At the age of eighty, Buddha passed away in the arms of Ananda, his beloved disciple, with the words, “Decay is inherent in all compound things. Work out your own salvation with diligence.”
Political Geography is also nothing but a compound thing. It never remains same anywhere. Look at the history of political world maps, you will find not a single map of any century is same as last one. Today’s first generation of 21st century knows nothing about Soviet Union or USSR, the superpower and fore bearer of all revolutionary movements of 20th century! It has vanished from political map of world. We are used to give sacred status and semblance of permanence to existing political entities and geographical frontiers but history always tells us the story of inherent decay of political geography everywhere. From Roman Empire to American Empire, the story is all about rise and fall. For millenniums, only natural entities like civilizations remain intact and story of civilization tells us about rise, fall and reincarnation. Human civilization has passed many cycles of rise, fall and reincarnation. And sometimes in history it has passed through critical phase of near extinction. After every fall, human civilization has risen to new heights. Same is going to happen with the ancient civilizations of East. India and China, two great civilizations of east, are now rising stars of the world. In the coming decades, civilizations of South America, Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Indus, Afghanistan and Persia etc are going to rise again and will seek new heights of progress unseen in history. Evolutionary cycle of history clearly shows it.
Today we are living in the evolutionary age of declining West and rising East and that is going to change the political geography of the whole world. With the fall of Soviet Union and Berlin Wall, political geography of Europe and Central Asia has already changed drastically, and now is the turn of Mid-East and South Asia. Ralph Peters proposed new political geography of the area, in his article “Blood Borders: How a better middle east would look.” He confessed that, ‘the most arbitrary and disturbed borders in the world are in Africa and the Mid-East. Drawn by self interested Europeans, Africa’s borders continue to provoke the deaths of millions of local inhabitants.’ He suggests that, ‘The boundaries projected in the maps accompanying this article redress the wrongs suffered by the most significant “cheated” population groups, such as the Kurds, Baloch and Arab Shia.’ In his map, he proposes ‘amendments of national boundaries between the Bosporus and the Indus.’ He starts with Israel: ‘For Israel to have any hope of living in reasonable peace with its neighbors, it will have to return to its pre-1967 borders.’ Recently Obama tried to assail the same idea. Ralph Peters presents the case of Kurd people in this way: ‘The most glaring injustice in the notoriously unjust lands between the Balkan Mountains and The Himalayas is the absence of a Kurdish state. A free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz would be the most pro-western state between Bulgaria and Japan.’ Another major change, he suggests, ‘A Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenicia reborn.’ And the most devastating remarks follow: ‘For its part, the unnatural state of Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan.’ He points out that: ‘ A root cause of the broad stagnation in the Muslim world is the Saudi Royal Family’s treatment of Mecca and Medina as their fiefdom.’ On Iran, he says, ‘Iran would lose a great deal of territory to unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, The Arab Shia state and Afghanistan- A region with a historical and linguistic affinity for Persia. Iran would, in effect, become an ethnic Persian state again.’
On AF-Pak, he thinks, ‘What Afghanistan would lose to Persia in the west; it would gain in the east, as Pakistan’s North West Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren. Pakistan, another unnatural state, would also lose its Baloch Territory to Free Balochistan. The remains of “natural” Pakistan would lie entirely east of Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.’ Finally he concludes: ‘Correcting borders to reflect the will of people may be impossible. For now. But given time - and the inevitable attendant blood shed - new and natural borders will emerge. Babylon has fallen more than once.’
Not only Babylon, all civilizations have faced rise and fall more than once. And Indus Civilization is no exception. Once, it was called “Sapta Sindhu”. Then Sindhu had seven tributaries and it was the most developed Civilization of the Indian Subcontinent. Lord Shiva, one of the sacred trinity of the Indian people, belongs to Indus Valley. The oldest and the holiest center of pilgrimage, “Hinglaj Temple” is situated here. It reminds the rise and fall of Dravidian age of Indus Civilization. Whereas “Four Vedas” are hallmarks of Aryan Age. Indus Valley is the birth place of all Vedas, including the oldest one, Rig Veda. There is nothing about Ganga Jamna in Rig Veda. All praise and worshiping rhymes are dedicated to Sindhu and Saraswati Rivers. In the process of the extinction of Saraswati River, the region saw the great fall. Indus valley witnessed the new rise in Buddhist Age. Mohen-jo-daro, Harrappa, Taxila, Gandhara etc speak about the greatness of Buddhist Age. With the rise of Brahmanic Age, Indus valley saw the fall again. In the British Raj, Indus states lost the sovereignty and identity altogether. Sindh was made part of Bombay Presidency and she got her separate identity in 1936. Pakhtunkhwa has got her name just now. In the process of partition, Punjab and Kashmir were torn apart. Just like Berlin Wall, Radcliff Boundary is nothing but a farce. It’s fall is inevitable. Its only matter of time. Partition of India was nothing but partition of Indus and Ganga-Brahampatra region. Ganga Jamna Civilization remained intact and flourished. All battles have been fought on the lands on Indus and Bengal. Today all waters and lands of Indus are a washed with blood of Indus people, the Sindhu Vasi folks.
