GIVE A THOUGHT

We are witnessing today a revival of Islam with all its imperialist ambitions and in all its fundamentalist ferocity. Flushed with its oil-wealth, Islam has re-acquired its self-righteousness of olden days, and has re-affirmed its mission of world-conquest through terror and subversion. India in particular has been chosen as a priority target. There is no dearth of voices from all over the Islamic world calling for finishing the unfinished work of Islam in India.

Most other countries can take care of themselves in the face of a militant Islam. No other country in the world is so vulnerable to this threat as we are at present and are likely to remain in future unless we mend our fences. We have as our immediate neighbour a highly militarised Islamic state waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon us as soon as she achieves a strategic superiority in armaments, and a favourable international situation. Today we have a friend in the Soviet Union which keeps Pakistan in check. But tomorrow the two of them may strike a deal which will free Pakistan to turn towards the east. The United States has been arming Pakistan in the fond belief that Islam is a barrier against Communism and that Pakistan will stay as her bastion in South Asia. This is the same sort of delusion which had led the U.S. to put quite a few of her eggs in Iran's basket.

All told, the situation for us is similar to that which we had faced from the middle of the seventh to the end of the twelfth century when, flushed with the plunder from many lands and the mass conversion of many an ancient people, Islam had come to believe that a total conquest and conversion of India was its divinely ordained destiny. Let us not harbour the illusion that the Arab countries, whose causes we support more fervently than they do themselves, will stand by us in any conflict with Pakistan. The three wars which have already been forced upon us by Pakistan provide ample proof to the contrary.