By Saeed Naqvi
New Delhi, June 20 (IANS): "Jup raha hai aaj maala ek Hindu ki, Arab Barhaman zaade mein shaan e dilbari, aisi tau ho Hikmat e Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ki, kasam Mar mitey Islam jispey kafiri aisi to ho." (Arabs are chanting the name of a Hindu, Just look at the heart winning prince among Brahmins, Behold the statesmanship of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, World of Islam lies at the feet of this non believer, free of sins.)
There is a great deal to despair about Nehru's legacy, but another occasion for that. Here, the poet is spot on, eulogizing India's first prime minister as he led the newly independent nation, charting a course that was more or less equidistant between the power blocs.
In effect, New Delhi leaned more towards Moscow because it happened to be geographically nearer home. Also, in the early aftermath of decolonization, socialism, not capitalism, was the fashionable creed. That free enterprise was required as an ingredient in the early stages of nation building was recognized. What was accepted, therefore, was a "mixed" economy.
As leader of the non-aligned and the Afro-Asian bloc, Nehru was more equal than others, even above Gamal Abdel Nasser. The grouping consisted of 52 Muslim countries too. In all of these Nehru and India were respected a notch above the rest - Indian civilization trumped religious differences.
There is an exquisite irony involved in the verse I have translated at the outset: it was written by Raees Amrohvi, a Pakistani. It was composed at an early stage of our relations when a compulsive hostility was not the guiding principle of policy towards each other.
There are several points to note here. Despite the fact that Pakistan was a theocratic, Islamic republic, there was no Pakistani leader Raees could think of and which the Arab world was familiar with. The national movement under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership had boosted Indian prestige way above religious denominations. It is the cobwebs of our minds which have allowed Hindu-Muslim complications to multiply.
Groupings did come up which were hostile to India but these did not derive strength from an Islamic bond. For instance, New Delhi cast a wary glance on the Ankara-Tehran-Islamabad axis. But neither Ataturk's Turkey nor the Shah's Iran (or even Ayub Khan's Pakistan, for that matter) were attached to Islamism. It was an American sponsored axis in the context of the Cold War.