5. The last assumption or misconception to which I must draw attention is that the overwhelming majority of the Indian Muslims had voted in the 1946 general elections for the creation of Pakistan. It is true that the victory of the Muslim League, in the name of Pakistan, was near complete. But this was so merely in terms of the number of Muslim seats won by the Muslim League. But approx. 35% of the Muslim votes polled had gone against the League. Moreover, the franchise then, both Hindu and Muslim was limited to the upper classes only, and the overwhelming majority of the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent had no say in the fateful issue of partition. Why, then, should the Muslims of post-partition India be made permanent scapegoats for an agreement which (howsoever reluctantly) was agreed upon by all concerned?

The partition of India on religious lines was, indeed, a great tragedy since it greatly weakened the forces of liberal humanism not only in the subcontinent but also in the entire third world. The fantastically absurd two-nation theory which was put forward to justify the demand was nothing but sophistry and illusion. Unfortunately, now there seems to be a real danger that the theory might get a secret lodgment in the Hindu psyche. This would be a still greater tragedy. The commitment of many educated Hindus to strive for the solidarity and welfare of the Hindu Rashtra may be sincere and passionate, but its wisdom is superficial. It is hurriedly gathered from an uncritical historical interpretation of Indian history. It lacks the range and depth of the thinking of the great Indian leaders and shapers of the modern Indian Renaissance whose symbol is Ram Mohan Roy. The true beauty and glory of Hinduism have eluded the grasp of a section of Indian intellectuals and educated classes today in the heat and dust of electoral battles. The new enthusiasts among the retired top civilian and military officers will soon realize that the beauty and glory of Hinduism lie in the perennial wisdom of the immortal Hindu sages and classical savants, not in the questionable wisdom of the Hindu politicians of today.