might have to say – or do – about this. I hope there is significant security against vandalism here.
But even more than that, I wonder what these three men are sitting there thinking about what is happening today in the country they helped conceive. Late at night when the museum is closed and the statues come alive and walk about, what is it that they sit together and talk about?
Doctor Sahib and Mr. Khan,
I dont know where you guys watch your comedy at, but my comments were supposed to be funny, sarcastic in the lieu of the recent sabotage of everything civil in the name of religious values that is going on in Pakistan. Mr. Khan, Congress only wanted a free india, not a divided india, and so did the muslim members of it and the All India Ehrar League. Therefore, both held Jinnah as a divider of what was otherwise known as the greated India where all faiths were supposedly united and were divided only by the British colonists.
Jinni, if you ever visit chicago, on the intersection of Wacker and Wabash, in front of the Old Vietnam War memorial, stands a 15 foot statue of Washington, Jefferson, and Robert Morris. This pic did remind me of that statue, and yeah, our nation is on the rise, I hope and I beleive. Call me a dreamer all u want, but I really do.
Oh no. This thread is going the way of earlier ones… a few people stuffing the blog with message after message and making the conversation into something totally different from what the post was about.
I suspect soon people will be hurling abuse at each other and next step will be for moderator to close the comments as has happened on a number of earlier posts.
Can’t people just make their point and leave it at that.. you really think that repeating things again and again and again and again and again and again and again is what will convince others of your point! Those of us who were going to be convinced, already are. And those who refuse to be convinced will remain unconvinced!
Mahi, in general Paksitanis are not ecstatic about Gandhi for the same reasons that most (read all) Indians I have met are not ecstatic about Jinnah. On both sides is understandable. My own guess however is that more Pakistanis do have some respect for Gandhi and very few Indians have any respect for Jinnah. Am I right?
I cannot find it now but long ago I saw a very nice post on the site by Prof. Najam on the Gandhi-Jinnah relationship, maybe ATP shoudl highlight that on the sidebars.
Suleman, The tiangle of Mountbatten, Pandit Nehru and Mrs Batten is proof enough what english and indians wanted in the first place. So how Jinnah was ‘conspiring’ against subcontinent successfuly in regard to this united opposition is beyond comprehension.
But his vision proved right. Today indian muslims are far less achieving than even dalits according to their govt statisitics. Remember dalitism is psychological warfare and done very delicately. Muslims around the world are reduced to this mentality slowly but surely. First step of dalitism is an attack on the heros of the target nation.
After independence, certain elements in our society bagan work on this project of dalitism as well. Most of misconceptions about Jinnah and Iqbal result from this.
You want respect in the world? Learn to respect yourself and don’t be an apologist. Make the right decisoin today. Trust me you will be respected tomorrow. Otherwise a whole game of reducing you to dalit is already in place and in a very advance stage, whether you like it or not.
And Iqbal a ‘mureed’? Come on Brother Jabar. You are not serious?
He indeed was mureed of Hazrat Sher Mohammed Sharaqpuri. Little know historical fact.