WILL WE UNITE, INDIA, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, EVER AGAIN?

In practical terms, yes, there seems to be no chance of a union now. But the course of history is tortuous and opportunities arise when nations separated for a brief interregnum do unite where cultural bonds are strong and permanently indissoluble. In such cases a politically divided people with a common aspiration unite to realise their shared destiny. To part and to join is in the scheme of things, the dual syndrome of life, but there is a higher force at work through it all which seeks to forge bonds, never force it, for 'the Divine may lead but does not drive' (Sri Aurobindo). Centuries hence, religion as it is prevalent now in its pernicious mode carrying with it the inertia of the ages, will cease to be the dominant player in human lives and humankind will have evolved into a democratically conscious species, rational and reasonable, with higher objectives than territorial expansion or ideological conquest. Then nations will sing in unison a common anthem, that of peace and fraternity in the real spiritual way and not in any narrow, coarse ideological way, be they 'secular' or 'sacred'. Who knows what may chance then, when history reshapes forces along harmonic lines running down from antiquity unto the then present?

To us who have been separated at source from our Gangetic delta and from our roots in Sindh about which we daily sing in glorification in our national anthem, to us who have been thwarted of our roots in Sikhism as Nankana Sahib lies in Pakistan that pays scant respect to the religion of Nanak's followers, to us who daily suffer the pangs of the Partition even after seven decades of our truncated independence, is it small wonder that we yet aspire to be together, a united nation despite the mutilation of the millions that paid for the luxury of the Mahatma's experiments with truth, his fad for non-violence? But history does not take heed of emotions alone. Inexorable is the law of karma and the incongruities of the past will have to be accounted for before a harmonic resolution is possible. Ignorance stands in the way, ignorance of the essential oneness of us as a people, an ignorance forged by invasion of our motherland and her culture from Arabia whose final act of division was the perpetration of Pakistan. Now it is a long walk home and we have to raise our nation to pristine heights and beyond before we can reclaim lost territory both geographically and humanly for only in such a soul-sustained oneness may furtherance of our common good be.