Nowadays, different policy papers are churning out from Think-Tank machines of India, America and Canada. Indian Defense Journal published an article of the editor Bharat Verma in September 2008, titled “Stable Pakistan not in India’s interest”. He wrote that, ‘with Pakistan on the brink of collapse due to massive internal as well as international contradictions, it is matter of time before it ceases to exist.’ He out rightly rejects a myth: ‘Many conveniently proposed the myth that a stable Pakistan is in India’s interest. This is a false proposition. The truth is that Pakistan is bad news for the Indian Union since 1947-stable or otherwise.’ In Nov. 2008, U.S National Intelligence Council released a report which referred to Pakistan as a “Wild Card.” The report stated that, ‘a broader coalescence of Pushtoon Tribes is likely to emerge and act together to erase the Durand Line, maximizing Pushtoon space at the expense of Punjabis in Pakistan and Tajiks and others in Afghanistan.’ In Jan.2009, a Pentagon report analyzing geo-political trends reported that Pakistan could face a “Rapid and Sudden” collapse. It stated that, ‘Some forms of collapse in Pakistan would carry with it the likelihood of a sustained violent and bloody civil and sectarian war, an even bigger heaven for violent extremists, and the question of what would happen to its nuclear weapons, and as such, that ‘Perfect Storm’ of uncertainty, alone might require the engagement of U.S and coalition forces into a situation of immense complexity and danger.’ After the assassination of Osama in Abbotabad near Kakul Academy, the situation has become more dangerous and volatile.
Selig S. Harrison, Director of the Asian Program of the Center for International Policy, senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former senior associate of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an op-ed of the New York times that, ‘The existing Pakistani state is not likely to survive for long unless it is radically restructured.’ He assumes that the Pushtoons in the north ‘would join with their ethnic brethren across Afghan border (some 40 million of them combined) to form an independent ‘Pashtoonistan’ and the Sindhis numbering 23 million, would unite with 6 million Baloch Tribesmen in the southwest to establish a federation along with Arabian Sea from India to Iran.’
In addition to all these policy papers a Canadian Think-Tank, Center for Research on Globalization has posted an article on its website www.globalresearch.ca titled “Imperial Eye on Pakistan” written by Andrew Gavin Marshal on May,28 2011. In this article, the author criticizes U.S for turning Pakistan in an American target. In part 1, of ‘Pakistan in Pieces’ he examines the changing views of the American strategic community- particularly the military and intelligence circles - towards Pakistan. He writes, ‘In particular, there is a general acknowledgement that Pakistan will very likely continue to be destabilized and ultimately collapse.’
All these subjective papers lack historical objectivity. Above all, they reflect vested interests of Western and Indian ruling elite. No one cares about real stake holders, the native people of Indus. History never move forward according to will and wishes of mighty ones. History always deceives them, since they deceive others all the time. In the 2nd decade of 20th century no one expected the Bolshevik Revolution before hand. Even revolutionary forces have centered their all eyes on developed states of Europe. But revolution rose from the backyard of Europe and whole course of history changed accordingly. You can’t rule out the outburst of similar happening of history in the backyard of the Indian Subcontinent, The Indus Valley. Indus Valley has remained the hub of peace and prosperity and it will become the same in future. Sapta Sindhu may emerge again in shape of Indus Union of Seven States. Reintegration, not disintegration, is the destiny of Indus Valley. Disintegration will be the temporary phenomena to correct the wrongs done by Western Imperial Powers, who are going to be history.
East, especially, Indus and India, historically known as Hind and Sindh know the peaceful ways of transformation. Here, Buddhist revolution took over Hind-Sindh without any major bloodshed. Same is the case of Brahmanic revolution. Today Dalits of North and Dravidians of South are gradually taking power in their hands, largely peacefully. Historical calendar shows that the Brahmanic Power has reverse proportion to Natives’ Power. With the end of ongoing Brahmanic Age, there will come, inevitably, a new Age of Independence where Indus Union of Independent States will rise on horizon. New Indus Union will become the War-Free Zone of the world. Instead of being chessboard and battle ground of world powers, Indus Zone will provide peace house to warring factions. Surely, Sindh of Shah Latif is the future bridge of east and west with the message of universal love, peace and prosperity. And who can deny that the Kashmir, from where Indus enters into India, is a historical heaven on earth. Though we have turned it into hell today, but tide will turn tomorrow. For less bloody transition, we must listen to Lord Buddha: DECAY IS INHERENT IN ALL COMPOUND THINGS, WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION WITH DILIGENCE.
Jagdeesh Ahuja
jagdeeshahuja@yahoo.com
