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A postcard from Devon

HERE I sit, on a sunny English morning, sipping coffee, soaking the eternally captivating countryside.

A postcard from Devon

Pervez Musharraf



Sartaj Chaudhry

HERE I sit, on a sunny English morning, sipping coffee, soaking the eternally captivating countryside. The gushing soundof river Dart can be heard in the near distance. The sheep graze quietly, changing the hilly landscape every so often. Not very prosperous, life here moves at a rather dawdling pace. Farming, fishing and tourism are the main sources of income. Southern Devon is an officially declared “area of outstanding natural beauty.” Breathtakingly stunning, dramatic scenery, but it doesn't end there!It is rather rare to find beauty in totality. Nevertheless, this part of the world will come, as close to perfection as is worldly possible — sans the weather, of course. Residents still leave their doors unlocked. You still come across the lone lady walker (in the middle of absolutely nowhere) before the crack of dawn. You still see the leisurely, unhurried horse rider. Sir Harold Boulton (baronet, songwriter and philanthropist) best summed it up in his poem Glorious Devon, “When Adam and Eve were dispossessed, of the garden hard by heaven, they planted another one down in the West,'twas Devon, 'twas Devon, glorious Devon!”Heavenly this part of the world, without a shadow of doubt is.

A message from the motherland attracts my attention. It's a video of thunderous rain in Chandigarh. Instinctively, that has made me miss the Indian Petrichor — the lovely earthy smell of soil after fresh rain. I close my eyes and can almost smell it. I am reminded of Maulana Mahmood Madani's (former MP) farewell speech in the Rajya Sabha. He spoke most eloquently. He said when he lands back in India from a trip abroad, “Mujhe unn mulkon ke phoolon se woh mehak nahi aati, jo khushbu apne vatan ki mitti se aati hai.”Beautifully put. Hard to explain it indeed is. I would have been a rich man by now if I was given a penny for each time I am asked, “Why don't you settle in the UK?” It intrigues people that we pick India over and over again, in spite of having an option. The question is well justified. The answer on the other hand, is not so simple. Perhaps Madani's sentiment explains it best. Ours might not be the most organised country in the world, it might not be comparable to the best, but, at the end of the day, it is ours.

In 2009, Pervez Musharraf was attending the India Today Conclave held in Mumbai. He made a well-calculated, well-rehearsed remark that the Muslims of India were discontent and felt subjugated in this country. The very same gentleman MP Madani happened to be in the audience. He raised his hand and was given the permission to speak. He began by welcoming Musharraf to India and “congratulating” him for “beginning his political career of Pakistan from India”. He reminded Musharraf that there are more Muslims living in India than there are in Pakistan. And then came the blow! Madani spoke with great pride and told Musharraf that 90 per cent of Indians — the civil society of India has always stood by the Muslims of India and will continue to do so. He spoke amongst thunderous applause, “Do whatever your political agenda demands, but please do not try to be the flag-bearer for Indian Muslims.” Musharraf was left red-faced. It gave us Indians an immense sense of pride. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, of which Madani is the general secretary — participated in the freedom movement and stood up against the idea of Partition. Jinnah's opinion that,  “The Muslims who choose to stay in this country will spend the rest of their lives proving their nationalism and patriotism,” was disproved. We were, as schoolchildren taught that there is “unity in diversity” in our country. Every morning, along with the national anthem and a shabd, we would sing the beautiful, “Koyal ki kook pyaari, pappihe ki ter nyaari, gaa rahi tarana bulbul, raag magar ek hai.. Hind desh ke nivasi, sabhijan ek hai, rang roop veshbhoosha, chaahe anek hain…” I cannot think of any country when it comes to diversity on this scale. Thousands of languages, a multitude of religions, numerous sects, a vast array of terrains — India, incredible India! Many westerners are bewildered to see a Hindu temple, a mosque, a gurdwara, a church and even more places of worship —all within a short distance. That is what makes us great. The communal forces at work should look eastwards. Almost all (with the exception of one or two) the nations are theocracies/kleptocracies, until Europe. Diversity, freedom of speech, a free media, criticism and dissent are intrinsic values for a healthy democracy. It is a matter of concern if critics in a free society are portrayed as disloyal, unpatriotic or enemies of the State. In a press conference, a young gentleman tried telling Arundhati Roy that she was “unpatriotic” because she raised contentions against the Indian government. She smiled and spoke in her signature genteel manner, “It is my love for this country, for these mountains, these rivers, this music… We speak from a position of absolute love. That’s why we fight hard to preserve India's beauty. I 'd be living in Mayfair Gardens if I hated this country!” Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin is said to have called one of his detractors (a playwright) into his office once. He pointed towards the telephone and said to his critic, “All it would have taken me to silence you was the picking up of this reciever and giving the orders. But there must be something terribly bothering you. You gather the courage to speak in the face of death. You comrade, must love this country dearly and that is why I have called you. What I can do for you?” It is for the civil society of India to stand up against atrocities committed against any religion. Alekzandr Solzhenitsyn — the Russian Nobel laureate — once famously said, “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. “Kuchh baat hai, ke hasti mit-ti nahi hamaari, sadiyon rahahai dushman daur-e-zamana hamara… Saare jaahan se achha….”

The writer is  an expert in international law

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