Indians, Pakistanis should study their common history: Jaswant Singh

To avoid becoming the victims of "revenge of geography" Indians and Pakistanis should study their common history to know the roots of partition, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh said today.

"We must not undo the partition but we have to undo the consequences that are damaging both countries," Singh said, at a function marking the launch of his book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence.'

Singh said, that the tragic event is still affecting both the countries.

Singh, currently in Pakistan to promote his controversial book that led to his ouster from the BJP last year, said the impression in the country that India wanted to undo the partition was "wrong".

"If we don't study our common history, we become victims of the revenge of geography," he said. His book was a search for the "roots of partition", he added. 

India, he said, wanted to live in peace with all its neighbours. He told an audience comprising writers, journalists and former diplomats that he did not question "the existence and legitimacy of Pakistan."

However, people need to know "what caused Pakistan" and this is what he had attempted to tackle in his book, he added.

Though the partition was the "most traumatic event" of the last century, Singh said he was probably the first parliamentarian of the subcontinent to reflect and write about the event and Muhammad Ali Jinnah's role in it. 

The event, described as a conversation between Singh and noted columnist Humayun Gauhar, saw the author speaking on a wide range of issues, including Jinnah's campaign for a separate Muslin nation, the Kashmir issue and the nuclear rivalry between India and Pakistan.

Singh said he could not accept Jinnah’s "assertion that Muslims are a separate nation" as it would "sow the seeds of discord" among Muslims who chose to remain in India. 

At the same time, such a stand was not a rejection of Pakistan, he said. "It is vital to recognise the continuity of Islam in India," he remarked. 

Singh, said he was a founder member of the BJP but had differences with the party as he never endorsed the Rath Yatra
or endorsed steps like the party’s alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Muslims are not separate from the secular core of India, he added. Singh said Jinnah switched from being a nationalist and an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim amity to his demand for Pakistan due to the Congress party’s attitude and the decision by the British, tired and weary after World War II, to pull out from the subcontinent.

Referring to the strained relations between India and Pakistan, he said there will be peace between the two countries "because we are fated to have, otherwise we are condemned to poverty".

Asked about the nuclear rivalry between India and Pakistan, Singh said weapons of mass destruction are not war-fighting weapons.

He added that "if suicide is welcomed, then the world needs to question the continuity" of nuclear arsenals. 

In response to question about resolving the Kashmir dispute, Singh said it would have to be settled through "conversation and dialogue" though he believed the "time has come when map-making has to cease in South Asia." 

Singh was repeatedly applauded by the audience. 

When Humayun Gauhar, who introduced Singh, described the book as "fair and unbiased", the audience clapped. 

Referring to tennis star Sania Mirza's marriage with cricketer Shoaib Malik, Gauhar said she had won just one Pakistani heart but Singh would be winning many more. 

He said Singh had been labelled a "Hindu nationalist revivalist" but had paid the price for writing the truth and been expelled from his party, the BJP. 

Singh evoked laughter when said that "the art of reviewing does not involve reading" and that "soldiers don't learn very much."