Forgetting the Lessons of Millennium              

Forgetting the Lessons of Millennium
Dr. Subodh Atal, Ph. D.

February 9, 2001

Once upon a time there was an Indian king named Prithvi Raj Chauhan. His kingdom and people were attacked time and again from the west by Islamic chieftain Mohammed Ghauri. Chauhan defeated him over a dozen times, and had the power to finish him off, but he did not. Ghauri came back each time until in 1192 he finally defeated Chauhan's army, and then unleashed a murderous and rapacious plunder of India. 800 years later, Pakistan and Afghanistan have become global centers of Islamic fundamentalism, while what remains of India is under increasing pressure from those same fundamentalists.

Today's attack on a Srinagar police station and last week's massacre of Kashmiri Sikhs by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists is a reminder that Indian PM Vajpayee is bent upon repeating that same sorry history with his unilateral ceasefire. The lessons many of us learnt growing up in India were apparently lost upon him. That such "peace moves" are done to "impress upon the international community" has become a flimsy excuse for inaction and surrender. The "international community" will never lift a finger to help India out, unless there is a direct physical threat to western citizens from Pakistan.

Dr. Subodh Atal, Ph.D.
Director, Indo-American Kashmir Forum.